Dear Friends in Faith,
     We are truly thankful to God for His grace, His mercy, His peace. He it is Who has brought us out of such dank darnkess and distress into His marvelous light and life! We are also thankful for the fellowship of believers such as all of you out there that are a part of this humble ministry.
     2005 is upon us! In the last 2,000 years since Christ died for us, we have seen nations come and go. But we have seen that God’s love for all mankind yet remains. We see that God has conciliated the world to Himself through the death of His Son in spite of disasters such as the recent Tsunamie which wiped out over a hundred thousand loved ones in one fell swoop. Yet, this pales in comparison to just the year 2004 when, according to the U.S. Cencus bureau 56,622,744 people died just last year on our planet. That averages to 155,131 deaths per day. The cry to God, I’m sure, is a constant reminder of the devastation due to Adam’s sin and death passing through into all mankind. Since Adam’s sin, there has been a constant march from birth to the grave. Yet God is still righteous! He is still just! He is still amazingly called “the happy God”! Christ is still the “happy and only Potentate“! How can this be in lieu of the facts above? How can God be just? How can God be happy in the midst of all the suffering? It is not that He does not feel for humanities woes. He does! He has done something of supreme importance to not just undo what Adam has done but to create a new humanity, a righteous humanity, an undying humanity, a humanity in a perfect reconciled relationship with Him. All the myriads of humans who have marched from life to death will bow the knee in the name our Lord Jesus Christ and most wonderfully, most happily acclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father! They will see, from a background of evil, that their short experience of life was well worth the lessons learned in order to be amazed at God and Christ’s love for them. They will be ever so thankful that “God sent His Son into the world to save sinners.”
     In this new year let us raise high our voices in gratitude to the One Who is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will and that is working all, yes ALL together for good!

Yours in God’s grace and peace,
Dean Hough and Tony Nungesser