Prayer Paddling

After a weekend of rest in the city, we got to be towed on a new barge to the other side of the lake (Which took about 7 hours). We now have two barges which is great, but we still do not have access to the basketball barge. We received news today that we may get the basketball barge within the next two weeks, which is a huge answer to prayer but please continue to pray that the repairs for the last one will go smoothly. Last week, we had a team of 10 people from the Jersey Baptist Church that came to help us pray for the people here and paint the second barge. It was encouraging to have them come and invest their time serving with us.

In our afternoon English lessons, we are up to 16 students after having 3 new students join us. That is really exciting for us, especially because we know that people in the village are hearing about the English lesson and want to find out more about it. The kids have made great progress in their English too. When we got to the village the first time, all they could say was “hello” and some would say “lo-hi” instead. Now, the kids are able to ask “how are you?” and “how old are you?”  They are also learning their numbers, colors, common objects and actions. They are enjoying class a lot, and some of them have even volunteered to pray at the beginning and the end of our lesson. Three of them also joined us as we went to prayer paddling. They have been encouraging to us and we have enjoyed getting to know them better.
 

We have grown closer and closer to the teenagers we are working with as the days go by. We’ve been able to go on many adventures, from rat spearing, travel to a waterfall, and pump water for purification. The two guys are learning how to play the guitar, and they have made a lot of progress so far! But most importantly, is the way they have grown closer to Christ since the beginning of the summer. All of them said that they are closer with the Lord than they ever have before, and we hope that they will continue to learn as they become the future translators for future teams that come to work in the village. They are reading consistently, and every morning they read the Nehemiah Teams study in Acts in their language and pray for one another and everyone in the village.
 

Every morning, we continue to have our team time as well. It is going very well, as God is teaching us a lot through the study of Acts, and we have the time to pray for one another, the people in the village, people back home, and all the other summer missionaries. We have also had the opportunity to pray for some villagers directly. There was a little girl that came with her mom, and the little girl had a big burn on her chest and stomach. We didn’t have any medication to treat her with, but we prayed for healing for her, and continue to lift her up in prayer. Pray that she will continue to heal. We have also had the privilege to pray for some of the believers in the village before they go visit people and share the gospel to them.
 

Now, we have one more trip to the lake for our last two weeks of ministry. We have grown to really enjoy being with everyone, and prayer paddle for those who have never heard the gospel. We want to make sure that we make the most out of our last two weeks here and that we will be hearing God and obey.  Continue to pray for good health, and that everything that happens this last two weeks would be God’s will.