Contact Information

Happy New Year (almost)!

To start off the new year, we wanted to make sure you knew how to find out how to contact us and to learn more about how we are doing. We have a blog that everyone can read. I will post more on it than I send out on these emails. I have posted some pics and videos on it. The blog address is fishing4men.blogspot.com I also will post some blog information and pics on myspace. My address is www.myspace.com/fishincokc If you are using Skype you can call us computer to computer. Our username is derek.l.woods You can also call our computer from your home phone using an OKC phone number. If it is long distance for you to call OKC then you will be charged for the call. If you live in OKC, then you won't be charged anything. The phone # is 405-445-0180. Please remember that there is a 15 hour time difference. We are 15 hours ahead of Oklahoma, so please don't call us in the middle of our night. We have voicemail set up on this number so you can leave a message if we aren't available. Finally, I have posted a video on Google of what our apartment looks like. You can click here to see it. We look forward to keeping in touch with you all this coming new year.

Christmas- Bonus

Merry Christmas to all. We are getting ready to end our Christmas here on the other side of the world and go to bed. Christmas is celebrated here a little differently than in the States. We had a nice worship service at 11am and then went with the people to a park. (see video below.) We walked around and had a nice time of fellowship. This evening, our family took a walk to eat at Lotteria. Lotteria is competition for McDonald's outside of the US. The food there is different than McDonald's.

How many times have you went someplace because you saw there was a bonus item. Here it seems there are bonuses everywhere. We shop at a place called Home Plus. It is much like Wal-mart. Everything it seems comes with a bonus. The pastor's wife gave us dishes for our apartment all from bonuses she received from purchases. The first night here we bought a box of cereal and it had some cotton gloves attached to the box. If you buy instant coffee, you can get plastic storage containers called "lock and lock." We went to a small little cafe that sells juk (porridge). We had eaten some the day before and liked it. So, we decided to purchase some. We ordered two bowls of rice and vegetable porridge and then decided we only wanted one bowl and to have a bowl of another type of porridge. They had already prepared the first type for us, so they gave us both bowls of the rice and vegetable porridge and then gave us two bowls of the other type as well. They only made us pay for one bowl of each and said it was a bonus.

We Made It!

We have finally made it to Korea. We didn't accomplish all that we wanted to before we left or see everyone we wanted to see, but know that we wanted to see you all before we left. Everything on the trip here went great. When we fly like this next time, I will allow more time in between flights though. We were supposed to have an hour and 50 minutes between flights, but the first flight was a little late getting there and then we had to change concourses to go on the international flight. We made it to the check in area and I ran back to McDonald's to buy the family breakfast. By the time I arrived back they were boarding the plane and we were one of the last on the plane. We had to search to be able to find places for all of our carry on luggage. We have a beautiful apartment that the school has rented for us. We are on the 10th floor of a high rise apartment building. The building is less than two years old and has lots of modern amenities. We will have pics later. Please pray as we adjust to the culture and language here. I only know like three words in Korean, so it makes communication difficult. We will send more info later as we have time and get our internet set up. We have to go to the immigration office either Thursday or Friday to change the kids visas to dependent visas instead of visitors visas and to register for an identification card. When it come in, I will be able to get a bank account and call to have internet installed.

Packing For Korea

You never realize how much stuff you have until you have to sort through every bit of it. We are going through every piece of clothing, every book, everything in the kitchen, etc. This is a very daunting task. It seems even bigger when you realize we have just over two weeks until we fly out. (We fly out the morning of the 17th.) We have gone through three of our four bedrooms and through much of the family room. We have packaged up our dishes, but have kept out all of our cooking items so we don't have to eat out. We should have all of the clothes gone through today and then we will attack all of the school items; books, curriculum, games, etc.

Please pray that we will have wisdom in making the decisions of what to store, what to get rid of, what to take, and what to leave. Especially pray for Pamela as much of the burden falls on her since she is the one that knows who everything belongs to and if it fits, etc. Also pray for our visas to come through. All but one of the kids passports are in the mail. The other one should be done in the next couple of days. Please pray for it to be completed quickly also.

It is just now beginning to feel like we are actually going to Korea. I have known we are going for a while, but it just now feels like it is becoming reality. Please pray as we have to adjust to a new culture and new time zone (We will lose 15 hours.).

Update on Korea

After much prayer, Pamela and I believe God is moving us to Korea. We have signed the contracts and sent off all of the paperwork needed for our E-2 teaching visas. We have applied for the kids passports. We are working on selling our house. We are now waiting for the visas to come in, so plane tickets can be purchased. Although we are waiting on the visas, we are very busy. We have sold some of our furniture and are going through everything to see what to keep. Then we have to determine if we are selling, donating, or throwing away the other stuff. The things we are keeping we have to decide whether it should go to Korea, or go in storage here.

Waiting on the Lord is not always the easiest thing to do. Yet, we know that the Bible tells us to do it. I learned long ago that I couldn't be a doctor, I don't have enough patience. :) God is providing for us in His timetable and we just have to wait for Him. There are still several things we are waiting on Him to provide.
1. 3 plane tickets- Adriel, Elijah, and Elizabeth (the school is paying for the rest)
2. 2 laptops- one for Pamela and I to use and one for the kids, especially Caitlyn's homeschool
3. a buyer for our home

Please be in prayer for these. God has always provided for our needs and we know he will now also.

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Till the nets are full,

Derek

Probable move to Korea

God is amazing. Pamela and I have been praying for quite some time about what God had in store for us. We both have felt God's call on our lives to share the good news with people in a foreign land as missionaries. God has been training us in so many areas over the last few years and now He has opened an enormous door of opportunity for us to go teach at a Christian school in South Korea. This came about in a most interesting way. This summer a couple that teach English at a college in South Korea were home on a break, the Williams. They attend church at Western Hills and we were able to talk to them on several occasions about teaching in Korea. We looked at several colleges in Korea and didn't feel the Lord leading us in that direction. We started looking at other options when we received an email from the Williams that they had talked to a pastor friend of theirs who is starting a Christian school and is looking for teachers. She had recommended us to the pastor and he email us directly. We have been in correspondence with him for about a week and really feel the Lord's leading. We are seriously praying and considering going. If this is God's plan for us, we have around 8 weeks to sell our home, cars, furniture, etc. God has moved in our lives this way before, and He can make everything work out if He is in this. I will post more details later, but we are on the way to an evangelism summit this weekend in Denton, TX. Please pray with us as we seek God on this matter.

Desires Fulfilled

Friday, I met up with Zak and Darryl in Bricktown for some street fishing. Zak set up his banners and I set up the sound system. Zak had a few groups of people come through to do the intelligence tests on the banners that he was able to lead through the gospel. Zak tried to pass a million dollar bill to a man and he asked what it was. He had an accent and said he didn't understand English very well. Zak asked him where he was from and the man was from Israel. Zak has stated several times to me that he wants to go to Israel and witness sometime, so God sent him an Israeli here in Oklahoma. They spent about 45 minutes talking and Zak gave him the gospel. This man wanted to rely on hearsay from others than to look into the truth himself. Please pray for him. I didn't get his name. So, the first desire to be fulfilled was Zak's desire to be a light to Israel.

My son, Samuel, has had a desire to open air preach from the time he heard about it from me. He is only 9 years old and he hadn't ever seen anyone actually do it, so I told him he could start off by quoting Bible verses as people passed by using the amplifier. So, he started by quoting John 3:16. I recorded it and have it posted on my podcast. So, the second desire fulfilled was Samuel's to open air preach.

I have been feeling led to preach on the streets for several weeks now, but have let fear hold me back. So, I had planned on preaching this night. I was able to do a short open air sermon. The idea for the sermon came from a Gospel tract that I had recently purchased. It just has letters on the front. It asks a question and is four words, see if you can figure it out.

DZHENOU

Of course, it says, "Does He know you?" That was the question for my sermon. This is a very important question. If you want to know why it is so important, you will have to click here to listen why. The last desire fulfilled by God this night was for me to open air preach again. I am so happy that God loves to fulfill our desires when they match up with His own.

Near Naked Women and Homosexuals

This week I started witnessing at 6pm with my two oldest children. When we arrived at the fountain area of Bricktown, there were about 20 women in bikini's getting pictures taken in the fountain by one of the local clubs, Citywalk. There was quite a crowd gathering to watch by now. My kids then asked if we could go and give tracts out to everyone. I focused my attention on the crowd while my kids went to the scantily clad women and gave them each an "Are you a good person" comic tract. A couple of the women read the title and said, "Sure, I am a good person." Then threw them behind them on the ground. I pulled out some million dollar bill gospel tracts and had the kids give them to the girls also. Some of the girls threw these behind them as well, but several took them with them. Please pray that God will speak to these girls hearts and convict them of their immodesty and that they will repent of their sin.

The only person I knew was coming out tonight was Zak. I called him to see what time he was coming out and he said he was going to eat before he made it out. So, I set up my little PA system and started trying to do some interviews for my podcast. I recorded a couple of them and they are posted up on my podcast site. You can listen to them if you are interested. We put the amplifier up and took a break for a little while in Sonic.

Zak showed up a little after 8 and we started using his intelligence test banners to attract people over. We had several conversations with people and passed out over 200 tracts in an hour and a half. The last people that came up were a male homosexual couple. I talked with them for about 30 minutes and we covered many intellectual arguments. I left them with the idea that we are all guilty of breaking God's laws and that we deserve to go to hell. They didn't agree with this statement, but they didn't leave angry. It was great being able to show that they deserved Hell without having to even discuss homosexuality. Please pray that God will convict them of their sin and that God will draw them unto himself.

My children were exposed to some blatant sinners this week in immodest women and homosexuals. There were many others, but these really stuck out. Please pray that my children will continue to see the need to share Jesus with people.

Oklahoma Governor Henry gets a tract!

Today, my family and I went to Septemberfest. This is an annual event held at the governor's mansion in Oklahoma City. This is a free event where there are many Oklahoma businesses and organizations represented. The groups have booths where they have crafts, storytelling, literature, or historic re-enactments. Governor Henry read a book to the children at the Metropolitan Library area and then shook hands and talked with people. I got in line to see him and waited for a little while while he talked with several people. When I was able to speak with him, I told him that I had been praying for him and that I wanted him to have something. I gave him a tract that I created for Independence Day that talks about the freedoms we have in America not being free and then talks how spiritual freedom isn't free either. Please pray that God will use the words on the tract to speak to his heart and to bring him to true repentance.

Elizabeth Fe'Lyn- 4 Months Old

It is hard to believe that Elizabeth is already 4 months old. We have had several doctors appointments and Elizabeth seems to be doing just fine. She has been enrolled in a program called Sooner Start. This program is for people that have diagnoses of problems, not on financial need. Sooner Start sends out nurses to evaluate the children's progress and will have specialists come out if they are needed such as speech therapists, physical therapists, etc. We went to a genetics doctor appointment last week and they did an evaluation on her. The doctor said that he couldn't guarantee anything, but that he felt like she would lead a fairly normal life and not have many problems. Our doctor, the Sooner Start nurse, and now the genetics doctor, all feel that Elizabeth is not going to have many problems from her ACC. The main concern they have for her is for her vision. She doesn't track things as well as she should, so we have an appointment with a pediatric neuro-ophthamologist next month. Pamela and I have noticed that Elizabeth's vision has improved greatly over the last couple of weeks. Please pray for her vision to continue to improve and there will be no major issues with her eyes. Pamela took Elizabeth to Wal-Mart to have pictures taken and as soon as I get it scanned into the computer, I will post one up here.

Ticketing the Security Guards

My daughter, Caitlyn, went to Bricktown with me this week. We found a great parking place right off and had some time to kill before the team was supposed to arrive. We got a drink in Sonic and went outside to drink them. We noticed that down near the canal there were some carnival rides and decided to go see them. As we walked over to them, I noticed the security guards had parked their cars in the loading zone. I had seen security in Sonic having some food, so thought it would be fun to put a parking ticket tract on their cars. Here is a pic to show you what it looked like.

We laughed about the irony of putting parking tickets on security's cars. I hope you find it funny also.

After looking at the two carnival rides we walked back over to our meeting area and Zak was there waiting on us. We had decided to try some open air this week. We set up the flip chart with intelligence test questions on it and had many people stop by to take them. We started at 7:30 and when I looked at the clock next it was 9. Time flew by and many people were able to hear the gospel. Next week, we will probably be doing some open air without the flip charts.

Antonio X 2 + Santo

Saturday, June 9th, 2007
Street Fishing in Bricktown

The night started out with Zak King and I passing out tracts. There were lots of people out, but no one wanted to stop. The weather looked like rain and it was very hot and humid. That may have a factor in why people didn't want to stop. We were able to pass out quite a few tracts and to have a few conversations with people as we made a trip up to the canal and back. When we arrived back to the fountain where we normally meet, a man from my church, John Determan, was waiting for me. He and a man that formerly attended Western Hills, Aaron Latham, were out passing out tracts and talking to people. Aaron is the guy that got Troy Edwards involved in evangelism. (See post entitled "Two Nights in a Row" to hear about Troy and I at the mall last week.) We met up with them and chatted for a while when we met John Hunter who used to come out with our team before I was ever a part of it. He may be joining back up with us again in the future. So we started with two and ended with four. Zak had a long week at work and was not able to stay, so I paired up with John to show him my style of witnessing. The first guy we went to talk to looked like he was having a bad night. He didn't want to talk at all, so we left him alone. I then saw two young guys leaning against the fence above the river walk. I went up and asked them if we could do an interview and they agreed. These two 15 year old boys, both named Antonio, said that if they died right then they would go to hell. In the middle of the conversation, a couple of other guys showed up, but only Santo stayed to listen. We had a great conversation and the seed of the gospel was planted. If you would like to listen to this conversation, click here.

May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward for His suffering.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May his face shine upon you and give you peace.

Two Nights in a Row

On Friday, June 1st, my family and I met the Troy Edwards family at Crossroads mall. Our wives and kids stayed at the play area and Troy and I went out sowing seeds. We witnessed to a young man who said he had no idea what would happen when he dies. We talked to him about what the Bible says happens when you die. We then told him about the good news of the cross. We left him with a tract and my contact info. We then talked to two young Hispanic guys, Carlos and Francisco. We recorded this conversation and posted it on my podcast. Click here to listen to it.

On Saturday, June 2nd, I went to Bricktown to witness. I wasn't sure if anyone was going to make it out or if it was going to be just me and Jesus. I waited for others to show up and saw three people standing with bright green shirts and handfuls of papers. The back of the shirts said Dell. They were inviting people to a job fair and to ride one of the riverboats they were sponsoring for the night. I saw that one of the guys was holding some fake money, so I ran to my car and grabbed some million dollar bill tracts. I went over to them and said that I saw he had money. He said that it was a one dollar bill. I pulled out my million and said, "mine's bigger." to which he replied that technically his was bigger because it was an oversized bill. I countered with "Mine's worth me." He conceded. I gave them all a million dollar bill and started talking to them about the million dollar question, "where will you go when you die?" We were having a good conversation when two people interrupted to give us their flyer. They invited us to come to a 'circle of love'. One of the Dell people asked, "what is it?" They explained that it is where people come together, hold hands in a circle and pass their energy and light through their right hand to the person on their right. The energy and light would pass from person to person and then they were going to project it out around the world to make it a better place. I asked the young man, "Where do you get your information?" He asked me to clarify the question and then said, " Experience." I then asked him how he knew it to be true. He replied, "lots and lots of experience." As I was talking to them, a new seed sower to our area, Zak King, showed up and engaged some of these metaphysic people that were with the two I was talking with. None of the four liked where the conversation was going, namely, that we have a conscience that tells us right and wrong and that we all want justice. I gave some of them my card with my email address and a "What if?" tract from Custom Tract Source.

It was nice meeting a new seed sower and having someone out with me in the trenches. We walked around for a while talking and passing out some tracts. The Redhawks baseball game was just letting out, so we started tracting all of the attendees. It was close to time for Zak to go, but he wanted to pass out the rest of his Million Dollar Bill tracts before he left. Zak got in front of me and was passing out tracts right and left. I passed three young teenagers who had just received their million dollar bills with the gospel message on the back. I asked the girls if they had ever answered the million dollar question, "If you died tonight where would you go?" They all answered they would go to heaven.
"Why?" I queried.
"Because I say my prayers every night?" "I have a good heart."
I responded to the girl who said she had a good heart and corrected her understanding of good. "The Bible says that only God is good. No one is good, no, not one. A man once came up to Jesus and said, 'Good teacher?' and Jesus answered, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God.' If Jesus even said it, then we must not have a good heart. If you stood before the judgment seat of God tonight and he said, 'Why should I let you into heaven?' What would you say?"
They all shrugged their shoulders and were silent. I took them through the law and showed them their need for a Savior. One girl, Danye, had conviction on her face. She understood that she deserved hell and there wasn't anything she could do to help herself. I asked them, " What did God do so that you wouldn't have to go to hell?" Danye's face lit up and said, "He sent his only begotten son." "Exactly! John 3:16." I expounded the cross, substitutionary death of Christ, resurrection, and how to receive Christ as your savior. Danye's face was downcast at the beginning of the conversation when confronted with her sin, but lit up when she heard the good news of Christ's death and resurrection. I asked her, "What is stopping you from repenting and placing your faith and trust in Jesus tonight?" She said, "You have told me some things I have never heard and I have a lot to think about." I gave her a Save Yourself Some Pain booklet and told her to really consider what she had heard and not wait to trust Christ as her Savior. This was probably one of the best witness encounters I have ever had.

Cancer

Cancer has affected many of us in one way or another. The odds for you to get cancer are one in four. That is pretty startling odds. It means that if you get together with your three best friends the odds are that one of you will wind up with cancer. Doctor’s have spent years researching how to treat cancer, but what we need to find is the root cause so that we can avoid getting it.

My pastor’s wife recently died of ovarian cancer. Her cancer was very aggressive. From the time she was diagnosed to the time of her death was only eight months. Normally, damaged cells are removed from the body in a natural way. Cancer cells are cells that the DNA has been damaged and does not get removed. These cells continue to multiply in the body and start growing in mass, or throughout different parts of the body.

We all have a form of spiritual cancer rampant in our lives. This cancer is called sin. The Bible explains that sin is transgression of God’s law. God’s law is the Ten Commandments. God has given us a conscience that agrees with this standard of right and wrong. Have you ever been lied to? Of course, we have all been lied to at one time or another. How did it make you feel when someone purposely deceived you? It made you feel terrible when you realized that they treated you this way. Have you ever told a lie? Even though you know how it made you feel, you have purposely deceived someone else. Have you ever stolen anything? Have you always honored your parents? Have you ever committed adultery? Have you ever killed someone? God sees lust as adultery and hatred as murder. Have you used God’s name in vain? Have you used the name of the God who gave you life as a word of disgust? We don’t treat our enemies name’s in that way. Have you ever heard anyone using Osama Bin Laden’s name as a curse word? How about Hitler? Stalin? Saddam Hussein? The Bible says that God will not hold him guiltless who uses His name in vain. We all will stand guilty before God. We haven’t just transgressed His law once, but on a daily basis. Not only have we done it on a daily basis, but we have done it knowing it to be wrong. The cancer isn’t just localized to one area, our entire being is eaten up The Bible states that “it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.” We will all stand before a righteous, holy God as guilty sinners with no hope of release on our own. “But God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God doesn’t want you to be punished eternally in hell. He has made a way of escape. He came to earth as a man, Jesus, lived a perfect life without sin, died on the cross to pay your fine, and proved it all by resurrecting on the third day. Repentance is not just saying, “I’m sorry.” It is a change of mind. You have to change your mind about who God is and what place He holds in your life. You need to accept that God is the creator of the universe and that he deserves to be Lord (boss) of your life. When you stand before God on judgment day, the only thing that will save you is that you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross for you. You can be free from your cancer. It may take some time for all of the damaged cells to be eliminated, but they will continue to dissipate as you fall more and more in love with Christ. It is our love for Him that compels us to follow Him and to try to keep His law.

Doctor's diagnosis and God's provision

As you can see from the picture, Elizabeth Fe'Lynn looks perfect. However, there is a part of her brain that didn't develop while she was in the womb. She has what is called complete agenesis of the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is the main communicator between the two hemispheres of the brain. There are some other smaller communicators betweeen the halves, but the corpus callosum does most of the work. The corpus callosum has over 200 million connections. The next largest connector only has about 50,000. There are several forms of agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC). Complete=absence of the corpus callosum. Partial=partial abscence. Hypoplasia of the corpus callosum=thin or underdeveloped. Dysgenesis=malformation. Elizabeth has complete which means that the corpus callosum is absent. There isn't a single cause that makes this happen. We probably will never know what happened, but that is okay. Some estimate that about 7 in 1000 children have some form of ACC. Others say it is as rare as 5 in a million. One study suggests that 2 out of every 100 of those with developmental disabilities may have this condition. The rate of diagnosis is likely to increase with greater access to the technology used to identify these structural abnormalities. Disorders of the corpus callosum are conditions one must "learn to live with" rather than "hope to recover from." However, many therapies and supports may help individuals with ACC lead more successful lives. Common characteristics in individuals with ACC with limited additional neurological problems include: delays in achieving motor, language, and/or cognitive milestones; poor motor coordination; sensitivity to particualar tactile sensations sucha s food textures and touch; high tolerance to pain; difficulty with multidimensional tasks such as using language in social situations, complex reasoning, creativity, and problem solving; challenges in social interactions including lack of awareness of the thoughts and feelings of others, misunderstanding social cues such as facial expressions and tone of voice, limited sophistication of humor, and difficulty imagining potential consequences of behavior; limited insight into one's own behavior, social problems, and cognitive challenges. There are also possible vision problems and the possibilities of seizures.

God has worked many miracles for us during this time and we want to give him credit for them. The baby didn't seem to be growing correctly, so our midwife scheduled a second ultrasound. This is where they first found that something didn't look right in the brain. They thought she had hydrocephaly. During this ultrasound, they also saw that the liver looked enlarged. This ultrasound led to several of the other praises. They scheduled a Cesaerean section for Pamela for April 20th because of the ultrasound findings and the baby not seeming to grow correctly. When new babies are born, they have a test they give to assess the baby's health. The highest score is 10 and it isn't given very often. Elizabeth scored a 9 on both of hers. Praise God she was healthy when she came out. There were probably 20-25 people in the delivery room. Most of them were pediatricians. A few hours after birth, they did an ultrasound on Elizabeth's head and liver. The liver had no calcification and wasn't enlarged at all. Praise God again. The ultrasound showed that she didn't have hydrocephaly, but that she had ACC and colpocephaly. Colpocephaly is an enlargment of two small structures in the brain. These are larger because the corpus callosum is missing. On Saturday, April 21st, the pediatrician that came in to see us told us about the ultrasound findings of ACC. She explained a little of what that meant and told us that we would want to make sure we had a doctor that would help coordinate between all of the different departments that would be involved in Elizabeth's care. The pediatrician we have used for the last twelve years told us that she wouldn't take any new patients. She told us this before we knew about all of the problems that Elizabeth has. We explained this to the new doctor that morning and she said that she would be happy to coordinate for us and to be our new doctor. Her name is Deanna Ward and she is a family physician with Saints Family Medicine Center. She is a Christian and she was praying for Elizabeth before she was ever born. She has now added Elizabeth to her permanent prayer list. We are going to be having all of our children changing over to her. She has been great to work with and coordinate with the different departments in the hospital to get everything done. We even discussed with her about immunizations and our feelings about them. She respected our views and said that if we decide to go overseas for any mission trips, that we should be immunized for the diseases that we might encounter. She has a great heart and we can already see her love for our little Elizabeth. Pamela prayed for a new pediatrician and now we have a new family doctor.

God has given us both peace during this trial and we have definitely felt your prayers. Pamela seems at times to be coping better than I. The six weeks of bed rest and just an ache in her heart told her something wasn't right with the baby. She had six weeks of crying out to God and learning to depend on him for everything. I on the other hand have been busier than ever and haven't really had time to cope with it all. There are times that I just feel like crying. For anyone that knows me very well, I am not a crier. I don't want to cry for myself, but for the difficulties that may lay ahead for my little girl. God is showing me that in reality all of my children, my wife and I, and everyone else are in His hands. We don't know what tomorrow holds for any of us. We just take for granted the health we all have. If someone would have told my pastor that his wife would be having hospice care because of the cancer that would ravage her body a year ago, he wouldn't have believed it. That is exactly what he is facing today though. Just remember that our time on this earth is short. We need to make every minute count. If you love someone, tell them. If you have unresolved issues with another person, do all in your power to rectify them. Spend time with your family and close friends, you may not have another chance. God has blessed each and every one of us. Let's not take those blessings for granted. Life is short, make yours count for eternity. Share your faith with the lost, live your faith out with your family, raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and Love God with everything and your neighbor as yourself.

Every need we have had to this point has been met over and above anything we could ask or even imagine. We had a toilet that was draining very slowly and carpets that needed cleaned before we came home with a new baby. One family in our church paid for a plumber to fix the toilet and for carpet cleaners to come and do the carpets while we were at the hospital and no one was in the house. We have had food, meals, house cleaning, baby-sitting, and offers for anything else we might need come from our church and home-school group.

Normally, I place prayer requests here at the bottom for our family. I will never be able to give back to all of you the things you have given to my family, but I would love to bring your needs before God's throne. So, I ask that you email me with any requests that I can pray over on your behalf.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May His face shine upon you and be gracious and give you peace.

Derek

For the Woods

Elizabeth Fe'Lyn Woods

She's Here!!

Elizabeth Fe'Lyn has arrived. She was born via Cesaerean section on 4/20/07 at 12:12pm. She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. She scored a 9 on both of her apgar tests. Pamela went through the surgery just fine and is recovering very well. The baby has nursed and had regular body functions and seems to be doing just fine.

The doctor's thought that she had hydroencephaly, but that may have been a mis-diagnosis from the ultrasound. They ran an ultrasound on her head and her liver to see what the swelling was they saw last week when they ran one on Pamela. We haven't gotten a report on the liver yet, but the pediatrician couldn't feel any swelling at all. We should know something more on it later today or at least by Monday. The initial report on the head is that the baby has colpocephaly. Colpocephaly is a congenital brain abnormality in which the occipital horns - the posterior or rear portion of the lateral ventricles (cavities) of the brain -- are larger than normal because white matter in the posterior cerebrum has failed to develop or thicken. They said that there was agenesis of the corpus calosum. Agenesis would mean- a=no, and genesis=beginning. They use this to reference that there is either no or very little of the corpus calosum. We are in a wait and see mode. The corpus calosum helps regulate how much cerebrospinal fluid is in the brain area. There is still a possibility that the baby will need a shunt to drain the excess, but as of right now they aren't sure. This conditions prognosis can be mild to severe mental retardation, poor vision, mild to severe seizures, and developmental delay. As of right now, she isn't showing any signs of any of these. Praise God. They are going to do an MRI on the baby on Monday morning to get another look and see anything more.

We just received this diagnosis this morning and I ran home to post pics and leave this update, so Pamela hasn't been told all of the information above. I will be informing her about it when I get back to the hospital in a little while. Please pray that God will continue to bless little Elizabeth. Praise God for all of you that have been praying, we certainly have been able to feel them. There will be pictures posted here as well. Please continue to keep our family in prayer and we will be calling on some of you for some assistance as we need it. God bless all of you who have already helped.

May the Lord bless and keep you. May His face shine upon you and be gracious and give you peace.

Derek
for the Woods family

Pamela's Pregnancy 36 weeks 5 days gestation

Yesterday, Pamela went to have her second ultrasound. As they were doing measurements, they realized that Elizabeth had some water around her brain and that it was slightly swollen. The liver was also swollen. They said this showed some signs of infection. They asked if they could do an amniocentisis to check on the baby's lungs. If Elizabeth's lungs were developed enough they were planning on doing a C-section to deliver the baby. The amniocentisis showed that Elizabeth's lungs were still somewhat immature and that it would be better to wait. They gave Pamela a steroid shot and we have to go and get another one today so that the baby's lungs can mature quicker. They have scheduled the C-section for next Friday morning. So, baby Elizabeth should be here by this time next week.

Please pray as it is hard knowing that something may be wrong, but not being able to do anything about it. Please pray as we take this next week to get everything done for bringing the baby home. Please pray for Pamela to have peace and not to dwell on what might be wrong or what she did that could have caused it. Please pray for our children as they prepare for a new sibling.

Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us and helped us during this time. We really appreciate all that has been done on our behalf. May the Lord bless and keep you, may his face shine upon you and be gracious and give you peace.

Pamela's Pregnancy 36 weeks gestation

Pamela had an appointment today with the midwife. Pamela had gained one pound, but her measurement hadn't gone up any. The midwife was concerned about this, and has scheduled another ultrasound for this Friday. Elizabeth's (the new baby's name) heartbeat was strong, but the midwife just wants to check on her growth with this new ultrasound.

Please continue to pray that Pamela will continue to gain weight and that Elizabeth will continue to grow and be healthy. Please pray for the rest of our family as we all seem to be fighting a cold or some other infection right now. The drastic weather changes sure haven't helped, but what more can you expect from Oklahoma.

Easter Eve (The night before Resurrection Sunday) 2007

I did some interviews with people asking them, "What is easter? What's it all about? What is the significance of it? Why is the resurrection important?" Tracy Rodriguez and her two girls met me in Bricktown at 9pm. We had several conversations with people asking them these questions. They went pretty well. We also passed out some tracts to the people that weren't willing to stop. We talked with a group of four young ladies first off. They asked us to take their picture in front of the fountain. Tracy took their picture and I interviewed them. I recorded this conversation and have it posted on my podcast. We walked down the street and I talked to the couple behind us as we crossed the street. They said I was preaching to the choir when I was asking them about Easter. While I was walking with them Tracy had started a conversation with two young men. I walked down to listen and they started asking some questions that Tracy asked if I would like to answer. I started talking to them about the reliability of the Bible and how it has lots of evidence to support it. He said he believed in the Bible, he just didn't think we should take it word for word. I left them with the thought that everyone is going to die and where are they going to spend eternity. While I finished talking to these young men, Tracy started talking to another young man. She did a great job and we gave him some contact info. He is in the military and has just come here recently. He doesn't have many friends and was lonely. He seemed very happy to have someone to talk with and listened very intently. Please pray for him. I didn't write down his name, so I can't post it for you. I will ask Tracy and if she remembers, I will update this. We went back to the fountain area while we waited for Tracy's husband to come and get her. I stopped a couple that was headed to the movie theater. She was American, but he was from Portugal. I asked her what she thought Easter was about and she said the Easter bunny. I asked her if there was anything else and she said for me it's just about the bunny. The young man said he didn't know how to respond because his English wasn't that good. They were cold and didn't want to talk, so I gave them each a tract and sent them on their way. I posted this in my podcast as well. I put the two conversations together in one download. If you want to listen, just click on the link to the right.

Pamela's Pregnancy 35 weeks gestation

Pamela went to the midwife on Tuesday and received two praise reports. First, she had gained one pound during the week. Second, her measurement went up two inches. This puts her measurements at 34 weeks when she is 35 weeks along.

I bought her a blood glucose monitor and she has been measuring now for several days. He blood sugar is still having trouble staying steady. It will go up and down, but it does seem to be getting where the highs and lows aren't so drastic. She is still struggling, but we are trusting God to bring her healing.

Please pray that as she goes this Tuesday that she will have gained some weight and that her measurement will have gone up as well. Also, remember to pray for our little baby Elizabeth that all will be well with her as she is brought into this world.

Many thanks go out to each and every one of you that have helped out. You have been such a blessing to Pamela during this time. We pray that God will bless you for your efforts.

Derek

Medieval Fair-Norman Oklahoma

God has blessed me with a monk's outfit. Many thanks to the Martin's for making this outfit for me. Deborah and Bethany had heard me mention several months ago that I would love to dress up as a monk and pass out tracts at the medieval fair. Last Sunday, they asked me if I had one made yet. When I told them that I hadn't had time, Deborah said that if they had time and made it back to the fabric shop, they would try to make one for me. They did a wonderful job as you can see by the pictures. I designed a tract based on the old Catholic indulgence. You can view the text of the tract here.I had 1,000 of them made and we passed them all out in about 2 hours. We pray that the written word will touch men's hearts and they will see their need for a Savior.

Pamela's Pregnancy 34 weeks gestation

Pamela had a midwife appointment today. The midwife told Pamela that her blood sugar was really low. The midwife can't diagnose, but it looks like she has Hypo-glycemia. This is opposite of sugar diabetes. Sugar diabetes is where your body doesn't make enough insulin for the amount of sugar you have in your system. Hypo-glycemia is where you don't have enough sugar for the amount of insulin your body makes. This can cause all kinds of problems. You can't just eat a candy bar to raise your sugars, because it will put your body into a kind of shock because it isn't used to the sugar and then all of a sudden has it. The midwife told her to make sure to eat protiens with carbs and then she can follow with some fruit to gain some sugar. She seems to be getting a little better.

She is still on bed rest. The midwife told her to get plenty of rest right now. She didn't gain any weight this week, but she didn't lose any either which means she is at least maintaining her weight. The praise item, though, is that her measurement went up two inches.

The endocrinoligist is supposed to call and schedule an appointment this week. He got all of her blood test results back, so he should have something to work with as he sees her. Please pray for this appointment to happen quickly.

I want to thank our church family (Western Hills Church) for all they have done and are doing for us. They have truly showed the love of Christ to us during our time of need. I am humbled to be a part of such a fellowship. I grew up in the church and have never been to a church that has lived out their faith in such a practical way. "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" (1Jo 3:16-17 ESV) Our homeschool group has also went above and beyond for us as well. Between our church and the homeschool group, we have had meals and snacks provided, children watched, laundry washed and folded, dishes washed, and floors vacuumed. I want to give God all the glory for the provision he has provided for us through these groups.

May the Lamb that was slain received the reward for his suffering.

Derek

Bricktown Street Fishing Saturday March 24, 2007

I was back in Bricktown this weekend. I went out by myself with the hopes to have some one on one conversations, but the Lord had other plans. I started walking around praying and seeing to whom God would have me speak. I walked around and tried talking to a few people, but everytime was interrupted. After a while, I felt like God wanted me to do something different. So, I went back to the car and loaded up on some tracts. I started walking around passing out "What If?" tracts to the people I passed. This went really well and I got into a great conversation with a couple from Tulsa. They were Christians and were very encouraged to see someone sharing their faith. The written seed was scattered to several people and I know that God can use those seeds to draw people to him. Remember the power is in the seed not in the sower. So, I will continue sowing seeds for the Master.

Till the nets are full,

Derek

Pamela's Pregnancy 33 weeks gestation

Pamela went to the midwife today. They took 5 tubes of blood for different tests that the endocrinologist wanted ran before he saw her. They have officially put her on bed rest until further notice. She tummy measured 30 when she should measure 33, but praise God this is up one from last week. She has lost another pound though. So please pray that she can put on some weight. They are checking her thyroid, blood sugar, and several other things to see if they can figure out what is wrong. Please pray that they can figure this out.

She had a problem like this a few years ago and we took her to the hospital and they didn't really do anything for her. They told her that she was just have some type of mental problems and prescribed her some medicine that helped her to sleep. She lost quite a bit of weight and had almost exactly the same symptoms.

Please pray for her as we try to figure out what steps to take from here. Please pray for Caitlyn as she tries to run the household and take care of her mother as I go to work. Please pray for me that I will be able to handle working all day and then coming home working with the kids. Please pray for Pamela as she has to lay around and feels she can't fulfill her role as keeper of her home.

Derek

St. Patick's Day at O'Connell's Pub

O'Connell's Pub is famous for their green beer on St. Patrick's day. Hundreds, no thousands, of people come every year to drink it. We took around 200 tracts with us and they were gone in less than an hour. My kids and I met a family, the Martins, from our church there to pass these out. It was very sad seeing such a long line of people waiting to go drink green beer. It is sad to think that in Ireland up until the 1970's all of the pubs would close on St. Patty's Day. It is even more sad to think that people are celebrating a great missionary by drinking. To learn more about Patrick, listen to my interview on my podcast.

I was able to talk with one young man named Lance. It was a really good conversation. He had no idea who St. Patrick was or what we were suppoosed to be celebrating. When I asked him about eternity, he said there was heaven or hell. I asked him the criteria to get into heaven and he said, "you have to be saved, and repent, and ask Jesus into your heart." I then made him define his terms and he didn't quite know what the biblical meanings of the words meant. You can listen to this and other witnes encounters at my podcast page.

Till the nets are full,

Pamela Health Update 3/15/07

Pamela went to the midwife on Tuesday. The baby is still doing fine, but Pamela isn't. The midwife was very concerned with her weight. She has lost weight over the last several visits and her measurements aren't where they should be. Pamela has been eating like every two hours and has been drinking lots of water, but she still doesn't seem to be gaining much weight. The midwife is scheduling her an appointment with an endocrinologist to have her checked out. Please pray that they can find what is wrong and how to treat it.

My Podcast

I have a new podcast that will let you listen in as I interview people about eternity and share the Gospel with them. Check it out, here.

Pamela's pregnancy 32 weeks gestation

Please lift up my wife in prayer. She has not been feeling well for several weeks, but we haven't been able to figure out why. I took her to the hospital last Saturday and they said she was slightly dehydrated and was having some acid reflux. They told her to drink lots of fluids and to take some over the counter medicine for this. She felt a little better for a day or two, but on Thursday she started having more problems. She was laying down and she was kind of coming in and out of reality. She couldn't keep track of time and couldn't even answer simple questions. Caitlyn, my oldest, tried to call me at work, but I was away from my desk. She then called 911 and the paramedics came. They took Pamela to the hospital again and a family friend came to watch the kids. I went straight to the hospital when I got word on my voicemail. They said she had a urinary tract infection. The infection was wreaking havoc on her body. She is on some antibiotics now and is doing some better. She does fine as long as she is resting, but if she gets up for very long she starts feeling shaky all over and has to sit down again. Please pray as we have about 8 more weeks of this pregnancy.

February 24th Mall Fishing

The past two Saturday's I have gone to Crossroads Mall to witness. The first week I spent just checking things out, passing out tracts, and some covert tracting. My son, Samuel, and I went out this past Saturday. He loves using the Million Dollar Bill tracts. Crossroads Mall has two levels. My son likes to take the MDB's and dropping them over the railing to fall down in front of people walking below. We had one good one to one conversation while we were there. We met a man named Tim who was reading a comic book. After talking to him about comics, I asked him to do an interview with me and he agreed on the condition that he could remain anonymous. You can listen to the audio, Here. For more information, or to hear more audios please check out www.thegreatnewsokc.com