Dear Partner in Service,
When I was a boy this day – Abraham Lincoln’s birthday – was a school holiday. Lincoln was a favourite president of mine because he valued both education and freedom. Our work here in Africa for the last three decades has included just that: Educating people about the Freedom they have in Christ!
Last week one of the fathers in the English church came to me very excited because after the Sunday service that week his nephew, niece and daughter had received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. He was thrilled to lead these three young people to a saving knowledge of the Lord! He explained that they were all talking about the service and the question just came up naturally. It is always thrilling to see parents and guardians lead their children to salvation! All three will be baptised in two weeks. (We’ll send photos!)
We have had some interesting discussions in the men’s Bible study concerning the distinction between temptation and sin. Some were guilt ridden because they had been tempted. I explained that the Bible teaches that temptation is normal (sadly), but sin was when the temptation was followed up in either thought or action. We discussed the difference between “trials” and “temptations” as described in James 1. It is refreshing to hear the questions from both new and older Christians – and often challenging to find the right answer from God’s Word.
Ladies Bible study class continues. Currently, Sherry is bringing the class through a series on “Walking Alone”. This week they will be discussing restlessness and desperation. The focus will be that if we just realized that God’s design for us is to learn that sometimes we can’t have exactly what we want right when we want it, our restlessness for something different can be directed toward a desire to learn what God wants to teach us about his grace, which can sustain us through whatever he allows to come our way.
One of our youngsters from the Lighthouse Children’s Home – Andrew Silungwe – is in China studying engineering at the Shenyang Institute of Engineering in Liaoning Province. It is located over 1,100 miles from Wuhan, the epicenter of the Corona Virus outbreak, but the school and students are being very careful. They are all wearing masks and classes were even suspended for a few days to ensure that everybody was safe. There have been a few cases of the virus in the province, but none reported at the university. Please pray for Andrew and the other more than 2,000 Zambian students studying in China.
As we continue to serve we remember this poignant quote from Abraham Lincoln:
“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
