Missionary Update: Odali & Kathy Barros in Brazil [August 2013]
Odali and Kathy Barros have served the Lord in Sao Paulo, Brazil for many years. In addition to leading their newest church, they also run “Alpha Omega Family Development,” which provides a home and stability for needy people, many of whom are recovering drug addicts, etc.
July 28, 2013
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Hope and pray that all is well with each of you and your loved ones. We are all doing well. This has been a month full of many happenings.
We took a few days break and went to Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, where we met our daughter KathyLee and her husband. We had a great time together. The boys enjoyed the beach. It was a little cold but they still got to learn to surf. This time of the year here it is winter.
The Barros Family: Gabriel, Tito, Kathy, KathyLee, Jonas, & Odali
When we went on our break we took Kathy’s car because my truck’s transmissions was bad and I left it in the shop. Well, on the way back Kathy’s car heated all at once and stopped. Thank God we had left KathyLee at the Airport and had traveled 5 hours. That got us to Curitiba. God took care of us. There we have friends. They provided food and a place to stay. The next day we were on our way home on the top of a truck. We made it home safely. We took Kathy’s car to the shop too. Well, the cars are in order now.
The church is doing great. We praise God for the 10 people baptized last Sunday. There are others who have made professions of faith. We pray that they will soon be baptized also. We have several people that come to church that came from other churches. There are all kinds of churches in Garca with some really crazy doctrines. Mostly salvation by baptism and by works and mixture of all kinds of beliefs. So we have been teaching on what the Bible says about baptism–especially that baptism is not salvation. Pray for these new babes in Christ.
Those baptized last Sunday!
So many times we preach and come in contact with many people. Some times we may think that nothing is happening and that no one is hearing, that is when we remember that God is always at work.
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. -I Corintios 3:6
This week I was looking for a mechanic and I went to his home to talk to him. His wife told me that he was at his church doing some work on the building. So I went to his church, and when I got there…was I surprised! There with him were two others that I knew. Actually all 3 of them had worked with me and been to our church. Now they were saved and serving God. It is important that we keep on telling people about God. It is God that works on their lives and hearts. Praise God!
I want to thank all of you who prayed for me during my father’s death. I praise God that he was saved and that we are only separated for a short time.
Also we thank all of you for your prayers and support. Each of you are an important part of our ministry. God bless each of you.
Love
In Christ,
Odali and Kathy
Odali & Kathy Barros
odali_kathy[at]hotmail.com
Blog
Av. Victor Hugo Boaretto S/N
Garca, Sao Paulo 17.400,000
Brasil, SA
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July 2013 Mission Sheets [PDF]
Your July 2013 Mission Sheet is now available in PDF format. Follow the link below to view it!
The flip-through version is being contrary this month, but please don’t let that make you flip out–hopefully it will be up and running soon.
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FaithWORKS [July 2013]
PRAY AND PRAISE!
- HAROLD BRATCHER – PRAY for continuing health and strength – and for the Lord’s direction and provision as they search for a home to buy.
- JOHN AND ALTA HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for all our dear and faithful missionary-wives and PRAY for them. PRAY for all the churches and missions in their ministry fellowship, and for all the pastors and their wives and families.
- JOHN AND JUDY HATCHER – PRAISE GOD for another believer and baptism in France! Read the exciting story of the work of God’s Grace in Samuel. PRAY for all the other contacts John and Judy are making – more ‘seeds cast upon the waters’!
- AJ AND BARBARA HENSLEY – PRAISE GOD for the four mission teams who held Bible Schools, Back Yard Bible Schools, and helped do a significant amount of work on their church building. PRAY that they would continue to be in good health and that God would continue to give them strength to complete everything He wants them to do.
- NATHAN AND CARRIE RADFORD – PRAISE GOD for fruit and growth in their several church plants. PRAY for their housing and vehicle needs for their upcoming furlough.
- SHERIDAN AND ANITA STANTON – PRAISE GOD for the opportunities God has opened up for him to preach and teach the Gospel in neighboring nations and help train pastors to meet people’s needs with Scriptural counseling. PRAY for upcoming church missions trips to Peru.
- ROGER AND JULIE TATE – PRAY for the challenges and opportunities they will all encounter and experience especially over the next year as Emily graduates from high school and they come to the States for furlough – and to enroll her in college to continue her education and vocation. Be sure that all our other missionaries will be praying for them!
- BOBBY AND CHARLENE WACASER – PRAISE GOD for the young people who have given their lives to serve Jesus Christ as missionaries this summer in the Project Life outreach. PRAY that God will call other missionaries to reach all the unsaved peoples of the world.
URGENT NEED FOR $17,000.00 FURLOUGH REPLACEMENT FUNDS
These furlough transportation expenses have been disbursed to purchase airfare tickets for two of our furloughing missionaries. BFM pays for their furlough transportation expenses when they are due a furlough. These funds are disbursed from the portion of the General Fund monies which are received from our Thanksgiving Offerings. Those funds from last year’s Thanksgiving Offering are almost depleted.
BFM provides many other services and benefits for our missionaries from the General Fund than just their monthly Essential Maintenance Transactions. Those additional services and benefits are supplied from Thanksgiving Offering monies.
WILL YOU HELP US REPLENISH THE GENERAL FUND BY DESIGNATING YOUR OFFERINGS FOR ‘FURLOUGH FUNDS’? We will have already paid for the airfare tickets, but your offerings will help us replenish the account so we can provide the other future commitments we have made to them throughout the rest of this year.
2013 FOUNDERS DAY OFFERINGS
Thank you for responding to our 2013 Founders Day Offering. Your offerings given in June were $20,492.00. They are reported in this issue of the Mission Sheets. Also, $1276.00 was given in the month of May. Together, those offerings total $21,768.00.
We bless God and thank you for every offering that was given. May God commend and prosper each one of you who participated.
What will we do with your Founders Day Offerings? We will apply them toward meeting the essential monthly financial needs of our missionaries. The standard monthly commitments we make to them each month amount to over $46,000.00. Those commitments are supplied from the monthly General Fund offerings “as the Lord provides”. When we don’t receive sufficient monthly General Fund offerings, then we reduce either the missionaries’ salaries or their housing/ministry expenses allowances. (We can’t reduce the $12,500.00 premiums we pay for their hospitalization.)
So, your offerings given to the Founders Day Offering will be applied toward those essential monthly disbursements. When we receive more General Fund supplies in any month than we need for that month’s disbursements, then the remaining overage funds are escrowed and kept in account to supply the deficit that we may suffer in another following month. So, that is what we will do with this month’s Founders Day Offering – we will hold it in store to meet the needs in other months.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITHFUL GIVING TO OUR MONTHLY GENERAL FUND!
One of the first places we look every month is the listing of the contributions to the Monthly General Fund. Why? Because the Monthly General Fund supplies the Essential Maintenance Transactions for our missionaries for that month. Your contributions to the General Fund make it possible for their essential living and ministry expenses to be met for that month. So, ‘Thank You! Giving Friends!’ for all your faithful generous and sacrificial giving month by month.
MAKE YOUR PLANS TO ATTEND THE LABOR DAY CONFERENCE IN THE INTERESTS OF BAPTIST FAITH MISSIONS – September 1-2 at East Keys Baptist Church in Springfield Illinois. Dan Hillard is their pastor. You may contact him for more information at dhillard51[at]yahoo.com.
MISSIONARIES’ FURLOUGH SCHEDULE
Harold Bratcher is retiring from active and faithful missionary service in Manaus, Brazil, and is relocating to live here in the States. He is selling his home in Manaus and is seeking to purchase a home here. If you wish to contact him before he establishes a permanent address, you may contact him at: 859.277.3716 / 1012 Balsam Drive, Lexington KY 40504 / or through his email address: harold_bratcher[at]yahoo.com
TATES AND RADFORDS – their plans at present are to be coming to the States in September and October respectively. You may correspond with them concerning any prospective plans you would like to make with them. Roger Tate rojuta[at]gmail.com & Nathan Radford naterad[at]yahoo.com
NEED FOR VEHICLES – Both the Tates and Radfords will need vehicles to use for their travels in the States during their upcoming furloughs. If anyone has a vehicle or vehicles you can loan them for their use, correspond with them at the above email addresses.
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Missionary Update: AJ & Barbara Hensley in Brazil [July 2013]
The Hensleys have spent nearly 15 years serving in Brazil. They run a vocational school and orphanage in Caraguatatuba and have also established a church and mission points throughout the city.
Dear friends and family,
How AWESOME is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When we start talking about plans (ie: for our Church construction), I’m thinking I see a year’s worth of work to make this building presentable…then miracles start taking place. After 4 groups come and go (over a month and a half), our church building is absolutely beautiful. What should have taken a year got finished in a little over a month and a half. AWESOME!! And I am thinking Jeremiah 29:11—For I know the plans I have for you—–it just reminds me that my God is watching out for me and my small Church here in Brasil. He knows what He has planned for us and we just have to let Him work His miracles. Just one more display of how AWESOME magnificent, all powerful, all knowing our God is.
So thank you to our groups: Pastor Foy and group from Mount Eden Baptist Church, Pastor Allen and Pastor David from Centerville Baptist Church, Pastor Dan Russell from Immanuel Baptist with the group from Central Baptist in Paris, Ky, and two firemen from Atlantic Shores Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. Our Church wants to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
So you ask, what got done in these short weeks: well, the Church was painted inside and out, one bathroom remodeled, one bathroom constructed, two mobile cabinets constructed, cabinet for the kitchen made, kitchen sink area remodeled and a new countertop added, dorm room at school painted, windows at our home painted, the floor in the Church tiled (200 sq meters), waterproofed the roof of the bathroom, water fountain installed, sound system installed, and electrical work done in several areas.
And now what is yet to be done: repair our overhead doors, install screens on the windows, install metal fence in the front of the Church building for security, remodel the balcony area for Sunday School rooms, and make cabinets for storage. In comparison, this list is very small.
But these groups did not just do manual labor, they also did Back Yard Bible Schools. We were able to do four. Two of these were in public schools. While the team for the Bible School was busy in the classrooms teaching God’s Word, another team was busy outside painting the concrete fence all around the school. We like to do some work project at the schools where we go because they do not expect us to. This shows them the love of God through the actions of Americans that not only come to their country to spread the gospel, but to help in anything that they can. One of our Bible Schools was at our Church and the children loved it. We also used this to gather more children into our new Church. Then we took the gospel to the Guarani Indians in Rio. There we also took food baskets to each family. You would have to see this tribe to know how much a food basket means to them. And while we were ministering to the Indians, we also ministered to the missionary that works with them. We took an offering on the spot to buy new tires for his car. The road he has to travel to get to the tribe is very bad and his tires were showing the fiber from the inside.
Some of their Sunday School children with a banner made for their church by some children in the states from Pellville Baptist Church.
During this time we have had two people move their membership so we are growing a little at a time. We are having on average 32-37 children on Sunday morning and we are fluctuating on Sunday night between 40 to 80. We are having Bible Study in the home of one of the newest members, English classes on Saturday evenings, and then Youth meetings after that. When the balcony is ready, we will divide the children into two classes and they will go into these classrooms. Then we will be able to have two adult classes in the auditorium. We continue to serve breakfast to the children on Sunday morning and we have several adults that join in. As we have said before, you need to feed their physical hunger before you can feed their spiritual hunger.
Needless to say, all of this activity has left us tired so I ask that you pray for our health to continue to be good and that God continues to give us strength to complete everything that He wants to do.
Our Sunday School children would like to give a shout out to the children in the States who made this banner for our Church. Thanks Kim Mitchell and Pellville Baptist Church. The children love their banner!!! And thanks to the other Churches who made banners as well. They are beautiful in the Church.
As you can see by this letter we have the room to host many groups. So if you and your Church would like to experience mission work up close and personal just give us a call and we can start planning your mission trip. We will treat you so many ways that you will have to like one. Come on down!!!
In His service,
Aj and Barbara Hensley
ajcaragua[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: Harold Bratcher on Permanent Furlough from Brazil [July 2013]
Harold Bratcher served the Lord in the Amazon Valley for 52 years from July 15, 1959 through December 29, 2012. His dear wife, Marie, faithfully served with him for 51 years until her death in February 2011. The Bratchers organized over 20 Baptist churches and many other missions in Brazil. He is now on permanent furlough in Kentucky, still in the service of the Savior.
July 10, 2013
Dear Brothers of the Blessed Lord and Sisters of the Savior:
Once again we (Asa Mark and I) greet you not from the Amazon Valley of Brazil, South America, but from our temporary warm and rainy Kentucky home where the sun is not shining bright right now.
This Mission Sheets month began June 8 and finishes today. During this period I heard 7 sermons, or Bible studies. I also had the privilege of preaching three times. The first time at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Oldtown, Ky where Bro. John Lybrook is pastor, the weekend of the 16th. I also heard Stephen preach, as Asa Mark was in Brazil, taking care of the house sale. The second time was Sunday morning the 23rd of June, at the Berry Baptist Church of Berry, Ky, where Bro. Carl Morton is pastor. During the Sunday School hour, Asa Mark spoke and Stephen sang as we enjoyed a time of great food, preaching and fellowship. The third time was the following Sunday at the Calvary Baptist Church in Richmond, Ky, where Bro. Bobby Greene is the pastor. I preached at the morning service there while Asa Mark preached at the Clarksville Baptist Church, Bro. Bradley Johns, pastor. Then we all enjoyed a great meal, and Asa Mark spoke at the afternoon service. We appreciate my sister in law, Deane Cruise and my niece, Donna Lynn, attending that service. Then Bro. Bobby and Sis. Sandra took us to visit our dear friends, Carroll and Bessie Sowers. Also during this MS period, we attended several services at the David’s Fork BC, our home church in Lexington.
I hope to continue to be a blessing to many of you, during this first year of my permanent furlough. I would like to report and thank each of you that have supported us during these past 53 years. We appreciate the invitations we have already for this month, and look forward to seeing many of you soon. We hope to be in Western Kentucky soon. Do pray for us, as this week, we have started earnestly looking again for the house the Lord would have us have. Also continue to pray that the Lord will heal Asa Mark’s eye, as both doctors in Lexington and Manaus, have done all they can. He is certainly able, and may He receive all the glory. The Lord permitting, until next month.
Yours in the Service of the Savior,
Harold Bratcher
1012 Balsam Drive
Lexington, KY 40504
(859) 277-3716
(859) 806-9827 cell
harold_bratcher[at]yahoo.com
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Missionary Update: Sheridan & Anita Stanton in Peru [July 2013]
Sheridan and Anita Stanton have served the Lord in Peru since 1983. Their main ministry is church planting and they have helped establish churches all over the country. Sheridan also works to train pastors and Anita works with the ladies’ ministry and developing children’s material.
July 10, 2013
Dear friends,
The entire street in front of our house is in the process of being repaved. New water and sewer lines are to be installed. Many times they work late into the night; the noise from jackhammers, dump trucks and backhoes can keep the noise level uncomfortably high while at other times we experience an unusual and peaceful quiet when they are on a break and there is no traffic. I can sleep through just about anything but Anita is a “light sleeper” and has had a tougher time adjusting to the “progress.”
The street in front of the Stantons’ house is being repaved…
The end of June, I traveled to Bogota, Columbia to be one of three expositors in an International Training Seminar for Christian Counseling. The organization that sponsored the event is called CENFOL, and they had asked Grace Fellowship International – GFI (an excellent Christian Counseling organization) to come and teach on the Exchanged Life Counseling Method, sometimes known as “Spirituotherapy™.” GFI asked me if I would help with the teaching, all in Spanish, and I agreed. It was a great experience and many Christian psychologists and counselors gave testimony of finding victory in Jesus after understanding the true identity as believers “in Christ Jesus.” The teaching was very well received and as result I have been asked to teach seminars at a later time, in the countries of Venezuela and Ecuador, and at a marriage retreat for couples in Cartagena, Columbia. I thank Dr. Charles Solomon and Dr. John Woodward of GFI for inviting me to participate with them in this extraordinary event. It seems the Lord keeps opening up more and more doors in this area of ministry, Christian counseling. May God receive all the glory in all that He chooses to do through us, in Christ.
My son, Joshua, has been deployed for the third time to Afghanistan. Anita and I hope you will all put him on your prayer list. It will be about eight months this time. Thank you.
The Calvary Baptist Mission here in Huánuco continues to do well and the enthusiasm to learn continues to be high in my Monday night preacher’s class. Anita and I support a dozen Peruvian missionaries on a monthly basis. These missionaries have works scattered around the country. We are able to help them with the support that you send us each month by way of Baptist Faith Mission. They all are reporting good attendance and most of them have seen souls come to know Christ as Savior each month. We thank God for you, our supporters, for your willingness to sacrificially give each month so that the Lord’s work will continue not only here in Peru, but around the world.
I have still not heard from those of you that were planning a mission trip for next year to Peru. Write me soon and lets set some dates.
Bro. Sheridan Stanton was one of three expositors at an International Training Seminar for Christian Counseling in Columbia. This opportunity opened even more doors!
Until next month,
Being “in Christ” by God’s Grace,
Apartado Postal 860
Huanuco, Peru
South America
(614) 500-8823 – Internet Number
sestantonperu[at]hotmail.com – Sheridan
arstantonperu[at]gmail.com – Anita
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Missionary Update: The Wacasers in Brazil [July 2013]
Bobby, Charlene, Jessie, and Brennen Wacaser have served the Lord as church planters in Curitiba, Parana, Brazil, since 1985.
July 4, 2013
Dear Friends,
We are in the middle of one of those experiences that we have been privileged to enjoy several times since beginning our ministry in Brazil. On several occasions we have been asked to host individual youth in our home who were sensing a call from the Lord to use their life in missions or gospel ministry and who wanted to have a cross-cultural experience to validate that call.
This summer (our winter in southern Brazil), we are getting that privilege threefold. We are hosting two teenage girls from the Tampa, Florida area and one young man from the Houston, Texas area. I am going to let them share with you a short report of their experience as they traveled and ministered together with our outreach ministry, Projeto Vida, on a three week mission trip to the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. They traveled with a team of 12 Brazilian missionaries in a motorhome, which was their “home” for three weeks.
Carley Clark (age nineteen from Brandon, Florida)
“And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” (Acts 5:41-42)
When I first came to Brazil in 2010, I began to feel the call to missions. Every year that I came back to Brazil with my student ministry, the call became stronger and stronger. In August of 2012, I felt the Lord calling me to come to Brazil for a summer to experience the true life of a missionary–not just the week-long trip that I had experienced several times before. I thought that I was prepared for everything until I went on a three week long trip with Projeto Vida to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
The Wacasers’ summer interns! The last girl on the right is Rachel Weaver, another intern, but she’ll be around for 10 months, not just the summer.
Our first week in Rio was really great. We were able to witness to a lot of people and many people from the church responded to the call to missions. We left this church to go stay at a camp for what I thought was a couple of days, but turned out to be for a week and a half. The camp that we stayed at was in rough state. The room that the girls stayed in had dirty concrete floors, the bathroom was disgusting and had no doors to the stalls or the showers, and there were spiders and bugs everywhere. I was not excited to spend the next few days here. The next morning, I woke up with an eye infection, a cold, and what seemed like a thousand mosquito bites all over my legs. I was really missing my family, and I had no way of contacting them. I was also on clothes washing duty, so I spent the day with a few others washing the clothes of fifteen people by hand, and later that day I took a freezing cold shower.
While thinking about how awful my circumstances seemed to be, I thought back to my devotional time a few days before where I read about how the apostles were beaten and left rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name. Day after day, no matter what their circumstances were, they preached the gospel, and that is what we are called to do. I realized how selfish I was being and that I needed to rejoice that I am counted worthy to suffer for the gospel. When I take an abundance of cold showers- I rejoice. When I have an eye infection and a cold- I rejoice. When I have to paint Spiderman on a little boy’s face who probably hasn’t had a shower in a week- I rejoice. I’ve learned that missions is not easy. It’s not glamorous. It’s exhausting. But it’s worth it. We are called to spread the love of Christ to the nations and I rejoice that God has chosen me to share His Name to the people of Brazil this summer!
Paige Rechsteiner (age 19 from Tampa, Florida)
One of the days when we were in Sao Paulo we went to an area with favelas, which are like small shacks stacked on top of each other. This area was known for being rough and for drug trafficking so we decided it would be best if no pictures were taken. Two other girls and I were face painting for the kids and it was awesome to see that a simple design on the children’s faces would make them so happy. Few of the children had nice clothes and they didn’t smell very good, but God reminded me how dirty we are with sin. We are filthy and smelly in His eyes, but God still looks to us with open arms and a loving heart, which is exactly how He wanted us to look at those children. No matter how dirty or smelly they were, I still wanted them to come to me and talk to me. And when they saw their face colorful with paint, they were happy and all of their smiles that day made being there worth it.
Trent Smith (age 20 from Lufkin, Texas)
My first trip with the Alpha Team of Projeto Vida to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo was incredible! I met the team in Rio during their time of rest after they had already worked with another church the week before. It was nice to arrive during their days of rest as it gave me an opportunity to get to know the people that were with Alpha team. It also gave me an opportunity to learn some skits that we would perform before we went into schools.
There are two things that stick out in my mind about the trip that are special to me. While we were putting on a presentation in a school in Rio de Janeiro, I was praying for the people that were present and listening to the presentation. I looked up and noticed that many members of the team had their head down and were praying for the presentation as a whole as well. This happened without any prompting from the leaders of the team. It was a blessing to see people responding to the Spirit prompting them to pray!
The other moment that is really special to me happened on our first night in Sao Paulo. Daniel and Victor, two of the leaders, had asked me to play guitar and sing a song at the end of the church service that we were attending. I was feeling really negative about the whole thing. I’m not really sure why, but I just kept thinking, “They aren’t going to understand the words because I’m singing in English.” And I just thought that it was going to be awkward with no actual worship taking place. As I began to sing, everyone present began to sing along in a beautiful mixture of English and Portuguese. God was able to use me, despite my bad attitude, to lead people to the throne in worship. I was floored. That is a moment that I will never forget.
Bobby, Charlene and Brennen Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279-1
Bairro Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR Brasil
(813)436-9980
robertmw[at]brturbo.com.br
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Missionary Update: The Radfords in Kenya [July 2013]
Nathan and Carrie Radford serve the Lord in Kitale, Kenya. Their main ministries include indigenous church planting, a prison ministry, and a hospital ministry for mothers with premature babies.
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and passed, and we are now over halfway through the year of 2013. We thank the Lord that He has given us another month to serve Him, follow Him, and also for health and strength to do His work here in Kenya. The Lord gives us so many blessings, and many times I forget to thank Him and praise Him for His faithfulness. Even though there are many trials throughout life, may we take the time to thank the Lord for all He does for us. As the old saying goes, “Don’t get so busy adding up your troubles, that you forget to count your blessings.” This prayer letter will give a current update, as well as prayer requests.
We thank the Lord for the progress that we have been seeing here in Kitale in church planting. It has been exciting to hear the reports that are coming from the national that my good friend Roger Tate and I have been training. God has really blessed his efforts, and several churches have been started in differing areas of Kitale. With the help of the Lord, not only has he begun a church, but he has been training other faithful men to go and do the same in their respective villages. I feel that this is a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 2:2, which states “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” We praise the Lord for this, and this can only be done with the Lord’s help. How we need to rely on Him each day, for strength, guidance, and wisdom as we do His work here. We are also continuing with the church in Shangalamwe, and giving the church elder more and more responsibility to lead as we gradually pull away. Please keep all of these ministries in your prayers.
Since I have not reported on the hospital in a while, I thought I would write some about it also. We thank each of you for your sacrificial giving and prayers with this ministry. You are such a blessing. Recently, my wife went to the Kitale district hospital and there were three abandoned babies. This of course, is difficult to see these babies in this condition, so she does her best to get them placed in good children’s homes in the Kitale area. The Lord has blessed with this, and she has been able to assist many of them with getting placed after their stay at the hospital. The needs here are so great, and we ask you to please keep praying for this ministry and also for my wife, as she is faithful to go and assist as she can and the Lord provides. Isaiah 1:17 states “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” We will keep you updated of this ministry.
Our children are continuing to progress well. McKenna is now five years old and will be starting kindergarten soon. That is so hard to believe. I can remember like it was just yesterday that she was crawling, learning to talk, etc. Life passes by so fast. She is developing into a wonderful daughter. Camille is now two years old. She is walking well now, slurring words that she tries to put together, and also is doing well. How we thank the Lord for the two daughters that He has blessed us with. Please continue to pray for them, and as before, we ask you to pray that the Lord would provide other children their age here in Kitale to play with. We trust the Lord with this.
In closing, we would like to briefly share our current needs. We are planning to return to the States in just a few months, and our current needs now are for housing and for a good, reliable vehicle to use while on furlough. We would prefer housing in the Charleston/Huntington WV area, if possible. Also, we really need a minivan to be able to have the room for our family and travels. We would be interested if anyone is interested in donating the minivan or selling it so us at a reasonable price. Furlough is very expensive, as we have to pay not only our expenses here in Kenya while away, but also expenses while we are in America.
If anyone would like to assist, we would be very grateful. We are just praying and waiting on the Lord for these needs. Psalm 33:20 says “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.” You can email me at: naterad[at]yahoo.com if you are interested in assisting. Thank you for allowing us to share.
May God bless each of you for your prayers, interest in missions, and sacrificial giving. I wish each of you a wonderful celebration tomorrow for the fourth of July. We will keep you updated.
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa 30200
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