Joel & Joanie Prayer letter – June, 2013
What a joy to hear testimonies of praise from some of our folks. Adelia continues to rejoice over the opportunities to share the gospel among fellow students. Last night Hélio said, “I’m so thankful for my time in God’s Word, which is helping me make wiser choices in my daily walk. Sometimes my mom asks me the meaning of something from the Bible. If I wouldn’t be growing, I wouldn’t be able to help her.”
Others among us are struggling – distracted by temptations to sin, and seemingly blind to dangers. Joel continues to work with Jose, Pedro, Ivan and needs to get time with S, C, and V. We’re in a battle.
On Saturday we had two Children’s day events that were attended by nearly fifty children at each of the two locations. We praise God for Celia, who planned it, and the other teens who
were available to help.
Sunday school Joanie’s junior age (9-12) Sunday school class has been studying creation to the cross for almost a year now. (New Tribes for children) In an animistic culture, these children need to hear over and over that the spirits of their dead relatives have no power to harm them. Only God can convince these children that the spirit that changes the witchdoctor’s voice never was a person, but is a fallen angel- a demon. They have never heard that the witchdoctor’s power and message come from Satan, not from God. In a land of superstition rooted in lies, nearly all of these children have relatives who are witchdoctors. Their families place total confidence in the witchdoctor’s words. Sometimes children are told they have received the spirit of a deceased witchdoctor and are obligated to train to be a witchdoctor. Please pray that God would use His Word to open hearts to truth and protect them.
Church land – Last week we were again promised that the proposal to give us the land for a church would go forward. At this moment, we don’t know if the important step of having our request published has happened. When it is, we will need to wait for 30 days and see if anyone comes forward with proof of entitlement to the land before we can go to the next step. As of now, we are seeking rental space to launch Hope Baptist Church of Liberdade.
Car situations – It’s been 2 1⁄2 weeks since our van was stolen during the night – in spite of high walls with an electric fence on top and an alarm system on both the fence and the car. In this culture, it is unlikely that it will be recovered, however, God knows where it is, and has a wonderful plan for all things. We’ve been so blessed with a borrowed car for the past nine days and hope to have something more permanent soon.
Thank you for your interest and investment in things eternal here in Mozambique!
We are thankful to be here, Joel and Joanie Troester