Prayer Update from Steve Kvales

Dear Prayer Partners:

Thank you for your continued prayers and standing with us as we trust Him in all things!  It has been about eight weeks since we touched base last with our prayer team.  We are thankful for you as we reflect on Ephesians 5:  to be ambassadors for Christ in the world but not of the world, make the most of our time, understand what the will of the Lord is, be filled with the Spirit, worship, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.   Prayer and fellowship with our Heavenly Father and with each other is necessary for all these things.

Answered Prayer/ Praises!

• Our health has been great.  Travel has been safe and full of learning with the people God puts us in contact with.  We are encouraged by so many that are devoted to prayer and using their gifts and talents in their local churches and for their communities to make a difference for Christ.  When we come for a visit to share about Wycliffe and God’s call for our family, we are impacted by the ministries of these various places and we are spurred to carry on in this journey trusting in God’s faithfulness!
• Our family car has been miraculously sufficient to bring us to and fro in MN, WI, and SD lately.  We had to miss our trip to IL and we were disappointed because of the ice storm here, but God provided them another missionary speaker on short notice so we trust God’s hand in it.  We continue to learn about trusting God on our journey too.  One time we locked our stuff including our keys in the trunk just minutes from having to share at the next church service and with your prayers all went well.  To be His hands and feet in unexpected circumstances still reveals God’s faithfulness and provision.
• Our support team is growing and we are getting closer to the 100% goal.  We will post what percent we are at in our next newsletter to be sent in June.  Our financial requirements and missions assignment are currently being re-evaluated.  More details below in prayer requests.
• We are witnessing individuals and families stepping out and considering God’s personal call in their lives concerning missions.

Prayer Requests:

• God’s guidance and plan as we continue to schedule presentations and travel in MN, SD, ND, WI, and MI.  Safe travel and good health.
• That our focus would continually be about our Heavenly Father’s business and not what we “do”; but trust in the work of the Holy Spirit and God’s will in all things.  We have a perfect Father who does all things well.
• Balance and management as we continue to work on our home place, travel, meet needs as a family, and consider the changes ahead.
• God’s provision of a buyer as we put our home on the market.  Hey, why not even before it is on the market?  God is great, right?!  J
• We have recently learned that over the course of time it has taken for us to raise our support team, Wycliffe has also been developing effective ways for more missionaries to work remotely in various assignments.  As we consider the cost involved to serve from Orlando and the growing needs of our elderly parents, Wycliffe has opened the door wide to the opportunity to serve with them full-time whether on site or remotely from MN.  Still serving in the same capacity and effective in the efforts to further Bible Translation work worldwide.  Please pray for wisdom in God’s ultimate plan as we consider these options and where our home base should be as we desire to be good stewards with all funds involved.
• As God goes before us, we are also open to short-term international assignments that may arise after our initial time in Orlando.  Pray we recognize what training and preparing we may need in the mean time and be ready for God’s call to aid various missionary computer support needs.

Readiness:

Some villagers in Papua New Guinea built a house in the center of their village and called it “God’s house” though they have no missionary or pastor in their midst.  They have seen the difference the Bible has made in other distant villages and long for someone to come and tell them about God.  One headmaster exclaims, “We believe someday soon someone will come and give us God’s Book.  We want to be ready.  We are just waiting.”  As we consider scriptures that challenge us to be ready, we want to be ready for His various calls to aid in bringing God’s Book to those waiting and ultimately be ready for Christ’s return!  Thank you again for your commitment to the power of prayer!

In Christ, Steve & Glenda Kvale

Personal Website:  www.TranslateTheWord.org

AFLC Missionaries on Loan to Wycliffe Bible Translators

www.wycliffe.org

Impetigo, Lice & Thrush - Oh My!

It's been an interesting week in the Jore household! Our kids have been battling various infections & "bugs" & we're doing our best to get them all back to full health. Hannah has conquered thrush, Elijah has gained victory over lice, but the impetigo is still lingering.
Elijah has it the worst, Judah is just starting to get it, and thus far Hannah has remained free from it. Would you pray that she wouldn't get it and that the boys' infection would clear up quickly?

We're looking forward to having another visitor on Thursday! Pastor Craig Johnson from Astoria, Oregon, is stopping by here for a few days after his visit to Ben Jore & Jesse Long in Tanzania. Nate has a full schedule waiting for him during his short stay, spending much time in the village and with the pastors, visiting and teaching and encouraging. Hannah will be baptized this Sunday at our church here in Jinja, followed by a feast at our house with the church members, so we look forward to having Pastor Craig as a guest at that special celebration. Please pray for his health and energy while he's here, as well as a fruitful time of ministry.

Nate and the pastors are looking forward to a conference in Kenya that they'll be attending together mid-June. We'd appreciate your prayers for their safety as they travel, and for the teaching to be challenging and beneficial to each one of them.

The curriculum for the upcoming training program is coming along! Nate and the pastors have been spending much time together lately - visioning, writing, praying, discussing, practicing, etc. This past Saturday they held a sample training session in the village with 16 people in attendance. The purpose of the meeting was to enable the pastors to teach some of the lessons they have been writing and also to give prospective students a taste of what is coming.  We still hope to be ready to begin the training program in the Fall, but there remains much to be done before then. Please pray for perseverance for Nate & the pastors as they work on completing the curriculum. Please pray too for those who God is leading to take part in the training - for obedience to the Lord's calling and protection from the Enemy who may try to throw road blocks in their way.

We are all enjoying having a little girl in the house these days! Hannah is already a month old, getting chubbier and cuter by the day. She just started smiling back at us this past weekend, so life is even more fun now. Her big brothers have not lost their adoration of their new little sister. They are usually the first to run to her when she fusses, showering her with kisses and demanding that she be picked up. We praise God for giving us 3 precious little kids.

Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement!
Many blessings,
Rhoda, Nate, Elijah, Judah & Hannah

Darwin Jackson's Serving in Mexico

The following are a couple of excerpts from Darwin Jackson's current prayer letter.  To receive the prayer letter by email click here and request it.

"True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length." (See John 11:33) C. H. Spurgeon

We were very encouraged by a young man named Antonio who we shared the Gospel with several weeks ago. He said his boss is a Christian and had been sharing with him. We gave him a Gospel of John along with a short study. We visited him again last Sunday and he had finished half of the book and study.

I gave Jose Luis a ride to the recycle yard because he was hitchhiking. This gave me the opportunity to speak to him about his relationship with the Lord Jesus. He said he was a good person, just smokes pot. I have his address, pray for a divine apt.

Update from Chmiels

We so wish we could tell you that we will be in Lviv (Ukraine) at the end of this month… but we can’t. Miriam had another ultrasound done this week and because there is a new big cyst again, our doctor told us that Miriam still has a VERY high risk of another ovarian torsion and requiring surgery as she did before. Our doctor recommends no travel until these "settle down" because of the risk of an emergency surgery and the possibility of losing her only ovary.

It is very disappointing for us. We have been praying for Miriam’s body to stop making these cysts and many other people have been praying for her too. But we know that even “no” or “wait” are God’s answers. It is just hard to be so out of control! We packed to come to Minnesota for four winter weeks and it is almost summer and we are still here…

But in a way we are praising God for the ultrasound results because on Monday the radiologist who did the reading made a mistake and instead of telling us that the cyst from April is almost gone and there is a new one, he thought the one cyst keeps growing and growing. And that made him write in that report that maybe it is not just a cyst, maybe it is a tumor. So we were told we had to go see a specialist and everything… But because Miriam talked to the technician when she had her ultrasound done and the technician explained everything to her correctly, we thought the radiologist was probably wrong. But our doctor only had the radiologist’s report and said that we had to go by that. But we kept asking if the radiologist could go over both the April and May ultrasounds again. So our doctor agreed to call him the next day. The reading was redone and the final result is that it is just cysts (nothing more serious) because the one from last month is almost gone but there is a new one… So even though it is hard for us to wait for Miriam’s body to slow down and stop making those cysts, it is good to know it is just cysts.

But as for happier moments this past month. We celebrated four years since our first date and Tomasz celebrated his birthday.

To receive Chmiels' prayer update in its entirety, request it by clicking here.

Update from Jesse Long - Tanzania

Thank you so much for your continuing thoughts and prayers on my behalf.  God is truly faithful…even when we are faithless.  We continually see His hand in the various aspects of our ministry.

By way of update, I think I mentioned in a previous email a young couple in Arusha that we have become pretty good friends with and who have shown much interest recently in learning more about the Bible.  Well, from the 1^st to the 4^th of this month we made one of our periodic trips to Arusha and I was blessed to be able to give them some great discipleship books on that I received for them from my parents.  Continue to pray for Glen and Ivy.  We are always blessed when we go to Arusha as it means access to a better internet connection, getting some much-needed supplies, making sure our motorcycle maintenance schedule is up to date, and “resting”.  For some reason, we never seem to be very successful with the “resting” part but some of those other opportunities make up for that…besides, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to rest when we get to Heaven. J

We arrived back here at the school in Mbulu on Sunday, May 4^th, and on Wednesday had the opportunity to do an afternoon Jesus film showing at a village primary school about 1 ½ hours drive from here.  Despite all the showings we have done over the past year and a half, it was another experience that is hard to describe.  Not only were the young students thrilled to have us but many people from the surrounding villages came, too!  As a result, there was standing room only in the cramped classroom, and everyone else stood in the doorway, peeked in the windows, or sat in adjacent classrooms simply listening to the words even though they couldn’t see the screen.  While the setting wasn’t much different than what we regularly find ourselves in, it also seemed strange to be reminded of the fact that, for some of these kids, we are the first white people they have ever seen.  We sure have some amazing experiences!!

Back here at Waama, this past week, I was the “teacher on duty”.  That has its own challenges as this includes overseeing work in the fields, directing the students in their daily chores (i.e. cutting grass, tending the school’s pigs, cutting firewood for the cooks, helping prepare food, cleaning the buildings on campus, etc.), managing special projects, making sure the sick people are taken care of, holding the night guards to their schedule, etc., etc.  Thankfully, I made it through the week without anyone dying due to sickness or starving to death.  We took a series of pictures that I hope to get up on the blog soon.  It should give you a pretty good idea of what goes on during one of our afternoons of work.  For now, I attached just one.  It is all a cultural, learning experience for me!

This weekend we had our “Spiritual Meetings” for this semester.  It was a blessing to be able to have 3 different guest speakers on campus and be challenged especially with regards to the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian.  It was an especially good reminder when one of the speakers said, “It is not the knowledge of a person (pastor, evangelist or teacher) or even his skill with words that brings about change in another person’s heart.  Changing a person’s heart is the work of the Holy Spirit.”

May God continue His work in the heart of each one of us!  Thank you again for your part in this work!  Until next time…

God’s richest blessings to you!

In Him,

Jesse Long

Mbulu, Tanzania

Pastoral Training Goes on in India

We are planning to conduct theological training classes for two young couples and one young man from our congregations.  Mrs. and Mr. Samuel came from Reddypalem village and Mrs & Mr. Vijay Raju from Garikapadu village in which our AFLCI ministry has been started.  A young man John Raju from Bodapadu village has also come for training classes. 

We do not have school for the  month of May at St. Paul's.  Therefore these two couples and the young man are staying at our campus for these training classes.

We have been using the subjects which already been taught by our pastors from USA.  We have the material from the subjects we are using them.  At present Pastor D. Devasahayam is teaching Pastoral Epistles and I am teaching Hermeneutics. 

Kindly pray for these training classes.  We want to continue these training classes to rest of our pastors who have not graduated.
In Christ,
Luther Dasari

Getting Children Involved in Missions

Have you been wondering how your can teach children about the importance of missions?  Faith Lutheran in Shakopee, MN came up with this idea.  They invited Karen Palmer to speak to their Pioneer Club about her missions trip to India. 

 

Then they challenged each class to give toward Bibles for India.  The challenge actually became a contest and a board recorded each classes progress.

On May 7th a banquet was held and a check for $414.00 was presented to Karen Palmer for Bibles in India.

Do you have a great missions idea?  Write it down and send it to us at delp@aflc.org  .  Include a photo if you have one.

Our Daily Bread

The following is from Ingrid Giles web site and her current prayer letter.   The photo was taken in the trailer where they stayed in Texas.

The subject of the Sunday School lessons that I have been translating and teaching lately has been the Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread." At the same time, God has been teaching me to walk by faith, knowing that if I am doing His will, He will provide my needs.
Two weeks ago I knew that I had to leave the country to renew my visa. Since I couldn't afford to do that, I went to the immigration office in Zacatecas, and I called my lawyer; I did everything I could to avoid having to leave. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get out of it. I was faced with two choices: stay here illegally until I had the money to leave; or simply leave, knowing that God wanted me to obey the law and He would provide the means. I chose to honor and trust God.
My brother (who was in the same situation) and I bought our bus tickets to the border and left on a Saturday evening. We arrived at the border on Sunday morning and turned in our old visas.
Dave and Sharon Sachs, the managers of Melody Lane Christian Renewal Center at Texas Rose, picked us up at the bus station and brought us to the trailer where we would be staying. They graciously gave us a painting job to pay for our lodging while we stayed there. That first evening they took us out to eat, and on the way home they stopped at the grocery store and bought us fresh food that we wouldn't be able to get from the food shelf, such as fresh fruit, milk and eggs. On Monday morning they took us to the food shelf and we got plenty of cans of food for the week, including various fruit juices.
Sometime during the next week, we came back to our trailer after painting for the day, and we found more bags of groceries on our front step. The next day a man walked in to the clubhouse where we were relaxing, and said that he had some groceries for us. It turned out that they were the same people who had given us groceries the day before, but this time they had things that needed to be refrigerated, so they couldn't just leave them on our doorstep. They were a missionary couple who were staying at the same place for medical reasons. (Their names are Jim and Kathy; please pray for them.) They also invited us to eat with them a couple of times.
God provided our literal bread, as well as our place to stay for the ten days that we were there.
On Monday evening a week later, the groundskeepers finished our painting job for us. We wondered what we would do next. On Tuesday morning we got up and got ready to work, not knowing what job we would do. Just as we were ready, there was a knock on the door. A woman I had never seen before was standing there. They were missionaries who were staying in the same place, and had heard that we had no money to go back home. They offered us a ride as far as Monterrey (several hours down the road) and a place to stay for the night. "How soon are you leaving?" I asked her. "We are getting ready to go right now," was the reply. Danny and I prayed and talked it over. We had needed to stay at the border for ten days, and this "happened" to be the tenth day (by Mexican reckoning, although it was the ninth day by American reckoning). Daniel needed to stop at a store for one errand, and it "happened" that they intended to stop at Walmart on their way. And we had just finished the work that we had been given to do. It all seemed to be the timing of God. We thankfully accepted the offer. We said goodbye to people, and then it took us about half an hour to pack our bags, stuff as much of the food as we could into our already full bags, strip the beds, wash the dishes, take out the garbage, return the library books... move out. Before we left, the managers gave us money.
The people who gave us the ride are Mark and Vickee Bennett, who live in a small town in the mountains near Monterrey. We had good conversation with them. We got to their home in the late afternoon, and in the evening they took us to the place where they are building a new house. It is in a most picturesque village, where all the houses are built into the side of the mountain and one person's front door might be higher than the next-door neighbor's roof. The view from the porch is so beautiful that I gasped when I saw it. I just stood there for a few minutes, and my soul felt refreshed. That was like another gift from God. He was supplying more than our physical needs on this trip that we took by faith.
The next morning they took us to the bus station in Monterrey and they also gave us "a little money for the road." We are thankful for their generosity and hospitality, and for taking the time to go all the way into the city of Monterrey to leave us at the bus station. We got home that night at about 9:30. I was surprised when we unloaded the canned food that we had brought back with us. How did so much fit in our bags if they had been full to begin with? It reminded me of the scene in Mary Poppins where she is unpacking and draws large items out of her handbag, such as lamps and things that could not possibly have fit in it. I think that was another miracle.
God truly provides our daily bread.
On Sunday he provided even more, through a woman at church who gave us a bag of groceries.
God is so good! Just think what blessings we would have missed out on if we had thought we couldn't travel until we had the money! At the very least, we would have missed out on meeting some new friends. When we honor Him and walk in His will, He truly does provide our every need "according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Praise the Lord!

_____________________________

Prayer

Please (requests):

• Pray for my mom and dad as they help my grandparents and adjust to their new life.
• Pray for a safe trip for my parents in the last week of this month, and for blessings on their visit here.
• Pray for my continued health.
• Pray that women would come to the Thursday Bible Study.
• Ask God to continue to provide Daniel and Marcela's financial needs. 
• Please continue to pray for Claudia Gamboa and her kids, and Nena and her kids.
• Pray for God's guidance for me and the World Missions Committee as I continue the process of applying to be a full-term missionary.
• Pray that God would give me the words and phrases necessary to do the best possible job of translating this Sunday School material so that it will be clear to children from all over the Spanish-speaking world.  Also pray that God would use these lessons to speak to the children and teachers who use them.
• Pray that I'd do a good job as Sunday School teacher and superintendent.
• Ask God to help me be diligent and spend my time wisely.  Also ask Him to help me live and do all that I do in a way that honors and glorifies Him.

Thank you (praise):

• I have been healthy.
• Claudia Arcos is continuing to seek God and follow Him.
• Nena is trying to follow God.
• God has been miraculously providing my every need, and has been teaching me to follow Him closely. 
• I get to live with Daniel, Marcela, Ari and Andi, and see them every day!
• God truly blessed our trip to the border, giving us food, shelter, fellowship, emotional refreshment and a ride for part of the way back.
• My parents will visit soon!  I'm looking forward to it!

Sincerely,

Ingrid Giles