Greetings!

Things are going great here. The churches are doing well. Everybody seems to be peaceful. No drama that I know of. We are growing again, slowly. We are seeing visitors. People are getting saved and baptized. After all the ruckus last year, it is refreshing to get a period of time without issues. Of course now that I said something, I have probably jinxed it, but I try not to be superstitious. Please continue to pray for our churches, our leadership, and for souls to be saved and then to grow as Christians.

I am preaching through Ephesians, as this book deals directly with confronting spiritual darkness. We have a lot of that in the refugee camp. Every week when we prepare to go out there, we can feel it – the opposition of the Enemy. I am trying to teach these people to reject the power of the Enemy, and to recognize the truth. The Enemy has little power apart from his ability to deceive and to tempt. He has nothing like the power that the numerous witches and other “traditional healers” claim. If you no longer believe the lies, it is much harder for him to disturb you. We have to stand in our identity as Christians, with all that entails. It is, however, difficult to get a superstitious and fearful people to change their minds. Pray for them to see the power of God in their lives, and to then stand in the truth, with courage.

Thank you to everyone who sent money to help with the repairs out at Sangano IBC. The toilet there was wholly inadequate to their needs, and has become dangerous to use. Enough money came in that we were able to begin construction on TWO new toilets, with sufficient capacity for years to come. We still need much more to finish all the other repairs, but this met the most immediate and serious need. Thank you very much!

Also, money came in to put tires and shocks on our car, known affectionately as The Beast. The Beast has had its rims shod with the preparation of the steel belted radials of Pirelli. And the new shocks have made it so we don’t get quite so seasick driving in the camp. The roads there are very bad, worst I’ve seen in years, so the new shocks are helping a lot. Plus we repaired a bunch of other little things that needed repair. Thank you for the help!

God bless and keep you!

Good morning folks! I hope America is finally beginning to thaw somewhat (sorry Alaska). We have just exited a particularly hot dry season and are finally getting occasional rain, which is good for our refugees, who depend on God sending the rain to water their crops. Pray we get a good harvest this season. Good harvests mean good food, and good food means healthier people.

Our study of Congolese Swahili is progressing. Fortunately, Swahili has two big advantages. First, it is not tonal (thank the LORD!). Second, it has a predictable grammar. Once you learn the code, assembling sentences is pretty straightforward. We are making rudimentary sentences and trying not to sound like toddlers while doing it. Pray for our brains to be able to learn this language and speak it. I want to be preaching in Swahili as soon as possible.

Pray for our churches. The challenges and dangers inherent in being refugees remain the same. It remains to be seen how the recent blessed change in administration will affect our people. All emigration to the US has stopped, and a lot of foreign aid is likely going away. This will not affect our people much, as the only people benefitting from that aid were the corrupt Ugandan officials running the camp, and their counterparts in the United Nations. Under Biden, Uganda had enacted a policy that suspended rations for longterm refugees in an effort to force them to repatriate, regardless of the security situation in their home country. Our people are still struggling with that. Just a reminder, anytime you want to send money to buy food or medicine, it will be welcome and useful.

Pray for me. My younger brother Joel died two weeks ago. I loved my brother very much. It was upsetting when he drifted away from the rest of the family and made some poor choices that destroyed his health so he died at 46. I am still bearing the grief from it. It is one of the hard realities of being here. As much as we enjoy laboring in the Lord’s harvest, it does separate us physically from family. Times like this bring that reality home very painfully. Pray for my Mom and Dad, Jim and Sue, and my brother and sister, John and Sarah.

The Sangano church building and grounds still need to be rebuilt or refurbished. While expensive by the standards here, it is very cheap compared to what buildings in America cost. Please pray about assisting with this. Our people need Congolese Swahili Bibles, which we can only buy in Congo and have them shipped here by bus. They can use more Rwandan Bibles also, which we can buy from the Bible Society here in town when they have them. We’ve been able to get enough Bibles for all of our church leaders, but many of the other people need them, too.

I need to replace the shocks and tires on our LandCruiser, which our children dubbed The Beast. The road to church is very bad. They’ve held up well, but are hanging on by a thread.

As always, pray for the churches, for the preaching, for souls to be saved, and for the power of Satan to be rebuked and restrained as we confront the darkness with truth.

God bless you!