Our Annual Christmas Letter

Many of you know we publish a newsletter at Christmas time that summarizes the year's events. As usual, we're just now finding the extra time to put this together. So, here is The Fiscus Buzz for 2011:

February

• While serving as pastor at Berean Baptist Church in Pioche, NV, we sense God calling us to minister in Tennessee. We pray for confirmation and wait for His leading.

May

• Jane finishes teaching a 1^st/2^nd grade combination class at Pioche Elementary School.
• Mitch baptizes a young believer at Berean.

June

• After several months of praying, God confirms His leading us to Tennessee and Mitch preaches in view of a call at Jones Chapel Baptist Church in Paris, TN.
• We celebrate a final Vacation Bible School at Berean Baptist Church. Summer missionaries from Mississippi help for the week.

July

• Mitch baptizes another young believer on our final Sunday at Berean.
• We say goodbye to precious church family and friends and move over 1700 miles from Pioche, NV to Paris, TN. Mitch drives a 26-ft U-Haul truck (with Callie the cat traveling with him, against her will) while Jane & Nicole (and happy-go-lucky Jake the dog) follow behind in the Durango.
• We celebrate our first Vacation Bible School at Jones Chapel Baptist Church.
• Jones Chapel “pounds” us with food and household items.

August

• Nicole becomes a 6^th grader at Lakewood Middle School.
• Nicole begins taking piano lessons again.
• Mitch baptizes one at Jones Chapel.

September

• We buy a home in Paris and move in (well. . .actually a bank buys the home for us and lets us live there for the next 30 years while we pay for it).
• Jane takes a 1^st grade maternity leave substitute teaching job at Rhea Elementary School.

October

• Mitch suffers with two bulging discs in his upper back.
• Nicole attends a middle school dance with a boy from church.

November

• Mitch baptizes three.
• Mitch marries a church couple.
• Jane’s brother Dan and his wife Teresa from Indiana come for a visit over the Thanksgiving weekend.

December

• Nicole turns 12. We throw a roller skating party with church & school friends.
• Jane finishes the maternity leave sub job and prays for more jobs in January.
• Mitch baptizes a teenager on Christmas Day.

It’s been a year full of many changes but God has remained steadfast in His faithfulness to us! Thank you for your prayers for us and for the ministry.

Nicole Turns 12!

Well, our baby girl is 12! Where has the time gone? It's cliche, but it is amazing that it seems like it was only yesterday that she became our precious daughter.

Her birthday celebration started with a greeting on the school's sign on Friday. Then on Sunday afternoon church & school friends joined Nicole for a party at the local roller skating rink. The photographer (Mom) wants to apologize for the quality of some of the pictures below. The rink was darkly lit and the photographer is but an amateur. The photographer also wants you to know that she didn't purposely try to take pictures of people falling. It just so happened that people fell a lot--especially since several of the birthday guests were first-time skaters.

The sign right before this one said, "Happy Birthday."

In other news, Jake the dog wants you to know that he is enjoying being an indoor dog--especially sleeping inside. Callie the cat thinks he's annoying, but she is tolerating him as long as she can bat him a time or two with her paws when he oversteps his bounds.

Callie is usually on guard on the couch when Jake's around

A favorite hang out of his is under the computer desk (especially when someone is using the computer)

Jane wants you to know that her maternity leave sub position is nearly over. She finishes on December 21 and is anxious to see what the Lord will provide beginning in January. There are some possibilities but it's too early to know for sure God's will in regards to them.

We hope our next post will be our annual year in review. This past year has been full of many changes but we praise God for His constancy and His blessings throughout.

Thank you for your prayers for us and for the ministry here.