Dear Friends,

Janice and I send you New Year Greetings from Jakarta. We hope you folks had an enjoyable Christmas. We did enjoy all the cards, emails, notes and special offerings you sent our way over the Christmas season. As we start this new year there are several items that we want to share with you folks.

Our churches here in Jakarta had a good Christmas season. Almost all the services that I preached in this year were packed out. Moreover, almost all the services had several unsaved folks in attendance. For the last few years, we normally have not been able to get lost folks to attend our Christmas services. Pray for our churches here in Jakarta as they continue to preach the gospel under increasingly difficult circumstances.

Janice and I also flew to Batam island to be with Kasih Karunia Baptist Church (Grace Baptist) for their Christmas service. Pastor Andar and his wife have done a good job on Batam. Batam island is a small island just off Singapore which has been jointly developed by Indonesia and Singapore as an enclave for bonded factory production. Basically, Indonesians provide the labor and foreign companies have built large bonded factory complexes. The island is a magnet for young Indonesians seeking work. Pastor Andar has built his church by reaching these young people that come to find work there. Please continue to pray for Pastor Andar and his church on Batam.

Our Bible school here in Jakarta closed their semester with the graduation of two students. Oktavianus, one of the graduates, is the son of a lady (Rahih) who was once a student in the early days of our Bible school back in the mid seventies. This lady along with her husband and five children have been faithful members of one of our Independent Baptist churches here in Jakarta for years. Please continue to pray for the Bible school here in Jakarta.

Lord willing, the goal to place a Bible into the hands of each junior high student on the island of Nias will move toward completion during the last two weeks of January 2009. On December 19, Janice and I went out to the Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia (Indonesian Bible Society) warehouse here in Jakarta, and watched as the last 19,000 Bibles were put on a truck headed for Sumatra. The plan is that on the 16th of January, Brother Larry Quinlan, myself and 10 pastors from the States will travel to Nias. We plan to spend two weeks distributing the Bibles to the junior high students of South Nias. Through the generosity of the Independent Baptist churches in America, the Bibles are all paid for, and the cost of transportation has been provided. I had hoped to be able to tell you that the Bibles are safely in Nias waiting for our arrival, but as of this writing the Bibles are still enroute to Nias. Pray that the Bibles will arrive safely and in a timely manner to be distributed. If you missed getting to give toward the purchase of these Bibles, don't despair! Begin to pray that the Bibles will be safely distributed and a host of young Nias people will be saved and ultimately carry the gospel from the island of Nias to the ends of the earth.

I do want to remind you that Janice and I plan to be in the States from September 2009 to April 2010. This trip to the States is to visit our churches and give you a report on the work here in Indonesia. If you have a special time that you would like for us to be with you, please contact me. You can contact us by phone at 417-429-0398. This number is a Skype number that rings Janice's computer in Jakarta. If we are not available (we are 12 hours ahead of EST time in the US), you can leave a message and I will call you back. I can also be reached by email at tjcford@gmail.com or you can always send a regular letter to the address on this letter. We are looking forward to being with you folks.

Janice and I are doing good. Both Janice and I had the flu early in December. Janice recovered fine, but I am still struggling with fatigue. We are planning to attend the annual fellowship of Indonesia Independent Baptists from 13 - 15 January, in Berastagi, North Sumatra. I will leave directly from the meeting for Nias island. Right now, Janice is covering me over with extra vitamins and home cures, but I really need to be up and running when we take off for Medan the 13th of January. All you prayers will be greatly appreciated!

For your faithful support and prayers for the ministry here in Indonesia, we are truly thankful.

In Christ,