The roof is on! After months of delay, the roof is finally on the Sunny Point building. There are a few minor things to complete, but the main work is done. Also, the rough cement floor is already completed in the entire building - done between Thursday and Saturday. They will put a smooth finish on when the ceiling is completed, as well as smoothing the cement walls of the rooms other than the main sanctuary, which is already completed. Our two next main projects are putting up the ceiling, which will be a real challenge, and completing the doors and windows. We have experienced some major cost increases and would appreciate your prayers that the Lord will provide the needed funds in His timing. The 20 benches for the church are partially completed as well. So please join us in prayer. I would really like to get the above projects completed, and then the electric lights and plumbing done prior to our mini-furlough in August. With that, we can use the building. If funds are not available at that time for painting, that can be done later.

Andoe Kampoe: We continue to faithfully soulwin and hold services. Thus far, we see a very small faithful group. We continue to pray for that group to enlarge, and to see men come into the church.

Radio update: We have been having some problems with two of our stations broadcasting our programs. In the interior, the problem was finally solved and we are back on the air. The Bush-Negro station Koyeba was repeating our programs and not keeping them in sequence. Last Thursday I went to see Kalow Palata about a special project. A car with a wheel off was parked in front of his vehicle. A lady greeted me briefly as I went in; when I came out, she asked if I was Dominee Patton. I asked her how she knew, and she recognized my voice, and worked at Koyeba. It turned out that she is exactly the person we needed to get our problem straightened out. When I called her, she said: Dominee, it is not your fault; the fault is ours. We are correcting it, and if you have any more problems, come directly to me! Thank the Lord for His goodness in allowing me to meet this lady in an unusual way.

I am also making a set of new programs available in Sranantongo. Anita Edeling, one of our ladies in church, had recorded the entire Bible in Sranantongo for me several years ago. She has a very professional speaking voice, and we have used her voice for reading the scriptures in all of our 2000 fifteen minute messages over the entire Bible. I am working on making her scripture reading without my comments available in 15 minute segments set up for broadcasts. I would appreciate your prayers for that rather time-consuming project. When we were in Liberia, they had a similar program in English which was very well received. I hope that this will be well received and prove a blessing as well. We have 30 minutes of broadcast time on Mondays, and I hope to put this program as the first segment, followed by another 15 minutes of our regular program which are nearly daily.

Important meetings coming up: As many know, we had an exodus of 9-10 people a year ago when I stepped down as senior pastor. We are seeing the possibility of reconciled relationships and would appreciate your prayers for that situation.

Our son-in-law Ethan Champlin and Kim came here yesterday. Ethan had a hernia repair today which went very well. They will be in the city this week until he is discharged and on his feet to return to Moengo. We enjoy the time with them, though not the circumstances of the surgery. Thus far Kim is doing well in her pregnancy, and we continue to pray for a healthy baby and mother.

We thank the Lord daily for the privilege of serving Him here in Suriname.

Praise items:

1. Successful surgery for Ethan Champlin
2. Progress on the building at Sunny Point

Prayer requests:

1. Strength and health for the tasks at hand
2. Our spiritual growth
3. Safety on the road
4. Independence of the 4 churches - nothing new to report this time
5. Andoe Kampoe - growth
6. Sunny Point building project and the necessary funding
7. Kim’s pregnancy
8. Approval of radio station in Moengo
9. New radio program for broadcasting