News from Zambia - 11th May 2005

Greetings from Luanshya!

During the month of April the Source of Light program was incredibly
fruitful. We distributed 429 lessons, corrected 404, issued 35
certificates of completion and enrolled 23 new students. The biggest
problem we had is that we ran out of the first lesson in a number of the
series and cannot enrol new students. Please pray for the quick arrival
of these lessons so those who are seeking to enrol will have that
opportunity. Also during the month of April there were 182 people
utilizing the Christian Resource Centre. This does not include the very
small children who come in to read the children's books either before or
after school. We are excited about this aspect of the ministry as we
reach into homes where we may not otherwise be welcome.

This coming Friday Sherry will end her series on "To Walk and Not Grow
Weary" with the College and Career group. The final study is on
"Barnabas-Encouraging Others". Once this series concludes the group will
begin looking at the book of Daniel focusing on "Spiritual Living in a
Secular World."

Monday afternoon I had a very interesting conversation with a young man
who came into the office late in the day. He had a question about which
he had not received what he perceived as an acceptable answer. He has
met a girl...The pastor of his church has told him he needs to give the
relationship more time and not rush into making a commitment. The young
mans parents and the girl's parents agree with the pastor. The young man
was coming to me looking for an alternate answer that he could take back
to his parents and church leaders. He was very disheartened when I gave
him the same admonition. He is 22 and the girl is 19. Neither has
finished college and both want to go into a highly skilled profession.
Young people here are like young people everywhere. Patience is not a
priority, which is one of the reasons that we spend so much of our time
with the youth. They are, in fact, the hope of this nation and
ambassadors of the Lord Jesus. Please pray for A. He has a real desire
to serve the Lord but he needs to coordinate his plans with the will of
God and prepare for his sojourn here on earth.

This coming Sunday the children in the Sunday School will be studying
Ananias and Saphira. Pretence vs. "For Real" is the emphasis of the
lesson. When one chooses to serve God, motives must be pure. The
children will see how these two characters were not quite "honest" in
their stewardship. It will be interesting to hear the responses of the
children when asked, "Why did God take the lives of these people? Didn't
they give Him money?" The real question, of course, is integrity. Were
they honest about their gift or were they just showing off?

We appreciate your prayers as we continue to serve.

In His Service,
Patrick & Sherry