Keith and Kelly Hamilton Prayer Letter: Battles, Breakthroughs, and BlessingsI hope you are all having a great 2026 and that you will be encouraged by what the Lord has been doing in our neck of the woods (literally). Below is a record of what happened at the end of 2025 in the Limerick City area.

November

November began with the conclusion of the Ladies’ Fall Getaway, and all of the ladies returned encouraged and excited for next year. On Saturday, November 6, Gospel Baptist Church in Lucan, Co. Dublin, hosted a Teen Rally, and it seemed there were about 40 teens who came out for it. We got to bring 3 with us, travelling 2½ hours to get there, but the preaching and activities were an encouragement to everyone. During this month, I focused on getting the online advertising platform (Digital Tract Ministry) sorted because the Devil was fighting, and we kept running into problems. It seemed like a good solution to our location being out on the countryside, so I kept trying to make it work, but the Devil has fought it all the way. The first battle was getting things set up correctly. I can’t get into all the details, but the biggest issue for Ireland was that the platform uses internet phone numbers through Twilio, and Twilio is not available in Ireland. Since WhatsApp is available, we would be advertising through Facebook (who owns WhatsApp), and many people in Ireland use WhatsApp; we chose that route and tried to get everything set up. I was planning to have a Christmas Eve Carol Service and to read a salvation Christmas Story called “Nothing to Give for Christmas.” The story takes place in the Alps at Christmastime and was read yearly at the Roloff-type boarding school that my wife attended as a teenager. I was really wanting to have a big push, and with our lack of manpower, I was hopeful that this online platform would be a great help in getting people out to the service. At the end of the month, many of the missionaries gathered together for a Thanksgiving dinner in Athlone at Redemption Baptist Church. We also had a tree surgeon cutting 16 very large trees on our property because of the big winter wind storms last year, and they were all next to buildings. This was a financially astronomical, but needed, endeavour.

December

I tried to get everything sorted for the advertising, and I texted one of our ladies to see if she would be willing to create an advertisement for the Christmas Eve Service, which she agreed to do. The Devil intervened again when the lady thought I wanted her to make her own video, but I was planning to record it that next Sunday and just wanted to see if she would be willing. She almost didn’t come to church that next Sunday because she thought she had let me down and couldn’t face me. Thankfully, she didn’t follow her emotions. When she discovered that I had it all ready to record on Sunday, she was delighted, and her daughter made a video as well. I edited them and got the videos uploaded and the Facebook ad set up and ready to go. Soon after on Saturday, the 13th, Keith II returned home from Bible college. Then on Sunday afternoon, we went to Grace Baptist Church’s evening service in Galway, and they also treated everyone to pizza to celebrate Keith’s return. We stayed overnight to use a free hotel night to stay over and to go to the Christmas Market. On the next day, Monday, the advert was supposed to start running, and by 11:00 a.m., we already had 10 people signed up to come to the Christmas Eve Service. We had a lovely time in Galway and returned home with only a week to get everything on our property ready for the Christmas Eve Service. The other problem was that the tree surgeons had left a large mess in addition to its being mud season, so we had an incredible number of preparations to do to make things welcoming for our visitors. By the Sunday before Christmas Eve, we had 35 people signed up, only 15 parking spaces, and no road parking. There was no guarantee these people would come, but if all of them came as single people, we could not fit them all. The church people worked together to prepare 35 visitor packets. A new road sign and banner sign for the doorway arrived just in time, so that was a relief. Because I was concerned about the number of people who had signed up to attend, I called a hotel, but they closed on Christmas Eve at 6:00 p.m. I also contacted a local meeting hall and never received a reply, so we had no other options but the building on our property. When Christmas Eve arrived, we had 42 people signed up, so I had the church people park as far back on the property as they could. Suddenly, I was getting texts that people were in the hospital. One lady broke her ribs and couldn’t come. Some didn’t have transportation, and others just never responded to follow-up texts after they signed up. We were supposed to start at 6:00 p.m., but we waited outside until 6:20 to greet visitors, but none came. As soon as we went inside, I got a phone call from people asking if we were having the service. They told me they had driven up to the property and then driven to the back, but because there were no cars, they left. They asked if the service had already started. I told them that we were just about to start and they were welcome, but they said they decided to just head home and then hung up. I then asked Kelly to wait outside, because I needed to get started, and thankfully, I did because 10 minutes later, another car pulled up with 4 visitors, and she was able to guide them to parking. We were told that because of the winter darkness on our road, people found it very difficult to find, even with GPS. Despite all the spiritual opposition, it was a great night. I was concerned about boredom during the story, but as I sat in a living room chair and read with a crackling fire on the TV screen, everyone listened intently. We ended up having 5 first-time visitors that night and 40 total whom we made direct contact with online. The Day family and one of their church people helped as well in a tremendous way. On New Year’s Eve, we had our regular Bible study and then a Watch Night Service with games, prizes, praise times, hymns, and Creation videos; and then we prayed in the New Year together.

Soul Winning

In addition to getting the Gospel out on Saturdays, we handed out a couple hundred of our new Christmas tracts, which Bro. Andrew Canavan graciously customised for us. Next year, I want to create Christmas packets to hand out to businesses and checkout workers. Our Christmas Eve visitors got to hear the Gospel clearly in the story, and we also had opportunities to speak with them directly and found that they were saved and occasionally attend the Baptist Union church nearby.

Please pray for these needs:

1. Co-laborers in Limerick
2. Protection over the ministry
3. A new building in the city
4. Guidance and wisdom moving forward

Last, I thank everyone who took the time to send encouraging emails, letters, Christmas gifts, and for your faithful prayers and support.

For the souls in Ireland,

Keith Hamilton