Thanks so much for praying!

Ethan Champlin family arrived safely! We were so happy to see Ethan and Kim and six of the eight children arrive safely back in Suriname Friday night. The older two boys are a junior and freshman at Ambassador Baptist College. They were accompanied by four puppies which will later be used for breeding - two large German shepherds and two Huskies. The girls will sell their puppies to help defray their college expenses. Some of the puppies from the USA were donated. They were happy to be back home; we saw them Saturday morning, and then they headed back to Moengo after lunch completing a loooong seven month furlough.

Andoe Kampoe: We went twice this week. Zr. Mowka asked us to come address a Bible study group on Thursday, and I spoke on prayer. We were delighted to see seven adults and two teenage girls present. One lady trusted the Lord after I gave a lesson on prayer. The ladies now meet on Thursdays to study the Bible and pray together.

Then Sunday afternoon we went again. Kalow Palata led the service and I preached on Genesis 1-2. I want to give some solid background understanding of some of the basics. I plan to preach on the fall of man in Genesis 3 when my turn comes again in 4 weeks. We had about 40 persons, but fewer “loose children” without parental supervision. If I am correct, there were 10 adult ladies and 2-3 teenage girls. I spoke to one lady who had come for the first service but not since. The Lord opened her heart, and she was ready to trust Christ as savior today. We plan to continue every other week, and I am praying that there will be enough offering to run a bus once a month to the Sunday morning service when we do not have a service there. Zr. Mowka asked us to come back to the ladies meeting. I told her that we would consider once a month, but that it was her program. We did not want to “take over” her ladies group but to support her iniative. So we see the Lord beginning to work. We pray for more teenagers but especially a few men.

The persecuted church: Winston Zeeman, the senior pastor of the Winti Wai church, has been concerned about the persecuted church. We have discussed it several times. At his request, Wednesday night I brought a DVD produced by Open Doors Ministry, a ministry of Brother Andrew to help those under persecution. Fred and Joan Hubele, good friends in the USA, had allowed us to bring two DVDs that they had shown us at their home. Bamboo in Winter is a vivid dramatic portrayal of the problems facing the underground church in China under communism. I was shocked to see about 60 persons attend (normal Sunday morning attendance is 90+, and we do not run transportation there on Wednesday night). We plan to show the other DVD in the days to come, as well as an hour-long presentation that I have made of various problems from various countries. Brother Winston hopes that eventually the church will begin to send a monthly offering to ministries meeting the needs of the persecuted church.

Thanks for praying for Kalow Palata. Remember that he was injured by other soldiers while in the Army, and he was left permanently handicapped. The payback for Kalow Palata is complex. The government does not pay directly, but goes to various businesses who owe them money and gets the payment from them - as I understand the process. When Kalow went, most of the people were told that their decisions were postponed until October. He was so disappointed. But the judge called him personally aside, and promised to have his decision completed in February, I believe on the 15th. So many thanks for your prayers thus far, and we will ask your continued prayers for a successful completion of his payback.

Prayer requests:

1. Strength and health for the task
2. Our own spiritual growth
3. Safety on the road
4. Independence of the four churches
5. One special problem which I cannot outline at this time
6. Andoe Kampoe
7. Sunny Point building completion
8. Unity and growth within the churches