A new year! Some things come to an end and some are just beginning!

On Christmas Eve my father, Donald Shire (Sr.), was ushered into the presence of our Lord. Within weeks of finding out he had cancer the Lord took him home. I am so thankful for a dad that drove me to concerts as a young teenager, made certain I had a decent trumpet to play, played catch and forgave me when I messed up. Most of all I am thankful for his example of how he faced death. He faced it like a man! He said "the Bible is true and I have done what the Bible says I need to do to be saved. I do not have a death wish, but I am looking forward to the transition from here to there." I was with him his last week until just a few days before his passing. Not once did he express fear. Dad, my siblings and I sang, prayed and I played several “private” concerts for him. There is no doubt he is now with Christ! My prayer is that I will leave the same legacy with my children and grandchildren.

In January I will have only 2 days at home. Most of the month will be spent hosting our team to Haiti and our Mission Cruises. In February we will minister in Honduras at our children's home on the island of Roatan for a week. Get ready!! Another exciting year of serving our Lord has begun! Thank you for partnering with us!

Don and Kathy

HERE ARE SOME CURRENT FINANCIAL NEEDS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP:

PRAYER REQUESTS:
• This baby was abandoned on the steps of our children’s home in Honduras. Pray for the child as well as the desperate mother that left him.
• As our rice is harvested for our rice paddies in India, pray for a good harvest and that we will be able to distribute it safely to our homes.
• Pray for our team in Haiti as well as the ongoing needs of our orphans there.

Blessings...

A team of six visited India in November. Two new orphanages are now in the process of being established. We visited the poor, the homeless and the blind. We held evangelistic meetings on the street where many Hindu's accepted Christ as their Savior. We held conferences for pastors.

It was a wonderful opportunity to represent Christ! Our India team sat in a small and dark room crowded with blind people who spend their days begging while riding the trains in India. I asked what they average. It came to about 50 cents per day. Guess what we were doing with them? We were worshiping our Lord together!

The day before that we sat in a small room crowded with street children. They sleep on a train platform because it stays busy enough that people will not harm them. I asked them how often they eat. They shrugged and said "when we can". Some of them were little girls. Guess what we did together...we worshiped our Lord!!!

The children are now off of the street and sleeping on the church floor. There is a building nearby that will be renovated soon to become their new home. The blind were fed, but as of today we do not know how to best help them. A local pastor will look out for them and feed them when he is able. The more we do this the more we realize that blessings are so much more than what we own.

This month orphans, widows, crippled, blind, rich and poor will take time to praise a God who left the splendor of heaven, was born in a stable and then paid the penalty for our sins. Thank you again for another year of opportunities to reach the lost and help those in need. Have a blessed Christmas!

Don and Kathy

PS: Year end contributions can also be made through PayPal on our web site.

India...Honduras...Haiti...Poland...Ghana

INDIA: Three of our home administrators were presented with motorcycles in India last month because you made it possible! Thank you very much! Now they will save hours each day by not having to wait for public transportation to go to nearby towns to purchase supplies for the orphan’s and widow’s homes.

Our widow’s homes (India) are now making beautiful scarves. The scarves are available to purchase at my concerts. They can hardly make them fast enough! All the proceeds go to support our homes in India.

A team of six will be in India this month. We will lead pastor’s seminars for over 1500 pastors, lead evangelistic meetings in tribal areas and cities, minister to the needs of our widows and orphans, and I have even been asked to help officiate a wedding. Praise God for these opportunities! Please pray for the safety and effectiveness of our team.

HONDURAS: Orsy and Banesa Cruz continue to minister to the needs of abused, abandoned and orphaned children at the children’s home in Roatan. Each month we try to send a substantial gift to help support that ministry. I am president of Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries, the organization that governs the children’s home. We are starting a new school in Roatan which is currently under construction. Learn more at WWW.SBLMROATAN.ORG.

HAITI: Pastor Cenor was able to get a prostheses leg for Witchy, one of the boys at our orphanage in Haiti . He lost his leg during the earthquake. This will be an ongoing need as this boy continues to grow.

POLAND: Pastor Jan (Yon) was in a car accident and totaled his car. He is sore, but ok. He thanks you for your prayers. Kathy and I hope to go to Poland in 2012 to do evangelistic concerts in Poland , Russia and Latvia .

GHANA: Kathy and I will travel with a few others to Ghana to lead women’s seminars in 2012. Other than that…not much is going on! (Yes, I am smiling!!) The schedule remains full as we continue to press forward. Thank you again so very much for being a part of our team! It is an honor to partner with you!

We hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Don and Kathy

HOLY LAND REPORT

It was very humbling to go to Bethlehem and meet Christians that regularly suffer for the sake of Christ. We worshiped in a church that has been bombed 16 times. The walls are extra thick to make them bullet proof. The congregation has often had rocks thrown at them as they exit worship services. The pastor and his staff have been beaten and the pastor shot in the arm. And yet they boldly proclaim the word of God to their community. My concert there was broadcast to the community by large speakers tied to the church steeple.

How do you minister to people that truly know what it means to take a bold stand for Christ? 15 of us did exactly that. We went to homes and picked up trash and pulled weeds. We washed windows and mopped floors. We prayed with them, worshiped with them and listened to them. One mother told how her adult son was killed by radical Muslims for operating a Christian book store and running the AWANA Club at his church. She is struggling to make ends meet. We paid her next month’s rent.

While most of what we hear about the Palestinians in our news is negative, what we discovered is that there are bothers and sisters in Christ boldly sharing the good news about Jesus Christ. The pastor we visited even had a meeting with Yasser Arafat and shared how Jesus Christ had changed his life. Arafat answered “Do you think Jesus would do that for me?”

At no time did we feel threatened or in any danger. As I spoke and played trumpet in a Muslim neighborhood in Jerusalem, about 30 Muslim neighbors gathered along the street to listen to what was being said. They clearly learned what it means to know Jesus Christ as Savior. The former pastor was martyred for starting this church and ignoring threats to close it or else he would suffer the consequences. He did!

Thank you for making another month of ministry possible! Next month we go to India where we will minister to Hindu villages, hold several pastor’s conferences and visit our orphanages and widow’s homes. We have a team of five.

May our Lord bless you in every way! Your partners in ministry,

Don and Kathy

ps: Are you interested in an Alaskan Cruise? I am one of several guest musicians traveling with Ryan and Friends (www.ryanandfriends.com) in June of 2013. This is not a mission’s cruise, but a wonderful opportunity to enjoy Christian music and God’s creation. Rooms will go quickly. To get on the waiting list for brochures on this, call 800-962-6902.