Dear friends,Th…

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers. Our family has been doing well.

In Luke 10, Jesus sent out 72 workers, two by two, to prepare homes for his arrival. That chapter has been my theme for the past few weeks as I’ve encouraged the churches here to relive that great event. The response has been all positive. God has filled the Christians with a desire to reach out. The approach of Luke 10 is especially encouraging for those that have struggled with a lack of money, as Jesus explicitly says not to take money. Also, the task is not overwhelming, for Jesus asks each pair of workers simply to find and visit a single family. Joel and I tried this approach recently as we visited Ali’s family, and it went very well. I believe Ali is turning out to be a “son of peace,” as Jesus put it. Pray for him, his wife Anna, and their daughters Vienna and Zora. (As you may guess from the picture, he’s a self-employed auto mechanic.)

Other prayer requests follow:

We had a very encouraging quarterly “Servants Meeting” for the area. Chris Doga provided transport, so my truck was not even needed. The themes that emerged were faith, evangelism, and service–all with a loving attitude. Praise God, and may he fulfill their good plans.

One of the straggling Hagita Estates members and someone he was fighting with at work were both fired, so his wife will go back to her village while he goes to another province looking for work. Pray for them and their kids, and also for the already weak church at Hagita Estates that will suffer for the loss of yet another family, not to mention the shame and sadness of his mistake.

All new marriages have struggled here, and Chris Doga is the latest to need prayers in this area. Bad things have happened, but he and his brothers in Christ have been dealing with the problems in prayer and love.

The pace on looking for church land is palpably quicker, with more local people involved. Please pray that it will happen soon without taking our time away from more important things.

Those of you who did not hear my presentations in America may find our updated blog interesting (marcusanddiane.wordpress.com).

My new topical collection of verses on a single page has already had a good reception. One page is cheap to photocopy and doesn’t require stapling.

Diane is also working on an excellent study of Mark and is organizing encouragement groups for women over the next week or two. Pray for her and for that effort!