I know many of you have been praying for Vernie Abbitt, our brother who went to Chad to help in the building of a hospital. The location of the hospital is pretty remote and the conditions tough. Vernie celebrated is 71st birthday recently.

Vernie had a fall on the work site and broke his wrist and heel. The following update was received Friday:

Vernie fell and broke his Rt Wrist, Left heel and his Rt foot is too badly bruised to put any weight on. The insurance company has agreed to pay for the change in his ticket, and bring him home. He needs an escort- he will be unable to use crutches or walker for awhile. Please pray for safety, pain relief, and making all his connections.............

Please pray for Vernie's safe return home and a full recovery.

Ed has been working with Evangelism in Depth for several years and has made some trips to India to get the EID ministry started over there. The following is from Ed:

Thanks for doing this for the body of Christ! I will be in India & London from Oct. 30 - Nov. 8. We will be handing off the Evangelism in Depth Ministry to our Indian National team. We had begun with the idea of this ministry being indigenous from the beginning and now we are achieving our goal. This is pretty rare in India. Most western ministries come in with ideas, money and agenda and rarely is it ever fully given to the people of India to control. We seem to be breaking new ground and it is wonderful. If you could include the dates of my trip so people could pray, I'd appreciate it.

Praise God for the turning over of this ministry to the local people and for Ed's safe trip.

In case you didn't know, Aaron Spence, from East Valley Grace, enlisted in the Navy and was waiting for a job to open in the area he wanted. One did and he is scheduled to leave for basic training in Chicago and November 9.

You probably know about his going away get together on Saturday, Nov. 4 at his home in Mesa. If you plan to go and need directions, call 480-248-8864. There will be a BBQ at 5pm so if you plan to be there for that, please RSVP so they can be sure to have enough food.

Please pray for Aaron; for his safety, for his strong faith and character, and for God's peace for his mom, Debbie. As far as I am aware, Aaron will be the only person from a Phoenix area house church family serving on active duty with the armed forces. Please let us know if there are others.

Phil is my friend and co-worker who had the heart attack and stroke a while back. I have asked for your prayers for him in the last couple of newsletters. He has had a rough road recovering rom the stroke.

Last weekend, he suffered a mini-stroke that temporarily affected his right hand. The doctors also found that he has a blood clot in his heart. They are treating that with drugs to disolve the clot.

He has been at Banner Desert this week. He will go on long-term disability through Avnet at the end of this week.

Please keep him and his family in your prayers.