As we approach the end of 2022 and close out our first year in London, we wanted to post our year-end letter here for any who may not have received it already through post or email to give you a review of how the Lord has been at work over the past 12 months, and what our hopes, prayers, and needs are going into 2023. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and partnership this year, and wishing you all the best to you and yours in 2023!
"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." -Philippians 1:3-5
Apparently, they were seen putting our things in there by some nefarious characters, and within minutes our car was broken into directly in front of the church building by two "young blokes" who sped away on bicycles. This was witnessed by a couple of our Persian members who caught the getaway on video with their phones in a very kind attempt to be helpful. Shanna's purse and my bag, along with our wallets, keys, credit cards, Texas drivers licenses, and U.K. Biometric Residency Cards were all stolen. 
Fortunately, within a couple of hours we were able to locate our items because my keys and wallet both had Apple AirTags on them and were able to track them with our phones. Two of our church members, who happen to be off duty members of London's Metropolotan Police Force, Ollie and Aaron, were very kind to come along with us to help locate and retrieve our items "just in case", and we were so grateful for their help. It turned out that our items had been discarded by the thieves by throwing them over a fence into an abandoned and badly overgrown Serbian Orthodox churchyard about a half mile away.
Our cash was of course missing (about £100-£200 between both of our wallets), and the thieves used one of our bankcards to purchase about £90 worth of items at a nearby "Off Licence" (what we would call a bodega or convenience store in the States) before we could freeze the cards, but other than that, nearly all of our items were retrieved including our drivers licences and residency cards. We did of course have to cancel our credit and debit cards and request new ones and the ones from the U.S. are going to be take a while to get replacements, so we are going to have some difficulty making purchases with accounts we've normally used here until new cards arrive from the U.S. We would so apreciate your prayers as we navigate life in London for a couple of weeks without a way to use our primary U.S. bank account that we typically use to pay for everyday needs here. 
