Sunday 26 August 2012

Update for September

Dear friends,

We're in the middle of a thunderstorm right now and I'm glad I made a pot of soup yesterday to warm us up during the rains! You can gather from this that it hasn't been too hard to adjust to the rainy season temperature in Kagoro!

Thank you for your prayers for us as we travelled and got our home in order. Everything went well. Most of the unpacking is complete, the kitchen is functioning and the cook is on duty (most of the time)! We thank the Lord for answered prayer in this transition process. It wasn't as difficult as we anticipated and we are happy to be back.

Thank the Lord we have completed our first week of teaching successfully. Our workload will be a bit lighter this semester as we are both teaching one course less than expected because there were not enough students for these courses.

By next week, David will be back in the Registry office. Please pray for a good handover process with the Acting Registrar. David would appreciate prayer for his new course on Expository Preaching. Pray for good understanding for the students. Pray for David as he preaches on the 4th September at the Seminary devotional service. The theme is 'Fix your eyes on Jesus' (Heb 12:2).

On Mondays I (Debbie) teach 57 students Old Testament Poetry at Diploma and Degree level and on Tuesdays I teach 3 students the same subject at Certificate level. Pray for the Lord's help in communicating His truth to the different groups of students.

At the end of September we will observe Spiritual Emphasis week where there is usually an invited speaker. Please pray that the Lord will make an impact on all our lives as we hear what He has to say to us.

For the first time in many years we have six missionaries and three children at Kagoro. This is a great answer to years of prayer for the growth of the missionary team here. Thank you for praying. The Creightons are settling in well and Dennis Shelly's health is stable. There are also new national colleagues so we praise the Lord for strengthening the faculty at the Seminary. Please pray we would work well together as a team for the progress of God's Kingdom.

We value prayer that we would 'fix our eyes on Jesus' in the midst of our busy schedule.

Thanks again for your faithfulness in prayer.

Debbie and David


Friday 3 August 2012

August update

Dear friends,

We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus.

Thank you for praying for Debbie. Her nose is healing well and we are able to return to Kagoro leaving Northern Ireland on 14th, flying overnight from London to Abuja and then being driven to Kagoro arriving mid-morning on 15th, God willing. Our colleagues, Dennis and Coletta Shelly, will be on the same flight from London and the journey by road to Kagoro. We thank the Lord Dennis does not need surgery and that his health concerns are not as serious as earlier thought. Thank you for praying.

We have two farewell meetings at our home churches. The evening service at Ballynahinch Congregational Church on 5th August (6:30 to 7:30pm) is the first of these with Mike Ewan (SIM Ireland director) speaking at that service. On the following Sunday (12th), there will be a short farewell service at Coagh Baptist Church at 7:45pm right after the evening service. There will be tea after each of these services, we hear. Our role at each service will be to give a short update including prayer requests. Everyone is welcome at these services and we look forward to seeing you there if you are able to attend.

The academic dean at the Seminary has let us know which courses we will be teaching. Debbie will be covering three courses all of which she has taught before while I have been asked to teach a new course on spiritual formation and one on expository preaching. Although this second course is not new, I have not taught it before so I have been working on both courses and look forward to teaching them this semester. The Provost wants me to resume work as the registrar at the Seminary so I will have to find out from Dr. Paul Bidoli what has been happening in the office while I have been away.

We would appreciate your prayers as we pack (six suitcases to take with us on this trip, two of which are full of things for the seminary). It is always hard to say farewell to family and friends and we would appreciate your prayers for us and them as we head off to Africa again. Pray also for our adjustment to being back at Kagoro. It will take some time to get our systems up and running again.

Thank you to all who have been praying for us and contributing towards our financial support. We could not continue our ministries without you and are confident our Lord will reward those who are seeking the extension of His kingdom (Col. 3:23-24).

Yours in our Lord,

David and Debbie