Village evangelism

The past few weeks have been filled with some great blessings. Our water project has caused our people to draw closer and become more like a family. As a result, ministering to them has become much more profitable. Our Sunday attendance has increased as a result of our bus ministry. Last Sunday we had about 25 riders on our 15-passenger van. If we keep increasing like this I will have to hire another van. Amen! Our Wednesday prayer meeting and Saturday Bible study have been well attended as well.

One of the most exciting blessings has been seeing our people getting involved in witnessing to others. In this culture most things if not all are done as a village. For example, if there is a personal dispute between two people any by-standers will automatically weigh in with their opinions. This can become very annoying to me but there are a few times when I have to admit that it has been beneficial. One of those times is while witnessing to others. While visiting a family in our church, 2 neighbors were passing by. They stopped to greet everyone and listen in to our conversations. After a few minutes the husband told the two ladies to come closer and sit down. When they did he asked me to tell them about being saved. As I walked through the Romans road there were several times when the others agreed with what I was saying and gave their opinions about it. In the end the two ladies interrupted me and told me that they heard enough they were ready to be saved! They were convinced by the Holy Spirit that the Word of God was true and all skepticism about me and my motives was eliminated because the rest of their "village" agreed with what I was saying and had accepted me. It is like "friendship evangelism" holding hands with "confrontational evangelism". Maybe I should call it "village evangelism". Either way, seeing people saved is always a huge blessing.

One of those ladies named Dina has asked us to pray for her. She has some very serious domestic problems with her "husband". He is a drunkard. He has beaten her and done some very hurtful things. One day Dina came home to find that some one was building a house on her property. She is the rightful owner of the property because their marriage is not official even though they have been living together for 13 years. She found out that her husband had sold some of her property without permission from her or her family. She is devastated and bitter. I gave her some counseling and several verse to help. Please join us in praying for her.

Please pray:

- For funds to complete the water project. We lack about $500 at this point.

- For our church to continue to grow in number and in the Word of God.

- For Dina and the others who have recently been saved (Patina, Dismas, Tumaini and Rose).