Once again, we cannot thank you enough for your prayer support that makes the ministry here in Suriname possible.

"Zo sterk ben ik!" (That's how strong I am). One week ago, I witnessed to a man with gold chains and gave him a tract. He showed that he was OK with God because he had a gold cross with a figure of Christ on it. I wanted to follow up. He waved at me as he drove home while I was doing my daily three mile walk. So I ran to him and asked if he read the tract. "Yes" he answered. Did you understand? "Oh, I understood everything perfectly. That's because I have gone to church. I am this strong". At that, he displayed his right calf with a tatoo of the head of Christ on it! I was able to show him that no church can take us to heaven, but only Christ. Then I did have a chance to go clearly through the plan of salvation after giving my personal testimony. I showed him that first, before salvation, I too trusted church attendance, baptism, and a good life (he really could not say that).

After presenting the plan of salvation, I challenged him. Have you done that? "No, I have not come so far..." Well, I told him, that is the difference between heaven and hell, between being saved and lost, and challenged him to personally receive Christ. I continue to pray for him, and that the convicting of the word of God will bring him to salvation. It is so sad to see religion immunize people against true belief.

Challenges getting to church: There are two main bridges across a canal that cuts much of Paramaribo in two. We are on one side, and all our churches on the other side. One of the bridges was found to be defective. They decided to repair it four weekends on Saturday afternoon through Sunday night. Liz and I were able to each get home in the afternoon as there were police directing traffic. We headed back to church at 10 pm for our monthly night prayer meeting. Just after getting started going to the church, we got stuck in a horrendous traffic jam. We moved only two car lengths in about 30 minutes. I found a way out of the jam and headed back home. The leader of the prayer session later had to cancel our meeting when he was unable to get there either. It had taken his wife well over an hour to get home, and it would be worse retracing his steps. I found out later that another fellow had picked up a sick father about 20 minutes farther from our church and was stuck in traffic for four hours that night.

Sunday morning, we left at 7:30 for church. Although traffic was heavier than normal, at that early hour, we arrived without difficulty. Coming out of church was a different story. A Chinese firm has been hired to repave much of the streets of the city. They had done some repairs already on the main road to the church, but this morning, while we were in church, they had moved heavy digging equipment and dug a deep hole across the front of the side street connecting the church with the main road. It looked like we were trapped. However, there was a small area that had not been dug yet. One deacon with a pickup had his left front wheel drop in the hole, and the whole truck tilted. Several young men jumped on the right rear of the truck to drop the wheel back on the ground, and others lifted up the front left and pushed back. He was able to reverse, move a little to the side (there is a gutter on the other side), and then slide by. We all followed behind him and got on the bumpy main road, and then out of the neighborhood. We were grateful to arrive home. By the following day, the entire area had been dug out, filled back with fill dirt and then with some gravel so that we were able to get back into church for our Bible Institute on Monday night.

A blessing and a big challenge: About nine months ago, I had discussed the possibility of publishing a two (or possibly three) volume set of Bible plus commentary. I had already made the commentaries several years ago when I was completing the translation work. However, nine loose-leaf volumes 8 ½ by 11 inches are not really conducive to ready use. Yesterday, I received contact from one of our supporting churches concerning printing the commentaries. Details about finances are not completed yet, but it looks like it will be financially possible. I was also concerned about not only checking the materials for accuracy and spelling, but also formatting. Today my sister-in-law Joanna Tsuyuki, who had done the layout for the Bible, offered to do all the formatting - what a huge relief. My head was already swimming thinking about learning to make DVD's with a Mac computer system later this summer. This is a tremendous blessing.

Prayer requests:

1. Our spiritual growth. I would particularly ask for prayer for seeing our own prayer life develop better. I have been working on material on prayer for the last month. The material has been working on me too!
2. Physical and mental strength for the tasks at hand
3. In our churches: unity, soulwinning, growth
4. Independence of the churches
5. Completion of the Bible Institutes - both courses finish this week except for final exams. We will resume this November on our return.
6. Commentary: That is will be useful, accurate, spiritually challenging and used if this is indeed the will of the Lord, which we believe it is. If not, may the Lord block the project.
7. Preparation for the USA mini-furlough