Dear Family and Friends,
It is hard to believe how fast time flies when one is busy (or getting older). We wish to encourage each of you that your partnership in whatever manner has been effective in the ministry here in Chad. Without the love, prayers and financial support we would not be able to serve here.
Since last writing the generator that I worked on at the hospital continues to serve faithfully and they have been able to maintain normal function serving many patience both physically and spiritually.
Not too long after that repair we discovered that our own generator the supplies that print shop had sprung a leak in the fuel tank. Normally this would not have been an issue except the backup generator had a serious oil leak which prevented using it for no more than a few hours at a time, so I had to repair it first. I called the supplier but they were unwilling to help as we had bought it in England and they would not service gen-sets in Africa. The next problem was that the dealer covering our area does not handle our particular model, so… the internet to the rescue. I found a Cummins dealer online who was willing to mail parts worldwide. I referenced and ordered the part seriously praying that the NA model was the same as the British model. After a couple of weeks I received the seal and our prayers were answered and I was able to move on to the repair of the main generator set. Both are back in operation and I am left with a small leak in the cooling system to look after in the near future.
Several other projects that have been keeping me busy are the raising of the security wall that parallels the paved road in front of the property. The purpose is largely to hide things like the fuel tank from commercial traffic in hopes of preventing further theft of fuel. I have also installed several new security lights as well as repaired an old warehouse that was falling down due to a sinking foundation. One of the corners split open enough to allow easy access for small animals and wild cats. Also in the last months our satellite-internet system needed to be moved to a new physical satellite as the old one was reaching end of life. This meant re-pointing not only our own but one for the mission headquarters as well as one being used by Bibles International each several hundred km from us in opposite directions. We are very thankful to have a reliable vehicle to serve others. We are thankful the rains have finally begun with some regularity and this means an increased amount of time taking care of the grounds.
Coming up in the next months will be to meet with an engineering team in the capital to help finalize building plans for a new office block on our administrative site. Once things are finalize and finances are in place I will likely be leading the construction team there which will mean moving there for several months. We appreciate your prayers for the timing and logistics of this project and how it will affect Kathy’s ministry.
Over the past months Kathy has been teaching her ESL classes and they have gone quite well. Not only have the students improved their language skills but she has seen growth spiritually in several of her students. Unfortunately in the last section her M students had other commitments and were not able to attend though a couple of them have maintained contact with her, showing continued interest in the relationship started. Many nights I enjoy listening to her tell me of the many interesting discussions that arise out of the subject material that covers a wide variety of moral and spiritual issues. One of these involved cultural differences and whether culture in and of itself was right or wrong. The example was brought up of cultural initiation and what they though of it; which incidentally is very active in our village. Some thought it was fine and others thought it was evil so they discussed why, pointing out that it was more that many of things practised were wrong but that it indeed had a few positive aspects.  More recently they watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie where Charles participated in a ruse to help a friend so after the film they discussed if it was right to lie to help out a friend. These are but a couple of examples that come up almost each class where Kathy has the opportunity to guide, nurture and disciple her students. Pray that we would find someone to help with these classes as she plans on adding a 3rd level this coming year and there are not really enough days for her to be able to do it all herself.
Coming up in the next months is a new opportunity for Kathy to help the teachers of some of our local church run schools understand what Christian Education is all about and how to go about it. 35 invitations have been handed out to 17 schools in our area. She will be leading a workshop for 5 days beginning Sept. 9th. This is a first for her to be able to share the knowledge she gained while studying for her certification. A first to run a seminar of this calibre as well as a first completely in French. Keep in mind she has not used her French to this extent since coming to Chad as all of her work has been in English. Pray for strength and the ability to communicate clearly as well as for open hearts and minds to recognize the opportunity they have to influence the next generation for the Lord. She is pressing hard toward finalizing things in the next 3 weeks as we would like to not have as much of a load while Jessica visits us.
Pray that we will have a good visit with Jessica. It will be short but we are so looking forward to it and also getting to know Rory more who will be accompanying her on this visit. We also covet your prayers for Jessica’s coming school year as there have been some complications with her OSAP status. We also praise God that Daniel and Christine are approaching the end of their first year in ministry in Kirkland Lake and have been signed on for another 3 years. We are also pleased with how God is providing for Stephen as he continues to enjoy his employment as a software developer as well as sticking his fingers in various other opportunities. We are grateful that he continues to look after our house in KW.
This brings me to our final and most time critical prayer request. As you know we began this term with several significant one-time gifts to help get us “on our way”. They were enough to make up for about $850/month that we were short on support for the first year. We try to keep a fairly trim budget and with God’s help we have managed to stretch those gifts over a year and a half but they are now running out. TEAM helps us keep a small buffer account to smooth out the peaks and valleys in financial support but we are beginning to have to use that buffer which at our current support level will be gone in 2 months. We covet your prayers that the Lord would impress upon the hearts of those who are able to either pick up additional support or send in a gift that would help meet these needs for yet another year or so. I really don’t like talking about money because God has always provided for our needs and we have never lacked in that area but the bottom line is that we need aprox. $850 in additional monthly support or $10,000 in one time gifts to keep us on the field.
We praise God for his daily supply and are humble to be used by him in Chad for the Kingdom. We want to thank each and every one of you for your prayer and sacrificing to keeping us here, reaching out to those who don’t know Christ and building the body. May God richly bless you and we trust we will be able to bring you good news in a couple of months of how God has worked.
Your friends in His service,
Paul & Kathryn