Prayer letter for May

Dear friends,

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

Travel and study

We are back in Northern Ireland for a couple of months. Thank the Lord for the provision of a place to stay and a vehicle to use. Debbie has been given admission into a Doctor of Ministry programme which is offered by the Irish Baptist College and accredited by the University of Chester. She will be working on the module on Theological Reflection for which course work has to be submitted by September this year. Pray for her as she studies this summer. It is a part-time programme which should take a few years to complete. We plan to return to Kagoro at the end of July.

Generator

Those of you who get our monthly email updates will know we purchased a new generator. We thank the Lord for this provision since the local electrical supply is very poor these days. Our next challenge will be coping with the fact that our Kerosene fridge is no longer working well. When we get back we will have to set up an alternative system that will allow us to keep food frozen.

Kaduna trip

We were in Kaduna city recently and had the opportunity to catch up with two of our graduates: Nehemiah and Justina Maikai. Nehemiah is one of the pastors in a church which about 2,000 people attend on Sundays. That church is ‘planting’ two more churches in the city. It is always great to see our graduates in the ministry (cf. 3 John 4). At the church we go to at Kagoro both of the pastors are also graduates of the Seminary. We have the problem at Kagoro of not having enough space in the building to get everyone in on Sunday mornings.

Missionary Conference

In late June we are going to a 10-day conference arranged for missionaries who are working in stressful situations. The venue is a Christian guesthouse near Interlaken in Switzerland. We are looking forward to that conference. Some of our fellow SIMers have been to the conference in the past and highly recommended it to us.

Highlights of the January to May semester

Thank you for praying for us during the semester. It was a demanding one in many ways. Debbie was teaching two courses she had not taught before and one she had not taught for nine years. I was teaching courses I had taught before but I was quite busy in the registry since we didn’t have a deputy provost at the Seminary. Thankfully, a new deputy provost has just been appointed which will help to share some of the administrative tasks. We had 350 students register for study which was more than usual. In April our Provost arranged for a two-day retreat at Miango for all the members of the faculty. We studied a devotional book together and it gave us all the opportunity get to know each other better.

Hajara’s wedding

One of the former students we are close to, Hajara, who comes from Niger, just got married to one of our students: Daniel. The wedding took place here at the Seminary with many of the students and Seminary staff present. Pray for them as they start their new home and for guidance as they plan for future ministry together. Daniel has a few more courses to take this summer and hopes to graduate later on this year.

Thanks for your prayerful support.

In Christ,

David and Debbie Colvin

Update for July

Dear friends,

Greetings from Kagoro.

Many thanks for your prayers for the programme in Kaduna. We praise the Lord for safety in travel and help for David as he preached twice on Sunday. We had good times of fellowship with our friends there as well as the chance to see some of our former students who are pastoring in that part of the city. On our way back we were able to call with another former student who is serving as an associate pastor in a town about forty minutes from Kaduna. It's an encouragement to see these young men engaged in ministry and we feel privileged to have had some input into their development. Thank you for your part in this process as you continue to pray for us.

We are so thankful that David has finished his dissertation and sent off the final copy. Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer during this time of study. While this brings great relief to David, more responsibilities await as on the twentieth of July he will be back in the Registrar's office. The teacher who took over when we left in 2007 has been granted study leave to do his Ph.D. Please pray that there would be a good handover and that David would also work well with a different secretary. David also has a lot of marking to complete after spending so much time working on his dissertation.

The first week of our intensive teaching module went well although it's more tiring. Having classes on the same subject each day sharpens our focus and means we move at a faster pace. Many of the students are serving as pastors while they study part-time. We will finish our teaching on 10th July and have a bit of time to do the marking before the new semester begins in mid- August.

There have been a number of changes in key administrative positions in the seminary. Please pray for us and the other staff as we adjust to these changes.

The rains have not been as heavy as usual for this time of year but when they come we are glad of the drop in temperature. We feel cold when it's 22 degrees centigrade!

I was teaching Jeremiah last week and was challenged by his commitment to the message he was given in spite of the opposition he faced. Pray that we would all love the word of God as passionately as Jeremiah (Jer 20:9).

Yours in Christ,

Debbie and David