News & Prayer Items

[Sunday, 3:30 pm EST, March 24, 2013, Central African Republic] Please pray for our thousands of African brothers and sisters as night falls. The rebels have taken over the capital city of Bangui. While there has been relatively little violence, looting is wide-spread and there is no electricity or running water in the city. The students at our Bible schools and seminary did not feel safe staying on campus and have taken refuge in the bush.

Field Director Ginger Hock reports, "Just spoke with Heidi [Sisson].  It’s quiet there and all of the missionaries are sitting outside under a full moon just listening and trying to relax. We also have two guards there."

"I am calling the family members again just to reassure them that our folks are still okay and we are waiting.  Cami and Larry Robbins went home with their African Director for the night so they would not be alone on the SIL compound.  Frank will contact the team first thing tomorrow morning (their/his time).  I will not call them again today but they know I am available via phone if they have any changes."

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Rebels in Central Africa Republic are on the move again after failing to reach agreement with the president on the implementation of a treaty signed in January. They reached the outskirts of the capital Bangui on Friday after seizing the nearby town of Damara. A rebel spokesman said they have advanced to within 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) of the capital. 

Our missionaries are all safe but are staying inside as a precaution. Prayer is requested for our African brothers and sisters who are facing more serious danger. Many cities and towns are under occupation. Pray also for peace and that agreements can be reached between the rebels and the CAR government.

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Robert Soto, who attended Grace Seminary with George Swain, has been invited to dance traditional Native American dances at an annual Czech Indian powwow March 23rd in Kladno, Check Republic, a small city east of Prague. Czech people are absolutely crazy about Native American Indian culture. This powwow has been meeting for the last 18 years.

Robert will be the guest of George and Cindy for the week, and will have many other meetings. He will speak in six English courses at the Language Center on Tuesday and Thursday, and on Tuesday evening he will have a presentation in a larger conference room close to the Language Center where he will dance, speak about his culture, answer questions and also has permission to share about his Savior Jesus Christ. Twenty students have signed up already for that meeting.

Robert will be busy in various encounters with the church in the Swains home. Of special interest is a meeting planned for Friday night complete with Native American food. Since Cindy served two years on a Navajo reservation, she and Robert are planning to come up with a combination of Apache and Navajo food. Neighbors and Language Center students have been invited.

Please pray that Robert will be an effective communicator not only of Apache culture but also of God's Kingdom.

Pray for good attendance at the various events.

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Core Training begins today at the Encompass home office in Atlanta, Georgia. A total of 10 appointees and new staff will participate in this week-long training event as they prepare to serve in cross-cultural ministry. Continue...

Mark Sims continues to prepare for the first doctoral seminar in Bangui, Central African Republic in August. He writes, "The political turmoil has calmed down as far as the capital, Bangui, is concerned, but eastern CAR is still occupied by troops of the rebel coalition.

"The turmoil has further slowed the progress on construction of the James Gribble campus; construction that is already far behind schedule. The classroom building has a long way to go to completion, and more duplexes are needed to house the students during the seminar in August. There is no water or electricity. This is a great concern for the ministries that depend on the campus facilities, including the seminary and the future doctoral program.

"(The situation) is of particular concern for the doctoral program because, as a part of the accreditation process, there will soon be a site visit where the team will want to see the facilities. There is a great likelihood that we could not be approved because of the present circumstances, both the political instability and the insufficient facilities of the campus.

Would you please pray for political peace and stability and that the construction can move ahead despite all the hindrances and make up for lost time?

Please also pray that we would receive the accreditation."

 

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Please pray for wisdom for Kent Good and Kevin Kane as they attend the UN hosted forum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia concerning cooking stoves March 17-22.

Pray for good contacts that can help in producing a good product that will lead to a successful business that can generate funds for the Cambodian ministry. We hope this will lead to a self-supporting ministry in the future.

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The Myerstown, PA, church is sending a prayer team to Stuttgart from March 15-21st. Please pray for fruit and protection for this team as they pray especially for God's direction as to where new teammates Chad and Amy Sensenig should be placed in Stuttgart.

Keep praying for Chad and Any that their preparation would progress well as they work in the Atlanta area and at the University. They report that they are are helping with a small ministry of one adult leader and about 40 students to organize themselves and grow, as well as reach out to the rest of the campus. They traveled with The Journey to New Orleans on Spring break to help with the redevelopment in parts of the city that have still not recovered from hurricane Katrina.

They write, "To help start conversations we have been giving surveys to students, and have several students, both believers and non-believers, who have said that they would like to be a part of a Bible study! We hope to start these studies right after spring break."

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The following is a paragraph taken from the latest edition of BMH journal Grace Connect, written by Dr. John Teevan.

The topic of social justice rages in the minds of young Christians and mission organizations that focus on good works, partly because we were slow in catching on to it. We have also lagged in the application of Christianity to social issues though we had medical works in Africa since the beginning in 1920. There is a great temptation among North Americans to jump in with what we ‘know' will work.

To read the complete article click here.

http://graceconnect.us/integrating-the-gospel-and-life/

 

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