Movement Begins

Greetings from Luanshya!

The big news of the week is that the church that meets at Fellowship Chapel will officially moving to its own facility on Sunday. The movement of furniture and fixtures begins Thursday and should be completed by late afternoon.

There are a few finishing touches. The glass for the louver windows has not yet been cut though it was promised "faithfully" by mid-day today. I have been able to put the glass in one of the twenty windows but glass or no glass, we're moving. Another seemingly significant issue is the fact that the restrooms are not quite complete. This is, interestingly enough, one more promise is several days late. Everything that the plumbers need to complete the task is on site. All we really need is for the plumbers to show up on time ready to work. Hope reigns forever.

With the new facility, we have had a number of people in the community ask about attending services. One young child had a friend who came up to me yesterday and asked, "Dr. Coleman, is it okay if I come this coming Sunday?" I assured her that it was not only okay but I would be very pleased for her to come. Bring her friends and her parents. She was very pleased and we look forward to seeing several new faces. One of the fascinating aspects about the new building is that people are more inclined to come to a church that looks like a church rather than one that looks like a down town shop. Yes, we say that the church is not the building. However, we are dealing with generations of teaching that is not all biblical. Pray for us as we make his move.

Last week Patrick and Caroline Wood (Zambians), came into the Christian Resource Centre to see what we were all about. They were thrilled to learn that there was a reading room, sermon tapes to listen, and counseling available. All for FREE! They were even more astonished to learn that they could take correspondence Bible courses...for FREE! They eagerly enrolled and brought their first lessons home to the farm. Back home to the farm is over an hour away from Luanshya town centre. Yesterday, Patrick and Caroline visited with Sherry and turned in their first examinations. Behind them was their 9 year old son, Nathanael. He wanted to do Bible courses too. He went through the reading exercise to determine whether he was literate and passed with flying colors. You should have seen his face light up when he learned that he was going to school with mom and dad. Pray for the Woods as they sit as a family and study the Word of God.

For some months Sherry has employed a young lady to help her clean for a couple hours at the Christian Resource Centre. She is an orphan being cared for by her brother-in-law who is a Pastor in a local church in Luanshya.

This was more a situation of helping the orphan than having a decent cleaner but it allowed both the young lady and her guardian to feel like she was contributing to her own upkeep. Sadly, last week Sherry caught her stealing money from the office which was supposed to go toward groceries at the Lighthouse Children's Home. Initially, the young lady not only denied that she had stolen the money but swore on her "living God" that she had not touched the money. There was no one else in the building who could have done it. After giving her every opportunity to confess and return the funds, we were compelled to call the police who came and searched her. They money was found. We did not press charges but we did discharge her from her duties and informed her guardian. It is sad when those we help act irresponsibly. But, we have not turned our back on others who are in need and will continue to serve as God gives opportunity.

On a family note... Colin has been suffering form some serious headaches. It may be a combination of stress from learning Mandarin and not getting to eat his mother's great cooking, but the doctors have run several tests and have not found anything to have caused the headaches. Please keep him in you prayers as the doctors continue to probe and prod.

We appreciate your prayers in this ever challenging ministry.

In His Service,

Patrick & Sherry