Praises:
Full schedule for the next three months, money saved throughout 2025.
Prayer Requests:
Safety, health, homeschooling, and that more churches continue to take us on for support.
Happy New Year!
Wow, I haven’t written a prayer letter since last year (lol)! And what a year it was! We had meetings in over 20 different states, saw our oldest daughter married, drove tens of thousands of miles accident free, had birthdays and holidays on the road, homeschooled, did outreach ministries, and held about 80 meetings many of which were missions conferences. We do our best to have some sort of routine, but it’s challenging when 4-5 days of a normal week are spent as ministry or travel days. The kids are doing well in school though, and my industrious Melissa just finished an instrumental music album that we will have available at the end of this month! Overall, 2025 was a very safe year for us, thank you so much for all your prayers!
Financially, God has faithfully provided for us. Providing for a family of six while driving all over the country in a 5 MPG vehicle isn’t particularly inexpensive. But as Silas puts it, “We learned a long time ago how to spend money like we’re broke all the time, whether we are or not,” (Thank you, 2007 recession). We have money saved up for 6 plane tickets to PNG and 6 plane tickets back to the States in case of an emergency. We are currently saving up transportation in PNG, startup costs, and furlough tickets. Thank you so much for your faithful support and generous giving!
We get asked often “When do we think we will be heading to PNG?” We would like to go tomorrow if we could, but God’s timings seems a mystery. We applied for our Visas back in August and we pray continually for God’s leading for full support. At this point, having one without the other doesn’t help much, so please pray that we get both soon or eventually right around the same time, if it be the Lord’s will.
December in Review
December started off with a meeting at Springlake Baptist in Paris, Texas. Yes, the Paris in Texas has its own Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat on top of it. Pastor Clark and the church were very kind to us, and we really enjoyed the down-to-earth fellowship. That evening, Pastor Clark mixed things up and had the girls sing the entire service, it was great! Then we went to Ennis and had a good meeting. It was a blessing to hear Pastor Bradford’s testimony and the work they’ve done in Mexico and the church in Ennis. They served a great meal and I checked off the silly mental box of having eaten Texas Toast in Texas. At Copperas Cove we had a great meeting and time of fellowship with Victory Baptist Church. I’m always glad when my family can hear someone not named “Rick Schworer” preach for a change, and Pastor Knight delivered the goods!
After that we began our trip back to Florida where we will be for the most part until the end of March. Mom and Hank flew in to Pensacola, and so we were very happy to be able to have an early Christmas with them as well as Kiera and Jeremiah. Family Baptist Church was so kind in not only scheduling us for a meeting, but also letting us park there for about a week and a half and use their van to get around and do family events. Throughout the year many other churches have done the same, and I want to say thank you for that as it is a huge blessing. Closing out December we had a meeting at New Testament Baptist in Okeechobee, FL. Pastor Dowler went to Massillon Baptist College back when Melissa and Pastor Jeremy McClain were there. We enjoyed New Years at NTB as well, with my kids staying up until 3am to say Happy New Year to friends in Idaho and Oregon. Fun times, God is good. We are looking forward to a great new year!
Thank you all for your kindness and prayers,
Rick Schworer
