Keith and Kelly Hamilton Prayer Letter: COVID Hits Our Church People

We are excited about what the Lord has for us this year and encouraged to see our people growing in the Lord. I pray that this letter will be a blessing and encouragement to all who support us financially and prayerfully.

January

This month was our seven-year anniversary of having Irish citizenship. Two of our families caught COVID, so it was a reminder that there is still a sickness going around. Thankfully, they all got through it safely. Aside from the sickness, the rest of our people remained faithful. At the end of the month, we planned a surprise birthday party with the Day family for our eldest son Keith. Kelly made a chocolate cake, and Mrs. Day decorated her house and made a delicious ham dinner for him. He was absolutely delighted. The day before, I needed to take one of our cars to get its National Car Test; and thankfully, it passed on the first go. Ger and his family have not been to church since November, and he finally decided to meet with me. What it all came down to is that he wanted me to allow his unsaved family, who just began coming to church faithfully, to take the Lord’s Supper. He would not accept the verses I showed him and decided to leave our church and find a church that would allow his unsaved family to take the Lord’s Supper. It is a sad thing to see happen after he had finished the discipleship before the lockdowns and decided to follow the Lord in baptism this past summer.

Before COVID, we started streaming our services, and when we moved to our house, the internet was only 1–4 Mbps. There was nothing we could do about it due to our location, but in May 2021, the government began putting fiber-optic internet cables in our area. We registered with an internet company, and they told us it would be running in August. Then they changed it to October. Then they changed it to November, and in December, they told me they didn’t have a clue when they would get it running. Finally, the company called and scheduled with me for the next week, and we now have high-speed internet, which makes things run a lot more smoothly. I have also been putting in insulation in the church building in my free time. Please pray that I can get this project done ASAP

February

Near the beginning of the month, Edward’s brother Peter prepared to fly back to the Philippines to see his family because his father had died in January. He ended up testing positive for COVID, and there was a big disruption on his flight. Finally, though, they did get the situation sorted, and he will be in the Philippines until April. In the middle of the month, Pastor Ledbetter had a fellowship in Cork. After all the lockdowns, it was refreshing to hear preaching and a delight to see most of the missionaries from around the country there for the meeting. It was a great encouragement to my family and me and others as well. The next day, Kelly got sick, and then the kids each got sick for a day. I was confident that I would not catch it. On my birthday, we stayed home, and the family made a special dinner for me. The next day, I got sick as well. It was only body aches for me and didn’t seem too bad. I figured I would be over it quickly, but after 10 days and developing a cough that worried Kelly, we rang Dr. Siemer at FBMI (our mission board) and then our GP, who prescribed an antibiotic and a steroid. My oxygen levels were low, so I rang a friend in Cork, who’d had a bad experience with COVID, and he drove up a couple days later with an oxygen machine, a nebulizer, and some supplements. During this time, several pastors filled in for me, church members bought us groceries, the Days did shopping for us, and we were really blessed with people taking care of us. This sickness, which I suspect was COVID, lasted until around March 10; the aftereffects lasted a week or two longer. Praise God, I am feeling much better today and didn’t end up in the hospital. Another blessing during this time is that our church people began coming more often; and Victor, who had not attended since August, began coming to church faithfully again.

Soul Winning

I redesigned our church tracts and also made business-card tracts as well, so we have been able to go soul winning with tracts that have our current information and location on them. We hope to move back into the city in the next year, but until then, please pray that the Lord would lead many to our location in the country.

Please pray for these needs:

1. Co-laborers in Limerick
2. Protection over the ministry
3. More visitors to the countryside

Last, I thank everyone who sent emails, birthday gifts, faithful prayers, and support. May the Lord bless your giving as we reach out to those in this spiritually needy corner of the world.

In the campaign for Irish souls,

Keith Hamilton