Learning and Growing

Greetings from Luanshya!

Last Sunday morning was great! The children in the Sunday School recited their memory verses for the last 13 weeks. Most of the children had been very involved in studying for their end of year school exams, but still managed to be able to do very well on their recitation. Nancy, one of the girls from the Lighthouse Home, quoted every scripture without mistakes. We are very proud of her progress. As a result of one of the Sunday School lessons, she comes to the library almost every day to read a few pages of "Dropping Your Guard" by Chuck Swindoll. When we look back at her situation five years ago, she was a completely different individual from today and we are grateful to those who had a part in that particular ministry involving her transformation. Please continue to pray for Nancy and the other children at the Lighthouse.

Speaking of the library...

Most classes in the government schools have closed so the grade 9 and 12 students can be taking their final exams in silence. Students have been coming to the library every day. As we type this letter there are seven young people in the library reading. Every few minutes there are students coming in to retrieve a lesson that they had completed some time back and are only now finding time to pick up. With temperatures soaring well above 100 degrees, the library tends to heat up quickly
especially with people moving around. Still, it is a comfortable place for young people to come and read and seek answers to questions that the average young person has. One question this morning from a young man concerned how does worship bring pleasure to God. I explained that any time we worship and praise the Lord it brings pleasure to the Father just as when our own children communicate with us. He seemed surprised that God would actually "feel" pleasure from His children until I
assured him that God created us in His own image and thus the emotions we experience He can also experience apart from sin.

Last month in the Source of Light Bible Correspondence School we enrolled seven new students. We distributed 192 lessons, corrected 190 lessons and awarded 25 certificates of completion. We have begun to be very careful about the younger students coming in wanting to enrol. They see big brother and sister taking the courses. They come in hoping to come in and "join" Mailbox Club. Unfortunately, many the students here that are in grade 5 and 6 cannot read even the most simple of the
booklets that are written for grade 1 students in the United States and Canada. Some of them have even memorized the first paragraph of the first book in an attempt to appear as if they could actually read the book. It is a shame that we cannot simply teach them all to read, but there are simply not enough hours in the day and we do not feel that it is feasible for us to close down one or two other ministries in order to start a reading program.

This coming Saturday is the big day for Claude and Petronella. Today is their final pre-marital counselling session. They will meet with us and discuss "Communication" and "Finances". They have already learned a lot of each other that they had not known prior to our sessions together. In the last session Claude spoke about why he loved Petronella and that he respected her as a person. She had never heard him verbalize these thoughts. As they left our office hand in hand, it was wonderful to note that we are having a part in their future. Pray for them as they enter this wonderful state of matrimony.

Thank you for allowing us to represent you and have a part in the livesof so many people in Zambia.


In His Service,
Patrick & Sherry