Boisvert prayer letter – January 20, 2015
Dear Partners in God’s Ministry, As we are well into 2015, we would first desire to offer anyone of our partners in ministry (you) a summary report of our activities for 2014. Just request it at our email and we will get it out to you as soon as possible upon our return to USA. It is amazing to think of all God has done in our lives and the lives of those you have invested in through us by prayer and finances. We will send you a summary, but we wish all of you could meet these faithful servants of Christ personally.
This will be a shorter prayer letter and without the expert assistance of our brother, who makes it look so attractive to the eye, due to the short time between our annual TRI-M team meeting and overseas African trip.
In November 2014, Doug was pleased to see the South Sudanese taking so much ownership of their training program, SSEST. One of the Sudanese Leaders said that their government military was commanded to instruct the local people in their tribal tongue to be sure they understood and could follow governmental procedures. The soldiers complain that their training is not in local language, how can they effectively turn around and communicate that immediately. With a big smile this Sundanese Pastor said, “But we (SSEST) are teaching in the local language and these students can turn around immediately and minister the Word of God to the people and this is done without the resources of our Government!”. As the youngest country on our globe, South Sudan is in confusion, turmoil, and conflict. But darkness is where the light of the glorious Gospel shines the brightest, and Sudanese are being won to Christ and Bible preaching Churches are being planted. There are other training programs within the country, but most are in English (one of the official “trade” languages). This excludes most of those under 40 years of age because they had very little education available to them –unless their families fled to neighboring countries and somehow got established enough to enroll their children in the local schools of the guest country. Truly SSEST is filling a great need for those called to ministry but have no access to Bible training.
The LORD gave us a wonderful time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to visit with both sets of our parents who live in the Eastern US. The Lord gave us refreshment in being home for Christmas time and entertaining our oldest daughter’s family from Texas and our youngest daughter now studying in Indianapolis. So we had a full week of Christmas celebration and look forward to another new year to celebrate Jesus, the Christ of Christmas. We also enjoyed seeing the grandkids as they continue to grow and develop their own God-given personalities. We keep praying that we can have Godly input into their lives in spite of the thousand mile difference.
We are writing this from the Washington DC Dulles Airport on a layover between flights for Uganda and Kenya, East Africa. This trip will end with the second graduation of the Kenyan group including both men and women. It is exciting to see, in an area that grew up around a bus stop and is about a mile walk to the nearest small village, the existence and growth of a Bible training program, preparing men and women to serve Christ in the villages of Kenya. There are three groups being trained at various levels at the same time. “Breaks” feel like a College campus between classes. The Kenyan leaders have taken over all of the lower level courses themselves. This graduation at the end of trip has great potential in prompting this training as a reasonable and desirable program especially in the village areas. It is currently unclear whether the women’s program will continue or if the women will be accepted into the basic certificate program with the men. Wisdom will be needed, so prayer will be appreciated.
Striving to Serve Christ,
Doug Boisvert, D. Min.
Tri-M Eastern and Central African Director
“To this end I also labor, striving according to His working…” (Colossians 1:29)