Just as the apostle Paul heard the Macedonian call, we are also deeply thankful to the Lord of the harvest for those that heard the Mexican call and have come over to help us in 2014. Timothy and Amy Turkington (3 year-old daughter, Sofia) were commended from the Barbula assembly on the northern end of Valencia, in Venezuela, and have settled into the work in Cancun, on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was becoming increasingly difficult for David, and Penelope Alves to make the weekly, eight- hour drive from Ciudad del Carmen to Cancun. Since December 2012 there was a group of about twenty believers anxious to learn, and earnest prayer was being made that God would send permanent help. A rented house is used for the meetings here and it did not take this couple long to find another rented house to use as living quarters and get to work. A Sunday School was Timothy and Amy Turkington (3 year-old Sofia) started and new contacts are being made. The Turkingtons are also reaching out to relatives of SPRING/SUMMER 2014 ISSUE 164 Type to enter text Mexico - New Workers in 2014 David R. Alves, Sr.
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Just as the apostle Paul heard the Macedonian call, we are also deeply thankful to the Lord of the harvest for those that heard the Mexican call and have come over to help us in 2014.
Timothy and Amy Turkington (3 year-old daughter, Sofia) were commended from the Barbula assembly on the northern end of Valencia, in Venezuela, and have settled into the work in Cancun, on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was becoming increasingly difficult for David, and Penelope Alves to make the weekly, eight-hour drive from Ciudad del Carmen to Cancun. Since December 2012 there was a group of about twenty believers anxious to learn, and earnest prayer was being made that God would send permanent help. A rented house is used for the meetings here and it did not take this couple long to find another rented house to use as living quarters and get to work. A Sunday School was
!!!!!!
Timothy and Amy Turkington (3 year-old Sofia)
started and new contacts are being made. The Turkingtons are also reaching out to relatives of
SPRING/SUMMER 2014 ISSUE 164 ! ! !
Type to enter text
Mexico - New Workers in 2014
David R. Alves, Sr.
the believers that live in a small town called Nicolas Bravo, a four-hour drive to the southwest of Cancun, not far from the border with the country of Belize. They also drive west for four hours to the small Mayan town of Paraiso, on the outskirts of the vast city of Merida. So far, two very faithful couples, with their young families, are the core of the work. There is a children’s work and gospel meeting every Saturday that they help with. Please remember to pray for them on their long ride home through rather solitary territory, back to Cancun every Saturday night.
Leonel and Iemy Chavez & daughters, Jarisdy and Shyla
Leonel and Iemy Chavez (two young teen-age daughters, Jarisdy and Shyla) were commended to full-time service by the Spanish-speaking West Phoenix assembly in Arizona. They were fruit of the first series of meetings that John Dennison and Shad Kember had in Spanish. Their growth was impressive and Leonel, who was one of the overseers, is sorely missed. They have settled in Guasave, north of Mazatlan, in the state of Sinaloa. Shad Kember and others had worked hard here, and in other towns not far from this city, for several months, and a rented
hall was opened for meetings in December of 2013. The Chavez family were not long in the country when they travelled nine hours to their native state of Chihuahua, with Shad Kember, to visit unsaved relatives in the small town of El Vergel. God worked in a remarkable way and eight souls professed faith in Christ. Please remember this dear couple in the huge leap of faith they have made to reach their own people.
Anderson and Maria Eugenia Hernandez & son Timothy.
!Anderson and Maria Eugenia Hernandez (3 year-old son Timothy) are another Venezuelan couple commended to Mexico. They were commended from the Calle Sucre assembly in Puerto Cabello, where Sidney and Eleanor Saword were in fellowship for some sixty years. The Hernandez have settled in Chihuahua and are working very closely with Gilberto and Alicia Torrens (teen-aged daughter, Anagabriela) in Chihuahua city, the capital of Mexico’s largest state. They were greatly encouraged early in their experience in this country when they
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accompanied the Torrens to visit a couple in a city, two hours drive away, called Ciudad Delicias. A middle-aged couple there had done something remarkable in a year previous. They had read in the newspaper of a model of Noah’s ark that David Smith was showing in Chihuahua city. Exactly a year later the Hernandez and the Torrens were thrilled to hear the couple tell how they had finally understood their need of Christ as Saviour!
Please continue to pray for James and N e l l y D y c k a n d family, especially t he i r young son , J o s i a h , ( p i c t u r e d above) who is being treated for leukemia. We miss them very much in Mexico. We really missed them all at the second annual
conference in Santiago Ixcuintla at the end of June. Jesse and Emily Klein (2 year-old daughter, Anaya) and the local believers worked very hard at putting on a lovely conference enjoyed by all. God is still on the throne, and He will remember His own.
We earnestly covet your continued prayers for Mexico!
HORIZONS At Home and Abroad!
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NOTE ADDRESS CHANGES: !The unit number above, in the G.P.F. address, has changed to # 380. Also the address for Horizons magazine has changed, as of July, 2014. See page 12. !A further change to Horizons webpage will be announced soon. !CONTENTS ! ISSUE No. 164 ! !MEXICO - New Workers in 2014 David R. & Lois Alves —————————1 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico E-mail: [email protected] !
!Lezha, ALBANIA !Enris & Sylvia Nase ——————————6 E-mail: [email protected] !!Dar-es-Salaam, TANZANIA !Robert & Ruth Armstrong ——————— 9!!ANGOLA!Samuel & Elizabeth Simonyi-Gindele — 10!Cx P 12, Saurimo, Lunda-Sul, Angola!Tel + +244 940053058 Skype sgangola !E-mail [email protected] !!Dominica, WEST INDIES !Ken and Doris Taylor ———————— 12!937 Burwash Landing!Kanata, ON, Canada, K2W OC8!!Burleigh Heads, AUSTRALIA John & Olive McDowell P.O. Box 55, Burleigh Heads, QLD 422, Australia [email protected] !Clive Barber, who has been labouring in the Gospel in Australia and New Zealand for a number of years, has graciously accepted responsibility for the erection and maintenance of the Gospel verses displayed on the highways in Australia. His address is: P.O. Box 12 Cooroy, Queensland, Australia, 4563 Email [email protected] +61425742525
Xalapa, MEXICO Timothy & Jenna Stevenson [email protected] I was saved by God’s grace at the age of twenty-four and called to the work in Mexico, eight months later whilst attending a conference in Larne, N. Ireland. After a two-month visit in 2010, a letter of commendation was received the following year by my home assembly in Ballykeel. Arriving in Guadalajara, Mexico, on April 8th 2011, I was met by Paul & Barb Thiessen at the airport, on an early Saturday morning, along with the disturbing thought in my heart, “You didn’t buy a return ticket!”
After eight months attending Spanish classes and hacking my way through the dense jungle of verbs, December found me back in N.
Ireland to sign a marriage document. My new wife accompanied me to Mexico on January 6th 2012 where language studies where concluded for both of us, along with learning more about the Mexican culture. Early December 2012 until June 2013, we worked in Merida and with a few Christians in a Mayan village called Paraiso. It wasn’t quite “paradise,” but many lessons were learned as we sought to strengthen the work there and commence a new work in Merida.
Timothy Stevenson
We arrived in the city of Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz State, on June 18th to commence a work. We have been holding weekly meetings in a rented building near the city centre, on the same street as one of the biggest R.C. chapels in the city. Until this year few people were attending the hall but, after five weeks of Gospel meetings during January and February, the numbers increased and God was pleased to bless
His Word. We have had the joy of seeing a few brothers and sisters in Christ obeying the Lord in baptism. We continue with weekly meetings, teaching a group of ten to twelve baptized believers “the Apostles Doctrine” as we rejoice to see convictions forming in their redeemed hearts. We are slow to learn that the salvation of a soul and the resulting convictions regarding the “local Church” are completely the work of God and His gracious Holy Spirit.
One aspect we enjoy the most is making weekly visits to nearby towns for tract distribution and open-air work. Many sit around under the shadows of crumbling chapels, held together by a new coat of paint, while we “let out” the light of God’s Word which illuminates darkened souls, praying for days of revival in this needy land. Circumstances continually reveal our lack of faith, whilst our failures and frailties do not ever seem to be lacking. However, the faithfulness of our God has not failed, both during the occasional mountaintop experiences of life, and the more often valleys in between.
For your prayers: Plans are to visit Merida and Paraiso next month for some Gospel and ministry meetings. Lastly, our desire is to see the formation of an assembly here in Xalapa, a city of approximately four-hundred-and-fifty-thousand souls. “And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” Romans 10:14-15.
Special Prayer Request !Santa Maria, BRAZIL John & Christine McCann, Jr. [email protected] !Many of you have been praying over the past two weeks for our daughter, Rebecca. She was on a short holiday with a friend in Majorca, on May 12th, when she suffered a cerebral
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haemorrhage and was admitted to intensive care. Christine and I flew from Brazil to be with her and over the past two weeks have been here in Majorca, where there is no assembly nor assembly believers. God has been good and, through the prayers of His people, we have seen Rebecca make some recovery. A second cerebral angiogram is planned for July 2nd where a camera is passed into her brain to examine the present condition of the site of the original haemorrhage. The results of this will mean either an operation on her brain or, if all is found to be well, doctors will allow us to fly with her, home to N. Ireland. We all long that this may be the outcome and would highly value the prayers of those on the forum, to this end. God is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Ephesians 3:20. !Update: July 6, 2014 As promised, I want to send this final message to all of you who have prayed for us over these difficult weeks. We safely arrived in N. Ireland this afternoon. Early this morning those precious words, “Underneath are the everlasting arms,” came home with freshness. With that promise in our minds, we left for the airport and faced a flight, knowing that God would undertake. Rebecca felt weak and I know it was as much as she could do to keep cheerful. She felt pressure in her head and a slight headache but, when she arrived safely in Belfast, she was happy that a wheel chair was there to take her right to the car. She is sleeping in her room right now and certainly needs plenty of rest. Tomorrow we have an appointment with her GP whom we hope will organize the referral to the Neuro Unit in the Royal Hospital in Belfast. Your prayers for a full recovery are valued and thanks again for your support in prayer. !
!El Vigia, VENEZUELA Paul & Daphne Chapman [email protected] !We should keep you up-to-date with a few requests from this small part of the great harvest field. Sunday night was the final night of seven weeks of Gospel meetings in the hall here in El Vigia. We thank the Lord for the desire of the believers to have and support this effort to reach others for Christ. Those who we mentioned in our last letter, who professed during the meetings, continue to show evidence of life in Christ, so continue to pray for them. We requested prayer for a number of teenage girls who continue to attend the class at our house in Monte Verde. We are delighted that Milagros told Moises that she was saved the other night at home, so pray for this thirteen-year-old friend of Joseline who was saved last year also. !This Saturday and Sunday will be the presentations for the two classes, as we decided to finish them to coincide with the school year. It will be the first in the hall, so we trust a good number of parents will be present to see their children participate and hear the Gospel. !At the conference in Merida, I purpose having a week of ministry beforehand. They have not had a conference for four years, due to a large number getting very ill from badly prepared food, so they wanted to make some alterations to the hall before holding it again. !On the 20th of July, is the annual ministry meeting at La Villa del Rosario, Colombia. They usually have a week of ministry before, as well. !We have seen the Lord’s hand already in the purchase of cement and blocks for the continuation of the construction of the hall. On first inquiry there were no blocks or cement available, with a possible fifteen-day waiting
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period, even for the truck to be loaded. The following Monday I was able to buy four hundred blocks, so they sold me ten bags of cement as well. Erika has two uncles in Santa Barbara with hardware shops, and she has gone twice to beg them to sell her some, so we now have a total of thirty-eight bags. They have promised her some more this week, so she has to be there at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow to see what she can get. Santa Barbara is an hour away, which means I then have to go and collect it in our vehicle. We are considering finishing a toilet upstairs in the back section, so we can knock down the block storage hut and work freely on the toilet block downstairs. All midweek night meetings are now being held in the hall. !
The Hall in El Vigia !
! We made the trip to Colombia last Friday to buy the items we cannot easily obtain here. It is so common to see large queues outside the supermarkets and stores, waiting all day in the hot sun to buy the necessary items when they are available. This must be the “happiness of Cuba” the president promised the people. !Lutsk, UKRAINE Timothy & Rhoda Sloan sloanukraine@hotmail,co.uk The war rages in the east of Ukraine with official figures standing at over five-hundred deaths.
Continue to pray that peace will soon be restored to this troubled land. While terrorists and separatists face the Ukrainian army with weapons supplied by Russia, we, in the west of Ukraine, are enjoying our 11th summer conference in Lutsk. Rhoda and I rent accommodation for eight days and provide free transportation, accommodation and meals for one-hundred-and-two believers and unbelievers. We are privileged to have our brothers Max McLean and Doug Yade this year. Each day we have one ministry meeting, two Gospel meetings and one children's meeting. We are enjoying the Lord's blessing and presence. !Due to the war in the east, Rhoda and I were asked by the local authorities to help the refugees pouring into our area. We have offered to house a family of eight and, along with them, will provide clothing, food and everyday items for five other families, as long as the war lasts. Why do we do it? In N.T. times, persecution was the way of spreading the Gospel. Today it is not the refugees who are preaching but God who is sending them into our area for us to reach them with the Gospel. We show kindness to win them to Christ. What a privilege if God would save them and that, after the war, they would go back into the east of Ukraine with the Gospel. Please continue to pray. !
In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 Lezha, ALBANIA Enris & Sylvia Nase [email protected] !I am really pleased that we were able to print all the panels for the Bible exhibition at the beginning of June and had the first showing for
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two evenings in a civic centre of a small town in the north of Albania! We had a good number of visitors and some high school teachers who asked more questions relating to the Gospel and spiritual things. We have already another booking for this coming weekend with the assembly in Lezha and further requests for later in the year. Please join us as we praise the Lord that the exhibition has now been realized and for prayer that this tool might be greatly used by the Lord in the salvation of precious souls. !The way we see obstacles in our life determines the way we face them. If we consider them as problems, we approach them as defeated. But if we consider them as challenges, we look for ways to overcome them and are not defeated by the extent of them. Overall, the Lord Jesus calls us to take courage: He has already overcome the world and all the obstacles we face in it! !We trust that this update will encourage you to join us as we give thanks to God for what He is doing and to pray for the furtherance of His Kingdom. !Assembly and Outreach This month our little assembly will celebrate its third birthday. We have gone through many challenges but the Lord has given us many victories. Although we would like to see more involvement of the Christians, we are thankful for how some give of their time and effort to serve the Lord. For several months I have been ministering on a Thursday evening in the assembly, on the book of Acts of the Apostles. This is the first time that we are studying this book and are going in some depth, considering the life and ministry of the apostles and how they acted when faced with different challenges. For us it is very applicable: first generation Christians, a first generation mission worker, commencement of an assembly and here in ancient Illyricum! !
We continue with special events around special times such as Christmas, Easter, Independence Day and other occasions that arise and almost always have some new faces. With Christmas becoming more and more of a national event here, we see it our duty to share with others the real meaning of it: The great mystery of godliness: God was manifested in flesh. !We had a youth team for a week, led by Stevie and Jude Rogers. The assembly had a great time of fellowship with them and the schedule for outreach and other activities was rather full. We were in several areas of Tirana and in the students’ campus to give out tracts, make contacts and invite them to a special outreach night just before the team left. It was great to see more than fifty present that evening and to have many good conversations after the Gospel was presented clearly by Stevie. They enjoyed some good Northern Irish food brought by the girls and made by Sylvia. Many expressed the desire to come to our meetings and one of the student girls has been coming since – even to our children’s meeting! !The numbers are steady at the children’s meeting and it is great how they not only remember the stories from week to week but understand more of the Person behind the stories, the Lord Jesus and the salvation He offers. Seeing the need for more fellowship and quality time together, among the youth from our own assembly and the one we were in when we initially came to Albania, we have been having them to our home every month. We started this more sporadically last year but they really enjoy it and we feel it is vital, for their spiritual life, to have Christian friends and to share their experiences. !Prison Ministry The visits in prison continue well. We have just recommenced a new session of English classes following some difficulty obtaining a neutral venue in which to meet and a change in prison
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authorities, though we had been going from cell to cell during this time. The classes are preceded by a Gospel message and currently we have twenty inmates subscribe. We have also been helping approximately thirty families, connected to the inmates, by sending them parcels of food and other items for practical use, such as wood for burning during the winter months. !Please continue to pray that the Lord might intervene with salvation and that they may understand clearly the work and Person of Christ. Jehovah witnesses are visiting the prison now and trying to sow their cultic teachings. !The Bible exhibition is done and just waiting to be printed. There is an invitation to have it on display and the hosting assembly is currently considering the venue and other logistical matters. It is much later than what we had hoped, owing to the graphic designer having to postpone the deadline several times but we are looking forward to seeing the final results. !Publication A further Emmaus course has been translated and is waiting to be proofread, adding to the curricula of correspondence courses available in Albanian.
The Bible exhibition !
There has been further activity also on our evangelistic website with some Muslims approaching and inquiring more about the Bible and the Lord Jesus. At the moment I am proofreading “The Death of a Guru.” We expect to have the author of the book in Tirana in September, D.V., so the plan is to have the book ready to give out and arrange some other nights of Gospel meetings at that time, with other speakers. !Three leaflets written and published by us in the past have been reprinted and given out in the south of the country. The brother who requested them encouraged me to write more Gospel tracts in order to increase the variety available here. At the moment I do not have the time but it is in our hearts to do more at some stage.
Xhoana and Marijan
Children’s Home In our last update we presented the situation of two teenage girls who have faced many challenges in their lives, one due to biological family rejection and the other one who was at risk of being trafficked. We are very pleased to say that the Lord has been faithful once again in
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answering the prayers of His people: both of them have been adopted by Christian families in the US! The first one, Xhoana, has left already and been adopted by the same family who adopted another child from the home a few years ago. We pray that the transition period might be smooth for both of girls and their new families. !The renovation project for the old house will take place at the beginning of June, D.V. At the end of it we hope to have a nice flat for hosting visitors or for a replacement couple who feel called to take this work over from Marijan. A young couple, who have recently got engaged, have expressed their interest in coming to help at the home, after their marriage. Please pray for this matter and the continuation of the work. !Family and Various I continue to get invitations from several assemblies throughout Albania. It is good to visit them, to renew fellowship, and encourage them to continue steadfastly in faith. !Sylvia has just returned from a one-day retreat for the ladies in Durres where she was invited to take the opening session. There were over one-hundred ladies present and the time spent together was beneficial to the sisters as they encouraged one another. Marijan was also invited to give an update on the work of the home in Gjirokaster. Enris & Sylvia Nase The children are well and looking forward to the summer holidays. The International Christian School, where Luke now goes, is looking for replacement teachers. This is a challenge every year as many come for short-term only. If you are a teacher and have a burden for this work, please feel free to contact us. !Once again we take this opportunity to thank you all for being part of the work here by
Enris & Sylvia Nase !encouraging us, praying for us and supporting us in every way. We really appreciate your fellowship with us and are grateful to God for you all. “We thank our God upon every remembrance of you.” (Phil 1:3). !Dar-es-Salaam, TANZANIA Robert & Ruth Armstrong robert&[email protected] !I continue to make visits to Tanzania, as the Lord leads, going for about three-and-a-half-weeks at a time, (that is long enough when you are on your own), and it gives four weekends with the assembly. The last two visits were started mid-November 2013 and mid-March 2014. During November, I worked with Emmanuel, to translate into Swahili an English tract called “The Cross” which I had picked up at an assembly I visited in N.E. England. With a slight adaption, the tract read well in Swahili and we ordered ten-thousand copies from a printer the day before I left. I had to wait until the next visit to see the finished article. We are in touch with the believers every week via the internet and last week Emmanuel told me the ten-thousand tracts are nearly depleted as he has been distributing them on Saturday afternoons when he is off work, so we are pleased to be ordering some more. !
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In March I was again able to visit and encourage the saints there and try to finish checking the translation of some books. It was good to meet Hamida, a former Muslim, who had trusted Christ as her Saviour. She had been given some of the translated copies of the Focus books by a member of the assembly who lived nearby. When she read them she phoned him as she wanted to know more and he explained the way of salvation. In February she was baptized in the sea and brought into fellowship. When being interviewed by the elders, she was asked if she was afraid of what her family would think of her getting baptized. She replied, “I am more afraid of disobeying God.” Please pray for Hamida. She had just qualified as a teacher and shortly after our visit was moved by the government to a job in the Singida region, over three-hundred miles away. This is near her home, but far from the assembly. The believers in Dar would like to get her relocated back to the city, but in the meantime we pray that she will be able to witness to others about her Saviour. !The last visit also coincided with unusually heavy rain, resulting in power cuts and limiting the opportunity to distribute tracts. However, profitable time was spent working on translation. The two simple commentaries in Swahili that we mentioned before, Happy in Prison (Philippians) and Love in Harvest (Ruth), are now ready to be made into prototype books and posted back to the believers for reading and checking. We have recently discovered that we could pay professional readers to do checking, but we would rather use the believers in the assembly as they understand the spiritual concepts being taught and it gives them some “ownership” in the books. When the books are printed, they feel part of the work. In discussion with the believers, we now think it will be better to put all the Focus books into one book, with each book making one chapter. We value your prayers for the Lord’s help and guidance in this important work.
The assembly continues on faithfully but the lack of a suitable meeting place does cause problems. It may appear picturesque to some that they meet under a tree but it does have its difficulties, especially when it rains! The wind blows notes away and, when the grass is long, the mosquitoes are plentiful. !
! Believers under the tree, chatting after
the Lord’s Supper. !The area has to be rented and the chairs transported to and from the grounds by taxi each week. While the assembly is happy to meet together, it is proving very challenging to invite others. We have encouraged them to see what other options are available, but there is a major building boom and property in the city is being snatched up at an unbelievable rate and at increasing prices. On more than one occasion, owners of empty premises have refused even to negotiate when they hear what the property is intended to be used for. The assembly would value prayer that the Lord will guide them and also overrule that they may find a place of His choosing. !In Northern Ireland, over the past months, we have been mostly involved with children’s work. We had great joy recently when, at the end of a children’s meeting in Belfast, a girl of nine told us she had trusted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour. The assembly there has been active in following
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up, but, as she is from a “broken home,” it is not easy. !During the latter part of the Easter week we shared with George Matthews (evangelist from India) in three days of meetings in a hotel at Trim, County Meath, in conjunction with the Rathmines and Longford assemblies. Those who attended were mostly from the Kerela region of India, so we had curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Each morning we had two sessions with the children, when we studied simple lessons from the tabernacle. Another children’s meeting was held mid-afternoon when adults and children attended, and a gospel meeting at night. On the final evening, approximately one-hundred-and-thirty-five were present. Now we are preparing for a number of special children’s meetings over the summer months, D.V. !Saurimo, Lunda-Sul, ANGOLA Samuel & Elizabeth Simonyi-Gindele Cx P 12, Saurimo, Lunda-Sul, Angola [email protected]!!It is a joy to be writing finally from Camandumbala, Angola, a testimony to God’s faithful care in bringing us this far. I will give a brief history of our adventures since leaving Zambia, as well as requests for prayer. !On March 22nd I flew alone from Lusaka, Zambia, to Luanda, Angola, to pick up our vehicle that had been waiting there for the past ten months. I had the privilege of driving Ruth Hadley (UK missionary) back to Saurimo from Luanda the following week, and then we travelled on to Chavuma, with her driving her Land Rover for that portion as well, to help bring our family back into Angola. Our last Sunday in Chavuma was special, as we witnessed the baptism of eight young people in the Zambezi river and I had the opportunity to preach the gospel and explain the meaning of
baptism. Paul and Eunice Poidevin very generously lent us their large 3.5 ton trailer to haul our goods, so we loaded that, along with our one ton trailer, to bring some of our old household items and furniture back to Saurimo. It proved to be quite a journey, lasting thirty-six hours for Elizabeth and the three youngest children and forty-eight hours for the two older boys and me (including six hours of sleep and ten hours of delay at the side of the road, due to a breakdown in our towing apparatus). !I made a second trip in May, with Brian Howden’s (UK) help, again using the two trailers. The dry season had come so the trip was reduced to eighteen hours of driving on the way out, with all the wet and muddy places easily passable now. We managed to fit almost all of our remaining items in Chavuma, on the trailers. !I finally made a third trip to Zambia, with our three older boys, to return the trailer to the Poidevins. While there, we enjoyed fellowship with dear friends in Dipalata, the Speichingers. On our return journey, we spent a couple of days in Chilombo, Angola, over the Lord’s day, with Mutondo and Florence Masaha (Zambian missionaries to Angola) and the saints there. It is a place I used to visit regularly while we lived in Zambia and it continues to have a very special place in our hearts. We had helped in the construction of their “gospel hall” in years past, but never had opportunity to be in it for a meeting. On reaching Saurimo, it was good to have a break from the ardour of travel, as in six weeks our vehicle had travelled more than seven- thousand kilometres, mostly with a large trailer behind! We are thankful to have a reliable vehicle that can cope with the roads here. !Over the last weeks we have given most of our time to the challenges of living in a new place and adjusting to life here. Ruth Hadley has been a tremendous help and guide and we thank the
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Lord for her. We are surprised by how different life is here, than in Zambia; our experience of life in Portugal has been helpful to see the effects of Portuguese culture in Angola. Although ended over a decade ago, the war still has a tremendous effect on how Angolans live and function. !We have been attending an assembly about ten kilometres away from where we are temporarily staying, called Sassamba; we chose to attend there rather than the local village assembly as the meetings are in Portuguese with translation to Chokwe. After being so many months in Zambia, with limited use of Portuguese, it is good to hear it spoken and have opportunity to use it with the believers there. We recently enjoyed a visit from the elders of that assembly, who came to where we are staying to encourage us, bringing a gift of flats of pop, bananas, potatoes, and two roosters! !I have just started assisting in a clinic run by the assemblies in Saurimo and it is interesting to see the medical needs here. While there are hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies and even private clinics, most of them are too expensive for a normal Angolan to access and those that are affordable have minimally trained personnel and few supplies. Please pray that I will be able to get through the rather complicated process of obtaining a medical licence so I can help more freely in treating patients and training the nurses who work in four assembly-run clinics in this province. !We are looking forward to the arrival of Jonathan Singleton (UK) in Saurimo tomorrow. He has come to install a water tower, running water, and sewer into the home, (once George and Ena Wiseman’s) we hope to occupy, in a place called Biula. The house will need an extension added on eventually to make it big enough to accommodate our family. Ruth
Hadley has done a lot of fixing of it already with Jonathan’s help, for which we are thankful. !Biula is about three hours drive from Saurimo, in Lunda-Sul province. It is a village with a small assembly, medical clinic, and school, but is central and should prove to be a good base to reach out in this part of Angola. It is in Chokwe-land so will need to start learning Chokwe now. !Please continue to pray for us. The account above may sound like a grand adventure, and it has been, but there has been much stress on our family with another move, more tearful good-byes, and a lot of work and time still on the horizon till we have a “home.” Establishing a home is our priority, especially for the sake of our children. Like Paul in 2nd Cor. 1:8-11, we are pushed beyond our strength so that we have to rely on God’s strength, and are finding that the prayers of God’s people are vital. Dominica, WEST INDIES Ken & Doris Taylor 937 Burwash Landing Kanata, ON, Canada, K2W OC8 !Doris and I are thankful to the Lord for enabling us to be involved in a number of aspects of service over the past three months. We enjoyed a good visit to Dominica, West Indies, during late March and April and had the joy of visiting three assemblies to share with the believers in ministry and gospel. During our second week, we had combined ministry meetings for the Christians of the five assemblies, in which I took up the subject of the inspiration and reliability of the scriptures. There was excellent attendance on the part of the saints and a few unsaved. !It was gratifying to be able to renew contact with a number of unsaved people that we have gotten to know over the years, and pass out gospel texts and wallet calendars in the open market and streets of Roseau. A number of people from Haiti
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have immigrated to Dominica since the devastating earthquake in the Port au Prince area in 2010. The Haitians have taken advantage of the opportunity to farm the hilly, fertile soil of the island and market their produce. We were happy to be able to give some of the gospel texts and materials that we had printed for outreach in Haiti, to Haitians now living in Dominica. !The saints of the Ottawa River Road assembly held their annual conference over the May holiday weekend. A new and larger location was used this year, which met the needs of approximately one-hundred-and-fifty that were present. The Lord gave us an encouraging time of profitable ministry, faithful gospel preaching, and enriching Bible readings. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the will of the Lord I expect to join brother Larry Buote in a series of tent meetings in St. Donat, QC, an area where some of the Christians from the Ste. Flavie assembly live. July 9th is the starting date for this series. New contacts have been made and they are hoping that some of the unsaved members from their families will attend the meetings. We are going to be cast upon the Lord in a special way and appreciate your prayers. ________________________________
� !Panorama PO Box 39012 Unit 100 - 15157 56 Ave. Surrey, British Columbia,
