Dear friends
So sorry for the delay in writing recently! Kazakhstan was incredibly busy – we probably worked 18 hours a day. But God answered your prayers in wonderful ways! The EquipT course was one of the best we’ve ever done. The four of us trainers have such fun together it makes it a joy to work so hard. All four of us are from four different countries and the 15 participants were from 10 different countries so we had quite an international group. They all learned a lot and left full of ideas of how to apply their learning to their ministry contexts.
Here’s a photo of Manni and I with the participants – no, they weren’t all injured, it was a training role play. :-)
The one difficulty is now my number one prayer request – my sleeping. I fought sleep every afternoon that was so consuming, one time I “awoke” while writing feedback for one participant and found I had written a whole paragraph of nonsense. It really scared me. My father had narcolepsy, which is an illness that makes you fall asleep unexpectedly and requires medication to stay awake. My father had to take so much to make sure he didn’t fall asleep while driving that he also then had to take medication to go to sleep! I really am concerned this may be happening to me. One consolation is that it rarely presents at my age. Can I ask you please to intercede for this? So many days I feel like I’m barely functioning.
But there are other praises! I decided to book the hotel for Leadership Matters that I went to visit – a big surprise was a woman I’d become friendly with at a hotel I used for a previous retreat is now the manager at this hotel! She is being very accommodating about everything and after beating the bushes, we also have a full 36 participant course. I’m glad I’ll have six participants from my area, including one of our Iranian couples that I haven’t met yet.
My Spiritual Turkish class is now over and I do think they were the best group I’ve ever had. One of the guys told me the last day that because he was “forced” to prepare and give his testimony in Turkish, he’s been able to give it four different times. In fact, because it was his birthday last week, he prepared a big party, invited a lot of nonbelieving friends and then told them his “story.” It’s so satisfying to see people empowered for greater ministry!
Chris and Sara on our TACO team have decided to return to Canada permanently. But God has done an amazing thing- Chris is our drummer and was part of the StoryBox (our house band)’s tour at the end of April. Unbelievably, just next week we have the son of friends who used to live here coming to visit and help for a few months and he’s a DRUMMER! Only God could do such a wonderful thing!
Your prayers are reaping fruit! Here are more seeds to water:
1. The two couples I've been helping to mediate between are still not meeting. We need a breakthrough here!
2. I go on Friday to Germany and “Mission-Net” which is the European version of the Urbana Missions conference. I’ll be giving a seminar on “Relief and Development as Mission” and need your prayer help for the right things to say. Two people from Wycliffe and Compassion International will also be there to give case studies.
3. We’ve never been this late in producing the BCC annual report. It’s just not coming together. Would you please pray about this?
4. Our BCC office is also struggling these days with personnel injured and on leave – two people had nasty falls the same week, one of which is Sun Hee, our office manager. Things are falling apart – help! Without supervision, our local workers tend to come late, leave early and sometimes not show up at all. Poor Dave has been coming home after 9 pm most nights just to keep up.
5. I’ve been asked to be the speaker for the annual women’s conference here in Turkey which will take place in early November. The subject is Psalm 18 which I will start soon to study. It’s on my heart to ask a few of you to come. :-)
Sorry this has been so long! I’ve missed chatting with you.
Psa 68:19 says,
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
Love, Pam
