Dear loved ones,

The Lord has truly blessed us with special friends and family. At this time of year we are reminded that there is just too little time to fully develop these relationships, but we want you to know that we often do find time for you in our thoughts and prayers.

Our household was privileged to spend a week together serving our Lord during a medical mission in June to Guyana, South America. We enjoyed a stop-over in Barbados before returning home. In August Michael and Jeannie celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. They also worked for a week in September in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. There they conducted a Christian lectureship, free medical clinic, and children's Bible program. Before returning to the States they visited New Zealand. Angelique and Steven again spent 2 weeks at church camp in the summer.

Michael helped to recruit a third partner for his clinic in Roland, so the work load has improved. He organized and led the two aforementioned medical missions. He keeps busy on the home computer, recently designing a Home Page for the church. Michael's personal Worldwide Web Home Page can be found on the Internet at URL "http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MColeMD". He receives E-mail at address "102030.2761@compuserve.com". Genealogy is still a favorite pastime.

Jeannie helps keep our home cohesive -- as we tend to go in every direction at once. She is president of Fort Smith Council of PTAs and is District 6 Director of Arkansas PTA. She is a member of the school district's Strategic Planning Committee and of the Mayor's Task Force on Youth Violence. Jeannie directed VBS at church and has taught ladies' Bible classes in Fort Smith and Vanuatu. She also prepared the Bible lessons used to teach about 100 Vanuatu children.

Angelique, a high school junior, continues to use her computer graphic art talents to prepare programs for drama and choir functions. She also used the computer for an audio-visual presentation for an English class assignment. In February she attended a marine biology course in Key Largo, Florida, which included snorkeling at the coral reefs. Angelique played the sick boy in her school's musical production of "The Secret Garden." She taught in the public school in Guyana and wrote the scripts used during VBS at church in Fort Smith. Having gotten her driver's license, she now enjoys the freedom that comes with driving her 1993 Saturn. She also has a steady boyfriend.

Steven, an eighth grader, recently got his driver's permit. Forgetting to take his calculator to a city-wide math competition, he won 7th place anyway. In Guyana he worked as a Bible teacher, dental assistant, and video photographer. He also helped with VBS in Fort Smith. Steven is a trumpet player, marching in football games at half-time this year. He is presently working on an architectural engineering problem in his Gifted and Talented class. Still spending hours playing computer games, he has recently taught himself to rewrite some of them so they are easier to win.

We are an incredibly busy family. We hope you have enjoyed reading about some of our successes this year. You should realize we also have failures, but tend to keep those to ourselves. May the Lord grant us --and you-- His blessings and the ability to learn from our experiences in 1996.