It’s Time to Pray for More Rain!
Will you pray with us for the Lord to move incredibly once again?
Last April we asked you to “pray for rain” with us and ask God to speed us on our way to language school and Congo. God answered with nothing short of a miracle! Now we are looking a bit to the future, to the end of our time here in Québec. It is time again to “pray for rain,” expectantly while preparing. We are currently at 82%. This means we need an additional 18% in order to be supported for Congo, plus further funds for outfit and passage.
Does the Lord desire for us to be in Congo in 2011? Will God provide through His people again and have us fully supported before we leave Canada? He does own cattle on a thousand hills!
**Thank you again, and always, to each of you that give faithfully and sacrificially!**
Language School
This week is full of homework, studying, and review, as next week (Dec 5th-10th) is our final exams. We have learned so much! However, Laval University is very expensive. After much prayer, and seeking godly counsel, we have decided that only Sparky will return to language school after Christmas break. However, we do not feel that Myndii should stop her studies. We have looked into hiring a professional tutor, which is less expensive than Laval, but is proving hard to find. Catherine, the young lady that has been watching Ruth, is willing to take on the challenge. She speaks French fluently, having been born here, and has a patient, sweet spirit. We have already discussed some options of what she will be teaching. On top of that, Myndii will do all of the same homework Sparky is assigned from the language school. We are praying this will keep both of us on track to be ready for Congo!
Québec
We have one more dilemma: when to leave Québec. The next set of classes at Laval end on April 22nd. There is an option to take an additional 5 weeks of classes in a summer term. Our visas are good until next August. We have several options! There are considerations concerning our finances and our field team in Congo.
First, the longer we are here, especially if we continue with classes and tutoring, the more recourses (time and money) that will be used here. The more we learn about French, the more we realize that we could spend the rest of our lives here just to learn French; so how much is “enough”? Please pray diligently for us to listen for God’s wisdom in this!
If we are not fully supported when we do leave Canada, it will be necessary to spend time visiting more churches before we will be able to set a date for Congo.
The Grings (our partners in Congo) are due for their next furlough, but are waiting, so they will be in Congo for our first year. We do not feel that we should ask them to wait too long…
Congo
God is making preparations in Congo and at the Bible Institute for our arrival! We spoke with Dan Grings just before he took another trip up to Dibaya, a few weeks ago. He had quite an ambitious list of things to accomplish, one being our “temporary house” so we will have a roof over our heads when we arrive. We will live in this smaller house until we can build our own; it will be used in the future for visiting mission teams, when the Grings come teach block courses, etc. This summer, the Grings (including all their children and respective spouses) were able to complete the first 2 dorm buildings. Please pray for the Grings and Wards as they continue to work hard in preparation for this ministry.
Practicing “Français”
As mentioned in our last prayer letter, we are receiving a lot of help in this process of learning French. We cannot say thank you enough for all the time and effort others have put into this.
We meet for desert on Friday evenings with the Rivest family. Joël and Nathalie help us with our conversational French and with our homework. They have 4 children; the older three are the same ages as our three, so the kids have a chance to practice their French also. They have been such an encouragement and blessing to our family!
On Thursday evenings we have a single gentleman, Jean-Pierre, over for dinner. He does not know very much English (which in many ways is good for us), and is very patient with our “butchering” of his language. He helps us a lot with our pronunciation and vocabulary.
On Sunday afternoons and evenings, a young man named Guillaume (pronounced g-ee-ome) comes over. He has been a great help in proof-reading our written papers. He and Sparky have started doing a Bible study together also. You can pray for Guillaume as he is truly searching for Biblical truths and how they apply to his life.
In addition to our “scheduled” help, there are many others. If we try to name them all, we are sure to miss someone (and we don’t want our prayer letter to start looking like the first chapter of Matthew). However, we do thank God for each of them! We are so grateful for a church family here that has accepted us, really adopted us, and is willing to put in so much effort for us to learn their mother tongue.
Laborers of the LORD of the harvest,
(Luke 10:2)
Time in Kinshasa