Dan's Trip

Dan's trip to the church plant works in the West was very  encoura-ging.  He enjoyed seeing the works, spending time with the Christians, encouraging, and being encouraged.  The works are based out of the bigger village of Zouan-Hounien.  He was able to visit all eight of the smaller village works, one each morning from Monday through Thursday, and one each afternoon.  The roads were all dirt and mud between the villages. On Wednesday night, it rained quite a bit and made the mud impossible to drive through on Thursday. They had to walk about a mile to the first village, and then another mile and a half to get to the last village. Because of the slippery mud, a woman who came with us from the Zouan-Hounien church slipped and dislocated one bone in her wrist and broke the other one. She continued on to the meeting, walked on to the last village for another meeting and then sat through that one, before having her wrist set by the village "doctor."  She didn't get any pain medicine for this….everyone heard the screams.  

Dan taught "The Exchange" booklet to the church people and taught the leaders both Fridays, Saturday and each evening from 8 until 10 p.m.  He also spent time talking with the leaders and helping to solve problems.  On Sunday, 25 people were baptized, and during the week at the different villages, 25 people made professions of faith.  It is definitely "roughing it" in village life.  The people enjoyed having Dan there and treated him like royalty.  

  Pray for God to open their eyes so they can see. There are so many superstitions and mixed-up beliefs, even among the intelligent.  The devil has blinded their eyes.  There will be a video on our blog of a woman who was in a church that claims to be the Israel of the Bible and the actual land where Jesus walked.  They teach that women have to always have their heads covered with a white cloth (one of many false ideas).  They have pagan worship mixed in with Bible stories.  Anyway, she got saved and came and burned her white headscarf in front of the group to show her complete change of life.

  One encouraging testimony to us was that one of the young men, who is very well-grounded in the Scripture, used to be in Joan's Sunday school class here in San Pedro.  At first, he came just for the candy, free bread and prizes, then got saved and is now one of the stronger Christian leaders.  We just need to be faithful giving out the Word. We WILL reap if we faint not, and we will reap IN A DIFFERENT season.  The secret is to NOT quit.

  Thanks for all your prayers.  Keep praying for these baby churches to grow.  The ministry is the Lord's.  He has said, "I WILL BUILD MY church."  What a wonderful message and promise if you read that verse with the emphasis on a different word each time.  Jesus is doing the building and it is His church.  

Thanks for those who have given to help with these works.  We presently have four village works needing roofing ($350 each) and six works needing cement ($410 each).  We also need to buy two more bikes for evangelism ($100 each), need to repair Pastor Konan's motorcycle ($85), need to buy land in a village ($50), and need $250 to continue the evangelism.  Please pray for these needs to come in.  We do have a special projects fund in the mission, if any of you would like to help out.  Thanks so much for your continued prayers!