January 27, 2005

Dear praying friends,

Many are asking, “Where are the Roses anyway???” We have temporarily settled in Edinburg, Texas where we are enrolled in the Missionary Language School at the Rio Grande Bible Institute. Brianna, Kelsey, and Jordan are attending a nearby school, Faith Christian Academy. RGBI has on campus day care for Joshua and Josiah. We attend classes in the mornings and have an hour each afternoon with a tutor, plus about four hours of homework in the afternoon. We are doing well in our classes and progressing as expected. Although we sometimes feel like we are learning at the pace of a snail, we are learning new words and phrases every day. Even though being in Texas was not a part of our plans, we have absolute peace that we are exactly where God wants us for now.

Update on Pastor Rose. . .Please pray with us for Bill’s Dad, Pastor Mike Rose. Our second week in Texas he spent the whole week in the hospital with pneumonia. His white blood cell count has been low, which means that his body is unable to fight infection. He is home now, but is still weak. As you can imagine, it has been hard emotionally to be away when he is so sick. He is still undergoing tests and treatments. Please pray for his health and strength.

Paperwork update. . .We received word from Bro. Dave McDonald last week that the immigration office in Spain wanted two more documents before completing our residence application. The good news is that we already had the documents and were able to Fed-Ex them to Spain late last week. They now have to be translated by a government approved translator and sent back for us to have the originals and the translations stamped at the consulate. We will then return the legalized documents to the immigration office in Almeria, Spain. They have told Bro. McDonald that the approval of our residence application should take six weeks from that point. (Have we heard that before?) That approval paper is the last document that we need in order to apply for our resident visas. The whole process has been much longer and more complicated than we ever dreamed, but we recognize that the timing of our paperwork and departure are in the Lord’s hands. At this point, our prayer is that we will have paperwork to depart for Spain as soon as this semester ends and be able to continue our language training there. In the meantime we are gleaning as much as possible from our professors and tutors here. Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we labor with the Spanish language. We are a product of God’s grace and your love, support, and encouragement. We represent you as well as our Lord.

Striving together,




Bill & Dena Rose with Brianna, Kelsey, Jordan, Joshua, and Josiah