Its a girl!

Sarah Ruth Kensel was born on September XX, 2005. Here's the first picture of her (at least that I have):

July/August 2005 Update from the Halls

The following was received by the Halls a while back (September), but posted now.

:: Begin Letter ::
Dear Pastor White and Park Valley Church:

A very busy summer is upon us! The last month or two have been in preparation for the following activities:

A teen missionary team from Melissa's home church (Tabernacle Baptist Church, Chicopee, MA) will be here at the beginning of July to run a Vacation Bible School for our church. We are excited to see how many children will come to hear the gospel of Jesus and be saved. We are hoping that this will get our name out there to our neighborhood and jump-start our outreach.

Three weeks after VBS, we are taking 5 of our teenagers on a missions trip to Prince George, BC to help Pastor Hallmark and Spruceland Baptist Church with their VBS. Those that are going range in spiritual age, but they all are excited about the opportunity and we can't wait to see God work in their lives.

We saw one 12th grader saved at our May Sunday Night Live (our monthly teen service), his first-ever time at our church! He is unable to attend church until after school lets out for summer, but Nathan continues to keep in contact with him to encourage him. Please pray for Sam that he will come back to church soon.

We attended two high school graduations this year and saw 12 of our teenagers graduate. This is the largest group that our church has seen graduate from high school in a long while. It is with these teens and other college-age adults in the church that we desire to begin a college ministry. There is a great need to reach out to them so they remain faithful to church and even get involved after their high school years. Please pray for this as well as some unsaved teens and more visitors to attend our services.

And finally; we have a blessing to report and need to announce. We had a government health insurance bill that was due and one of our churches was able to meet and exceed that need! Thank you Faith Baptist Church and Pastor Stout! Our need: We have just discovered that we must import our vehicle, change our plates, get a BC license and insure our vehicle here (when we moved here, the border crossing told us we didn't have to, but it turns out we do). This will cost us $250 for importation and licenses, plus registration, insurance and inspection so we figure about $650 total. Would you consider helping us meet this need? We sincerely appreciate it!!!!

We love and appreciate each of your sacrifices for us. Continue to serve the Lord faithfully.

[Signed]
Nathan, Melissa and Nolan
:: End Letter ::