November 2013
A group of six men from Ambassador Baptist Church in MI was just here to help out and encourage us. Pastor Elwart preached and preached - Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday again (all of Dan's times). Dan did the translating. Pastor also did an all-day seminar in the village on future events. Each of the men gave his testimony. They really encouraged us and the people. They seemed to enjoy Africa and also the ministry. One in the group is an artist. He traced and everyone helped paint a mural for the church, which was a huge project. Three pieces of plywood had to be prepped, framed and painted. Then Erik traced the scene (three 8-feet-tall pieces): the manger scene, Calvary and the Resurrection. We will put it at the church as a way to display the Gospel (John 3:16). Our church is called Evangel Baptist Church and exists to get the Gospel out, search and rescue.
We also took the team to the beach here and also a day to Grand Bereby, a beautiful bay not far from here. Though the day was overcast, the water was very warm, and no one got sunburned. Susanna even came home with some exotic ocean frog fish for her ocean aquarium that Erik helped her set up. The kids have been having fun going to the beach, catching minnows and watching the frog fish eat them—not my kind of
So you see it was a busy week—preaching,
The day before they left, they got to experience a new monkey; someone brought him to the gate to sell. He is tiny. Our whole house gets happy when we get a new little pet. I think the men enjoyed, at least a little bit, living in the zoo.
On Friday Dan took the team to Abidjan, and now they are back home. Thanks for all your prayers for us. We are so thankful that God has called us to serve Him here, and are thankful for your part in keeping us in this ministry.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! May God bless you.
Love in Christ,
Dan and Joan, Lydia, Susanna, Isaiah, Stephen, Rebekah, Josiah, Joseph, Esther, Gideon (Ruth Marie, Hannah, and Seth in Bible college)
September 2013
Dan and I were talking a bit about the annoyances of the monkey. I said, "How many people get to look out their window and see a monkey in the yard? How many kids get to look over and see a genet cat sleeping next to them?"
Dan said, "How many people have a horse walking around the driveway, or how many people get to have twelve kids?" God has blessed us so abundantly. I really like that verse, "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox." (Proverbs 14:4) When you are tempted to complain about the mess or the work, just count your blessings, and you will turn that session into a worship service.
I was able to deliver another baby and all went super smoothly. The mother and baby are fine. She came at 4 a.m., banging on the gate in labor and delivered at 4:45 a.m. That means I got a good night's sleep and did not have to wait too long for the excitement to start; that is how it is from a midwife's viewpoint (smile).
The seven young adults from the States have come and gone. It was fun having them. I pray that God worked in each of their lives to bring them closer to Him. Activities were lots of cooking (they brought our number up to nineteen), painting the halls, painting the den, going to the beach on Mondays, cleaning, laundry, painting the trim, painting the woodwork, passing out boxes and boxes of tracts, witnessing, going to the village twice a week, seeing a baptism in the village, good food and fun, reading time every night, trips to the market, seeing and smelling fish and dried fish--you have to experience that to get the full picture, Bible preaching every day at 1 p.m., going to the port, looking for shells, going on a picnic to another beach an hour from here that has a kayak, sleeping in the village--real roughing it in the bush in Africa, experiencing water off and electricity off (a few even slept after only rinsing in ocean water--not me), and participating and helping in a three-day basketball camp--get the kids in and preach the Gospel. Our friends, the Kings, organized and led that. So, they had their time filled just living life along with us here in San Pedro.
Dan continues to teach Bible school every Sunday afternoon from 1:30-4:00 p.m. We have three villages in a row that we are working with-teaching, with the goal of having leaders. I also teach the ladies every week in a different village. At least, I can teach the same lessons. The problem is that sometimes I forget where I am with "this group." We love teaching and preaching, only our bodies get tired sometimes. Thanks for all your prayers for us. A boy got saved last week—one-on-one. I stopped the car so he could pray with me.
Dan and Seth baptized 21 on the first Sunday of August. It is so great to see the growth in these people's lives. It was a hectic day from 7:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.--that is how our Sundays go.
This month, I went to a ladies' retreat at our church down the hill at Baptiste Biblique. It was great to get with ladies who really want to know God's Word. They had organized the retreat--the theme, food, speakers, everything; and I am really proud of them. The theme was "Deliverance." This city and culture are steeped in Pentecostal teaching, and they wanted to know what the Bible teaches about deliverance, casting out demons, etc. I also wanted to cement my thoughts and find out "where" the Bible teaches this or that on the subject. It was a good time of learning, sharing, food and fellowship.
Our ladies' picnic at the beach went well on the Saturday after the retreat; it was one busy week. Though the day started with rain, it cleared up and we had a good turnout.
Our church school is growing, and Dan is building another room at the church. He is adding on a class and also another room for Sunday school. The great, challenging news is that I will be teaching Bible to the school kids every day at 7:30 a.m. I never want to lose sight of the goal of search and rescue. God is searching for us to rescue us from our sin and misery (wow!). "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Our own school has also started. We have eight kids in school this year, if you don't count Gideon, who comes anyway. He is so cute and is learning the basics of kindergarten.
I know this letter is a scant summary of the month. It would be way too long if I wrote all the details. Thanks for praying for us!!
May God bless you as you live in obedience to Him.
Love in Christ,
Dan and Joan, Ruth Marie, Hannah and Seth in college, Lydia, Susanna, Isaiah, Stephen, Rebekah, Josiah, Joseph, Esther, and Gideon
I was planning to write to you before my trip to Liberia for a delivery for friends there. Just today, I found out that the mother Sara had delivered last night! Wow! Praise the Lord all is well. Sara and their son (seven-pound Noah) are both fine. It was a nice, "easy," quick, uncomplicated, exciting birth. Thank you for your prayers for her. Now that my services are not needed, we are trying to get a refund on the ticket. Please pray that it will work out.
This has been an encouraging month. Our attendance has been better, despite all the rain. We have had outreaches due to a member of our church who died. He was a faithful man with a fruitful life. His wife is also a member, so Dan had a lot to do with the services and burial--a more Christian funeral, as opposed to the pagan way of weeping and wailing. She has been a good testimony through it all. Here, the funerals are like the old-time wakes--you sit up with the dead. It started at 9 p.m. outside under tents. Hannah, Max, Seth and I were in the crowd passing out tracts and witnessing on the street. We also had to make sure that all those seated received tracts and booklets of John and Romans, with the plan of salvation on the back. If we missed anyone, someone would come to one of us and tell us (wanting us to come to their section). We stayed from 9:30-11 p.m. both Saturday and Friday nights. The "wake" went on for a week. Dan preached and also did the graveside service on the next Saturday morning. God held off the rain for the morning service, although it was pouring again on the drive over. There were probably around 300 there on the first Saturday and 600 on Friday night. Salvation was clearly presented. People listened and all received the tracts. Pray for all those who heard. We will never know of the fruit until we get to heaven. This was all a very different experience for Max (the young man who is here visiting). Imagine using a funeral as an evangelistic outreach.
The rain has fallen for four days and nights straight. Our new wall has a crack in it and is very bowed out. I have been praying that it will not fall down. Like in the day of Noah, God is in control of the storm, and He is also in control of the wall (the ark). The ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic was built by professionals (smile). I read that somewhere. The rain makes a good illustration of the story of Noah, which I am teaching right now. The sun, when it is out, is very hot; that makes a good illustration of hell--the fires that burn and burn and never go out. Women here make a fire every day to cook over; the sun is flames put in motion by God. Every time there is an earthquake, a hurricane, etc., it is showing just a drop of the awesome power of God.
The rain has not stopped our normal church activities. Dan teaches in the village every Sunday afternoon from 1:30-4:30 p.m. It takes us 30 minutes to get there. A while back, there was only one main bad hole in this spot with a stick in it. Now, there are two--with just enough space to go through in the middle of them. You have to know where that hole is and not come upon it suddenly. Continually pray for our safety.
Dan started with six students who registered for Bible school class and now has 21. It encourages us to see people wanting to learn. We are willing to teach, and we need people who are disciples who want to learn and take the time and effort necessary to study. It has to start in the heart.
During this time on Sunday afternoons, I go teach the ladies. Three villages are lined up some miles apart. Every week, I go to a different village. Again, the ladies are eager to learn. They requested that I come, they line up the meeting and I get to go "preach."
Pray for all these who have heard. Pray for the tract ministry. There is not the plethora of reading materials here as in America, so people like to receive tracts and read them. It is God Who has to open their understanding, and His Spirit who has to convict of sin. Pray for people to understand and be saved.
Love in Christ,
Dan and Joan, Ruth Marie, Hannah, Seth, Lydia, Susanna, Isaiah, Stephen, Rebekah, Josiah, Joseph, Esther, and Gideon
My last letter was about family news, and since there are a lot of us, it is hard to keep my letters short. A very quick update on the kids: Ruth and Seth are finishing their first semester at Ambassador Baptist College. They have done well and really like the school. Ruth just started working at a birthing center in South Carolina and is making plans to travel to Thailand to perform a delivery this summer, and maybe have an opportunity to spend some time in the Philippines. The missionaries who requested that she come will pay for the Thailand trip. What a blessing to be able to help people and also be doing what you love to do. Seth is planning to come help us for the summer. There is so much to be done in the ministry here, and we are looking forward to his coming. Hannah continues to work at the hospital here, learning new things and observing various surgeries. Her camera was stolen recently. Here, they want to cover up corruption. It's no wonder the country will not progress. Pray that I will have a chance to witness through this situation out of love and not out of the hate I have for the corruption. I think she will soon stop working there. It is difficult to see corruption day after day and not be able to do anything about it.
The church ministries both here in Lac and in Petit Pedro are going great. The people are growing--even though it is slowly. Baby steps are better than no steps at all. At another village near Petit Pedro, there was a church where the people and the man leading them were completely untaught. Dan has had a bit of contact with this man, and he has wanted Dan to teach him. Then he wanted his group to join our group. To make the story short, the two groups are joined, and Dan is trying to lead them all. It is a lot of work, and there is no one trained and available to help. This is where Seth used to preach every week. Majorus, a saved and baptized member of our church, is leading the ministry there on Sundays. Dan prepares his own message in French, and then gives a copy to Majorus to teach out in the village. The increase in church attendance has been encouraging.
Meanwhile, Dan has been teaching five men the Bible school every Sunday afternoon from 1-4 p.m. Last month, men from those two villages wanted to join. The class has gone from five men up to twenty. We praise the Lord and are encouraged by men wanting to learn the Bible. The women of the two villages are trying to figure out a time when I can go teach them. Now Dan gets home around 6:30. Maybe I will go teach the ladies during that same time.
When Seth is home this summer, he can help a lot with the preaching. Majorus is at the end of high school, although he is in his 20s, and needs to study for his end-of-the-year exams. With Seth here, we could plan some overnight trips into the village, teach health, and do more preaching and witnessing.
On Thursday, I went to visit a lady. That sentence alone leaves me wondering how to make this short without leaving out all the glory of God. Some visitors came to see Fatiha, so I was thinking, "Good, I will be able to get home early." I stopped to dump the trash on the way home. A well-dressed, white-haired man jogged up to me and stopped to talk. We talked for at least an hour, and he prayed to get saved right there by the trash dump. What an unexpected joy. I left the house tired, not really wanting to go visit the lady, but "needed" to. I had thoughts of going home a different way, but since I had the trash to throw out, I went by the dump. Do you see all the little details of God's hand in that--the feeling to go, the lady's visitors cutting that time short, and being by the dump at just the time when the man came? Wow. By the way, the man was one Seth had witnessed to before. Some plant, some water and some get to pick the fruit. How sweet it is.
Thank you for your prayers for us and for our kids. God keeps us healthy and joyful and able to serve Him. Please keep praying for faithfulness in us and in the people at church, for our health, and for safety in all the traveling Ruth and Seth will do. May God bless you.
Love in Christ,
Dan and Joan, Ruth and Seth at Ambassador Baptist College, Hannah, Lydia, Susanna, Isaiah, Stephen, Rebekah, Josiah, Joseph, Esther, and Gideon
I know I just wrote last month, but as always, there are so many new developments happening all the time. The first huge surprise is that when Dan came home he brought Hannah with him. Dan was in the States to settle the three older kids in college. Ruth and Seth are at Ambassador Baptist College and are doing well. They are still looking for jobs.
Meanwhile, Hannah decided to come home for a while until August, and serve the Lord here with us. This truly does my heart good. It was a huge surprise. I knew the week before because of the ticket information that came back to my computer (smile). I was reading along and said, "Hey, what is this? A ticket for Hannah?" It has been pretty fun to watch everyone else though, who did not know she was coming. We are all enjoying having her home, for sure!!!
We have gone to several offices, and Hannah is cleared to work at the big hospital here for five months doing a practicum. In each office, we witnessed and gave out tracts--wow, it was great! In the first office, we waited for two hours--no time wasted there. Hannah said we were out on evangelism for two hours. Yes, God had us there for a purpose.
Today was Hannah's first day of work, 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. I stopped in at lunch to take her some food and she had already seen a C-section, and is lined up to do a delivery this afternoon. She looks so pretty in her pink, pin-striped lab coat. What a witness and testimony she can be there. As I was coming home, I was just praising God for this opportunity for her and for the good choices made in the past that enabled her to be able to do this; like learning to speak French (her French is better than mine). Also, I was thanking God that, with all my "run-ins" with the hospital, I never lost my testimony or my friends there. Decisions today determine what you will be tomorrow. We are already seeing so great a need. I had written a long paragraph. I'll just say, things here are done way different than we would do them.
After a month, we will go back to that first office and find out what we need to do to get her Ivorian midwifery license. She is here learning and laying a groundwork for a potential future maternity center in a village. God doesn't lay out the whole plan for our lives. He wants us to make right choices as He opens doors of opportunity. It is the waiting that is so hard sometimes. Keep praying for Ruth, Hannah and Seth in these new phases of their lives. Prayer is an exercise in waiting. When we pray and don't get an answer right away, we want to give up or get discouraged. Remember that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. So, pray and wait.
We are all fine. During the holidays, the flu struck hard. I was happy to be losing weight (smile), and happy when all the kids got better. There is a great spirit at church. I am happy to have Dan back and in charge of all that. Speaking of which, the wall that fell down is rebuilt. There is only about 1-2 weeks' worth of work left on that project for it to be finished. Work projects do not move fast in Africa; it is the money that flows fast everywhere.
Thanks for your prayers! We do so appreciate you.
Love in Christ,
