Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

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

PRAISE

As we near the end of our extended time in the UK, we have many reasons to praise the Lord and would like to list a few: 1. We thank the Lord that our college fees were provided in full. 2. The four-star accommodation we have been using is great. Praise Him. 3. Throughout this time, we have had access to two vehicles provided freely by relatives. 4. It has been good to have had extra time to spend with family and friends. Renewing fellowship with our main supporting churches has also been a joy. 5. Our support levels with SIM have been high so we thank the Lord and all others who were involved in meeting that need. 6. During this time we have been able to attend some conferences such as Mandate, New Horizon and Keswick (see photo links). It has been great to have had these opportunities to worship at such events. God is Good (Nahum 1:7).

PLANS

We are planning to return to Kagoro Seminary on 19th January 2009. Please pray for the preparations and especially that visas will come through okay. You are invited to a farewell service for us at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church on Sunday evening 28th December.

As usual, there are some things to be done before we leave. I am still working on my 20,000 word dissertation and would like to have that finished before we travel. Debbie is teaching First Peter in six evening classes at the Belfast Bible College and also leading a Bible study for a group of ladies at Coagh Baptist Church.

SARAH YOO

We just heard that one of our SIM colleagues at Kagoro, Sarah, has returned to Korea. She has been battling with malaria throughout this year. It looks like she will not be returning to Kagoro. Pray for her. She will be greatly missed at the seminary. By the way, the Seminary is still looking for someone to teach New Testament who has a doctoral level qualification in that area. Pray the Lord will send us someone with that training (Matt. 9:38).

As ever, thank you for your faithful prayers.

David and Debbie Colvin

Contacts (until we leave): Tel 02887752120, Debbie 07810203459, David 07833145995

August update

Dear friends,

We send you greetings in the Name of Jesus.

Thank you for praying for health and safety in July. We had a great time in England visiting friends and enjoying their hospitality. The week at the Keswick conference was well worth attending. Charles Price was the main speaker in the morning meetings and we appreciated his accurate exposition and practical application of the book of Colossians. Keith and Kristyn Getty led most of the times of worship and we enjoyed that aspect of the conference also (check out www.gettymusic.com).

The weather for most of the trip was excellent and we were glad the car we were using had air conditioning! We have uploaded a few photos of the trip with captions (see links section of this blog) but no photos of the conference since no one was allowed to take photos during the meetings. (No doubt Keswick Ministries will add some more to their own web page: www.keswickministries.org)

August offers several opportunities to take Sunday services (10, 24 & 31) and we would appreciate your prayer for those times. I (David) will start work on the dissertation this month and hope to have most, if not all, of the work completed by the end of the year. I plan to study African views of Christology (the doctrine of Christ). A number of African theologians have addressed the subject in recent years and it would be helpful in my teaching to see what can be learned from these authors.

My Dad is supposed to be returning home from hospital soon. He has recovered from the stroke to some extent but still has difficulty walking and has only limited use of his right hand. Please keep on praying for him.

The new semester will be starting at Kagoro Seminary this month. Pray for the teachers and students. We heard from Sarah Yoo that work has started on a new student accommodation block so we praise the Lord for that development.

Thank you for your prayerful interest in our lives.

In Christ,

David and Debbie

July Update

Dear friends,

Greetings from us both.

Many thanks for your prayers over the past month. We really enjoyed our break in Prague and the fact that the sun was out most of the time made it special! You can check out some of our photos and captions on the ‘links’ section of this blog.

Praise the Lord that David completed his essays for the Masters’ last Friday which just leaves the dissertation. He is now recovering from a throat infection so please pray for restoration of health and strength. Thanks. Unfortunately, he had to cancel a speaking engagement at Dungannon Baptist on 6^th July, but hopes he will have another opportunity to be there later in the year.

The month of July looks like it will be quite busy. A friend of ours from Kilkenny is coming to visit for the week 14^th-21^st. She has been off work for several years due to a complex health problem. Pray she will enjoy the time with us and that we would be an encouragement to her. On 22^nd July we will travel to England to renew fellowship with some friends, visit SIM HQ in Suffolk, and attend the last week of the Keswick Convention (26^th July-1^st August). This will mean a lot of driving so please pray for protection on the unfamiliar and very busy roads. Pray too that we would benefit from the messages and worship at Keswick. We are thankful for the bursaries made available to missionaries to cover the cost of accommodation.

Thank you for praying for David’s dad. He is making slow progress but has come a long way during almost three months of being in hospital. Please pray with us for further improvement so he can return home.

Thanks for praying for the ‘matching gifts’ opportunity for the Seminary at Kagoro. Dennis Shelly says the portion that had to be raised through the Seminary has come in and the matching gift should be raised this month.

In Christ,

Debbie and David

Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

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

Studies

Both of us are studying at present. David is working on three modules at the Irish Baptist College and I am taking a three-month course at the Belfast Bible College. This time around, David’s subjects are Romans, The Pastoral Epistles, and more work on the Study Skills module. (He is pictured here with some other students and staff at the college.) My course is a post-graduate certificate in theological education and I am the only British person in the group!

Blog

We have set up a blog. Our prayer letters and monthly updates sent out by email will be ‘posted’ to the blog and we will add some other items from time to time. Please feel free to visit the page which is available at davidanddebbie.blogspot.com.

Security at Kagoro

Since we wrote last year, SIM has been working on improving security for the missionary housing at Kagoro. A wall has been built to surround the house the Shelly family are living in and apparently a wall is also being constructed to surround the house we use. This should help but ultimately we depend on the Lord for protection and encourage you to keep on praying for that (Psalm 91:2).

Keswick Convention

We have never been to the meetings at Keswick but since we have the opportunity this year we decided to attend one of the weeks. The organisers of the conference have kindly made accommodation available to us free of charge since we are missionaries.

We praise the Lord for His help in our deputation meetings. Please pray that we would know the Lord’s strength and wisdom as we continue to have opportunities to share about God’s work at Kagoro.

Thanks again for your prayers.