We continue to covet your prayers. We had a great second week at Baptist College of Ministry. Unfortunately the weather turned cold, but otherwise the week was a great blessing. I had the opportunity to present two chapel sessions on spiritual warfare in addition to the one the first week. I also had the privilege of preaching last Wednesday night at Falls Baptist Church, which seemed to go very well.

We had a total of 31 hours of teaching missions over the two weeks. One thing we did which was new was to have the students discuss six scenarios of various challenges which have faced us over the years on the mission field. I was impressed with the depth of thought which the students displayed in confronting the problems. We had a good time, and I am pleased that the students had a good time too. We were sorry to depart in the sense that we felt that we were leaving some good friends behind.

However, we had a good trip to Crown. We left Wisconsin about 2 pm and drove about 450miles before stopping overnight. We drove the other 5 hours the following day. We are in a guest house on the grounds of the church. We very much enjoyed the church services yesterday, and I taught my first class today. I also had the privilege of teaching the International class in Sunday school. It is always a challenge. In addition to college students and faculty, there are international students from outside the college, some who know English well, some who do not. We met three Liberians there in the class. So it is fifteen minutes of teaching which you trust will be simple enough to be understood but profound enough to impact lives. This year I spoke briefly on John 15:1-8, using some of our planting illustrations both from the USA and Suriname. I also spoke briefly in the Missionary Prayer Band ministry asking for prayer for us as well as missionaries to be raised up. I will be teaching a number of classes over the next two weeks, and am scheduled to preach in chapel next Monday. We would appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s blessing as we seek to do His will.

The Bijbel na ini Sranantongo is basically ready to go. We are waiting for some labels to become available for the covers. I also was able to order a power amplifier-mixer and speakers for the Sunny Point church which we plan to ship with the Bibles as soon as everything arrives. We would also appreciate your prayers for the New Testament Commentaries being printed by First Bible International. They have experienced some technical problems which are delaying the last part of the printing process, but we anticipate that they will be completed in the near future. Please pray for them to arrive safely as well as the Bibles, and that they will prove a blessing to many and be used.

I have been especially burdened to see the Lord raise up more missionaries in three areas of missions: (1) The unreached - half the world have yet to hear the gospel. 6900 people groups are unreached! (2) The untaught - only 457 languages of 6900 languages have the complete Bible in their own language. 1200 have the New Testament. And over 2000 have not a single word in their mother tongue - some in language groups of more than 5,000,000 people. (3) The persecuted. Approximately 480 persons are martyred for Christ daily! There are more Christian martyrs every week than died in the 9/11 attack! Many persons fall into all three categories. Please join us in asking the Lord to raise up workers to correct these great needs!

Prayer requests

1. Our personal spiritual growth
2. Health and strength for the work
3. Safety on the road
4. God’s blessing on the lessons
5. The Lord raising up an army of missionaries in the future - especially to reach the unreached, the untaught, and the persecuted.
6. Our faithfulness to the task
7. Independence of our churches in Suriname
8. Completion of all the building needs at the Sunny Point church
9. Outreach in Suriname to the lost