Justin Dye

She’s Getting Bigger!

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Just a little about Adrienne. We have less than a month to go before she is 1 year old! We can’t believe it.

Here’s a video of her taking a few of her first steps yesterday! We are delighted to see her growing and getting bigger.

We are trying not to be doting parents, and we want to be realistic about our kid. We know she’s not the most amazing little girl ever (try telling her grandparents that!), but we are so thankful to have had her in our lives! Thank you LORD!

(If the video doesn’t play in email or Facebook, follow the link back to our site. It should play well there)

One of those days…

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Do you ever have “One of those days”?

This past Sunday, we did. Kayleigh and I were in Toronto, Canada, at a meeting, and we were staying with the Pastor and his wife. In the morning, we were trying to “help” get breakfast ready. To help out, Kayleigh said that she could fry the bacon. The pastor’s wife said “Sure, that would be great!”, and we were more than happy to help out. Well, about 5 min later, the whole downstairs of the house was filled with smoke! We had to turn off the A/C and open up the windows! My wife cooks great bacon all the time, but it was just “one of those days”. We were so embarrassed! We were trying to be a blessing, but it went awry. The pastor’s wife came over and just said, “Why don’t you two just set the table?”,  and she finished up cooking.

When it came time to leave, I got verbal directions to the church from the pastor, and he left to pick up some church members. I thought, “I don’t need the GPS, its only two turns.” Well, because we were in a new place, and because I was trying to pay attention to streets, I missed a stop sign. I noticed it right as we were about to enter the intersection! Luckily it was a side street with no traffic, and I did actually stop before we went through, but I was embarrassed! Twice now, we had made novice errors on a Sunday before church, no less!

It was a good reminder that we are still only human, and still just sinners saved by grace! I guess everyone has “One of those days” now and then. 🙂

Thank you to all who pray for us as we travel, who knows what would happen if you ever stopped!

Blessings on the Road!

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Kayleigh and I have been able to visit some great churches who are blessed to have great pastors!

A little more than a month ago, we visited Bradford Baptist Church. Pastor Mills is doing a great job! We were impressed with how he worked with his people! He took us out to lunch and brought one of the men that he’s been working with for a while. It was great to break down that formality that seems to go along with a special guest in your church. Most of the time when you host, you typically want to put your best foot forward, so we dress things up and everything is in its perfect place. I think Pastor Mills put Bradford Baptist’s best foot forward by working with his people, and even taking time in between services to help more of his members after lunch with us! That is a great example to us; never forget that PEOPLE are the ministry.

Last week we visited Sempronius Baptist Church, with Pastor Grimes. Again, I was happy to see a man who loves the people that he has. He pulled me aside during the lunch time in between services, and he told me about some of his people who were there that day. He explained some of their history, where they are at now, and expressed how much he appreciated their faithfulness and love for their church, and the LORD. I am happy to see a close knit church like that. Pastors should love their flock. I believe that is in part why God requires pastors to have their family in order. A good father will be very similar to a good Pastor, and you can tell that Pastor Grimes loves his people as if they were his family.

Thank you pastors, for opening up and letting us see that! It was a great encouragement to Kayleigh and me. We are blessed to have visited and meet the people in those churches!

Word For The World Baptist Ministries

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This past week, Kayleigh, Adrienne, and I went to Rossville, GA for the annual conference at our mission board. During the week, we hear about 7 full length sermons a day, we get to meet and visit with veteran missionaries who have been on the field for 20 and 30 years, and we get to see friends who are also on deputation. It was a blessing this year to go. Kayleigh and I both needed the sermons. They were an encouragement and helped to revive us in our work! Another thing that made the trip worth going was being encouraged by one of the missionaries that we will be working with for a short time. Niels Gade and his wife talked with us for a few hours one evening, and he had the perfect things that I needed to hear. It was a blessing!

 

Please pray for him, though. He is supposed to be working on the mission station in PNG while Bro. Wells is back with his family on furlough. The Wells had been gone for a week and a half, and Bro. Gade fell and broke his shoulder. He came back to the States immediately for treatment, and he is facing surgery to repair his shoulder, or an amputation. These options are determined by the spread of the cancer that weakened his shoulder. He has bone cancer, and when the shoulder broke, it was basically released into the blood. 

 

We know that God works in ways we don’t understand, and we know that He is protecting and guiding us as he puts us through tests. I know that I’m grateful that Bro. Gade for talking with me, but we are praying that God heals his cancer and his shoulder so that he may return to his work in PNG. Please pray with us for Niels Gade, and his family.

 

Thanks!

Adrienne

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Well, Adrienne is now 9 months old! People told us that she would get bigger very quickly. I can’t tell you how many times we hear the phrase, “they grow up so fast”, but lo and behold she has changed so much even in the past few months! 

     We love our girl! I am reminded, though, that she is still a human like we are. My wife and I were talking about how much we loved her and she said, “Yeah, Adrienne loves herself and thinks that we are ok too.” How true that was. She still needs to be taught what is right, and she needs to get saved. She needs to know there is a God who loves her more than she even loves herself right now. My mom would always call me and  my siblings “dirty rotten sinners”, and looking back, we were 🙂 I know what she means now. Being a parent is all about how you train them, and we have our work cut out for us for sure, but we thank God for our little girl! We love her, and would love for you to pray for her, especially those who’ve been able to meet her! Thank you so much for praying and caring for my family and me!

We are blessed by friends!

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A few sundays ago, we were invited to visit this girls sunday school class, ages 9-12, at Old Time Baptist Church in Hamburg, NY. We were told that they had taken an offering up for us and wanted to present it. The class was able to raise over $600 over this past year! Kayleigh and I were floored! We appreciated the gift so much. Its so awesome to see these girls learning that if they give to the LORD, He will use what they give for His glory. What an awesome lesson they have learned. While we were there, we were also quite impressed with the questions that they brought about PNG. I was stunned. I answered GOOD questions from them for about 35 minutes. I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t just, “what food do they eat?” or “what do they look like?” but a lot of penetrating questions about the culture and way of life. I’ve had question time struggle to be 15 minutes long at churches before. What a way to teach them to have a heart for lost people, and for our LORD. It was an honor to be able to speak to them and visit. They were a huge blessing to Kayleigh and me, Thank you so much for caring about us, where we are going to minister, and our King!

Patriot?

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PNG flag

I grew up with a dad who served in the military, and if you’ve listened to my testimony, you know that I was very interested in going to the military when I “grew up”. I love it. I love the way our army looks, and i love the aircraft our Air Force gets to use. I love the sheer force of our navy, and I love the fearlessness of our Marines. I love how they are a symbol of our country. I love how great our country still is! I tell people that if they go outside of the country, and go on a trip to a third world country, they won’t complain about our America. As much as I love our country, something has changed. I love when a church puts up the Papua New Guinea flag in their conference. I see its red and black, and the bird of paradise, and I am happy that those colors represent MY country. Its a weird feeling to be divided between two nations, but I am. I can’t wait to get there and start working, but I know I will miss my home country. Thank you so much to those churches who put up flags. It is a great encouragement to walk in and see it on the wall.

Thanks for prayer!

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Chad mentioned in his family’s prayer letter that his eye is becoming less painful and that the blurry vision is also lessening. Thank you so much for praying for him. Prayer matters so much to missions; it just takes something small to physically knock you out and asking God to protect us goes a long way!