Keith and Kelly Hamilton Prayer Letter: Starting the New Year

Starting the New Year

The Lord has given us another year to serve Him in the beautiful country of Ireland, and we are excited to see what His will is for us this year. We have already had visitors and a returning former member, and we are continuing the work of the ministry that God has handed us. May this letter be a blessing to all of our supporting churches, as the Lord has blessed us in unspeakable ways.

January

It was a slow beginning to the year, but our weeks have been packed with activity, from our own church’s services and soul winning to our attending the services of two new church plants in the west of Ireland. Our new theme for 2024 is “By the Word of Truth, By the Power of God, By the Armour of Righteousness,” based on II Corinthians 6:7. It is a little long, but effective nonetheless. In January, we had a new visitor named JR in our services, and he has been faithfully coming each week. JR is from the Philippines and was a visitor of some of our members. Since the Lord moved our church to the countryside, it has been a great blessing to see our church people faithfully bringing visitors to the services. We also had our annual church business meeting. It has been a great blessing to have a building free of charge, especially since our tithes have not been the amount we would need to rent in the city. The reason we were able to rent previously is because the Lord opened the door for us to rent a building for €400 per month, but to rent a building for the amount of people coming now, it would be €1,500 per month in the city. Please pray for this need. Also, on the 21st of January, Keith II turned 20, and we had a party for him at the Days’ home. Another thing you can pray for is when Keith was 18, we applied for him to get dual citizenship. He has been waiting patiently since then to receive a response from the Immigration Department, so we continue to wait and pray.

February

In February, we had four visitors, including a former member who decided to come back to attend our new Wednesday night Bible study on the book of Revelation. People are excited and have really seemed to enjoy the first few studies. We also had two returning visitors, a Polish lady and her son. We have tried to give her the Gospel, but she has not been able to understand what we are saying. One of our church families had some family issues in Romania, and they needed to bring their mother to Ireland to live with them. She is not saved and does not speak any English. Please pray that the Lord would open a door of opportunity for her. For Keith II’s 20th birthday (it is a long story), he and I made a last-minute, four-day trip to Iceland and had a wonderful little break, some needed father/son time together. We saw all sorts of volcanic sights and even got to see a volcano eruption from our window on the last day. At the end of the month, we celebrated my birthday, and Kelly made me a wonderful steak dinner.

Soul Winning

Each week, we have been getting out into Limerick neighbourhoods and getting the Gospel out to people. Winter is particularly difficult with the cold and wet weather. When you finish, your Gospel tracts have turned into a handful of wood pulp, something Seattle natives would sympathize with. Although it is not as cold as some parts of the USA, to the people here, it is very cold, so most are hesitant to let the heat out of their home and freeze themselves to listen to you. But, we still pressed on and managed to get hundreds of tracts out each week. Please pray that the Gospel leaflets would fall into eager hands, that it will be sown in their hearts as they read them, and that they would be saved.

Please pray for these needs:

1. Co-laborers in Limerick
2. Protection over the ministry
3. More visitors on the countryside
4. Guidance and wisdom as we move forward

Last, I thank everyone who sent encouraging emails, letters, birthday cards and gifts, and offerings and for your faithful prayers and support.

For the souls in Ireland,

Keith Hamilton