"Handicapped"

Greetings from Luanshya!

Last Friday in Sherry's youth meeting, they talked about the Ultimate Family Reunion. For those of us who live thousands of miles away from family, visits become very special and are, sadly, all too rare. This is especially true as our children get older and grandchildren enter the picture. We do not get to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays or other holidays with our loved ones. When we are able to get together with them, those gatherings are extra special. Imagine the family reunion that Joseph had with his father after 20 years of separation-especially when Jacob thought his son was dead! Sharing this with the young people elicited a lively conversation.

We look forward to the day when we will have a family reunion with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ along with our friends and family members who have preceded us to heaven.

On Sunday we had a full schedule of activities. The men's Bible study continued as we looked at the life of Ehud, the left-handed assassin/judge.

The men were impressed by the clever plan that Ehud had devised to kill Eglon the King. They determined that one of the lessons learned from this study was that God could even use people who were "handicapped" by being left-handed. It is important to understand that culturally, in Africa, being left-handed is, indeed, a handicap. Eating with your left hand is entirely unacceptable. Handing something to another person with the left hand is considered an insult. They were pleased to note that God could use anyone in His service-even left-handed people.

Monday I began lecturing at the Bible Institute in Ndola. There are students from Zambia as well as Uganda and Tanzania. Students from Kenya were not able to attend due to the civil unrest in the country. Apparently, several of the students are actually from the trouble spots seen on the news. The students from Malawi were unable to come because their travel documents were not in order. Still, we have had a good series of lessons teaching four hours a day on New Testament Survey. The students range in age from 22 to nearly 50. The questions are almost constant as there are a lot of interesting philosophies being propagated in other parts of the continent.

The students have learned my favorite phrase-"The Bible says.". They have learned to preface their comments with that phrase and have discovered that biblical documentation is required. We are half-way through the week of this module and look forward to the final two days of the week. We are able to use some of the books that we have received from Everyday Publications in Canada as textbooks and resource material for the class. The students really do not have easy access to good books so these new additions to their personal libraries are nearly priceless to them. We appreciate those who have made that contribution possible.

As we continue to go through the week, there are so many other things that we could share, but space does not allow in one letter to express all that God has allowed us to do with the discipleship, Sunday School, Lighthouse Ministry, Correspondence work and on and on. Your support of our ministry makes all of this possible and we deeply appreciate those who have partnered with us in this work.

Together in His Service,
Patrick & Sherry