Again we thank you for your prayers that have gotten us through another month.

In some ways it has gone quickly, but in others it has been excruciatingly slow.

Cora's physical condition has not gotten any better; yet, when it seems that we

just can't go on, the Lord sends encouragement in some form and we get over

another hump. We know that encouragement keeps coming because you keep praying

and we are so very grateful. We earnestly want to finish this part of the race

to God's glory, but we have certainly learned we can't do it alone.

In order to help Cora pass the time we have gotten into the habit of having me

read to her each afternoon. Recently we read the book Christy which was

thoroughly enjoyable for both of us. On the day we began reading chapter 34, a

particular section jumped out at both of us. In this chapter Christy is

recalling three steps Alice Henderson taught her about getting help she needed

from the "Inner Light". In summary these steps are:

1. Recognize evil for what it is. This means honesty which requires

vigilance and can be costly.

2. Declare war on the specific evil. No matter what form of evil is

revealed to you - disease, snarled human relationships, impatience,

temper, resentment of some aspect of your life - you must be merciless

in dealing with that evil.

3. Step aside and ask Someone greater to do the fighting for you.

Learning to do this is the most difficult part!

Recently the Lord has been bringing to our attention a particular word that we

all try to avoid thinking about - FEAR! He has been saying that fear of

anything other than Him and His Word are not of God but of the enemy (2 Tim.

1:7), so we need to deal with fear using the above three steps. That is what we

had not been doing, excusing our fear by saying it is normal to fear in our

situation, we are only human, if He would deliver us we wouldn't be afraid, etc.

But as we examined what fear had done in our lives, we saw the great need to

seek God's power for deliverance from this most effective tool of the enemy. To

a great extent it was fear that the enemy used to get us into our current

situation. And we can now see how we often made bad decisions because we acted

our of fear rather than by faith.

The bottom line is this: anything we do because of fear dishonors God because

it shows that we don't really trust Him to care for us as He said He would. It

often seems that fear is such a part of our lives that there is no hope for

deliverance. But in Psalm 34:4 David wrote, "I sought the Lord and He heard me

and delivered me from ALL my fears." That is the testimony we want to give,

even from this place that we are in.

So we have recognized fear as our enemy and have chosen to take a stand against

fear. But as we have attempted to respond, the enemy has increased his attacks

on us. So please especially pray this month that we will be able to step aside

and see the salvation of the lord in this area of our lives. We want to honor

God by trusting him in every circumstance. And we pray that the Lord will also

give you total victory over fear of all kinds so that you may bring great honor

and praise to His Name, both now and forever. Thank you so much for standing

with us. You are our lifeline!