Life at the moment is hectic! Yes, even where we live way out in the bush, life is busy.
The teaching sessions are going very well. We praise the Lord for the eagerness of the people. As we are now in presidential election time we had to change the bible sessions to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The campaigners in our village have two days off from “campaigning” and they chose to come to the lessons on those days.
Alfred’s Yao is growing exponentially. He is managing, to mostly now, translate the lessons on his own with his language helper and the other workers checking it for the final draft. He is working very hard – gets up every day at 4:30am to work on the translation and preparation of the lessons. Please pray for him for continued energy and wisdom. We thank the Lord for this wonderful opportunity and for the people’s hunger for His Word!
We are so encouraged by the lessons themselves. Approximately 60-80 people come every week for the bible lessons. We have also had a lot of good feedback. We pray that the people will keep on coming to learn more and more.
As many of the people are illiterate, we have brought 100 Davar MP3 players from South Africa to give out, so that everyone can hear God’s word. We have put the bible files on the SD cards up to Genesis 9 as well as all of Alfred’s lessons. The plan is to keep updating the SD cards with new scripture fortnightly.
If you would like to find out more about these MP3 players here is a link http://www.davarpartners.com/
We only had one Davar player for each family, so when handing them out there was a bit of a riot as everyone wanted one which was a bit discouraging. Then as we were walking home we saw this little family all gathered around the MP3 player with God’s word playing full volume. It encouraged us so much! Even if we felt overwhelmed by the afternoon and the huge need, God’s Word went out and as He promised, it NEVER comes back empty to Him!
Our weekly schedule is now quite hectic with lessons preparations and school in the mornings. Two full afternoons devoted to lessons and one afternoon to Kids Games Club. Not to mention, seeing visitors at all hours, and helping sick people amongst everything else.
To add to this busy schedule, we have also enrolled Christiaan for an online science class. Unfortunately our internet is not good enough to handle the class at home. So we have to drive about 15km to the next big village, where we park under a tree and hook up to the internet there! It is really a great study course and he is enjoying it but the added stress has been a bit hard on me. Would you also pray for our home school – especially that I will stay focused and that the boys will finish well. We have 10 weeks of school left for this year! And please pray for better internet @home!!
We have moved to a new location since last week and it may even be the future site of the new church. It is farther from the road and dust and also other distractions. We are humbled weekly by how hungry the people are for God’s truth. They do attend other Muslim teachings at times but it is always just a lot of confusion. God’s Word is the truth and brings clarity! Please pray that they will keep having open hearts!!
The past couple of weeks have been really hard out here in the village. I think the enemy wants us to pack up and go away – leave the people in their misery and state of hopelessness. He definitely throws lots of trouble our way! We know that He who is in us is stronger than he who is against us but at times we feel really alone in this struggle and really, really tired. Please pray for us as a family! We really need the Lord’s Joy and Strength in this time!