Lately I’ve been getting emails from some of you telling me how hot it has been and meanwhile here I sit in Bangui enjoying cool weather thanks to Rainy Season. I have also heard from people as they have been enjoying fresh strawberry season. We don’t have fresh strawberries here but we do have the world’s best pineapple. Take it from someone who used to live in Hawaii. The pineapple here is even better and you can’t beat the price of one – two dollars each.
June has been a good break before the business of July begins. Pastor Steve Taylor, Timothy Olson, and Paul & Jim Batton arrived with all their luggage and we have enjoyed having them over for several lunches and getting to know them better. We all headed down to Mbaiki this past Saturday to attend the graduation of ten new pastors and their wives. Due to the rain, the graduation that was going to be held outside had to be moved inside to one of the classrooms. Pastor Steve shared (with Dr. Hibaile translating) during the ceremony from the life of Moses and everyone walked away being encouraged.
I have a praise that I want to share with you. I have been hired to tutor Kevin who is an eight year old boy in English. I will go to his home twice a week starting July 6 and they are going to pay me 7,000 F ($15) an hour which I will put into my English account to keep my other English classes going. Just tutoring this one child will provide me with enough funds to keep my other English classes going and I didn’t have to raise extra ministry funds to do it with! If this job leads to some other tutoring jobs that I can do around my ministry here in Bangui then I can put those funds towards my support which is currently lacking by $7,330 a year. Since GBIM is encouraging us to think outside of the box when it comes to our support and ministry expenses I’m very pleased with how God has provided for this need.
Maybe God is leading you to also help meet my lack of support? All it takes is for twelve people who could give $50 a month or $600 a year or six who could give $100 a month or $1,000 a year. If you have been following my updates for long you will notice that I don’t usually mention my support need like I have this month. Recently I’ve been challenged by verses like James 4:2 that say, “You do not have because you do not ask.” I know that finical things are tough, so God may not be calling you to give, but others reading this update may say to themselves, “Hey I can do $50 a month.” It will only take twelve out of the over four hundred people who receive this update to take care of this need. If you have any questions or would like to talk with me more about this please hit reply.
July 2 we have the A.M.I Team arriving for one month and Ginger Hock returns on July 9. Ginger’s mom Betty continues to struggle with cancer. Please continue to pray for Ginger and her family during this time. Pray also for the AMI Team to have a good experience and that God may lead some of them to join us as full-time missionaries in the future. Pray for me as I start tutoring Kevin and that the Lord in His timing will meet my support need.
Have a wonderful July! We will join the US Ambassador and his wife at their residence for a reception on the 4th of July to celebrate. On July I will also celebrate a major birthday. I’ll give you a hint. Don’t send me any black balloons.
Heidi
