Village evangelism

The past few weeks have been filled with some great blessings. Our water project has caused our people to draw closer and become more like a family. As a result, ministering to them has become much more profitable. Our Sunday attendance has increased as a result of our bus ministry. Last Sunday we had about 25 riders on our 15-passenger van. If we keep increasing like this I will have to hire another van. Amen! Our Wednesday prayer meeting and Saturday Bible study have been well attended as well.

One of the most exciting blessings has been seeing our people getting involved in witnessing to others. In this culture most things if not all are done as a village. For example, if there is a personal dispute between two people any by-standers will automatically weigh in with their opinions. This can become very annoying to me but there are a few times when I have to admit that it has been beneficial. One of those times is while witnessing to others. While visiting a family in our church, 2 neighbors were passing by. They stopped to greet everyone and listen in to our conversations. After a few minutes the husband told the two ladies to come closer and sit down. When they did he asked me to tell them about being saved. As I walked through the Romans road there were several times when the others agreed with what I was saying and gave their opinions about it. In the end the two ladies interrupted me and told me that they heard enough they were ready to be saved! They were convinced by the Holy Spirit that the Word of God was true and all skepticism about me and my motives was eliminated because the rest of their "village" agreed with what I was saying and had accepted me. It is like "friendship evangelism" holding hands with "confrontational evangelism". Maybe I should call it "village evangelism". Either way, seeing people saved is always a huge blessing.

One of those ladies named Dina has asked us to pray for her. She has some very serious domestic problems with her "husband". He is a drunkard. He has beaten her and done some very hurtful things. One day Dina came home to find that some one was building a house on her property. She is the rightful owner of the property because their marriage is not official even though they have been living together for 13 years. She found out that her husband had sold some of her property without permission from her or her family. She is devastated and bitter. I gave her some counseling and several verse to help. Please join us in praying for her.

Please pray:

- For funds to complete the water project. We lack about $500 at this point.

- For our church to continue to grow in number and in the Word of God.

- For Dina and the others who have recently been saved (Patina, Dismas, Tumaini and Rose).

3 people saved today!

Thank you to whoever it was who was praying for our ministry today. During our visitation time I was able to lead 3 people to Christ! AMEN!

Pray for these ladies: Dina, Rose and Tumaini (aka Hope) that they would grown in Faith.

An Inflation Lamentation

The past few months have been difficult in various ways. One thing that we have been struggling with quite a bit is our finances. Lately the exchange rate has been in our favor. At the beginning of the year we received about 1,500 shillings for every dollar. Today we are getting approximately 1,650 for every dollar. That's a 10% increase. Because of this it feels like we should have much more money left over at the end of the month but in fact, it is just the opposite. I tried to figure out what was the cause for shortage and came to a startling conclusion. Everything. The price of everything has gone up in the past 10 months. For example:
Sugar increased 20%
Gasoline has increased 19%
Electricity has increased 23%
LP Gas has increased 13%
Pasteurized milk has gone up 68%
And at one store I saw maple syrup increase 90% over night. One 24 oz bottle of the normal cheap kind of maple syrup increased from $3.35 to $5.75 (after factoring in the current exchange rate, that's a 71% increase).
As an American, I expect to see some inflation of goods and services. It seems like the average has been around 3% for a long time. But I was really surprised to see the high rate of inflation here. I can only imagine how hard it must be for many of the Tanzanians who are fortunate to have a job let alone a pay raise to offset inflation.

Please pray that the Lord would provide extra money for us. I have looked for corners to cut and ways to tighten our belts. We are managing with what we have but we are limited in the amount of ministry we can do.
I have been writing about our water project the past few months. I told you how we were promised government assistance in bringing water to our property if we would help dig the trench for the water pipe. Apparently, that was mostly untrue. We did assist in digging the trench for our neighbors. It cost about $800 in total. About $300 of it was spent helping the neighbors dig their trench. This was a very good testimony for our church. The city brought the water pipe and installed it half the length of the trench stoping about 1,500 feet away from our church. When I followed up with the water department they informed me that they were completely finished with the job and they would not be bringing anymore pipe for the trench. The bottom line is that the remaining 1,500 feet will not be free. It's not a lot of money -about, $800 but it is definitely beyond my ability to pay for it before the end of the year.

Pray about this water project please.

Water Works, Help Out Or Else

It has been very busy around here lately. Many of you may remember that we have been trying to get a water line to our church property for quite some time. We began our quest at the water department by filling out request forms and getting general information about the process. We brought the water surveyor to the property and he promptly told us that because we were so far away from the nearest source of water we would need to go to the Land Office for a survey map of the area. After many attempts we finally got a meeting with the surveyor who promptly told us the map was not drawn up yet and there was nothing he could do to help... unless we had some bribe money. Since we never pay bribes it seemed like it was going to be a long wait to get water on our property. Then one night I got a call from a neighbor of our church telling me that the water department had begun the process of bringing water to the area. Apparently there had been many others who were trying to get water as well. They have been bothering the government for more than 3 years! I learned that we had 1 week to dig 1000 feet of trench for the water pipe in the next 7 days. We were also asked to pitch in and rent a gas-powered jackhammer to help break up some bedrock and dig out some big rocks. Since this is a socialist government you are required to help out on all public works. Everyone had to either dig the trench as it passed through their property or hire workers to do the digging. If they fail to do so by the deadline the officers come to your house and confiscate everything they can find. They will even take the tin sheet off the roof and no amount of begging and pleading will persuade them to stop. Needless to say everyone participated in digging the trench, some more willingly than others.  

I have been told that they should start laying the pipe this week. At that time we will be required to pitch in and bury the pipe with the dirt we dug out of the trench... or else.

Dismas And Patina Are Saved!
Last week 2 men were saved! One man named Dismas has been attending our services occasionally. While visiting him he mentioned that he and his "wife" needed to be officially married. He asked if baptism was a prerequisite to being married in our church. Talking about baptism naturally leads to talking about salvation. He had never been saved but definitely wanted to be saved. After more explanation he bowed his head and prayed to be saved!

Another man named Patina was saved during the invitation time after the Sunday morning message. The next day he came to me and explained that in his store he sells beer and tobacco. He knows that now that he is a Christian he should not sell these things. He asked me what he should do. I gave him some Biblical advice that he agreed was good. I am amazed at the immediate working of the Holy Spirit in this new believer's life.

Bibles

All of the following people each received a brand new complete Bible. Please pray for them as the Lord leads you. Pray for their salvation.

Oberine, Siana, Mozes, Klara, Anjera, Joisy, Jacline, Queeni, Gloria, Adela, Eva, Raurence, Josefina, Elisa, Gracy, Sofia, Rachel, Ndakeninyi, Ashura, Pertro, Paulo, Kanisia, Ndeshi, Rozi, Samweli, Vaileti, Faibe, Filimoni, Petueli, Exaudi, Aneti, Dismas, Sara, Glori, Mercy, Felista, Petro, Epifania, Mariamu, Sia, Nelson, Alex, Joeli, Regan, Maiko, Kelvin, Anisia, Agape, Eva.

Is it possible to fit 40 people into a 14-passenger van? Yes.

Bus Ministry
The past two Sundays have been great! We started our bus ministry this month and it has been a huge blessing so far. We had more than 40 people ride the 14-passenger van for our ‘Thanksgiving’ service! That’s about 10 more people than normal. Ha! I expect that we will normally carry 20-25 people. If we surpass this number I will have to add an extra van to the route.

Thanksgiving Service 
On August 7, we held a sort of Thanksgiving service. My purpose was to invite friends and neighbors to a special service where we would preach the gospel, give thanks for God’s blessings in their lives and of course eat food. We had more than 60 visitors! That was a huge encouragement to me and it really excited our people. I expected that we would draw many people to our service because we were having a meal. But what really got the people excited about this service was that we were giving away Bibles to everyone who needed one. One of our supporting churches gave us a large number of Bibles to give away. The problem with giving away Bibles in any crowded area is that it literally starts a stampede of people.

During the testimony time many people praised God for the new Bible they were given. Some even blessed me for giving it to them. I told them that I was just the delivery boy, that a church in the USA made it possible. They didn’t care they still wanted God to bless me too. I’m happy to receive God’s blessings anytime. I am praying that many of those visitors will be saved and become a part of our church.

Grace
The following Sunday (Aug 14) I preached a message about grace from John 8. Often times God gives me a sermon that really thrill my soul. This was one of those messages. Not only did God give me a good message but He really helped me communicate well as I preached in Swahili. Thank you to all who have prayed for my language learning. I still have tons to learn but I am getting better progressively.


Please Pray

• Pray for those who received Bibles at our special service. Pray that they will be saved and become a part of our church.
• Pray for our soul-winning efforts every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
• Pray for our “bus ministry” –safety is always a concern while on the roads.

Our new bus ministry kicks off a very busy Sunday

This Sunday we had quite an exciting day. We officially began our ‘bus ministry’ with one 14 passenger mini van. These vans are called “dala dala” in Swahili. I think that there are more dala dalas on the road than any other type of vehicle. They are used for mass transit. A typical ride from one major town to the next would cost $0.40 – $0.80 (about the same price as a bottle of Coke). It is very common to see the dala dala so full of people that there are literally 3-4 people hanging out of the door as the van travels down the road. We had 18 people ride our van making it about half full by Tanzanian standards. Most of the riders were our regular church members who were very grateful to ride rather than walk the 2+ km to our church.

A man named Paulo has been a tremendous help to me. He was saved several years ago in another town under the ministry of some fellow missionaries. They did a wonderful job teaching and discipling him. Because Paulo moved to our area, I get the benefit of their hard work by having him in our church. It is an encouragement to me to see the difference we can make in this country by discipling just one person.

Paulo preached about tithing Sunday. This is always a very difficult subject to preach. In this culture, everyone puts something in the offering if they have it. I think it is done more out of superstition than worship. On average people will give $0.15 not because it is 10% of their income but because it is customary. Paulo’s sermon laid out the Biblical command, blessing, and reasons for tithing pretty clearly.

Afterward, we had a baby dedication. One precious couple in our church (Mandara and Anna) just had their second baby and wanted to give a special offering to the Lord to thank Him for his wonder gift.

I then dismissed the children and non-members so that we could have a brief church meeting. The subject was Filimoni. He was recently discovered to be involved in sin. After counseling with him he decided he would come before the church to seek their forgiveness. I explained public sin requires public confession. The truth is that everyone was aware of his situation anyway. The church quite vocally expressed their forgiveness to him restoring him to fellowship again.

Finally on the trip home I picked up a hitchhiker. His name is Good Luck. Seriously. Paulo and I talked to him while driving to the bus stand. When we arrived he had decided to get saved. I explained it again to him and he was certain that he wanted to be forgiven. We prayed together and he received Christ as his Savior! Amen! Pray for Good Luck (the person) that he will grow in his knowledge of the Lord and His word.

Please pray:

For our bus ministry to continually grow.

For Filimoni to follow the Lord and do right.

For Good Luck to grow spiritually.

For our Thanksgiving celebration next Sunday.

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Two people saved this week!

Salvation!

Praise the Lord for two people who were saved this week! The first one is a 7th grade boy named Anoldi (read Arnold). Anoldi is his school name but his Christian name is ‘Pray God’. We met him while we were visiting people during our Wednesday afternoon visitation time. He was walking by himself on his way home from school and was on the same path we were going to take to get back to our vehicle. Paulo and I had just finished talking to another person when I heard Anoldi say, “Hi Pasta.” (Pasta = pastor because of his heavy accent.) I talked with him about a few different things that led to a discussion about Salvation. Most people here are religious and have heard the religious phrases many times without ever understanding their meaning. Anoldi had heard about receiving Jesus but didn’t know what it meant. I explained to him what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross and our great need of forgiveness for our sins. I asked him if he had ever been saved. He said “No.” I asked him when he thought he was going to get saved. With obvious conviction on his face he said “Now.” Amen! We prayed with him, gave him a few words of encouragement and invited him to our church.

Another young man named Sixbety was also saved this week. I was not present when Paulo lead him to the Lord but he told me that Sixbety was now very much completely saved (not that you could be only partially saved). His meaning was that there was an instant and obvious change in the man while they talked. Praise the Lord!

Thanksgiving

On August 7 we are planning a thanksgiving service at our church. That may seem odd to have Thanksgiving in August but the timing should be perfect. August 8 is a holiday for the farmers. It is a time to rest from their hard labors in the fields. The CIA says that 80% of the workforce is employed in farming. My goal is for our people to invite their friends, family and neighbors to our church for this special service. We will have a special preacher and a meal afterward. Please pray for our success in seeing people saved and the Lord glorified.

Please Pray:

• Please continue to pray for Filimoni. His world is falling apart because of sin in his life. Last week the police came to his house and confiscated everything he owns except for some corn and a change of clothes.
• Pray for Anoldi and Sixbety to grow in Faith and knowledge of the Lord Jesus and in the Bible.
• Pray for our Thanksgiving celebration August 7.

Happy Independence day!

Cathy and I were able to host a gathering for all Americans in our area. There is a surprising number of ex-pats here. Many are involved in ministry works some are doctors and some are here as NGO's. We had about 65 people come to celebrate America's Independence with us on July 4th. Hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and baked beans, pasta salad and potato chips on the side. There were scores of deserts and Cathy was even able to make an Apple pie; could it be any more American than that?

I decided to have a few old school American games for all the kids and a few adults who dared. We did a sack race, 3-legged race and an egg toss. As the evening came to a close we pledged allegiance to our flag and sang the Star Spangled Banner. Even with all the troubles America is facing these days we still have the greatest nation on Earth! God Bless America.

In our village church I stumbled upon one of our members and was grieved by the sin he was involved in. He has been a faithful member who has helped me with song leading and teaching Sunday School. Unfortunately he will have to step down from all of those positions for a time. I pray that he runs to God rather than away from Him. Please pray for Filimoni, he needs to make things right with God and the church members.

I would also ask you to pray for our water project. I think we have all the necessary funds to bring a water line to our property. I have asked our men to begin the process. We met with the water department and they told me that before we can begin we must met with the road commission. Our church is in an undeveloped area of the village so there are no official roads yet. Well I mean the roads are officially planned on a map but they have not been built. The water line will follow the road so we must begin by knowing where the roads are going to be placed in our area. Our guys have gone to the road commission office 4 times now and have spent 6 or more hours each day in the waiting area but have never seen the person in charge. The office just tells our guys to come back tomorrow. That is code for "we want a bribe." Please pray for our success in this endeavor. We will not pay bribes which may cause the road commissioner to be more stubborn or flat out refuse to help us.

Jesus is Savior or Server?

Thank you for your prayers for our church. I felt that we had a good spirit of fellowship in our service yesterday.

We spent last week in Kenya relaxing and recharging. It gave me some good time to do some thinking about our church, my preaching and the recent attitudes of jealousy. The Lord laid on my heart the verses in Philippians 2. It was a personal rebuke to me when I considered all that the Lord sacrificed for my sake; how could I not want to serve him regardless of the cost to do so.
While in Kenya Cathy saw a sign that sums up many attitudes in the church today. It read, “Jesus is Servior.” While it was an obvious misspelling of the word “Savior” it correctly defines what many people here think about Jesus. They look to Jesus as their personal server. They have the attitude that they deserve blessings from God because of everything they have done for him. That is exactly contrary to what many people in the Bible faced, Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25-30) being the prime example in my message on Sunday. The people received the message well with many “Amens” scattered throughout.

I have announced to our church that I am adding another day of soul-winning each week. I already have a partner for both times. Hopefully it will prove to be a good teaching time. I also have the Wednesday night discipleship class and the Saturday Bible study times that I hope will build a good core group in our church. Please pray for these efforts. Pray for their success, souls saved and the church strengthened. I also want to start a “bus ministry” very soon. I am not sure if it will be received well but I am willing to try.

This month has begun the harvest season for many people. One man is very anxious to harvest his crops because people are beginning to steal his corn. The crops have not done very well this year and as a result many people have very little in their farms. Neighbors are pillaging those farms that did have a good crop. It is sad to see. Please pray that the Lord will protect this man’s crops and give him a sufficient harvest to live off of for the year.

I have begun looking for a new email delivery program for our prayer letters. Many people have asked me to format my emails in a way that would allow for a better printing. I had a simple solution but something has caused it to suddenly quit working properly. Please be patient as I work through this situation. For now, you can click here for a printable copy of this letter.

Happy Birthday Michaela

Wednesday (June 8) is Michaela’s birthday! She turns 7 years old and is way too excited about it. She approached us with a party plan including whom to invite as well as the venue and activities for the party. She even has alternative plans in the event we decide that we can’t do something on her list. We agreed on lunch, gifts and birthday cupcakes at a local restaurant. Cathy is already dreading the thought of a wedding one day.

Happy Birthday Michaela!

Jealousy rears its ugly head

This week I had the opportunity to preach at Believers Fellowship Baptist Church in Moshi. It was very refreshing to preach in English. I enjoyed being able to run off on any rabbit trail I deemed worthy without getting lost for words along the way. My oldest son, Jay played his guitar while we sung Trust and Obey, Be Thou My Vision, and Grace Greater than our Sin. Then just before the sermon, Cathy sung Complete in Thee. It felt like it was the Schultz family hour. It was a nice change of pace from the usual services held at the village church.

I would ask you to pray for our village church. Lately, 2 people have shown us their ugly side and are causing some problems within the church. While I was preaching in Moshi on Sunday, Paulo was running the service at the village church in Kingereka. It was during this service that one woman brought many of her complaints before the church. Her biggest complaint was that I don’t visit the sick people in our church (she has been sick the past 2 weeks) and that I only give money to a few favorite people in the church. The truth is that on occasion all of our people have asked me for some kind of assistance claiming that they don’t have enough money for food or medicine etc. I believed them and would give them $5-$10 to help them. I may have done this 5-6 times for each individual over the past 4 years (an older widow in our church being an exception to the limit). At other times they would bring bigger problems to me. I would present the need to the church and let them decide how much to help the individual if at all. Now I understand that my little help here and there has created animosity among a few. Though in a different context, this reminds me of Romans 14:16, “Let not then your good be evil spoken of:”
It appears to me that jealousy is one of the biggest sins among our people group. It may be a result of the many years this country has spent as a socialistic government handing out spartan necessities to its people. It may be a result of other churches in the area that have become service stations to their attendees. Some churches offer loans for people to start businesses or to buy big items like bikes, motorcycles or tin roofs. Others have prescribed plans for helping with medical expenses. I can understand why the churches would do these things but it has created many more problems than it has solved. The biggest problem is that many of those people look to God to serve them as if it were an entitlement endowed upon them for their attendance to the church and the spare change they put in the offering plate. Doing things God’s way is always the best way regardless of its difficulty. Convincing people of this truth will always be difficult regardless of its blessings.
Please pray for wisdom on my part. Pray for these people who are jealous and bitter and please pray that the Lord would be glorified through it all. Already one man has written to tell me that he has sought forgiveness for his own jealousy.

American Football in Africa

Two weeks ago I began a new study with 3 men from our church. The lessons simply show us how to study the Bible verse by verse. In our area there are so many different doctrines and beliefs that most of the people are confused at best about what to believe. I explained to them that denominations are man-made and are subject to error whereas the Bible was given to us by God himself and is inerrant in every way. These guys are just getting started in the study but already I can see some great results in their lives. I am praying that God will use this study to call some of these guys to be pastors.

Last week we were able to participate somewhat in the first American football game played in Africa. That’s a big claim made by Patrick Steenberge president of Global Football. The Drake University and CONADEIP all stars from Mexico organized a 2-day football clinic to introduce the Tanzanian children to the game of Football. I took my family to the clinic so that I might be able to offer some translating services and my two oldest boys would be able to participate. I was also hoping to get a better feel for some of the drills and coaching aspects of the game. The reason is that this year I was asked by a man named Greg to help coach a junior football club at our local international school. At the first meeting of this club Greg asked me to run most of the practice and explain the rules admitting that he didn’t know too much about the game. After our session ended some teens began to show up at the same field to begin their football club but the instructor was unavailable. Greg volunteered me to help run their club. Three months has gone by and their instructor still is not available leaving me with a great opportunity to minister to some unsaved kids. Thankfully, they do not realize how little I really know about coaching football.
We invited some of the Drake football team to come to the international school and meet our small club. Their appearance made a big impact on the kids as well as the athletic director of the school. He asked me to be available to direct another teen club at the start of the next school year. He thinks there will be many more kids interested in the game because of the impact the Drake-CONADEIP game. I never thought I would have an opportunity to minister to kids from so many different nations, cultures and religions at one time in Africa. As a result I have been seriously considering starting a Bible study, which would take on similar characteristics as a traditional Wednesday night youth group.

Speaking of Wednesday nights, I was pleasantly surprised today as I arrived at Mandara’s house. I announced Sunday morning that I have been teaching a Bible lesson at his house at 5:00 every Wednesday and that all were welcome. Normally, I would arrive and wait 30-45 minutes for a few people to show up. Sometimes it was just Mandara and his wife. This Wednesday was different. As I pulled up at exactly 5:00 I saw that Mandara had the couch and dining table set up outside and several other chairs. I also saw five people had already arrived and were awaiting the Bible study. Amen! It was a good study and the Lord used it to really encourage me.

Please pray:
Pray for opportunities to see kids saved in our football clubs.
Pray for God to call men to be pastors.
Pray for the continued spiritual and numerical growth of our church body.
Pray for our baptismal service this week. Mandara is getting baptized.

Easter Sunday's trial creates soul-winning opportunities

This week I was able to put a close to most of the problems from the accident that occurred on Good Friday. The driver and I agreed that neither party was at fault. I paid him $300 to fix his motorcycle and help with time missed from work. If we had taken the case to court we would have spent a lot of time making visits to the courthouse just waiting to be heard. I have been told that unless you have some “pull” (read bribes) your case will continually remain on the bottom of the stack. You will continually be called to appear in court week after week but you will never make any progress on the case. Also, had we taken the case to court the guilty party would have been fined $150 for reckless driving but the other party would not receive any award of any sort. That made our decision to settle out of court very easy to make. Thank you for your prayers on this matter.

On Easter Sunday I ran into another small trial. After the service concluded I fellowshipped with the people for a few minutes and then made my way to my battered truck. As I turned the key nothing happened. The battery was completely dead. I had the foresight to bring a set of jumper cables so all I needed was another vehicle to help me jump-start the truck. I started to walk to the main road and about 1 mile later I passed a mini van taxi that was jammed full of people who were on their way to church. I just couldn’t ask them to take their time to help me so I continued on. Another ½ mile or so and I met 2 young men one of which offered to help me. I waited with his friend as he went to get his vehicle. During the 30 minutes he was gone I talked with the friend about salvation. He told me that he is a Muslim. We talked about his faith and what he is trusting in for salvation. It was a very good sincere conversation. I left him with some “meat” to chew on and invited him to come to church sometime as his friend pulled up in his vehicle. I hopped in and we drove back to the church. As we waited for the battery to take a charge I talked to the driver about salvation. He told me that he needed to be saved and learn more about the Bible. He wasn’t available to take the time to talk about it at that moment but invited me to come to his house on Saturday. Please pray for his salvation as I visit him this Saturday May, 7. 

My not so good Friday

What a weekend this has been! Our Friday service was scheduled for 3:00pm at our village church in Kingereka. I left our home an hour early. About 15 minutes into the drive I had an accident involving a motorcycle. I saw the motorcycle a few hundred yards ahead of me and noticed that he was having a really difficult time driving. He had a passenger and a 100 lb bag of flour tied to the back of his small motorcycle. Since he was riding very close to the shoulder and driving very slowly I decided to pass him. I honked my horn to let him know I was coming. When I reached his location he suddenly merged from the shoulder into my truck. Instantly I heard a bang and was showered with broken glass from the passenger door window.
While talking to the traffic officer about the incident I looked at my truck that was parked about 300 feet down the road and I saw a man leaning in through the broken window stealing things from the glove box. The police did absolutely nothing and by time I got there he had run away. I’m not sure what he was able to steal since my glove box tends to be a catchall.

After taking care of the roadside investigation we drove back to town to write up the official reports and have my vehicle inspected for the insurance forms. We then drove to the hospital to take the driver’s information and to discus a settlement. Apparently, even though the driver had been drinking, did not signal that he was entering the road and was severely overloaded, it is most people’s opinion that I was at fault. There is very little doubt that the court would also consider me to be at fault. (The driver was not wearing a helmet but thankfully did not have any head injuries. He did break his leg and had a gash on the back of his hand.)
This sort of thing happens often. Normally, people will pay for the injured party’s medical bills, repairs to the vehicle and some cash for the hardship endured while he recovers. The alternative is to settle this in court. There is just not enough time to tell you how much pain and suffering we would both endure in that process.

I did not make it to Kingereka for the Friday service. I was told on Saturday that those who were there took a good portion of time to pray on my behalf. I was extremely surprised at how much compassion they expressed. One lady spent about 5 hours traveling to our house in order to visit us. Much of that time was spent walking.

Easter Sunday was not with out its trials either but I will tell you about it in my next letter.

Please pray:
For the recovery of the motorcycle driver
A quick and bearable settlement
Funds to pay for the damages and deductibles to the vehicles and driver
Safety while traveling. This is probably every 3rd world missionary’s #1 prayer request.