Dear friends,
This is Debbie writing to give you an update on the last few months in Kagoro. We really appreciate your faithful prayers on our behalf.
Shopping Kagoro style! Someone called me this morning to say they had chickens for sale. I ordered one which was just delivered, ready to cook, thankfully without the head and feet! The tailor arrived this afternoon with my new outfit. Last semester a student gave me some lovely cloth and I am just getting it sewn now. It’s not quite online shopping but we can get quite a bit done through texts and phone calls!
Seminary News
We are praising the Lord that our classes are smaller and the workload more manageable this semester. There are fewer students in my classes and I have three courses instead of four because of changes in the curriculum. David is teaching four courses again which keeps him very busy.
However, we both have Master’s and undergraduate theses to supervise which takes up lots of time and energy. We need prayer for wisdom and patience as we help the students with their research.
As usual, November is a month full of meetings as well as graduation. We would appreciate prayer as we attend the SIM area council meeting in Jos on the 18th November and the ACTS Executive and Board meeting I will be at on the 28th and 29th of the month. The Seminary graduation is on the 26th November.
David is chairman of the Printing Committee for graduation. They have the task of organizing the production and publication of the programme and, for the first time, a brochure for the seminary.
In December this year, our Graduate Dean, Rev Dr Momolu Massaquoi, his wife, who also teaches at the seminary, and his family, are returning to ministry in Liberia after spending eleven years in Kagoro. Praise the Lord for their years of service at the seminary. Please pray for them as they return to work in Monrovia. In the meantime, the Provost has asked David to be ‘Interim’ Graduate Dean alongside Hassan Musa who will take on this position permanently by the middle of next year. David would appreciate prayer as he helps in this way. Presently, Hassan is finishing his PhD in Old Testament in South Africa. He is one of our former students and we are delighted that he will be one of our new faculty members from January, 2017.
December Travels
This year, one meeting will require more travel than usual. David is a permanent member of ‘SIM Group’, SIM’s cooperative insurance service. The annual Board meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the 6th December, so that stakeholders in Ethiopia can take a more active role in the running of this service. I’m going to accompany David on the trip. Niall McCune, an SIM missionary from Northern Ireland, works in Addis. It will be good to see him as well as some of the other SIM ministries during the three days we will spend there. We decided to make the most of the opportunity of being in east Africa by visiting good friends, Kevin and Joyce Richardson, who now work in Nairobi, Kenya, after spending many years in Jos. We will stay with them for one week before returning to Kagoro. We value prayer for safe travels, a successful meeting and a good time of reunion with our friends as we explore a different part of Africa.
Security
Although some progress has been made in the north-east of the nation, security has become a concern not too far from Kagoro. Many have been displaced due to violent attacks by herdsmen who have taken lives as well as destroyed crops which people depend on for their food. Please pray for Zwandien, our staff member, who lost his cousin and sister. He is one of many who are giving shelter to family members and friends who have had to leave their homes or who have lost their homes, in the last two months. Former students, Pastor Daniel, his wife, Hajara and their son, David, had to leave the church where they were working because of the danger. Much prayer is needed for God’s protection, an end to the violence and comfort for those who are grieving. Psalm 46.
After our travels we will have to complete our marking before going to the SIM Spiritual Life Conference in Miango in January.
We praise the Lord for a successful surgery for Coletta Shelly who had a cancerous tumour removed at the beginning of October. Pray for her as she has radiation treatment in the next few weeks and for her and Dennis as they plan to return to Kagoro at the end of December.
We appreciate your faithfulness in prayer and giving which is evidence of the Lord’s care and your loving partnership in the Gospel. Phil 4:19.
God bless,
Debbie and David Colvin
