Friday, March 03, 2006

Prayer

If you would, please pray for us.

We love the work at our church in Coopersburg and believe that the ministry here is very important. It's been amazing to see what God has done in the lives of those here at the church. We love the people here. It's such a joy to minister the gospel in the Lehigh Valley. We've blessed with a wonderful, sweet church family. But at the same time have and have had a strong desire to serve the Lord in Africa.

Looking at our desires and our giftings, while we are so content here, we have this aching to serve the Lord among the poor in Africa. In particular we would like to go to Africa so that we could preach and teach, train up men for the ministry, and help the local church provide families and homes for orphans.

We have an opportunity to do just that. A South African we met while we were serving there last year, is donating land and working right now on administrating the details of the orphan work. There's a church that wants us to come and pastor and that wants to be deeply involved in this mercy-ministry work.

It's exciting. We'd love to see this orphanage be so much more than an orphanage, but become a training ground for future African leaders. We feel, what better way to train men and women up for the work of the ministry than beginning when they are children? If there is a need for godly Africans and there are thousands of children needing homes, what better place to start than by seeking to provide those children with godly families?

At the same time, we don't want to just press forward without being faithful to God's work for us here. More than going to Africa, we want to do God's will. We don't want people here to be discouraged or to wonder what's going to happen to them. If God wants us to go, we want them to be spiritually provided for. We are absolutely one hundred percent committed to that.

We've asked our church to help us think through these opportunities, and we meant that. We want them to help us make a godly decision. They've responded wonderfully and have committed to praying for us. I know I'd love it if you would as well.

1 comment:

Sybrand and Beth de Swardt said...

Get this- In the townships in South Africa (the poorest areas) there is a 60% AIDS rate and and a 75% unemployment rate. And on top of that what hastens deaths is a lack of food- starvation.