2003-12-30

Dec. 30, 2003
Dear Prayer Partners,

We hope each of you have had a wonderful Christmas celebration with your families, friends and fellowships.
Personally, it has been a great joy to be home for Christmas, after being away for 3 years.

We write this final 2003 newsletter with mixed emotions, so it’s probably best to just share some facts that will highlight these past five months – purposed to prepare us for a more permanent assignment on the mission field.
We admit that our time in the US has not been anything like we expected. We find the busyness here more complex than the busyness on the field. Maybe that has to do with the fact that our hearts and minds have remained connected with our work in Asia and hopefully intended to prepare us to embrace our work whole-heartedly upon our return Jan 03, 2004.

We have had some great times with Paige and Travis! Their adventure, sharing an apartment in Ft. Worth, has proved to be a blessing to us as parents, and most of all a very joyful & workable situation. They have camped out with us off & on during our final two weeks here, giving us some joyful memories. We have also been able to have some great family gatherings with both sides of our families & we are reminded of how thankful we are that our siblings faithfully & tenderly serve our mothers during the 70’s stage of life.

We have visited with many friends at various gatherings, i.e. at churches, in homes, or over a meal, however there are some of you we haven’t connected with, so you may be wondering, “What on earth did we do during these 5 months???? Jackie remained “on assignment??? over the Internet tending to many of his regular responsibilities for the East Asia region. We both continued our studies in the Old Testament in Dallas/Garland BSF classes. As we reflect back, we traveled for IMB commitments five times and gave three presentations to local churches. We shopped throughout our stay, preparing our crate and rejoice that we nailed it shut last Thursday! Please pray it will arrive intact, without damage sometime in February. This crate will enable us to hit the ground running – leaving us with very little to shop for in Taiwan to set up a nest.

How to pray:
• Joyful & peaceful goodbyes with Paige, Travis & our families
• Safe travel for us & our mountain of luggage as we arrive in Taipei, Taiwan on Jan 4th
• Quick recovery of jetlag & the energy to serve with excellence in Thailand Jan 10th –26th

We have a new photo bookmark to give you for your Bibles/refrigerators as a reminder of your commitment to pray with us on our missionary journey. Remember… we cannot serve without you… Your prayers participate in our empowerment from God. [1 Corinthians 3:9a For we are God's fellow workers]
If we were un-able to personally hand you a new bookmark please email us to request one and we will give you instructions how to get it.

May the year of 2004 honor God in all things as you love others and serve your communities, holding to the word of truth, testifying to the love of Christ and His salvation.

Love,
Jackie & Fran Bell

Contact Info:
Both: JandF@TheBellSite.com
Contact Jackie: Jackie@TheBellSite.com
Contact Fran: Fran@TheBellSite.com

www.TheBellSite.com