The Blessings of Ministry

I want to start by thanking you for your prayers over the past few weeks. I took off for the Republic of Cameroun Feb. 4th and returned safely Feb. 12th. Cameroun is east of Nigeria and runs almost the whole length of Nigeria from Lake Chad in the north to the Ocean in the south. It took me three days to tarvel there. Do you see why?

The reason for the trip was to visit Florence & Emmanuel Nkwain and to train pastors and church leaders in "How To Follow-up New Converts and Growing Christians. Florence and Emmanuel are good friends that the Lord allowed me to disciple when they were in Nigeria years ago.

I discipled Emmanuel while he was working at the ECWA Pharmacy in Jos in the mid 90s. At that time I was also discipling a group of pastors. One was the pastor of their church and he discipled Florence. About eight years ago they felt called to go back to their homeland, Cameroun, as independent missionaries. God provided for them and they have been there for six years.

As I saw what the Lord is doing in them and through them I was filled with joy. Third John verse 4 says, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." John was writing about his spiritual children. This great joy was mine as I saw how the Lord is using Florence and Emmanuel to bring people to Christ and to grow in Him. They have made great sacrifices in order to see this.

This is Blessing. Let me tell you her story. She was named that because she is a blessing to Florence and Emmanuel. One day as Florence was walking home she came upon a group of people and discovered that they were discussing what to do with a baby that was found with a note written by its mother saying that she born the baby the day before and that she couldn't take care of her. No one wanted to take the baby. Florence was prompted by the Lord to take her. After agreeing someone said that she would have to take the baby first to the police station. A man gave her about thirty dollars as she headed to the police station. There they told her that she could take the baby if she could go and purchase certain items that would show that she could take care of her. The money given to her enabled her to purchase them. She had less than a dollar before and would not have been allowed to take the baby. Who knows what would have happened to her from there. So they named her Blessing. She is now about eight months old and doing fine as you can see.

I was full of joy as I saw the men and women that attended the conference. Many of them have been influenced by Florence and Emmanuel. We taught in English and someone translated in French, as most of Cameroun speak French. They will follow-up these people with a monthly time of encouragement and prayer for them. It will be exciting to see what will become of a discipleship vision from this little beginning.

Sam and I were thankful for being able to have a part in the lives of these people in Cameroun. Please pray for them and for the needs of Florence and Emmanuel. They are learning to trust the Lord for their personal needs and for the needs of the ministry.

I want to personally thank you who help make it possible for me to be blessed as I was and to be a blessing to others.

PRAISING THE LORD FOR TWO THINGS

If you look below at the posting in May, 2008 you will be reminded of Albert & Priscilla's wedding and of their plans to return to Liberia. Albert has finished his thesis and they are looking to leave in a few weeks. Their taking the vision of discipleship to Liberia and seeking to help churches and individuals there to catch the vision is exciting. We praise God for how he has helped Albert with his studies and brought he and Priscilla together. I believe God is going to really use this couple in an amazing way in Liberia. They are depending on Him for their needs both physical and spiritual. Albert is pictured here teaching in Liberia in January.

The other thing we are praising the Lord for is the Discipleship Seminar that was held this past Saturday, August 23rd. Over 600 pastors and church leaders attended. The topic of the seminar was INTENTIONAL DISCIPLESHIP. Like in many places, church pastors are not focused on the mandate the Lord delivered to us just before he departed- "Go and make disciples". The seminar was trying to help them bring into focus how they can intentionally start discipling a few believers in their churches. Both Rev. M. Pada and I spoke for 5 hours. He spoke in Hausa and I in English. Needless to say it was a draining time but both of us felt the Lord really used the time to do what He wanted and for His glory.

Health Update & Our New Granddaughter's Arrival

Just before we left for the month of June we posted the news about Albert and Priscilla's Wedding. They are doing well as Albert tries to finish up his Master's Thesis at Seminary. They are still hoping to return to Liberia when that is finished if the Lord provides some support for them.

HEALTH REPORT

We were busy the first few weeks home wih doctor's appointments and tests in trying to find out what was causing Judy's numbness. After all was said and done, the only thing that was discovered for now is that the numbness in her wrists is probably caused by carpel tunnel syndrome in both hands. But the tests did not show any cause for the numbness in her feet. We were thankful that nothing serious was causing it and will look further into it when we are home next year.

EXTRA BLESSING- A HEALTHY BABY GIRL

Just after we had decided that we needed to go home and look into Judy's health concerns our daughter, Darlene, called and said that they were going to be able to adopt a baby in mid-June. So Caitlin Mia Weith was born on June 14th. Because we had a few days before returning to Nigeria we flew out to Phoenix, AZ, by the blessing of some free tickets. We got to spoil Caitlin for a week. We are so very grateful to the Lord for this working out the way it did. They had thought that they would probably be waiting at least a year after their adoption approval by the state.

Darlene and Mike are very thankful for how the Lord worked out things in such a short time. Now they have the challenge of parenthood before them. Darlene is able to have some weeks off work and Mike continues to work on his degree online which he hopes to finish this year.

We had a few days with David while we all got to meet the new member of the family, Caitlin. These were all extra blessings added by the Lord to our time in the USA. On July 2nd we traveled back to Abuja and are now settled back into our home and the ministry here. As soon as we arrived back the Baptist House began to get busy with visitors. We were also busy four days with three missionaries on a vision trip to Nigeria. They got to visit SIM's ministries in Jos and Abuja. If the Lord directs them back to Nigeria we may see them again in a few years.

This past month has reminded us again of the Lord's goodness to us. In a world where good things are not always experienced by many people we want to give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for it all.