FROM THE SKI POSTBAG

 

Church Planters’ Project: The dream of training pastors and leaders goes on. With a team from Dawn Ministries in Latin America, we are working on a Church Planters’ Training Manual which can then be taught through Latin America. This has been a dream of ours, and God willing, we will be finishing it for the end of the year.

 

 

We pray foryou all. Many thanks in the Lord’s name for your prayers and the support that we receive from you.

 

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful remembrance of us every month with all you do for us, so much appreciated and needed. We greatly value your help and are mindful of all that it enables us to do. . . . We can freely offer the guest quarters to Christian workers because we do all the maintenance ourselves, and thus accomplish much with our very modest income. . . . Our activities include weekly home Bible studies, ministering theWord, teaching and accompanying the hymns on Sundays, visits and hospitality. The various guest apartments in Entrepierres are all being renovated to very high standards. . . Jonathan is extremely involved in his counselling work. . . About fifty believers are meeting in homes in the area and hoping to find a suitable meeting hall to rent.

 

Please remember to pray for us, as we take our stand against vicious principalities and powers arraigned against us, powers ever seeking to destroy us and keep people blinded from the Truth which is in Christ Jesus.

I thank the Lord for this time of communication with your esteemed presence. We thank you for all your services extended to our organisation in the pastyear. We thankyou for sending wonderful and encouraging letters along with the donors’ list. We pray that the Lord may bless you richly for what you are doing to the least of these in India. . . .

 

Kindly pray for our work in India done among orphanages, poor and needy. We unexpectedly received an amount of … God knows the need and He stirred the kind hearts of you all. We promise thatwe will spend this amount very prudently to meet the dire needs of the children and the outside and inside patients. . . .

 

May God bless you and your families and business and institutions and families richly with His love, patience and health and happiness.

Many thanks – this comes at a particularly good time for me this month. Thank you for all the work you do – it really is a God-send. 

Thanks. I’m always so encouraged by Rob’s timely messages/thoughts – this month particularly helpful. God bless you today.

Please pray for the teachers we need for next year and for a restful break this summer. As ever, visas will be an issue when we return. None of these are new prayer requests – of that we are well aware! Also, we do need wisdom to know how to make best use of the spiritual opportunities we have in school, especially chapel and Bible lessons for the seniors. Our oldest students next year will be 17/18 and they need a different approach from the formal and compulsory classroom setting.

 

However, in some ways they are not as mature as students of a similar age would be in Europe. How can we avoid forcing students to study the Bible if they genuinely don’t want to whilst also creating space for those who may want to make the best of the spiritual opportunities the school offers? It’s difficult to get the balance right. Thank you for praying.

Edgar van Hoek . . . For me, it was wonderful to be back in the role I enjoy – supporting a highly talented group of people caring for the poorest of the poor. And at the same time, I am able to reach out – often merely with my hand – and show much needed love and acceptance to those whom their society has ridiculed and cast out for so long.

 

This morning, I brought Safi – a patient with a large tumour on his left jaw, to the ship for X-rays. Later in the afternoon I saw him again – smiling much more than in the morning as he looked for reassurance before entering this great white ship in the dock. Itwas so wonderful to have been able to touch one person’s life, albeit in a tiny way, and share some of God’s love for them.

We would like to thank you for praying with us concerning the Africa Mercy Project. . . . This has been a challenging and difficult time for us as a crew and we recognise the enemy’s attempts to stop this ship ever sailing. . . . Work has continued and 7 October saw the Africa Mercy finally refloated after 15 months in dry dock.

I continue to work in the prison and police station weekly where we see men respond to the Gospel most weeks. Discipleship and follow-up are a concern to me. There is no facility for the youth in the prison systems here, and some as young as 15 are locked up for months on remand. There is a great opportunity in this aspect. I met a Chinese girl in the prison and was able to link her with a Chinese church here forvisits. This led us to helping the struggling church and motivated Susanna to learn some Mandarin. There are many from Mainland China that come here to work in the sweatshops. I have been helping with an evangelism class at a Bible College here in Managua. . . . We are thankful to you who pray for us. We have a sense of God’s protection and leading in our situation. . . . Sorry it takes so long to write at times, the heat takes its toll and zaps energy.

Holiday Bible Club . . . All very keen and full of enthusiasm.

 

The work in “24th October” which is the area of outreach that I am responsible for . . . at the momentwe are having outreach specials.

 

Youth Group has been a real source of encouragement and they are a very faithful friendly group from 14 – 28 years. They have been studying the book of James.

Thankyou so much for praying for us this year. We do thank God for you daily. This has been a special year in so many ways. Last evening at the united Pastors’ Meal Marion was able to testify to God’s faithfulness as it was exactly 40 years since she sailed from Britain to the foreign mission field. We thank the Lord for his faithfulness. Through all the years God has been faithful, our hearts are filled with praise to Him. We really thank God for you who have prayed and we trust Him for strength to do His Will in the days ahead for His Glory.

 

Evangelism... Praise the Lord we have received 100,000 Gospels of John.

 

Schools... Praise the Lord Aart has been able to get into several high schools and has had good reactions. One student has asked for a Bible Study. This is the first time... .

Nurses... Christian nurses represent Christ Jesus in difficult sometimes dangerous situations They need your prayer to make an impact for Christ in a world that doesn’t know Him and needs Him.

 

The Launch of the Primary Health Care Course – the course will empower a non-medical person to integrate gospel truths with health care teaching using imaginative and exciting methods, bring fun, health and hope. Many medical professionals find this school ‘a must’, if they are to translate their skills in a cross-cultural setting. … It is important to meet the medical needs of poor communities as well as sharing the gospel with them. . . . our prayer is that all DTS teams going on outreach will have some initial health care awareness training. Opportunities abound to run the school in other parts of the world.

 

Thank you so much for all your help this last year. We are truly grateful for all your hard work. Your faithfulness in your ministry is wonderful and an inspiration to us. We worked out that the tax relief you passed on to us was over £____ this last year.

 

We would like to encourage you to continue in your ministry. The letters you send are a blessing too. All our love to you and God’s richest blessings.