A Note from Lester
I would like to spend a few minutes updating everyone on some works that are going on in other countries. I like to look at these other works every so often as it seems pretty easy for me to just focus on what is happening in my life, my town, my family – both physical and spiritual – and God is doing some great things in this world!
Namwianga Mission in Zambia, Africa – Zambia used to be called Rhodesia and Dow Merritt and his wife went there in the 1920’s to establish the church. Roy was one of their children who has spent most of his life in service to this area. The Namwianga Mission has developed over the years into a haven for orphans as they have 4 houses right now where they take in up to a 100 children from newborns to high school. (Zambia has struggled with diseases of various sorts and many children have been left without parents.) The mission has a hospital and schools and is also closely associated with the George Benson School of Preaching. One of the things Roy does is help organize church groups who come every year and go into different villages and do outreach. The groups will have doctors and nurses as well as personal workers who go into areas where the church is in need of help or where it hasn’t ever been. The church in Zambia is very strong and God has used the Merritts in so many great ways.
South Sudan – If you keep up with world events you know that Sudan has had a civil war for over 20 years between the north and south. This one has mostly been a “religious” war in that radical follows of Islam have been trying to take over. A few years ago the country split into two countries – Sudan and South Sudan – with Sudan being controlled by the Islam group. There was a brother and his wife in Ghana, Isaac and Janet Adotey, who decided to go into Juba the capitol of South Sudan and start a work. They were successful even though they had to be pulled out of the country on two different occasions when the war started back up. Isaac didn’t want to leave, but when members of the missions committee were talking with him on the phone they could hear the shooting in the background – the war was that close to his house. He had to stay out for several months, but when he went back he found the church had continued to grow due to the work of the locals. Brother Isaac has passed away, but he was able to get a brother from among the Sudanese into the preaching school in Ghana where he is studying to be able to go back into South Sudan and continue the work there. His name is Patrick Lomono, please keep him in your prayers as he continues to prepare himself to continue the work in his home.
Eastern European Missions – This group has done some amazing things in the past several years! They contacted school systems in both Russia and Ukraine and found out that they were eager to get Bibles for their students. Several hundreds of thousands of Bibles have been distributed to each student and teacher in these areas. EEM has had several “Million Dollar Sunday’s” where they have been able to collect funds to have these Bibles printed in the local languages and distributed. They also were asked by the schools if they could provide someone to teach the teachers how to teach their students and of course they volunteered to help! It is truly amazing how God works in this world – we can’t even mention God in many of our public schools where we are supposed to have religious freedom, yet in other countries where we think religion is being repressed they are asking for Bibles.
There are other works going on and perhaps I will have a chance to share them in a future article. Please keep these three in your prayers and may God continue to Bless them!
Lester
