Fred’s Africa Report
Mali
Fred began his fall African ministry this time in Mali, along with Pastor Charley Elwell. Mali is the country of Timbuktu and is about 90% Muslim. Its Northern part is mostly Sahara desert. The Southern part has rivers, is fertile, and is where most of the people live. People are coming to Christ and churches are being planted in this area. This is a tremendous open door and we are very excited and privileged to be working in Mali. Training leaders & future leaders is such a key to the future of the church.
Charley and Fred taught Bible School for 2 weeks. Fred taught the book of Romans and Charley the Tabernacle of Moses. We also preached in a number of churches. Fred was able to visit 2 new church plants near the city Bamako. The one meets beneath three Mango trees – pictured on right.
Please pray as Fred plans to spend February 2012 in Mali with the Bible School and traveling to encourage the churches.
Togo
We flew from Bamako, Mali to Lome, Togo. We were with our friend, Bishop John Gake, and his church. We had a 3-day seminar with the church. (It was to be 4 days, but Bishop Gake’s wife’s sister died and Saturday was the funeral and canceled the scheduled Pastor’s meeting.) Sunday we had 2 meetings. First was morning church that was the conclusion of the seminar. Second was an Ordination of a pastor – Sadly, this was cancelled when everyone had come and the place was packed, but the pastor wouldn’t sign his commitment form. Then we caught a “bush taxi” to Benin.
Benin
Besides the Video Bible Schools, we work with 2 full-time Bible Schools in Cotonou. We have worked with Pastor Nazaire’s since 2002. The other Bible School began just this year. Fred taught at the one while Charley taught at the other. The second week was a seminar with the second. We also spoke at a number of churches in Cotonou and visited the orphanage.
Fred was also able to visit the new church plant of a good friend, Pastor Felix in the town of Ouidah.
Video Bible School Update
Our Video class of Fred teaching the book of Acts has been so well received. It was produced in English with French. Now we are beginning the work of adding African languages into it so that people who don’t speak English or French can be trained.
Praise the Lord, we have the first language recorded – “Ewe.” Our friend, Roguy from Lome, Togo has recorded the 18 classes.
We want to record more of the languages. The cost is only about $250 to record a language. We want to record 3 or 4 of the biggest languages for the countries we have been working in, for the last 14 years in West Africa. We are also hoping to record Tagalog for the Philippines– the major language spoken there.
Please pray for the money and key people for this project.
Debby’s Philippines Report
My trip to the Philippines this fall was very different from other years. For the first time Merry-Louise and I traveled alone.
The Philippine Islands is a nation in the western Pacific Ocean – near to Taiwan, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia. It is more than 7,000 islands and 94 million people. The big island of Luzon is the home to Manila – the capital. Palawan is one of the larger islands and is 280 miles long and 31 miles wide.
Arriving in Manila, we were greeted by Bishop Jun and his wife Minda. They took us immediately from the international airport to the domestic airport and we flew to the island of Palawan. There we went on a marathon trip of evening church services and Thanksgiving celebrations, as well as ministry packed Sundays. We preached in ElNido in the North all the way to Rizal in the South.
One of the most remarkable aspects of ministry in Palawan is visiting all of the churches both, large and small, and seeing what God has done in one year’s time. I was greatly impressed by the changes and growth of the churches. Several of them had grown so large that the crowds of people went far past what their buildings could hold.
I especially enjoy encouraging the churches and their pastors that they are vital in the Kingdom of God. Many of the pastors work very hard and often have little encouragement. It is very exciting to come with a fresh word for them and see them refreshed in God.
Everyday we were in a different place and we put many miles on Bishop Jun’s truck. Merry-Louise laughingly dubbed it the “massage car.” As you can guess, we got a “free” massage as we bounced over the bumpy roads.
For the first time we visited Baguio on the main island of Luzon. This is a beautiful city built in the mountains. We arrived by bus in the early morning and later that night I spoke to one of the local churches. This was the last place that we ministered in and the Lord blessed us with an amazing and powerful service. That night we once again took a bus and arrived back in Manila the next morning.
Did I say it was a marathon trip? I preached at all of the services and prayed for hundreds of people. I praise the Lord for his strength and for all of your prayers. I could not have done the trip had it not been for God’s special grace and his strength.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support that made this fruitful ministry possible. I am planning to be back 2 times next year and Fred is planning to go along with Merry-Louise and I for the first time.