Happy New Year from Guam -- where America's day begins! We are 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, so we begin our day while many of you are still sleeping --and we beat you to the New Year! We trust you had a great holiday season. We appreciated hearing from many of you during Christmas time.  We enjoyed the cards, pictures and updates you sent.

Having been back on Guam for about half of our present term, we thought it was an appropriate time to give you a "Mid-Term Exam"- a fun way for you to see how familiar you are with us and our ministry. We love to keep up with your lives, too, so please keep the communication flowing!

Here's the quiz. The answers can be found below:

1. Which person is not a part of our family?

a) Doug b) Denise c) Sarah d) Greg :)

2. Which TWR field location has Doug never served on?

a) Guam b) Sri Lanka c) Europe d) Swaziland

3. Which TWR field location has Denise served on with a mission other than TWR?

a) Guam b) Bonaire c) Swaziland d) Slovakia

4. Which country were Doug and Denise engaged in?

a) Austria b) Swaziland c) US d) Timbuktu

5. In which setting were Doug and Denise engaged?

a) on a mountaintop b) at the ocean c) in a restaurant d) on a rollercoaster (Yippee!)

6. What job has Doug never had on Guam?

a) Transmitter Engineer b) Frequency Coordinator c) Digital Audio Changeover d) Radio Announcer

7. What role has Denise never had on Guam?

a) Control Room Operator b) Antenna Rigger c) Women of Hope Feature Writer d) Prayer Letter Editor

8. How old will Sarah be on January 29, 2001?

a) One b) Two c) Three d) Ten

9. What target area country have Doug and Denise visited together?

a) Japan b) China c) Indonesia d) Australia

10. What is the main target area for KTWR's radio broadcasts?

a) Guam b) the islands of the Pacific b) Asia and the Pacific c) North America

11. Approximately how many languages do we broadcast from Guam?

a) 6 b) 10 c) 15 d) 20

12. How many 100 kilowatt transmitters are there at our shortwave site?

a) 1 b) 3 c) 4 d) 5

13. Approximately how many hours of shortwave broadcast go out from Guam on a daily basis?

a)30 b)50 c)10 d)20

Answers: 1)d 2)d 3)c 4)a 5)d 6)d 7)b 8)b 9)c 10)b 11)d 12)d 13)a (How did you do??)

Praise and Prayer Points:

TWR Work/Changes:

There are lots of happenings on Guam to update you on. We are in the process of consolidating our operations. By the time you receive this letter, the expansion of the building which houses our five transmitters should be complete. We expect to move our office operations out of their current office building and into this expanded building in January. This means that all our staff will now be working out of the same office, something we look forward to. For pictures of the new office visit http://guam.twr.org/newoff.htm. KTWG, the local AM station, is now a partner with Trans World Radio, operating under a local Board of Directors.

One of the more difficult parts of missionary life seems to be saying good-bye to co-workers and friends. Several Trans World Radio families have left TWR-Guam over the last year, and others continue to do so. These teammates would appreciate your prayers as they relocate to the new areas of service God has for them. Also, please pray for our co-workers Doris and Jim who are remaining on Guam. Doris has recently been diagnosed with cancer of the vertebrae and is undergoing radiation treatment.

Special Projects:

In October the guys at the transmitter site were able to complete some urgently needed repairs on the reflector screens which are part of the antenna system. We praise God for His hand during this project, especially for good weather and the special skills of those involved in the work. For more information on this story you can visit www.twr.org and follow the link to Guam Reflector Screens.

On a more difficult note, some of the guys at the site have been busily working on the back-up generator for KTWR after serious damage to the pistons was revealed in November. Although island power has been more reliable recently, we rely on generator power during occasional power outages (and most especially in the cases of typhoons). We take any program outages very seriously and therefore have been praying for consistent power while the guys work on this major project.

All major problems with the new digital audio system and its installation have finally been ironed out and Doug can sigh a big sigh of relief! There have been many challenges along the way, but we continued to praise God throughout that minimal airtime was lost.

Personal:

We rejoice for the work with the youth we are able to help with-- primarily an offshoot of the prison ministry our church is involved with. There are usually 15-25 kids attending every Friday night. It is nice to be able to help with this ministry together as a family. Sarah tags along and is very popular with the kids!

And our last bit of news on the personal front -- we are excitedly anticipating a visit by Grandma and Grandpa Gregson and "Uncle David" who will be with us for Sarah's 2nd birthday in January! We hope to tell you more about our time together in the next letter.

Please take note of our new mailing address listed below and update your records.

As always, we would like to thank you for your faithfulness to us, and more importantly, to the Lord!

We leave you with this thought from I Thessalonians "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Serving, with your help, on Guam,
 

Doug, Densie, and Sarah