A movie always draws a crowd

Kariuki News September 2006 Serving with YWAM in Chad, Africa

Rain, rain, rain, and more rain! The Sahel is looking greener than we have ever seen it. We have eaten lots of fresh maize from our garden and the pumpkins are just as delicious. With the rain come blessings but also challenges... many homes here are made of unbaked mud bricks which don’t hold up well under heavy rain. Some have been killed by their homes falling on them. A former student just had her house collapse... fortunately it was in the daytime and everyone was outside. No one was hurt, but there is lots of damage to their belongings and of course they need a new house. Rain also makes travel very difficult and we are happy to stay in Sarh for a while!

It was a privilege to host Iain Muir, international president of YWAM, here with us the end of June. Iain came to teach in our DTS and was a great encouragement to all of us here.

A new ministry tool: We had been praying for a video projector and were given one while in the US. Moses has been putting it to good use showing evangelistic films and preaching on weekends. A movie always draws a crowd here, and the Gospel is a powerful and attractive message - we've been privileged to see many come to the Lord already. We've been working with local churches so that new believers have a place to belong. A big THANK YOU to Lord's House of Prayer in Quarryville, PA for the projector!

Coming up: Our three month school of Biblical Studies begins the end of September. Moses will be leading the school. Please pray for extra grace for him during this time, as the only experienced school staff, he is responsible for a lot of the teaching as well as leading the school. Also pray for teachers to come and help out. Our desire is for the Biblical Studies School to be a life-changing tool that enable the students to interpret and apply the Word correctly

We continue to network with local churches and were privileged to be part of the International Day of Prayer in June. Moses gave the message at a multi-church service in the morning, and on attending the prayer event in the afternoon, was surprised to hear the governor quoting his message! Our prayer is that more Christians will be able to work together for the transformation of Chad.

The Family: the kids keep growing and growing! (Almost as fast as the weeds in our garden!) Josh turned 4 in July, and is full of questions about EVERYthing. He is picking up French again and loves having friends over to play. Zachary at two and a half tells everyone he is a "BIG boy" and is now (mostly!) potty trained (Mom's happy about that!) Other than his big brother, Zack's favorite playmate is "Paka," our cat - we’re not sure, however, that the feeling is mutual! Marianna is six months old and charming everyone with lots of smiles, coos and giggles. Jo's discovered that she is married to an avid gardener (this is the first place we've lived with enough space to garden!) and is happy about that, since there usually seems to be enough work inside to keep her busy!

We've been praying for better housing for our family for a long time - we're so glad to see an answer to that prayer. When we arrived back in Sarh we spent two weeks house hunting before finding a new house in our price range in the neighborhood we wanted. God is so good. We have three bedrooms and separate one-room "studio" which will function as our YWAM office, a huge dining/living area with plenty of play space, and enough land for a garden. It is nicer than we ever imagined we would find here. We did wait six weeks after moving in before the power company connected us to power, and even longer for phone, but well, we survived! :-)

Please pray:

· For our co-workers; most of whom have minimal, if any, financial support and have been giving themselves sacrificially to the work. Just a few of our team:

Mirom, who led the DTS which just finished is struggling with her health and has severe anemia.

Irene continues to work with street kids and is in the process of raising funds to get them enrolled for the new school year beginning next month.

Bernadette is volunteering in the chronically understaffed pediatrics wing of the General hospital and has many opportunities to share God's love there.

Bienvenue just planted a church as he temp-worked with a road construction firm near the Central African Border for 3 months.

· For our health – thankfully we’ve not had major issues since our return but are plagued with many small things – heat rash, diarrhea and a few abscesses.

Love,

Moses, Jo, Joshua, Zachary & Marianna