John Reinke wrote:
Greetings in Christ,
Thank you for all your prayers! I thank God we are safely here. I thank God Joseph and Pat are here to help teach (and send emails too - smile). I thank God for our Evangelists and leaders!
We have 12 now with us who are studying, 4 to be Pastors and 8 to be Evangelists. We have men from 4 different areas coming to learn God's Word and be willing to travel and teach. Class again is going great! We have some fantastic discussions, both in class and outside of class. We have breakfast together and many times our discussions go and go and go into the night.
Our main class material this time is typology. Seeing how the Old Testament is the bud and the New Testament is the flower. What things in the OT point to the NT. We also started computer training class today so they can hopefully send more work to us through email and we can have better follow up communication.
We have 4 of the men who are taking the full two weeks off. They will be the ones to share with the others all of the material after we have gone. The others are taking time off from work when they can and join us every night for 4 hours.
We are also hosting several other events these two weeks. One of the elders from the village came to see us on Tuesday. He wants us to go see the Chief - smile. We will go on Saturday afternoon. Please pray for God to bless this meeting. He informed us the Chief has agreed to include more land for the Deaf School. WOW A Note - one of the mothers of a deaf boy in Pat's class stopped to see us. She REALLY wants her son to be able to continue his schooling and is wondering when we will be ready to start.
The Elders from Holy Trinity (the Lutheran Church in Kumasi) met with the Deaf Elders on Thursday to discuss the plans for the School. I continue praying if this is God's Will then He will open the door - if not then He will stop the process. He continues to open doors. We will meet with the architect Sunday to go over the plans and prices. Then the Elders want to meet again before we leave.
Last night we met David Federwitz, one of the LBT (Lutheran Bible Translators) missionaries from the north. He and family are traveling back from Accra and stopped to see us and use our phone line to send last emails. They are from Wisconsin and taught in Rockford, Ill before becoming LBT missionaries. We shared with them some of our American "treats" - like red licorice, beef jerky, and soft toilet paper! It is the little things in life that give us joy - smile.
The man from AOL - Africa On Line was here. Did not have success in hooking up email at the house, but will be back tomorrow. Pray pray pray that he is able to make it work!!! God's will be done.
We are also hearing many of the challenges from the Evangelists and leaders. One of the biggest challenges that is coming against the Deaf is the JW, yes, Jehovah's Witnesses. There are "oburuni" (white) hearing people from American that are here and if you come to worship -- then we will give you money/food.
There are many Deaf who are being sucked into this trap from Satan. Because they know the law from the ancestor worship and the law they see from the churches, they do not see much difference. The Gospel??? Now you understand why one of our evening devotions was Jesus wept. (Now I am listening to the Muslim prayer temple announcing that it is time for their prayers.)
Thank you for all your prayers. I know we are only here because God guides you to support us. Please continue to pray for the Evangelists and the leaders here as they struggle against all the battles Satan in their path. I will be sharing with you a list of the Evangelists and leaders with some of their prayers so you can ask your members and families to pray for them.
Please pray also for our Deaf and for us to remain healthy. There are a few who have gotten sick. Happens here. So far our Dr. Kit has worked good. Please pray for our studies and meetings this week that God will bless us and guide us in His Way.
Serving Him Together,
Osofu Reinke