December 2009

Greetings Family and Friends,

We pray this letter finds you all well and enjoying this beautiful holiday season. It’s been another hectic and productive year in the Kirk household. Let’s hit the high points in this walk of faith called 2009.

First off, the "extra” 16-year old kid in the picture is Myriam Pierre. She’s the daughter of Pastor Fedner Pierre who oversees the school and churches for our mission efforts in the remote villages in Haiti. For the last several years, we’ve invested in an English education for Myriam so she can one day help her people, but her English-speaking school closed this year due to a lack resources. God placed it on our hearts to open our home to allow her to continue her education here in Tampa. So Myriam joined our family in August, as a 10^th grader at Gaither High School. As you can probably imagine, it has been quite a transition for everyone, from sleeping arraignments to eating habits. Everyone is making adjustments, but she seems to be adapting to a new school, a new country and a new culture and we’re adapting to having a teenager in the house. Please pray for all of us!

T.J. is now in 4^th grade at Essrig elementary school. He is growing into a fantastic young man who continues to make excellent grades and conduct marks. Last school year he was one of only 3 children in his class to make the 100 point reading club, and this year he was recognized for reading 1,000,000 words. Last school year he participated in the school’s chorus and this year is a member of the percussion ensemble. He had a fantastic time playing flag football early in the year with Dad as his coach. He wants to play tackle next year. NASCAR seems to have taken a back seat to watching football with dad both on TV and local high school games from the stands. TJ also likes to run and ran in his first 5K race with Melanie in February. Overall T.J. has had a great year and we couldn’t be more proud of him.

Nikki graduated from Kindergarten in June and received top honors again when she was awarded the Principal’s trophy for highest grade point average in her class. This was a wonderful way to end her time at Westgate Christian School. Now she is in 1^st grade at Essrig elementary. She enjoys her new school and classmates and especially likes being able to see her big brother during the day. She was selected student of the month during her first month and was recognized for reading fifty books during the first quarter. Outside of school Nikki enjoys tumbling classes. She has finally mastered the back walkover and is moving on to the back handspring. She enjoyed her first trip to Disney World in the spring when Melanie won two tickets to The Princess Tea Party from the local Christian radio station. It’s been a full year for Nikki and has been fun watching her blossom into such a fantastic little lady.

Erika, who celebrated her 3^rd birthday last month, is quite the character. Wrestling matches with her big brother have made her as tough as any little girl we’ve seen, but she also loves to play dress up, complete with stockings, shoes and hair bows. She spends much of her time going on long runs (in the jogging stroller, of course) with Melanie and making new friends at "squishy school”, her name for the YMCA nursery. She is fully potty trained now, so we are done with diapers for good!!! She was quite the surprise to us a few years back, but she definitely completes our family and brings so much joy to our lives that it’s hard for us to remember a time when she wasn’t here.

With 4 kids (16, 9, 6, 3) in the house now, Melanie’s pace may be the most frantic one of all. She used to run for fun, now she runs for sanity. She ran her 4^th Gasparilla 15K race in February and placed 95^th out of 2060 female runners! That’s not too shabby and the family was extremely proud of her. She’s known around the neighborhood as "the lady who’s always running with the baby in the jogging stroller”. In addition to running, she continues to teach aerobics classes at two of the local YMCAs. She certainly inspires the entire family to maintain proper fitness routines. Recently, Melanie has gotten into eBay selling and while it’s a fun way to make some extra money today, we’ll report back on this next year.  But most of all, she cherishes her roles as wife to Alfonso and mother to the Kirk family. She also honors her role as Alfonso’s help-meet as the first lady of LWM.

Early in the year, we got word that Alfonso’s consulting contract with AT&T would be extended through 2009. With layoffs and unemployment affecting so many of those close to us, this is something we simply do not take for granted and we thank God for His favor as He continues to deliver. We fully expected a walk of faith several years ago when Alfonso went to part-time consulting to spend more time with the ministry and we’ll continue to trust God in 2010 and beyond. Alfonso continues to compete in the highest division of the YMCA’s racquetball league. He’s known as the "racquetball pastor” as God uses him to minister to many of the players while getting some much needed exercise and relaxation. Along with his responsibilities as consultant and Pastor, Alfonso has continued to work on the Christian TV shows and movies and market them to Hollywood. He is also currently working with a team of software engineers on a New Testament Bible comprehension software project that we believe will be available in stores next year. Alfonso also continues to serve as president of Remember The Poor Intl mission group that organizes & engages churches for mission work in Haiti. Please join us in praying for these projects, as we know God’s desire is to use them for His glory and for the building of His kingdom. With regard to the mission work, we’re always looking for partners so feel free to contact us if you feel led to get involved.

Last, but far from least, Living Witness Ministries, and the work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be the foundation on which this family is built. The work our ministry does in Haiti continues to be one of the most rewarding efforts in which our family is involved. The school in the Boucan la marre village educates and feeds about 400 children and the church is now spreading the Gospel in two locations on the island of LaGonave. God is truly doing miracles in this impoverished country. Along with our work in Haiti, many exciting things are happening at LWM. Our men’s & women’s ministries are expanding, we’re training and ordaining other pastors, we’re assisting and guiding a separate new congregation, and have established the Harvest House. The Harvest House is a street outreach ministry located on the LWM property that we purchased last year. It reaches out to downtrodden men: addicts, homeless, etc. by providing housing, encouragement and most importantly hope through a discipleship program based on the Word of God. We’re excited about what God is doing at LWM. Feel free to keep up with us throughout the year by visiting our website at www.livingwitnessministries.org. (There’s be lots of updates to the site after the 1^st of the year.) Please pray for the work God is doing through LWM both locally and abroad.

We’ll stop here, but here’s the essence of our story for 2009: GOD IS GREAT and He’s looking for someone to demonstrate His greatness through and to. He has been at work in our lives in ways beyond this letter. God uses people to make a difference in this world. If you’ll let Him use you, you can make a difference in someone’s life. We pray that you are able to see all of the wonderful things God has done in your life over the past year. He has a work for all of us and we encourage you, our family and friends, to seek His will and His plan for you in 2010. Remember in Revelation 22, Jesus said 3 times that He is coming soon. Let’s live 2010 in preparation of His imminent return. We wish you all a blessed New Year, but most of all we wish you the love, peace and joy that comes only through Jesus Christ.

Happy holidays with Love…

The Kirk Family (Alfonso, Melanie, T.J. Nikki, Erika, and Myriam)