“Praise God, Devanand has had lots of opportunities to share with past0rs and other leaders in India who expressed great appreciation for the encouragement
received. Please pray for Rani who is alone at home for the first time. We are grateful for your continued prayers for Deepak as he struggles to manage his time at
McMaster U. We are grateful for your prayers!”
I had a really good day yesterday. I was able to pay a visit to Nakaale primary school yesterday morning. Along with two of my community health teachers, I met with the head teacher, deputy head teacher, and one of the two female teachers. School is finished for the year and some teachers were marking exams. I had been wanting to meet with them for awhile to give them health teaching materials, so I'm glad this finally worked out.
Five years ago, I had printed WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) posters onto tarp material. My health team has been teaching in the villages, but I wanted to also bring the local schools together. I gave them ten posters and taught them briefly how to share with their classes about WASH ideas. Please pray as my health team follows up with the teachers to continue to lend support for health education. They teach health once to twice a week in two local schools all year round.
What an exciting stragedy conference we attended over the last days of the mission conference in Mexico City,
After the conference. The local church invited us to the celebration of the 31 years of praying for peace for Chiapas. An estimated 50,000 joined together to pray and praise.
This season was full and so are we
With praise reports for you to see
We have many stories to share
Read on, lifting us in prayer :)
Rowena Stewart [Turner] served as a Knox missionary in Ecuador with HCJB for many years. She and her husband Iain, a retired pastor, lived in Guildford, England.
"Iain went to be with His Lord on the morning of Monday, November 25. I was with him. in the hospital, where he had had another procedure for twisted bowel about a week before then, after a few days, it came back, and the decision was for palliative care. It wasn't a pain-free time. Iain's family gathered around.
"Iain was trained in the Church of Scotland and really wanted to minister there permanently. Circumstances took him to Canterbury for further study and the Presbyterian Church there did not have a Minister. Iain said he was going back to Scotland, but the Lord thought differently, so he was there 19 years and the church was built up from few to overflowing – students of course and new converts." --Rowena
The Presbyterian Church merged with the Congregational Church to make the United Reformed Church, where Iain’s ministry continued all his life – his mission-field, he called it." --Rowena
Thank you for all of your prayers last week while the OPC's general secretary was visiting Karamoja. We had a number of meetings together. While it was good to hear more information on what the CFM is thinking, we will remain in transition for the foreseeable future. No new plans will be made until the new elder and new pastor, who will arrive next year to work in Mbale, have been on the field for at least one year. That would bring us to January 2026 at the earliest, but more likely April of 2026 before we can make a new five-year plan. Please pray for all of us currently on the field as we hold in tension what needs to be decided now and waiting expectantly for some more guidance from our leaders.
Please pray for Kocho Betty, on the community health team, who slipped in the mud and broke her wrist. The rainy season this year has lasted longer than usual. Kocho will wear a cast for one month. Then she will return to a hospital two hours north of us for a follow-up x-ray and to have the cast removed.
Thank you for praying for yesterday's MAC meeting. We made one particular decision which will help eliminate a conflict of interest in one job at the clinic. Hope springs eternal.
This afternoon we will have a meeting with all of the team in Karamoja and the General Secretary which will hopefully help us to get all on the same page. We used to have meetings according to the two mission stations in Uganda (Mbale and Karamoja), but we stopped having separate meetings due to having so few personnel on the field. Yet there are details that are specific to the work in Nakaale that get lost in a full mission meeting.
Please pray for a Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting today regarding what's happening at our mission clinic. The OPC's General Secretary of the Committee on Foreign Missions (CFM) is in Karamoja this week for lots of meetings. Please pray for wisdom in communication and clarification of expectations.
Today we finished the first week of the Old Testament course. Next week, we'll begin the second course teaching an Introduction to the New Testament.
If we can make an extra effort and get 20 NIV study Bibles for these students, that would be excellent. The students do not have any Bible resources here. So we can buy a Bible with study resources that will make their learning go further.
We are giving thanks to the Lord for His immense grace and strength as we celebrate several huge milestones:
After two years of research, thinking, and writing day by day, Mary Anne has at last finished the memoir of her spiritual journey. (The details are in the attachment below.)
The two of us have just turned 90 and our whole family (children, grandchildren, great-grands and Jack's niece and nephews and their families as well as four close friends) are coming this week-end, November 8-10 to celebrate with us and give thanks for the life He has given us. Please join us in praying for a joyful, loving, meaningful week-end for everyone.
The Seminary in Medellin, Colombia is celebrating their 80th Anniversary and UCU, the student moment with whom we ministered is celebrating their 55th Anniversary. Jack will be traveling to Colombia on November 11th and speaking to both groups in Medellin. He covets your prayers for him during his two weeks in Colombia. (See details in the attachment below.)
Finally we give thanks for your friendship and support over so many years.
Your grateful friends,
Hallowe’en was a pleasure.
The children of two Afghani families and one Ethiopian family gathered around the picnic table and enjoyed peanut butter cups. The parents and grandparents brought a fruit plate, and we all enjoyed our smiles and non verbal conversation,
except for the children, who know all about Hallowe’en now that they are in school.
Bombs are dropping all around the Home of Hope in Kehaleh up the road to Damascus, Including one that flew over their home and dropped nearby. Rita, the secretary, drove up to Alay where the public school is to register the children. The school is full of the refugee children fled from Beirut and Baca’a.
The UBER driver was my first muslim in months. A young father grown up in California (?) and Wisconsin! How had he liked Wisconsin? He got used to it and learned to like the winter and described dry cold etc. Did he know Arabic? Yes he understands it, but doesn’t use it. He understood: “However God, demonstrating His love for us when we were even still sinners, the Messiah died for us “ in Arabic. So the love of God was shared. There was another American passenger in the UBER. Shared ride is cheaper.
Grandson, Nicolas, has a professor who is Lebanese (!) and terribly worried about his wife and new twin daughters still in Lebanon. Nicolas put us in touch and we had lots to share. Nicolas had already clued him in what I had been up to in Lebanon. So God is reaching out everywhere and keeping us in His business. He’s very good at it!
"I woke up in the middle of nowhere in the morning at 3am and decided to start singing almost all the songs we used to sing together praising and worshiping God, among them is this one I decided to record and share with you!!!"
My dear friend,Barnabas sent me this. He is the one I helped when he was a student and we used to sing in the student ministry. His daughter is called Hanneke. I felt so blessed to get this from him. We used to sing many songs and this is one of my favorites!
He is the dentist who was a student with the student movement. He paid me back the school fees after he got the job. A wonderful Christian man!
His daughter is named Hanneke. She studied all the science subjects and passed. Now she is hoping to get into medical studies.
Congratualtions Bob on your 95th birthday. Bob is a long time friend and supporter of KWM workers.