These are two pictures of me with the Baby Bible class, where we have kids from 1 year old till 3 years old. We sing with them kids worship songs and have a time of Bible lesson...it is very cute to see these little children holding the Bible in their hands...The second picture is with the lady from our Women's ministry Bible studies...her name is Christine and she just received the Lord...it was very encouraging because she was the one who came to me and asked to pray with her because she wanted to be saved...It does not happen very often...usually people are already saved or they think so...but the most times when you share the Gospel they just want you to leave them alone...which is very sad... so, praise the Lord for another sister in Christ!
Here are some more pictures of the hard work of our crew. John, Mike, Eric, Heath, Rob, Bob and Ed have been blazing a trail. These guys are such a blessing! They all volunteered to come and work and train. They have made the work a lot of fun! It’s very hot but no one is distracted by the heat, they are here to serve God and nothing is going to stop them! We now have new windows in the staff quarters, ceiling fans that will run on solar power, and a new gate! Tomorrow Ed will go with James to a forward operations base for an outreach. Please pray God will use them to win souls and to encourage our chaplains. The rest of the team will be installing windows in our resource library and working on the front fence. By the time they go back on Thursday this place will feel like its brand new….please keep praying for them.
Austin Priest has been using his artistic gifts to brighten up the entire compound! Look at the murals he drew and painted for the children. I wish you could see the delight on their faces as they come up and trace the animals with their figures. The Sudanese describe their smiles like this, “All the teeth came out!”
Just one more way we can bring the message of Jesus to Africa……
In 2000, while the first class of graduated chaplains awaited commissioning they built a large round sitting room. They wanted every class of students to have a comfortable place to fellowship that was made by those who have gone ahead. It has served well for the last ten years! Austin Priest has been painting the chaplain beret patches around the outside and inside of the structure…come and take a look….he is an amazing artist! Thank you God for bringing him at just the right time to help us!
This last Sunday, Calvary Chapel Nimule held a baptism in the Nile River! Pastor James Olal and Ed Gauntt (FRM Operations Officer) had the honor of baptizing these young converts. The choir, all dressed in yellow t-shirts, came along and stood at the river bank singing worship songs. It was a wonderful celebration of new life in Christ!
The Sudanese people are incredibly resourceful. Watching them build homes and other structures show how well they know the natural resources God has given them. Homes are made of wooden poles and mud, then the roof is fitted using bamboos and grass. These sturdy homes are cool in the long hot dry season and do a great job keeping the rain out! When we constructed our Sunday school rooms back in 2003 we chose grass for roofing. It is much cooler, considering our classrooms hold about 100 kids every Sunday. It also is easier for the kids to hear the teacher if it rains. This year we had to replace the grass. I thought you might like to see the stages…
The compound work kicked up a notch today as we welcomed 3 new servants! John, Mike and Bob are here to help install the new windows. Last night it rained for several hours! It was awesome to see God answering our prayers for cooler weather to help these guys as they work! Please keep praying!
After 11 years in the hot Sudan sun, the compound is in need of some work. God has brought us a team from the USA to help. Ed Gauntt, US Operations Officer is heading the team. We are painting all the buildings white with a olive stripe at the base of the buildings. It’s a group effort and the chaplains are having fun joining hands with Ed and Chuck Banks. Austin Priest has been attending bible College in Nairobi, but took time to come and help us. He is an amazing artist. He is painting a Noah’s Ark scene on one of our Sunday School buildings. He promised to paint a nativity scene – complete with wise men on camels – on the other. Lastly, Austin will be painting a Dove in our church sanctuary and chaplain logos on the round training room. Please pray God gives Austin extra strength for this task. It’s a HUGE blessing to us!
We have a team coming in to replace our windows and do work on the brick fencing next week. We covet your prayers for a break in the heat. It can be so hot this time of year – dry heat over 100 most days. Please pray the men will have perfect temperatures and all the work can be done without stress. It’s a big job and we need as many prayers as you can spare. Thanks and God bless you….I hope some of you will come and see the beauty of this work for yourself!
We started a tailoring class on how to make wrap skirts with the ladies who went through a tailoring class in our church two years ago. We have four more ladies who joined us in this training program. Please pray for their ability to learn how to be accurate, patient with the tasks. Many of them don’t have any job, so this project is their only way to get some money to provide for their families. I am so blessed by this ministry. We get together on Wednesdays, study the book of Ephesians, share devotions, pray for one another and have a great time of fellowship.
First and foremost, we want to thank our Lord for so many of you who responded to our last update with such love and encouragement. We are most blessed. Also we want to thank our in-country director, Diana, who has worked tirelessly trying to help us solve this horrible conflict we have been going through. And we also want to Praise God for Far Reaching Ministries who embraced us and stood beside us as we struggled with our heart breaks and shock.
For the last several weeks as the ‘smoke has cleared’, the truth has begun to be uncovered. The worst part has been the deceit that the village has experienced. There is still confusion and anger among many, but we are slowly working to win them back to the truth.
We would like to ask you all to please be in prayer tomorrow, Wed. January 27th. There will be a mediation meeting with the village and the Officials from the District government, and SoG. The purpose of this meeting is to find out what had been told to them by Clayton and to correct the misinformation and confusion that has resulted from that.
Again and again the Lord is revealing to us that this is His battle and we are to stand firm and walk in the Spirit. We are to have forgiveness and mercy but also wisdom and discernment.
Thank you for your prayers and your love.
In Jesus’ Name,
Keith and Lisa
Here in China, change seems to be the only constant. We meet and welcome people into our extended family, live with them for a short time and then they move on. Interns finish their terms and head out in new directions. Kristin, graduated last July, called today and told us that in pursuit of the call she had accepted a job in Shanghai. Foreign helpers come as called and, boss willing, leave under the same direction. Shannon came in from Utah, managing to endure the abuse Trudy and I heaped upon her, spent a good 3 months with us and headed home last week. She will be marrying soon and we wish her and her future husband all the best. My own children, since leaving the nest, have made it back from time to time to visit and to answer the call on their lives. Barbara is here and in a few months will wrap up more than year and a half of good work. We are already missing her. This past week, Greg, Alice and Morgana inflicted the most recent wound. They packed up and went to Italy.
We met Alice while she was a student at the local university in September 2006. A very vocal atheist, she had come to China from Italy to escape having to deal with the church or God. Good plan but other plans were in the works. She and Greg began to hang out and in June of 2006 she was dunked and an OFH intern. Shortly thereafter, Greg left us for the US and a year at CCBC. Alice very nearly finished her final term at OFH but the Sichuan earthquake interrupted things.
The Sichuan quake also brought Greg back to China. Most of the OFH interns and staff responded to the quake by going to the area to coordinate and deliver relief supplies to the victims. Greg joined us almost immediately and began to coordinate a team of volunteers that essentially lived in the camps in order to maintain and build the relationships that allowed them to work with kids and their families. Their efforts allowed us to lead hundreds of children through the Operation Safe Camps. Alice was on that team and a relationship that had been born in Alice’s struggle to faith blossomed into a wedding engagement. Greg and Alice came home to our end of China from Sichuan long enough to get married on December 30, 2008, honeymoon in Thailand and head back to Sichuan to pick up their work where they left off. Three months ago, Morgana Shalom Espinoza, weighing in at 3.8 kilos, joined their staff.
Please keep the kids lifted as they head for Italy and a stint at the CCBC campus in Monte Belluna. Their hard work and dedication has been an example to everyone that has come in contact with them. There is no denying the fruit that the vine dresser has coaxed from their lives. Their desire is to be back here in as little as a couple years to provide foster care for orphans and work with women coming out of prostitution. Trudy and I are hoping to see them back on staff here as they pursue that end. We’ll have to see how the boss works that out between now and then.
In the vine,
Tim
With a little help from a friend, Greg is delivering book bags for 600 students that have lost everything they owned to the quake.
As Greg looks on, Alice marking her new life, July 8, 2006.
The best day of Greg's life prior to Morgana.
Morgana's big day with Grandma Trudy looking on.
Alice and Rachel teaching kids at the Cha Ping Refugee Camp
