From:Mark and Debbie Blosser
          Your Missionaries in Swaziland

Greetings from Southern Africa, where you could have experienced a warm Christmas if you had been with us. We hope you have enjoyed the warmth of being with family and friends during the holiday season.

A late 18th birthday celebration

Peter: We have especially enjoyed having Peter home with us. He arrived on Thanksgiving day this time, so was able to enjoy our Thanksgiving meal which we Americans share with the rest of the expat staff. Of course, most of them don't have a Thanksgiving day celebration, but they are happy to join us for a good turkey meal, fellowship and to be thankful to our Lord with us.

Soon after Thanksgiving day, we drove to Jo'burg to follow through with another physical exam on Peter, to see how things were going since his operation on his urinary tract. The doctor said all looks good, but he wants to see him one last time during his next school break in March.

Peter is in his senior year of high school and will graduate in July. At that time, we plan to join him in Kenya for his graduation, and then head back to the USA for furlough. During this time, we hope to settle him into a college for his further education. He's interested in computer science and electrical engineering. Please pray for the Lord's guidance in his choice of school and career.

We are also in need of a place to stay during the last two months of our furlough, November and December 2003. Please let us know if you hear of someone who would like us to house-sit in the Goshen, Indiana area for those two months.

Antenna Work: On October 1st, we started working on the TCI curtain antenna at about 5:00 a.m., with a crew of about 20 people. The work went very well, as we were able to lower the antenna, make all the repairs, and get it back up again in time for almost all of the evening broadcasts. We missed the short broadcast to Pakistan at four, but had things ready to go for the major broadcasting which started at five. We found wires which had strands broken and would have caused problems in the future. These wires were replaced by alumiweld wires, which should last much longer than the aluminum ones. We were all thankful for safety through the day and the successful completion of the task.

On October 28th and 29th we put up another 180-foot tower. This is the first of four towers we need to erect to install three more antennas which will hang off of these towers. Again, I was able to help with the team that was on the tower handling the jin-pole and tower sections as they came up. It was so nice to have our winch working so smoothly with the new hydraulic system which was funded by our supporting church, Brennneman Memorial of Goshen, Indiana. I'm also thankful that my ankle has healed up to the point where I didn't have any problems on the tower.

We are hoping the other three towers and feedlines will be installed in the first half of the new year. Please pray that the Lord will help us get it all accomplished before we are due to go on our furlough this July.

We were privileged to have my sister, Ruthann, her husband, Marty, and their daughter, Natalie, visit us in September for a short time. We packed the days full of visiting the sites in Swaziland and loved every minute of it. In one game park we were right in the middle of a herd of elephants... we were in an open Land Rover! We also got very close to a rare black rhino, which you'll see in the background of the picture on the bottom right. But most of all, it was so good to fellowship and have family visit us and understand a bit of what it is like to live in Africa.

Mark and Debbie Blosser

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