Willis Newsletter

Dear Partners in the Gospel,

We have had another boy! His name is Joshua James Willis. He was born early in the morning on September 7th. He weighed nine pounds even and was twenty-one inches long. The labor took over 24 hours but he came out fine with no problems or health concerns. We are very thankful to God for a healthy baby boy. As you can imagine our parents were very happy about their new grandchild. They came to the hospital and were there the entire time. We even brought Wade and he was able to see Josh in the nursery. He pointed his finger at Josh and said, “What’s that?” and we all smiled and said “That is your baby brother!” He may not have understood what that meant back then, but now he knows that he is not alone anymore in our family. He has really taken it well and even kisses his brother on the head now.

As for Tricia, she made a great recovery from the delivery and was doing fine until a disc ruptured in her back. We immediately had to call an ambulance to come and take her to the hospital because she could not move. Once we arrived at the hospital, the doctor took an MRI which showed us that a large piece of her ruptured disc was pressing up against her spinal cord cutting off nerves and causing severe pain. She had been in a car accident about three years ago and really injured her back. Now it seems as though this injury had gotten worse. So she had to go through having a micro-surgery on her back to take the piece of disc out. Now Tricia is doing much better. Although she is still going through a lot of pain, she is slowly recovering. She cannot do any lifting or bending over to carry the children. So what this means for me is that I am caring for her and the children full-time until she heals. It will take another four to six weeks before she has recovered from this. In the meantime, I am learning what a difficult job mothers have. It is quite a challenge and I ask for your prayers. Now I can understand and appreciate all moms everywhere.

At this time, I am also preparing for a trip to Siberia, Russia in March. In Siberia, we will be taking a group of about 15 men and women to do a follow-up conference in a place that already had one of our teacher training conferences. It is very important to keep in contact with all of the teachers who receive our training so that they can be encouraged and strengthened with additional training. In this way over the years, discipleship can take place and leadership qualities can be developed even further. Our work in this area of Russia is increasingly becoming more and more important as we are seeing many things changing politically in the Russian government. So we may only be able to train these teachers for a little while longer. While God is holding open the doors in Russia, we need to take every possible opportunity to help the people in Siberia. I ask for your prayers as we help them in this time of need.

For those of you who are reading our newsletter and you are not currently partnering with us, we ask that you would consider giving to our ministry on a monthly basis. Or you may desire to give an end of the year gift to our ministry. Please call the church office to find out where to send your gift. Thank you for considering this.

Please continue to pray that Tricia will make a full recovery from the back surgery and injury that she has had.

We love and appreciate you all. You are making our ministry and our family needs possible with your partnership and prayers!

Love,

Bob, Tricia, Wade, and now Josh!