Dear Pastor and Church family,

Greetings from Gonzales, LA! We want to start out this letter by giving thanks and praise to our gracious God. He has supplied our every need, led our path, and loved us fully and unconditionally every step of the way. One thing is certain: we do not remotely deserve His grace, but are extremely thankful to be in it, and in the ministry of it. Missions is where the heart of God is. Thank you for your giving heart and leadership in the ministry of Missions. We truly appreciate the prayers and support that you have given us.

So many things have happened since the last time we were in contact with you. Some are praises, others needs and requests for prayer. My father is still recovering from the leg injury he had last year. A few weeks ago he had surgery to remove the hardware in preparation for the fusion of his ankle bones. The surgery went well and his pain has greatly subsided. He has a minor staph infection and is on an antibiotic. We thank you for your continued prayer in this situation. We also praise God for His grace, because we know it could have been much worse.

We have been anxious to get to the field, but it seems that God has hindered us so far. We praise Him for His timing, and thank Him because He definitely knows best. Many of you knew the pastor of our sending church, Dr. Donald Way. As you know, he had a malignant brain tumor, and went home to be with the Lord last June. During the time that he was in a coma, God placed me in the pulpit ministry at Faith Baptist Church until He sent us a pastor in October of 2006. Since that time Rachel and I have been busy in the church, helping to build a foundation on which to continue our ministry to Japan. God blessed and used this time in our life to help us grow closer to Him and more like Him.

Down the street from our church is another Baptist Church. Around July of 2007, God moved their pastor to Pineville, LA. They searched for a pastor for months, finding none who shared their convictions about the Bible. Around October 2007, Pastor Brian began praying about combining the churches. After much prayer and debate, and after seeing God move in the heart of both peoples, Central Baptist Church called Bro. Brian to be their pastor on February 24, 2008. Central Baptist Church is a Southern Baptist Church. We have prayed and looked very hard at this situation and found that God’s will was for us to join the church as it is. We have found that the church has very conservative convictions and is identical to us in belief. This has been a very difficult decision for us to make, yet we see God’s hand working it out for us.

We know that God has put us here for a reason. We still believe that He would have us serve Him in Japan, and intend on applying to the International Mission Board in three years. In the mean time, we will be actively serving at our new home church, as well as completing the master’s degrees that we have been working on these last several months.

We want to make sure that you know how grateful we are for your support through these years. We count you all great friends and partners in our ministry, and are thankful for the relationships we have with you. We also want to thank you for your financial support. In our current situation we will no longer be receiving support. When we apply to the International Mission Board we will be supported by Southern Baptist Churches.

We pray that God continues to use you in supporting missions. We do hope that we can still count you as friends in the gospel, and we offer our services to you. If we can do anything for you, please ask. We also hope that you will continue to pray for us, our ministry, and Central Baptist Church.

If you have any questions, please call or email me anytime.

In His Holy service,

Roger and Rachel Peters

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