Dear Family and Friends:
This update will have a very different tone to our usual. First we would like to thank you for your faithful participation in ministry over the years. We praise God for answered prayer that while I was convinced of His healing of my heart it has now also been confirmed and cleared by the cardiologist. We continue to covet your prayers for Kathryn’s on going digestive health issues and her more recent issues with her foot. We are certain of the diagnosis of PTTD in her left foot making any amount of walking very painful and will take months of concerted rehabilitation aside from God’s direct intervention.
Our time home this summer has been very busy with medical appointments, helping care for Kathryn’s mom, helping Daniel get a house ready for his move, etc. We are still on the wait list for an MRI for Kathryn’s foot and are scheduled to return to Chad the end of August. We have a very busy schedule shaping up already taking us to the end of this year. We thank you for your ongoing prayers and support.
This brings us to a very urgent prayer request. While our monthly support has been consistently on the low side we have had a significant advanced fund that we have been able to use for any shortfalls in ministry expenses. Until last year we were drawing on it at a rate that would have seen it last until our expected full-time retirement in 2027/28. The last 2 years however, we have seen a huge ramp up in Kathryn’s biblical training ministry for which we subsidize the materials. This along with increase travel in both our ministries and loosing some support, we have had to rely on this to a greater extent. Our current ministry expense will empty this account in the next 10 months or so. To maintain our current cost of ministry we would need an additional $3000/mo or onetime donations towards an additional $125,000 in our advance ministry account. Please pray with us that God would continue to supply such that we will be able to continue to spread the teaching of his word into the schools. Teaching and training the upcoming generation to be a light in this dark world.
A second urgent need is that of someone to manage the local mission print shop. The gentleman who has been overseeing this work has done a wonderful job over the past 6yrs, extending his initial 2yr commitment. Unfortunately the time has come to for him to return home. He will return to Chad for a short time in 2025, ideally to train someone to manage it. The print shop is a vital ministry as it provides many materials for both the national church and missionaries’ ministries in Chad. One can get things printed at national businesses but the quality is quite inferior and at a 4x cost. This would have a huge impact on many vital ministries in Chad.
Finally, many of you have heard of the times I have spent either repairing and or finding solutions for power at our guest facilities in the capital. This support centre meets the needs not only of our own missionaries but those of several mission organizations working in Chad. This is the same facility where we built the new guesthouse a few years back and I took a small team to install the windows. The power from the city continues to be an issue due to poor national infrastructure and even lack of fuel for the diesel generators that supply the city. Unfortunately when this happens it is also difficult to find fuel for our own backup generator. Further to that the current backup generator was purchase many years ago and is unable to supply even the basic needs for the expanded guest facilities. We have explored several solutions to this problem ( a larger replacement generator; more power from the city etc. ) and the most effective solution is to put in a large solar system to meet these needs for the coming years. We have setup a project fund that you can find on TEAM’s website https://give.team.org/campaign/chad-guesthouse-solar/c584372
Again we thank each of you for your faithful support. We thank you in advance for your prayers for these things.
In His service and exceedingly grateful for His faithfulness,
Paul & Kathryn