AFLC of Canada Provides Ambulance for AFLC of India

Dr. Anand Kumar, the doctor who provides medical ministry for or brothers and sisters in India reports that the AFLC of Canada has provided an ambulance to facilitate his medical work. Below are excerpts from his report.

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever”

Praise the Lord. Our Ambulance Arrived.

On Nov 25th 2006, Martin Luther, my sister and my brother accompanied me to bring our ambulance from the show room. We prayed there for the blessings given to our ministry, and for the people who helped to purchase the vehicle, the AFLC Canada, AFLC USA and AFLC India.

Last night we had a special prayer time for the people who helped to purchase the Ambulance. Our Gospel workers and others, nearly 150 members, attended. Martin Luther shared the word of God and explained how the medical ministry helped to establish new congregations in difficult areas and gave some examples of his experience.

I once again say thanks for your loving heart shown in action and for all who prayed and assisted financially in the medical ministry.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Dr. S. Anand Kumar

AFLBS Missions Club

A group of young people meet at AFLBS weekly to learn about, pray for and be involved in missions. Their enthusiasm is infectious and listening to the ways they pray for missions warms your heart.

The most encouraging part of the mission club is seeing how their personal lives have been affected. Many of them are sensing a call to missions. They ask others to pray that God would not let the fire die out in them.

Can we do anything less than pray that for them?

Malaria - False Alarm

Thank you for upholding us in prayer these days. Yes, we have turned over a new leaf... the first malaria test. Judah had a high fever last evening and through the night. We kept it under control with medication so that he could sleep and I took him in to the clinic this morning. The blood test for malaria came back negative (praise the Lord!). They are actually analyzing stool samples for both boys as I write. Elijah was the first to get a bug three days ago with diarrhea and vomit. he stabilized, but is not feeling 100%. Rhoda had a quick bout that lasted only one night. So far I have been spared, which is OK with me! We are figuring that the boys picked up something while playing and passed it on to Rhoda. We hope to get an answer soon and some medication to clear it up for the boys.

The timing of all this was interesting with the pastors coming today. I was at the clinic early and made it home before they came. The meeting went well. They shared with me their vision for planting churches and training more leaders. They have a great vision and passion to spread the Word. We talked about how we want to characterized as a denomination that is given to prayer as we read of the early church in Acts 1:14. The meeting went well and I feel like I am getting to know the pastors more each time. We plan to meet again next Saturday. Thank you for praying for these meetings. I was also privileged to distribued 31 Luganda Bibles to the pastors who will be presenting them to their congregations. The Bibles were the result of a gift from one of our congregations there in the US. They were received with eagerness.

We plan to worship with the congregation in Jinja and then next week I will be joining Charles' congregation. The upcoming week will hopefully include a refrigerator and more furniture. We have two guest bedrooms that we will be furnishing before our first guests come mid-December (Ben, my brother, and Jesse Long). We are enjoying life very much these day. Each day typically involves several walks to Jinja on various errands (post office, super market, open market, internet cafe, etc.) I think I am losing a few insurance pounds! God bless each one of you. We love you all and are so thankful for your partnership with us.

Nate

November in Tanzania

Classes Start

On October 30, classes finally started. Jesse and I have been asked to teach English, Computer, Philippians, Guitar, and Keyboard! The biggest challenge is teaching in Swahili! I don't think there has been a time when we have felt totally adequate for the job, but God's grace is helping us through.

We have also had the privilege of doing ministry on the weekends when school is not in session. We usually go to one of the students' home-churches and show the Jesus Film. Sometimes we even get to preach or share a testimony. We have enjoyed this ministry and see it as a means of encouraging the local congregations and their ministries.

Continued Need for Prayer
The longer we are here in Tanzania, the clearer we realize our tremendous need for prayer. Prayer is not only essential to the work here, it is the major part of the work here. The battle is won or lost by prayer. Prayer is a great way for anyone to get involved in the work here without even needing to move! Here are some things you can pray about:

Praise God...

• ... for also calling Jesse to this ministry. He's already a great friend and brother.
• ... for bringing us to the point where we have now started teaching at Waama.
• ...that thousands of people have seen and heard the Gospel since our arrival.
• ...for providing a great financial and prayer team. Thanks!
  

Pray for...

• ... us to find a reliable vehicle to buy for transportation and ministry needs.
• ... Jesse and I as we continue to learn Swahili and understand African culture.
• ... the ministry opportunities we have at Waama and the churches in the area.
• ... God's continued blessing upon Waama Bible College as they try to provide quality training for lay pastors while keeping expenses low.
  

Thank you for your partnership in the ministry
in Tanzania. May God richly bless you,
Ben Jore

For gifts (tax-deductible), send to:

AFLC World Missions Department, 3110 E Medicine Lake
Blvd., Plymouth, MN 55441-3008 (include for Ben Jore on memo line)

Mailing address: Ben Jore, c/o Waama Bible College,
PO Box 50, Mbulu, Tanzania, East Africa

Website: http://benandjesse.blogspot.com/

E-mail: ben_jore@kastanet.org

Help With Mailing

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

We are writing to all of our friends living in the Twin Cities area. We are trying to see if any of you would be interested in helping us with some mailing we have to do this coming week. We will be coming back to the Cities on Tuesday morning (Nov.28) and we hope to have everything printed out and ready by Wednesday. If any of you would like to come over on Wednesday or some other day this week, we would very much appreciate your help! We thought it would be fun to get together with some of you again plus it would be great to get some help with our mailing.

If you think you would have a little bit of extra time this coming week, please either reply by email or call (612) 822-3835.

Thank you,
Tomasz and Miriam

Update on Dr. Monseth

Dr. Monseth had stints put in and spent the night in the hospital. He was released on Saturday. Thank you for your prayers.

Dr. Monseth Hospitalized

Please pray for Dr. Francis Monseth who has been hospitalized for heart related problems. He is recovering well after the insertion of stints. Dr. Monseth was honored at Heritage Hall Wednesday November 22, to celebrate his 65th birthday.





Dr. Monseth has been a great encouragement to missions over the years. He has traveled to many of our mission fields including Brazil, India and Uganda.

In the early ninty's Dr. and Mrs. Monseth took a sabbatical from his position as Dean of AFLTS to teach on the mission field in Eastern Europe with EEMN.

With the exception of Connely Dyrud, all of our ordained missionaries have sat under the teaching of Dr. Monseth at AFLTS.


Dr. Monseth has been a great encourager of the Distance Education project promising to give his wisdom and guidance as it is developed.

Most recently the Monseths have given up their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren to be AFLC missionaries in Uganda.

The World Mission Department thanks God for Dr. Monseth and the many ways he has promoted missions.

Churhes Grow in Brazil

Vitoria



About a year ago changes started to take place in Vitoria. They had a desire to fix up their church to make it more inviting to the people in the community. When the church was built twenty years ago resourses were not adequate to complete the structure. It sat incomplete until this picture was taken about this time last year.









In the last year the congregation has been hard at work on the building and it looks like this today.

Not only has there been a revialization in the building, but during the time of pastoral vacancy Pastor Iran Goes De Goes has been traveling to the church for services once a month. The first month the attendance was 20, the second month there were 40 now the church is averaging around 60 in attendance.

Maringa

Missionaries Tamba and Jonathan Able started the church in Maringa when they returned to Brazil from their last furlough. The church started in their home meeting in their garage. Recently the home they were renting was sold and they had to move. This meant that the church would have to find a place to meet. The Lord has supplied a wonderful place that is more public than their garage. They now meet at the Fisk School of English. Pray for the congregation that now has an attendance of about 40. The church is now officially organized and has a board with elders and deacons. Jonathan asks that we pray for four of the men who are police and security officers. Pray that they would remain faithful and be safe from physical and emotional harm. Pray for their mother, Lucia who is only 50 years old but is fighting cancer.

Fear - Aloneness - Dispair - Excitement - Victory and Joy

Let me officially greet you from Uganda as Rhoda has written the updates up to this point. It already feels like we have lived here for a long time and that this is home. The Lord has been very near these past two weeks as we have transitioned into this new life. I am usually pretty steady emotionally, but this past week I have felt the whole range of emotions - from fear, aloneness, and despair, to excitement, victory, and joy.

On Tuesday I had an informal meeting with five of the pastors (one from here in Jinja and the other four from Iganga district to the east of us). It was an encouraging time to get better acquainted and to understand the ministry better. I shared with them that I feel my primary calling is to train faithful men who will then train others. I was very pleased to discover that several of the pastors have been mentoring young men in the congregations and grooming them to serve as pastors. Pastor Sospeter has begun two churches and trained assistants in each of them and has now moved on to work with a third congregation. There is incredible potential here and the people are eager to grow and spread the gospel. We also decided on Tuesday that we would begin meeting every Saturday at 10am (1am central time) beginning this coming Saturday. Our plan is to study through the Book of Acts in an effort to see how the early church grew and to use that as our model for ministry here. This is it! The opportunity to train faithful men! Would you pray for great wisdom for me as I study the Scriptures and relate to this culture. Please pray for the pastors: Sospeter, Martin, Wilberforce, Charles, James, William, and Edward.

Just a quick update on Sarah and Tomboni… Sarah is a Muslim. She has a joyful disposition and seems to really enjoy her work. Tomboni is from the city of Gulu in the north and does not appear to have much knowledge about the Gospel. He is married with two daughters and is three days younger than me. We believe God has brought these two to us.

Thanks again for praying for our family. We have sensed your prayers! May God bless each of you this week as you live your lives for Him!

Nate (for Rhoda & the boys)

Thanksgiving from Tanzania

This is going to be a short one but wanted to at least touch base briefly and take advantage of this last opportunity to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all! It is hard to believe it is that time of year already. Life on Thursday around here will probably be pretty normal unless we decide to do something on our own. We thought we might buy a chicken from the neighbor to celebrate (we would eat it, too, of course…) but we will have to see.

Ben and I are just coming to the end of a weekend here in Arusha. It has been a good change in pace just to get out of Waama for a while. We spent most of our time here picking up supplies that are not available in Mbulu. One of the most exciting purchases we made was a new sound system for showing the Jesus film. Stay tuned to our blog for pictures of it in use (we are scheduled to be in a village with it already this coming weekend!). With this new system we should be equipped to do outdoor showings to crowds of 700+.

Time really is going by fast and to be perfectly honest, it is hard to imagine coming home already in April (when my return ticket is scheduled). At this point, it is in God’s hands (I guess that is pretty much the way it always is!). I am not sure how visas will work out, how my medicine supply for diabetes will be doing, or if God will have given any new direction at that point but Ben and I are both open to just about anything at this point whether it be staying here, returning to the States or taking a call to some other mission field…like Australia or even the Cook Islands.

We continue to plow ahead with lessons. Things are going well and it is exciting to see the students learning! Computer classes are going well. English is fun. Philippians is an incredible book and we have been blessed even in our preparation times. We also had some more classes added to our load recently. Ben is now teaching some Guitar classes and I am helping with Piano. These new classes were just kind of dumped on us all of a sudden because the teacher in charge of the Music course was very overloaded. Pray that we be effective and a blessing even in these opportunities. It is definitely a load but it is always good to be busy.

Well, I am going to sign off there for now. Sorry it is so brief but wanted to be in touch while I had a chance. Tomorrow morning we head back to Mbulu and have computer class and piano lessons in the evening. Keep the prayers coming and we will do our best to do the same. We do think of, pray for, and thank God for you all often. May the upcoming holiday seasons be full of all God’s best for each one of you.

Thanking God for your investment in my life,

Jesse Long

Ministry in Central Mexico

Pastor Milton Flores recently sent us the following update on the work in Central Mexico.

Celaya
The Church in Celaya held special evangelistic meetings to celebrate Reformation Day. Pastor Samuel Perez was the special speaker. Pastor Perez is 25 years old and has demonstrated a special gift for evangelism.

Christian Education Workshop
Monday November 20th is a national holiday in Mexico. The Church will hold a Christian education workshop for Sunday school teachers from Leon, Irapuato and Celaya. Please be in prayer for the meeting.

Joshua
The Flores family are praising God for the health of their son Joshua. Joshua had been in the hospital for 12 days with appendicitis and a serious abdominal infection. He was able to come home from the hospital on Friday, November 17th.

Pray for Powers Equal to Your Tasks

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."

Phillips Brooks

Looks like we'll be pulling out of Nogales on Wednesday at the crack of dawn. We've had some great times studying with brother Casimilo and Gumersindo in Mascarenas, as well as with the congregation in Buenos Aires (both in Nogales). We've been able to do some scouting as well in new areas of Nogales that are really growing. There are good opportunities now for planting new churches, Nogales Sonora has now surpassed five hundred thousand people. Do pray "for powers equal to our tasks."

On one of our visits, we shared the Gospel with five men under a tree, two were drinking, but I believe the Spirit of God was calling them out. Pray that God would give an open door into some of the homes in the area to begin inviting others to come and follow Christ. We'll meet with Pastor Antonio tonight for the last time before we leave to talk about following up and continuing the work in the area while we're gone.

Thank you all for your continuing prayers,

Darwin, Mary Ann and Gracie Jackson

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Thank You - From India

Respected Brothers in Christ,

I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

On behalf of all our congregations I thank you each and every one in the missions committee for your sincere prayers for the people who suffered a lot during the cyclone time. This is a disaster that ruined many villages of the State Andhra Pradesh. In which some of our AFLCI congregation members had a great loss.

During these suffering times your help is wonderful and people who got this help praised our Lord and appreciated your generosity. You have sowed Jesus love and compassion through your deeds.

Each and every one who got your help personally asked me to convey his/her thanks to you and to particularly Rev. Del Palmer who responded quickly on this matter.

This cyclone relief work sponsored by you in our area helped our AFLCI to be strengthened.

Once again thank you so much for your sincere prayers for our ministry. Indeed these are all your prayers that we are able to convey the Word of God to many people who have never heard – praise the Lord.

In Christ,

Rev. Dasari. Luther Sastry
President,
AFLC of India.

That Year Called Furlough

Do you have beautiful feet?

We’ve been traveling to many churches during our home service sharing a challenge with God’s people to be involved in bringing the GOOD NEWS of salvation and life in Jesus to those who do not know Him as Lord and Savior.

We’ve seen over and over again how unpredictable life on earth can be. Our only true certainty in this life and in the life to come is our life in Christ. The Apostle Paul encouraged the Philippians with this command “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.” Phil 1:27 We do not know what will happen to us in the tomorrows of life, but if we are conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel (no matter what happens) we will have beautiful feet as we live for Jesus and share Him with others.

What is FURLOUGH? Some people think missionaries on furlough are on vacation. In some ways, we are. We travel a lot (11,700 miles so far), visit our friends, eat special meals and get a break from our normal work on the mission field. On the other hand, we are working as we go, representing the cause of World Missions and raising interest and support for the work that lies ahead of us. It is tiring, yet terrific. We miss our work and friends back in Brazil, yet we love renewing friendships and having a part in the ministry in local congregations here. During our furlough we are visiting over 75 churches and many of our supporters. In addition to the church presentations we have done many private showings of our Power Point presentation. We sleep in different beds almost every night and are on our way to a new place the next day. Our only regret is not being able to spend more time developing relationships in each place. Thanks to each one of you who has so graciously received us and refreshed us along the way!

Any church interested in having a free copy of our narrated 15-minute CD mission PowerPoint presentation please contact Wanda at the AFLC World Missions Office.

Paul and Becky Abel

A Week in the Life of Ben and Jessie

I know it is hard to believe, but it really is me again…already. We had to make a quick run into town today to pick up some food and other supplies so I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity to give you all a quick run-down of this past week. I will also be trying to get more pictures uploaded to the blog (www.benandjesse.blogspot.com).

Praise God, classes went very well this week. It was a little scary (ok, scary beyond all reason) getting up in front of all these students on the first day of Philippians class (the toughest one, by far), but God got us through. The first day was mainly introduction of us to the students and vice versa. It is a blessing to get to know these men and women (ages ranging from 18-45) and see their humility and eagerness to learn. English and computer classes went well, also. I wish I had a video of me trying to teach one of the guys how to use a mouse. I almost had to break his finger off just to keep him from constantly pushing the button. The whole concept of moving the mouse on a horizontal plane and seeing your pointer move in the corresponding vertical plane was not something a lot of them were used to either. So far, we have taught them how to turn the computers on/off, how to open a program (Microsoft Word), and begun to teach them proper hand position for typing. They really like this class and it is easy for us to see progress, which is always a plus.

During one of the afternoons, Ben and I took a break from studying and took a football, soccer ball, and Frisbee out by the dorms and had some good, informal interaction with many of the students. They all really seemed to enjoy the recreation and I think we will be having more of it.

On Saturday night, we had some unexpected guests, Dr. and Mrs. Yri from Norway who were passing through. They have been missionaries here in Tanzania for a long time and became acquainted with Ben during a one-year teaching opportunity Dr. Yri had at AFLBS (our church-body Bible School in Minneapolis). It was good to visit with them. Dr. Yri also said he may have a truck he can sell to us. This would be a real answer to prayer.

Yesterday (Sunday), we were in the nearby village of Gehandu. The day went very well. Ben shared a brief greeting and I shared the main message. Three other guests also showed up at the service: older ladies who have been here for decades translating the Bible from Swahili into the local dialect of Kiiraqw. It was a lot of fun to get to know them.

So, there you have it. That is a week in the life of Ben and Jesse these days. We may be going to spend this coming weekend at a youth camp but those plans are not yet certain. We are also considering whether or not we should use the weekend to go to Arusha and take care of some banking issues, supply needs, etc. We will see.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers. Keep praying! We depend on them.

God bless you!

In Him,
Jesse

Making Uganda Home

Well, here we are. Already on our 10th day here in Uganda. First of all, THANK YOU for your prayers & encouraging messages! We have been thoroughly blessed by your support. It means so much to have people back home praying & tracking with us.

Our house is starting to feel more like home as we are slowly purchasing furniture & necessities. We now have a table which we can eat our meals on. It was fun for awhile though to eat our meals on a mat on the floor (Elijah LOVED it). We also have a bed & a desk and a few shelves. And we just had curtains made at the market the other day - they sure add a lot. Each day we've had different people from the church body here (the ELCU) come by to take us shopping or to help us get settled in some way. We have felt so embraced by them & we love them already. Each day we make our list of what we should get done and where we need to go & it's fun at the end of the day to see what actually took place. We are learning to be flexible!! We are leaning to welcome visitors into our home at all hours of the day, but we will need to set some boundaries in the future to preserve time for our family & for rest (Please pray for us on that!).

Yesterday Nate was able to travel with another of the ECLU pastors, Pastor Edward (who is also our next-door neighbor), to one of the churches in a rural area about an hour from here. He preached again and was able to observe a few baptisms. Pastor Edward recommended that the boys and I not come this time because they were taking various modes of transportation (bus, taxi, motorocycle, foot) and he thought it'd be too difficult for us. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to visit the outlying churches, but for now we (the boys and I) will attend our home church here in Jinja while Nate touches base with each of the other churches on Sundays. Our church here in Jinja meets in a classroom in one of the many schools in town & it is only a block & a half away from our home.

As of this morning, we now have a lady coming to help with the household each day (a huge praise!). We don't have a washer & dryer, so laundry itself takes a lot of time each day. Also, the red dirt here sticks to everything & is tracked in by the boys all day long, so sweeping & mopping the floors is another time-consuming daily task. Cooking is another daily adventure w/ no convenience foods, microwave or fridge. SO, we are grateful for the help! Please pray for the lady who is helping us. Her name is Sarah, she is 21 years old & has a 5 year old son, Jamil. Her husband works in the capital, Kampala, and is only able to come home every other weekend. She actually lives in one of the sheds on our property as well, so it is handy to have her nearby. I do not yet know if she is a believer. Also, we have just hired a guard to watch our place at night as robbery is a great threat to mzungu's ("white people"). His name is Tomboni & he is a young man. Please pray for him as well. Nate has gone out to talk with him each evening when he comes & is working on developing a relationship with him.

One last prayer request... please pray for our boys. They are doing very well & have stayed healthy thus far, but the last few days they have both been a bit on edge, the both of them, and we need patience & wisdom in knowing how to best help them to adjust to their new world. We are praising God for their health! Judah puts everything into his mouth (dirt, bugs, etc.) so he has been plenty exposed to germs & such, but he's warded off sickness thus far.

It is hard to know what to write to give you a picture of our lives here... this seems like just a tiny dent. We are hoping to put pictures on our blog soon so you can better visualize life here.

Thank you again for your support. You are a wonderful team!!! We pray God's blessings on each of you.

Serving Him together with you,
Nate, Rhoda, Elijah & Judah

Mission Work Advances on Our Knees

“Prayer is for the helpless.”

-O. Hallesby

Dear praying friends,

With all of the smacking, pinching, wiggling, talking, interrupting and running around, I thought it might be a good idea to divide our 35 kids in the Frente Popular club into smaller classes. So we split ourselves into 4 different classes. Our daughters, Rachel and Megan, each take a class of littlies up through 3^rd grade. Their pa (that would be me) also takes a class of little ones with a few of the more rambunctious included. There is something about being 3 or 4 ft. taller than they are that helps them sit in their chairs betterJ. . . at least for most of them. Barb now takes a group of the older ones, 4^th and up by herself.

A funny thing happened after that. We had about 15 more kids show up! It seems that since the older ones felt that they had a class more geared to them they thought it was worth it for them to come. So now we’re averaging 45 to 50 kids. That caused us to go looking for more help. And we found it in one of the Jr. High kids from church. Abraham has been coming out with us now for a couple of weeks and I am seriously tempted to give him his own class so we can keep each one a little smaller.

There have been a number of people from back in the USA who have made that neighborhood a special focus of their prayers for us and we are very grateful to all of them. It seems to be yet another demonstration of the fact that the Kingdom of God advances on its knees.

Thanks for praying,

Todd Schierkolk

Pastor Kevin Olson Accepts World Missions Call

Pastor Kevin Olson has accepted a call to become the Developer of Distance Education for AFLC World Missions. Pastor Olson and his family served as short term missionaries in Tanzania for nine months in 2004-2005. God used that time to impress His call upon their hearts to teach and train pastors around the world.

Pastor Olson was on sabbatical from the Youth Department during the months he spent in Tanzania. Kevin agreed to return to the Youth Department following his return as a condition of the sabbatical. Therefore, Pastor Olson will not begin his new position until after the 2007 Free Lutheran Youth Convention. His transition is scheduled to take place at the end of July 2007.

Pastor Olson’s responsibilities will include development of a distance theological education program under the authority of a Distance Education Board. He will promote and publicize this education program throughout the AFLC to increase awareness and fund distance education.

Distance Theological Education is a venture of faith on the part of AFLC World Missions and Pastor Olson. This ministry is not in our budget, but we believe it is a necessary part of reaching our world for Christ.

Pastor Olson’s letter of acceptance concluded with these words,

May the Lord go before us all as we set out on a task that may be greater than we are, with resources less than we need and with people that are unqualified in themselves. May the Lord go before us so that we will look back in amazement of all that he has done. May the Lord go before us so that He alone receives the glory.

News from Paul Abel's

We are presently in Illinois visiting churches in this area. Next week we will fly to Texas for a few days. The end of the month we will be with Paul’s family for Thanksgiving before finishing up our deputation travels in northern MN. We praise the Lord for good health and safety and special times along the way.

We would like to ask for your prayers. The Brazilian national church leaders will be meeting Nov. 11-12 at the ARCA. Please pray that the Lord will be glorified as His people come together. We do not know how to pray as we ought, but we do trust in our sovereign God to cause unity and renewed purpose among His people. Thanks for joining with us before the throne of grace!

We are always encouraged with the news we hear from Brazil. Friday and Saturday a group of over 20 people from Bateias went on an evangelism outreach in the “back 40.” They spent the night in rough quarters with no showers (a real sacrifice for Brazilians). The Jesus film was shown, many visits were made, and a program for children reached out to many. We don’t know all the details, but rejoice at the initiative of our people there and their concern for the lost.

The Campo Largo church is forging ahead in finishing the floor in the new sanctuary. The services are well-attended and new people have come to faith and are preparing to become members. The four churches in the Curitiba area joined together in a big tent for a Reformation Service on Oct. 29. It was a time of praise to God and mutual encouragement for the members of our churches.

A Note From Jores

Just a quick email to send our new address as many of you have requested it:

Nate & Rhoda Jore
PO Box 304
Jinja, Uganda

We are doing well & have been busy trekking around town purchasing furniture & necessities for our home. We're healthy & are almost over the jet lag now. We had a wonderful welcome on Sunday at the ECLU church here in Jinja. Nate preached as one of the pastors translated. The boys are loving life here. Elijah said to me the other day, "In a minute, I will be an Africa boy." :) They have friends all over town already. Jinja is beautiful! Lake Victoria is about 1/2 mile from our home.

Thank you for all of your prayers & messages!! They have been so encouraging to receive. Know that we'd love to reply to everyone but because of time, we won't be able to. But we love to receive them just the same.

In Him,
Rhoda & the boys

Polish Lutheran Bible School

“Szkoła Biblijna” in Poland

By Pastor Tim Hinrich


Lutherans in Poland? Yes! Believe it or not! And seeking to encourage renewal in the Lutheran church of Poland is one of the main goals of the Bible School located in the southern border village of Dzięgielów, southwest of Bielsko-Biała.




Since 1998 the Bible school has been discipling students and has grown from 11 students the first year to over 60 this fall. The school is directed by EEMN Career Missionaries Tim and Renata Hinrichs as part of the Center of Missions and Evangelism of the Lutheran Church of Poland. They lead a small full-time student body (usually around 6-8 students) for a one-year program of Bible teaching and practical training in ministry. Students usually go on to further studies and about half to seminary.

A second program the school offers is a two-year program operating on Saturdays. Students come from all ages and backgrounds to attend classes from morning until night. Also offered is a third year of practical studies.

This year, they opened up their first branch of the Bible school in Mrągowo at the other end of the country.

There, seven students gather to watch a live broadcast of classes held at the same time in Dzięgielow on Saturdays. Plans are already drawn up for another broadcast location next year in central Poland. The school exists today based on the prayers of leaders going back as far as 50 years ago. Today 12 volunteer faculty are planting seeds in those who can be used by God to bring renewal within the Lutheran church and in Poland. Thank you for your prayers for this open door!

Total Student Body Passes 60!

It’s been an amazing start to the school year. First, we spent half of September reparing the Bible school building for the new school year. We’re thankful to the Lord that CME acquired a large amount of new carpeting in which all of the facilities have been now carpeted including our Bible school building (“Syloe”). That and a new coat of paint make a huge difference in our classrooms and in the 3 rooms we have for dorms. We also were able to get an extra room to use as a student lounge so our students aren’t suffering as bad as we thought they might.

We also interviewed and received a record amount of new students in our two Bible school programs. The daily Bible school now has six students and the weekend program has a whopping 27 new students to add to the 2nd and 3rd year! It’s an amazing blessing and we are really excited for what the Lord has in store for this year. Altogether, our student body is now over 60 if you can believe that!

You might remember that the AFLC Bible school choir was on tour here in the spring and how much of a blessing they were through that ministry. The amazing thing is that two of our weekend students signed up for Bible school as a direct result of the choir concert in their congregation in Skoczów. It’s amazing to see how God uses a variety of ministries to accomplish his purposes.

Remembering Students in Prayer

• Pray for the daily B.S. students: Marek and Renata (Czech Republic), Zhenia (Ukraine), Julita, Sylwia, Marta and Artur (Poland) and Genadij (Guestministry leader from Ukraine).
• Pray for the approximately 60 students in the weekend program.
• Pray for the seven students in the weekend program via internet.
  

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More on the Floods in India

Our brothers and sisters in India have experienced tremendous flooding. The roads are impassable and their homes and crops are washed out.

We have sent some relief funds to help and they are assessing the situation.

For a CNN video of the flood in the area click here.

Please be in prayer for them.

We Made It!

Saturday morning:

We are here at last! Thank you for all of your prayers. It's been quite a journey to get here & we praise God for bringing us here safely & for giving us joy in being here.

We have been through a rollercoaster of emotions this past day & a half of being here. We feel vulnerable in many aspects in regards to our safety & health & just generally not being in control of anything. It has been difficult but very good for us & we are learning anew what it means to truly depend on the Lord. Last night at about midnight we were all awake, lying together on our air mattress underneath our mosquito net. The electricity was out, so the boys were enjoying playing w/ our flashlights, giggling together & not showing any signs of sleepiness. Nate & I were hot & tired, wishing the boys would sleep, and feeling very much alone. We started to pray & then to sing & the Lord met our little family in a wonderful way. As we praised His name together, we were filled with peace & with hope for our new life here. We know He has brought us here for a purpose. We know He is with us. We know He will not leave us. We know He will accomplish what He has started.

I'm sitting in an internet cafe (surrounded by Europeans backpackers), waiting for our breakfast. It just arrived so I'll close for now although I'd like to write much more. I'll try to make it back here soon. After breakfast we're off to the market to purchase a few things for our home & then will head back to try to unpack some more. We may end up staying at a hotel tonight because the landlord is fumigating our home today.

Thank you for your prayers!

Love from Jinja,

Rhoda (for the boys too)

Happenings in Jerez

Diana and Betsy
Here’s a first for all of you who have been praying for the little girls from my last update, Diana and Betsy. As Kid’s Club began to start a couple weeks ago, Diana, the younger of the two, popped her head in the garage and proceeded to come in and play the opening games with all the kids . . . then she scampered off home. None-the-less, that has never happened before. Let’s keep praying that these little Jehovah’s Witness girls will be able to come to the Club.

Ingrid Giles - Short Term Mission Assistant
Would you also please pray for our Short Term Assistant, Ingrid Giles? Ingrid has been with us here in Jerez for a little over a year now and has been a huge blessing to the ministry. In the attached picture she just finished teaching our two oldest girls, Rachel and Megan, their Spanish class.

Ingrid’s main ministry here is the translation of the Ambassador Sunday School curriculum and she has been a great help to her mom and dad. Since Ingrid has been here the translation has advanced to the last year. If you’d like to see her work (along with her folks) you can check it out on the web at www.iglesialuteranalibre.org and click on “Material.” The last time I checked with Dan there had been about 1,200 lessons downloaded in one month! No, that is not a misprint . . . one thousand-two hundred. Check with Dan as he travels up in the USA on furlough. Among other things, Ingrid is also filling in for her mom teaching the Women’s Bible study as well as teaching one of the Sunday School classes at church.

If you’d like to support Ingrid financially I know she would greatly appreciate it and it would be a big encouragement to her. Financial support for her can be sent to AFLC World Missions with a note that it is for Ingrid Giles.

Dan and Debbie Giles on Furlough
Thanks so much for your prayers for the ministry in Jerez. Please keep Dan and Debbie in your prayers as well while they are traveling and sharing these next months in the States.

In Christ,

Todd Schierkolk

Looks Like We're Finally Going

Nate and Rhoda left for Uganda today. They have been preparing for this moment for several years. It is the start of a new life for them and their boys. Please be in prayer for them and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Uganda.