8 February 2012
Greetings from Luanshya!
We love bragging about our Lighthouse Family! Last week we told you about Nancy Chanda being selected as a prefect at Luanshya Girls High School. This past week she was elected as Youth Red Cross Chairlady for Luanshya District. Nancy has a servants's heart and it obviously shows! In addition, Andrew Silungwe (our youngest ward) was elected Student Body President at Luanshya Boys High School. Andrew is only an eleventh grade student so this is an extraordinary honour! Please pray for our young leaders! They represent not only their schools, but us... and you as well!
The rains are unrelenting at present. Still, we must travel the roads between our home and our work. I made two trips this week to see Senior Chief Mushili of the Lamba Tribe. The Chief's "palace" is only 26 miles away, but it took over an hour to get there over roads that are in serious need of repair. Chief Mushili gave the new congregation in Mukolwe a very large plot of land for a chapel and the leaders of the church needed to go and officially accept and thank the chief. They gathered a few things as gifts and we contributed several Christian books for the Chief's personal library. He is a devout Christian and enjoys good literature. Though his eyes are failing, he has someone to read to him. He was very appreciative. He also enjoyed the calendar we gave him with our picture on it. He has known Sherry for over 20 years and said he would look at "his daughter" every day. Please praise the Lord with us for this gift and pray for Chief Mushili. He suffered a stoke some time ago. He is getting stronger, but he admitted to me that age was catching up with him.
Word has spread about the Mukolwe work and three other rural communities have asked us to start Bible studies with them. I explained that there are only so many Sundays in a month so we will need to meet on a weekday. I have spoken to Bro Simwanza and asked him to liaise with members of those villages to determine the best time for he and I to go there. These are all farming communities so they are in their fields every morning at first light. They are generally home by early afternoon so we can have Bible studies from about 2 until 6 pm. Please pray for this expanding ministry and for the transportation needs that they will require! With fuel at $6.25 per gallon and a 13-year-old Sportage that has clocked 160,000 miles, there are challenges to an expanding work.
Sherry continues with the ladies' meetings on Thursday, youth meetings on Friday and the Bible Correspondence School throughout the week. Last week there were almost as many babies as there were ladies at the Bible Study. Last week's lesson was "Hope Beyond Division: Reasons for Puling Together" (1 Peter 1:22-1:3) and tomorrow's lesson is "Hope Beyond Guilt: Becoming Living Stones" (1 Peter 2:4-12). In the Youth Class last week they studied the life of Job. Everything was taken away from him and his most of his friends gave him really poor advice. It was the youngest of his friends that reminded him to "Look up to God." The analogy that Sherry shared was our ministry shortly after we were married. It seemed that almost everything we had done was taken away from us, but God had to remove the old to make room for the new. The Lighthouse children were in the room and realised that God had made provision for them to find love and care by placing us in a position to find them. We know that there are no mistakes in God's plan.
We have seen the hand of God in His work this week. Thank you for praying for us as we remain...
Sincerely in His Service,
Patrick & Sherry
Patrick & Sherry Coleman
P O Box 90010
Luanshya,
Zambia
Off: 260 212 512359/512539
Res: 260 212 510033
Cell (P): 260 966 780113
Cell (S): 260 966 780112
