Let me begin this column by thanking each of you for your love, prayers and support. You will never know what it meant to have you write, send cards, and call with your encouragement. You each refreshed me spiritually in a way you will never know. Each of you truly lived up to I Thessalonians 5:11. I am truly blessed to have prayer warriors like you in my corner. You guys are the best!

Wow in just a few short days it will be the year 2000! Can you believe it? I think a lot of us never dreamed we would be around to see the year 2000. We have watched and waited and preached that Jesus is coming, a lot of people have given up on Him. But, I know that I haven't. So as we move into the year 2000 what can we look forward to? We have a chance to witness to more people and try to win more souls for the kingdom of God. It's kind of like turning in a journal to a fresh piece of paper. We have a chance to put more trust and faith in God than ever before. We have a chance to let go of the past and move forward into bigger and better things for God. A lot of us have let our past hold us down. We keep looking to where we've been not to where we are going. I remember once about 8 years ago now Steve and I had went to visit a church for revival. The visiting evangelist came up to me during the service and looked me in the eye and said God says to tell you to let go of the past. Now years later I still hear that word ringing in my ears from time to time. Why? Because you can let the past hold you hostage. You can become so insecure in your past that you are afraid to move into the future that God has for you. But, we need to realize that our past is the past. You may have people that like to remind you of the fact you use to be an alcoholic, or a drug user. There may even be those of you who were prostitutes. Maybe before you gave your life to God you cursed uncontrollably. But, guess what Jesus' blood covered your past when you asked Him to forgive you. So when someone comes and tries to remind you of where you came from try to think of life like driving a car. You have this large window in front of you to see where you are headed. But then you have this little rear view mirror to see where you have been. And think to yourself well, since I need a larger window to see where I'm going my destination must be a lot more important than my past. So even though you may glance into the rear view mirror to check out things once in a while, what's back there is really not as important as what is in front of you. If you keep looking back you're eventually going to run into trouble. So when satan starts whispering in your ear about the past remind him of his past and then tell him his future And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. So now I leave you with the word that was giving to me so many years ago. Forget the past. Concentrate on the future. God has a work for each of us we just have to be willing. Happy 2000 may it be the best year of our lives.

Love and Prayers,
Kathy Pegram