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Merry Christmas Everyone and to all a Good Year!
Brrr! Ice on my front porch keeps me from venturing very far today. Ice on the back porch keeps me hurrying to get wood and back in before I slip on the ice. Oh Boy. What a lovely morning. My kind of weather. I got a new electric chain saw for Christmas and I've been able to cut some long sticks that wouldn't fit into my fireplace until now. Praise the Lord for the small blessings too!
Texas is always surprised at the site of an ice storm.
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My li'l tree looked so cute all dressed in ice.
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I hope your New Year is going great. Angie and I were so ready to sing again. We love Christmas and all the decorations, the family get together's, the special food/desserts, the warm fire, hearing from folks that you only hear from one time a year. All this makes celebrating Jesus' birthday very exciting. But when it's over, we realize how much we miss traveling and singing. So, we were happy to get up at 5:00 and drive to our first singing of the new year. After our second singing, we drove 3 hours home before the icy rain could hit. We made it!
We want to thank these who sent a gift since last newsletter. You'll never know how timely these offerings were. We sing less in Nov-Jan than we do all year long, so every penny donated is so appreciated.
You are:
Ralph/Vicki Bamber (newcomers. Praise God for your gift.)
Stoltzfus Family
Barbara Moore
Kenneth/Kathy Tatham
VanderWaal's (Keep praying for their daughter who has cancer, but doing better)
Momma Jenkins
Ruby Wilson
Loretta Vavalis (Keep praying for her son to find Jesus. Our prayers helped her to locat him!)
Sis Azell Vandergriff
Dorothy Johnson
Stanley's
Hendrix Trio
Deb Wilson
Tonya McDonald
PL Montgomery (Pray things will get better tfor them so they can help more people)
John/Becky Benedict (Pray for his job. His income was cut way back)
Cheryl Rodriquez (Thank you from NM!)
Some things that happened since we talked last...
- Our 1995 Eldorado turned over 100,000 miles. WOW. We've put some miles on this small 2 door car. We are still praying for a bigger vehicle, preferably an RV, but we'll take whatever the Lord helps us to get. It's been a year since we've been praying for this need, but God is timeless and has no deadlines. We are learning more patience...LOL. in the meantime we're taking shorter trips so all our clothes/stuff will fit into the car. We are praying every mile the car will hold up, as it needs new tires and is cutting out again. I think another coil has gone out, hopefully the last one. Also, our struts are still broken, so we ride low. Not so low that God can't be there, however, our only hope! LOL
- We had a good time at Springs of Living Water near Carthage, TX. 12 year old Dillon came to the altar and accepted Jesus! WOW! Angie said she had prayed and told the Lord we would like to see one more soul saved before the end of the year and He granted her request!
- Can you believe it? We finished vocals on CD #17. I thought we had all but one song done, but when we got over there, we needed 4 more! My memory is getting bad. We spent 5 hours in the studio Wed night and 5 more hours Sunday evening. All of this happened before Christmas and we've been so busy with the holidays, we haven't gone over to get the mixing and mastering done. It's possible Clint can do it without us and mail it. We've got a call into him to see if he can. We recorded our new song, "Mercy Walked In" and Clint put his harmony vocals on it. It sounds so pretty! I couldn't help but cry when I heard it. Also, he helped nme do a new "do-dad" on "He Knows My Name" which dressed up the song, I thought. Clint is so talented and has such a sharp ear for the right notes. It's been a pleasure working with him. Because of your pre-paying and Loretta Vavalis' sponsorship, we have enough funds to finish the project and do most of the duplicating. So, once it's complete, there shouldn't be any hold ups. I feel like we've had a difficult time giving birth to this CD. We pray it will change lives and bless people with all the obstacles we've had. A long year in the making! WOW. Thank you all for being so patient with us. There is a surprise for Loretta on the CD. She requested we record, "Remind Me, Dear Lord" but we could not find the music anywhere. Finally we just asked Clint if he could play it on his acoustic guitar. He did and it really turned out good. I was so excited and I hope you are too, Loretta!
- Just for you. We feel your love all the way from Alaska!
Mom gave each of her 7 "young uns" their baby clothes this year. It was a very sentimental Christmas.
Was Angie that tiny? |
Christmas eve was our house. |
Mamaw Jenkins teaching great-grandbaby Drew
about the carosel horses. |
Children are so much fun at Christmas time. |
Ranessa, our niece, made a DVD for Mom and the 7 children. It was in honor of our father, Howard Jenkins. It was so sweet yet brought many tears. It was the hit of the season. |
Judy, sis #2 with her clothes. |
Kyle liked the cajun fried turkey Uncle Larry cooked. |
Larry, oldest child and oldest brother, and his baby clothes. His little boots were so cute. |
Was I ever that small? But wasn't I cute? LOL |
Rhonda, sis #4 with her baby clothes. |
Tonya, baby sis, sister #5, and her cute little clothes. |
Kyle and Ryan split some wood for me,
which was a HUGE blessing! |
Our Engineer for CD #17, Clint Sturgeon. You may have seen him on several different TV programs such as Grand Ole Opry with Cadillac Sky. Very talented. |
Dorothy, a long time fan and friend/support, has always wanted to meet our Mom. Her wish was granted this Christmas and she was so excited. Carolyn came with her, another old friend of Jenkins Sisters. |
Jeremy, the drummer for our church, 17 years old was told he had bone cancer. 99% sure. The saints prayed and 3 days later the tests came back - no cancer! God still heals!
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Larry and Linda came over and cut Mom some wood. |
We made a day of filling up Mom's wood box. It saves her so much money on her electric bill when she can build a fire. She's old and her circulation isn't what it used to be, so a fire makes her feel so much better. |
Angie cooked so many goodies for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we couldn't eat them all. She loves it! We gave some of you, our supporters some of it as a thank you gift. |
Hendrix Trio was a special group invited for our "Passing of the Mantile". |
Sadie Jenkins passed her mantle along to the Jenkins Sisters at a special service. |
Rhonda, Nella, and Angie, the original Jenkins Sisters, sang. It was fun to sing with Rhonda again. |
Rhonda Jenkins Hendrix spoke at the Mantle service. |
Sadie Jenkins, a powerful leader in the community, felt like the Lord wanted her to pass along her "mantle" of ministry to us, like Elijah did to Elisha.
What an honor, yet an humbling experience. |
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- Harvest Time Church with pastor Ed Johnson was special. Sadie Jenkins, a powerful lady in the community has semi retired from singing. She wanted to pass her mantle on to someone and the Lord told her our ministry had the closest goals to hers. So, it was a special service, where speakers were brought it in, and a special guest group, our own Hendrix Trio. Rhonda, our sister, who sang wth us for 13 years before her marriage, spoke and then the original Jenkins Sisters sang. Lots of tears were shed and a feeling of unworthiness, but honor was felt by Angie and Nella. Thank you, Sadie. We accept the mantle.
- AG Jenkins treated us to a Barnhill's buffet. It was good.
- Finny Burns at the River of Life filled our tank with gas. What a blessing! Good to hear Ronnie & Damon sing and Sis Carol & band play.
- Melissa Church of God treated us to a meal and I had whole catfish. So good to see these folks. We're like family.
- Sunday PM at Hugo, OK we were at a large church. We've not been there in several years, but they were so sweet, we hope to go back soon. I had so much help loading and unloading by huys who have traveled and knew just what to do. One thing was funny. My cord to the laptop got stumbled over, and unbeknownst to me, broke the back of my computer where the cord connects. We pushed play and nothing played! I turned things off and on, pushed in cords, checked everything. Finally some of those helpful guys came up and found the problem. It played ok until the next to the last song, and went out in the middle of Angie's song, "If It Had Not Been". I had to hold the cord in place while we finished the song. By this time I was so tickled, thinking how I must look all "hunched" over the laptop holding the cord in place. We all got a good laugh. (I'm not laughing now. It will cost as much to fix it as a new one costs. Pray Saints!)
- Dorothy Johnson got to meet our Mom. She's wanted to meet Mother for years and it worked out. Mom went with us at an assisted living place in Dallas. Dorothy came and it was good to see this faithful fan/friend and Carolyn.
Prepays and Sponsors of CD#17 are:
1.JW Alexander (TX)
2.David Baxley
3.Kevin/Jami Blank
4.Pam/Tommy Bradford (NM)
5.Kathy Crouch
6.Lorine S. Jones
7.Melissa Kelley
8.Glen/Rose Mary Kellum
9.Gary/Jill Lummus
10. Beckie Maricelli
11. Sharon/Amber Patrick
12. Dale ( Bubba) Stokes 11
13. Loretta Vavalis (Sponsored both) AK
14. Debbie Wilson (CA)
15. Cheryl Rodriquez (NM)
16. Berlin Padilla (NM)
17.Earlene Henry (OK)
18. Myrlene Dueitt (MS)
Just think you guys! You may get your CD before next newsletter! It's almost here, praise the Lord!
We love you all. Thanks for your many prayers and faithful support. We are praying for each of you.
Nella and Angie Jenkins
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