Nadolski - Prayer, Ghana 2008

Hello Friends and Family,

About a week ago, my boss asked me to go to Ghana, West Africa as soon as possible. At a time like that, all I can do was to pray and go. The trip planning has gone fast and it has gone well. I am scheduled to leave Houston on Friday, May 2nd and plan to be in Ghana the next day.

While in Ghana, I will work with our partner, African Assistance Plan, as they repair wells in flooded areas of north-east Ghana. Many, many wells were polluted and/or damaged during last year’s flood. About one-half of these wells are traditional, hand-dug holes with open tops. We will clean out, deepen (if needed), disinfect, and seal these wells. We will also install a new hand pump. After we are done, the local people will have a safe water supply for a long time.

It’s important to me to have your prayers while on this LWI project trip. We need your prayers for:

- Marcia: she’s home and busy teaching. Three teachers are out for maternity leave and Marcia is scheduled to substitute, filling in for all three of them at different times. She has a great time with the kids and this gives her a lot of opportunities to share the love of Jesus. Please pray for her day-to-day needs during this time.

- John is traveling to north-east Ghana. It’s a rough area; long distances between towns, no phones and usually no electricity. Local food is basic. The main food dish is ‘foo-foo’: pounded yams/corn/cassava. It tastes a lot like library paste. Please pray for John and the team to have wisdom, health and safety.

- Pray for opportunities for John and Marcia
o to share the love of Jesus,
o to honor God, and
o to tell others of God’s faithfulness.

Below is a prayer guide for the trip. Please remember to pray for me on these days (or others), and I will be praying for you, too.

Last fall, Living Water International started a well-rehabilitation program for flood victims in northern Ghana. Pastor David Donkor, LWI’s partner in central Ghana, worked hard to complete the project and he needs some help to finish in a timely way.

Specific prayer needs:
- As always, pray for Marcia.
- We will be working in northern Ghana, an area dominated by Muslim and animistic people. John has been asked to share the love of Jesus in word and deed. Pray for wisdom and opportunities.
- May is in the middle of the rainy season for northern Ghana. Rain is good, but too much can keep us from driving around. Please pray for our travel safety and health.

5/2 John leaves Houston and flies to Accra, Ghana
5/3 Arrive in Ghana. Visits with good friends
5/4 Church, worship, rest and visiting
5/5 Travel to Sunyani a city in the middle of Ghana: 6 hour drive
5/6-7 Get organized for project and gather supplies
5/8-10 Travel to northeast region: nine hour drive, meet with regional governor, get started on work
5/11 Church, worship, and rest. Mother’s Day in States. Please pray for Marcia, too.
5/12-14 Return to Sunyani. Train team on well drilling.
5/14-17 Continue training and project work.
5/18 Church, worship and rest. Many of the local people are refugees from the north. They bring their Muslim beliefs with them.
5/19-21 Help at bible-teaching school, started by Rev. Donkor.
5/22-24 Continue training and project work.
5/25 Church, worship and rest. I expect to preach at the same church throughout the trip.
5/26 -27 Meet with Alan and Patsy Fulton in southern Ghana.
5/28 Leave Gahana and fly to Houston.
5/29 Arrive in Houston. Be with MarciaThanks for all of your prayers and encouragement.

Jen Peet - Investing Well

I can’t believe it is already spring quarter 2008!!

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19-20

It’s midnight on Monday night, the first night of the quarter and to be honest, I am exhausted, but what an amazing day and start to Spring Quarter! It began at 9pm with over 75 students showing up to prayer walk through Isla Vista. We broke up into smaller groups and covered every house with prayer. We prayed against the bonds of sin and addiction and, along with many other things, we prayed that students would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and to make the most of their college years. We then prayer walked through campus and met in the middle and spent over an hour worshipping together. And then to top it off, we went out to the beach and over 10 students were baptized. Yes, it was freezing, but no one cared. We didn’t want to be anywhere other than proclaiming the name of JESUS together! And the amazing part about all of this is that it was not really planned. On Sunday. my co-leader, Ken, knew the Lord wanted us to start the Quarter by praying and giving it over to the Lord. So the word got out and students came! As I walked through Isla Vista, then worshipped and then watched students make a public confession of faith, I felt so humbled and blessed. Even though it was a long day, I felt the Lord continuing to remind me of what it means to invest my life well and to be faithful with what HE has entrusted me with. There is no more satisfaction than investing in eternity and in what matters. And to be honest there are times when this doesn’t come natural (many times!) and my cry to the Lord lately has been, not my will JESUS, but YOURS!

Please Pray!
Going along with the theme of investing my life well and being faithful with what the Lord has entrusted me with is the fact that I have a lot on my plate. I want to end this year well with the girls I lead, my staff team, & my roommates, while also preparing well for my trip to the Middle East this summer! And none of this will happen if I am not fully relying on the Lord. Please pray that I would continually be laying my entire life in the Lords hands.

Reaching Every Student
The mission of Campus Crusade for Christ is to give EVERY student an opportunity to know what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus. As we have been thinking and praying about what this means for UCSB we are noticing that we are not reaching ALL of them. UCSB has over 20% Latino students and currently there is no place on campus for them to learn about God or grow in their relationship with him. Next Sunday, April 13th, we are partnering with a Latino Church and hosting a BBQ where we will share our heart of wanting to create a safe place for Latino’s to learn about Jesus. Would you begin praying now that the Lord would bring the students he wants there? Pray that HE would raise up a movement of students from the Latino community to reach other Latino students!

Peterson's Prayer Guide - May 2008

The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand. Psalm 37:23-24

Last month I wrote about the new role Gary is considering. Though he’s very interested, at this stage he doesn’t feel free to move out of his current role. God is really blessing his ministry, and his team is already short-staffed. If God wants Gary in the other position, He’ll need to provide others to fill the needs in his current department. Thanks for continuing to pray for God’s timing and provision of the right staff for the right slots.

When you have a college student here in the US, you have to make an application for financial aid each year. As I was working on this recently I became aware of a mistake I’d made last year which made a significant difference in what government grants Esther was eligible for. We’re in the process of getting it corrected with the appropriate offices, but it means we have to pay back several thousand dollars she wasn’t entitled to. We were planning to use our tax refund this year for something else, but now that money will be needed for Esther’s college fees. How good it is to know that God wasn’t surprised by this, and He can be relied upon to take care of His children!

Esther plans to go to Australia to work on my sister and her husband’s dairy farm for 2 months this summer (cold winter there!). She looks forward to seeing her Nana and other friends and relatives while there too. Pray that she will be a blessing to the Blease family, especially to her cousins (the two youngest she has never met). She will be gone from May 26th – July 26th. We were able to use my frequent flier miles to pay for most of her airfare - PTL!

The exploratory trip Gary and Josiah made to visit colleges went very well. They enjoyed the time together, and came home with a lot to chew on! Josiah hasn’t made any decisions yet, but what he learned and experienced will be very helpful as he does make choices in the months ahead.

Soon after I last wrote, my hives cleared up. When I tried coming off the antihistamines, I found that I no longer had any hay fever, and the heartburn subsided when I stopped the medicine. So I am one happy camper! Thanks for your prayers, and thank You, Lord, for good health!

Gary reports that the Children’s Missions Jamboree on April 5th went very well and produced many great comments from kids and parents alike. Though their numbers were down, the impact was great. All the staff worked very well together and really enjoyed the day too.

April 25th - Gary arrived home on his motorcycle last night at 11:15pm after a VERY LONG day. He had two school groups at the office and a special tour before going to speak at the Hispanic youth group’s mission weekend last night. Many of the young people came up and talked with him afterwards, and 28 adopted a Bibleless people to pray for. Most of the students there were bi-lingual, but they provided an interpreter because they broadcasted the message to a number of countries around the world where they only know Spanish. He didn’t find this out until he got there, so that made it “interesting” with what illustrations he could use and broke up his flow a bit. But God showed up and Gary was very conscious of your prayers!

Here’s Gary’s May Schedule:
30th April – 2 High School groups have just booked in for this day. Their times will somewhat overlap. We’ll run a modified Mission Encounter program.
2nd A-Z Adventure program for two school groups (61 students & 28 adults)
3rd A-Z program for a large church group (50 students & 20 adults)
7th Mission Encounter – school group (30 7th graders & 20 adults)
8th A-Z and Mission Encounter – home school group. (30 students & ? adults)
9th A-Z Pine Castle Christian Academy (32 students & 15 adults)
14th Special tour for youth group from Alabama
16th A-Z for school group (16 students & 6 adults)
20th Mission talk & I cover for the receptionist at WordSpring desk
22nd -24th Help staff a booth at the Home School Convention (5,000+ participants we’ll challenge to come visit us)
23rd Mike Burtnett’s last day. Mike has been my partner for a year now. He’s a former youth pastor who joined Wycliffe 3 years ago. He’s been great with the students and great to work with. He and his family are heading to Southern Mexico later this year to be the youth pastor for the missionary kids at our translation center there. I will really miss him. It adds more work for our team. He will be a hard person to replace. Please pray that God will bring us someone who can help us – especially with the older students. And pray for Mike as he and his family prepare for this big move. It will be their first time living and working overseas. They have three young children.
30th A-Z Downey Christian School (36 students & 10 adults)

*A-Z Adventure program is for Elementary School ages.
Mission Encounter program is for Middle School–College age students.

Once more, let us thank you from the bottom of our hearts for partnering with us in this invaluable way. We appreciate you all so much!

Finally some good news!

(Washington, D.C., March 24, 2008) -- "I will build my church," Jesus said, "and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)

The lead story on Drudge over the weekend was the Pope baptizing a prominent Egyptian author who converted from Islam to Catholicism, and for good reason. It's a huge story in Italy and the Muslim world, especially coming as it did the week that Osama bin Laden accused the Pope of waging a "crusade" against Islam. But this particular baptism is just the tip of the iceberg.

Despite unprecedented press coverage of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is generally not being told by the mainstream media. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity and will be celebrating their first Easter this year, even amidst widespread persecution and the very real threat of death.

I first began reporting this story in 2005 after interviewing some three dozen Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical Christian leaders in the U.S. and the Middle East. Over the last three years, however, I have had the privilege of traveling to Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, the West Bank, Turkey, and Morocco. What's more, I have had the honor of meeting with and interviewing more than 200 Arab, Iranian, Kurdish, Sudanese and other pastors and Christian leaders. With more data, the trend lines are becoming even more clear and the story is even more exciting.

The God of the Bible is moving powerfully in the Middle East to draw men, women and children to His heart and adopt them into His family in record numbers. More Muslims have come to faith in Jesus Christ over the last thirty years -- and specifically over the last seven to ten years -- than at any other time in human history. There is a revival going on among the ancient Catholic, Coptic, and Chaldean churches. Today, the Church is being truly resurrected in the lands of its birth.

Consider the latest evidence:

* AFGHANISTAN -- In Afghanistan, for example, there were only 17 known evangelical Christians in the country before al-Qaeda attacked the United States. Today, there are well over 10,000 Afghan followers of Christ and the number is growing steadily. Church leaders say Afghan Muslims are open to hearing the gospel message like never before. Dozens of baptisms occur every week. People are snatching up Bibles and other Christian books as fast as they can be printed or brought into the country. The Jesus film, a two hour docudrama on the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke, was even shown on television in one city before police shut down the entire TV station. "God is moving so fast in Afghanistan, we're just trying to keep up," one Afghan Christian worker told me, requesting anonymity. "The greatest need now is leadership development. We need to train pastors to care for all these new believers."

* UZBEKISTAN -- There were no known Muslim converts to Christ there in 1990. Now there are more than 30,000.

* IRAQ -- As I shared on Fox & Friends on Easter morning, in Iraq, there were only a handful of Muslim converts to Christianity back in 1979 when Saddam Hussein took full control of that country. Yet today, there are more than 70,000 Iraqi Muslim background believers in Jesus (MBBs), approximately 50,000 who came to Christ as refugees in Jordan after the first Gulf War in 1990-91, and another 20,000 who have come to Christ since the fall of Saddam Hussein. John Moser, the executive director of The Joshua Fund, and I just returned from nine days traveling through five provinces in Iraq. We met with 19 Iraqi evangelical Christian leaders. I had the privilege of preaching in a church of more than 100 MBBs from Baghdad -- a church that didn't even exist in 2002 before liberation. We also had the privilege of meeting and interviewing numerous former Islamic jihadist terrorist who have come to Christ and are now pastors and church planters.

* KAZAKHSTAN -- In Kazakhstan, there were only three known evangelical Christian believers before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today there are more than 15,000 Kazakh Christians, and more than 100,000 Christians of all ethnicities.

* EGYPT -- More than 1 million Egyptians have trusted Christ over the past decade or so, report Egyptian church leaders. The Egyptian Bible Society told me they used to sell about 3,000 copies of the Jesus Film a year in the early 1990s. But in 2005 they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the Bible on tape (in Arabic) and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament. "Egyptians are increasingly hungry for God's Word," an Egyptian Christian leader told me. Last Christmas, I had the privilege of visiting the largest Christian congregation in the Middle East, which meets in an enormous cave on the outskirts of Cairo. Some 10,000 believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference the church held in May 2005 drew some 20,000 believers.

* IRAN -- In 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini led the Islamic Revolution, there were only about 500 known Muslim converts to Christianity. Today, interviews with two dozen Iranian pastors and church leaders reveal that there are well over 1 million Shia Muslim converts to Christianity.

* SUDAN -- Despite a ferocious civil war, genocide and widespread religious persecution, particularly in the Darfur region -- or perhaps because of such tragedies -- church leaders there tell me that more than 1 million Sudanese have made decisions to follow Jesus Christ just since 2001. Since the early 1990s, more than 5 million Sudanese have become followers of Jesus. Seminary classes to train desperately-needed new pastors are held in mountain caves. Hundreds of churches have been planted, and thousands of small group Bible studies are being held in secret throughout the country.

In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. "In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity," Al Qataani warned. "Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity." Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. "Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?" Al Qataani repeated his assertion. "Every year," the cleric confirmed, adding, "a tragedy has happened."

One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims throughout the Middle East and even in the United States are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus. They are coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus. This is in fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. The Hebrew Prophet Joel told us that "in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days....And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved." (Joel 2:28-32)

In Epicenter: Why The Current Rumblings In the Middle East Will Change Your Future, I devoted an entire chapter to these dramatic trend lines and why Muslims are converting in record numbers. I am currently working on a new non-fiction book and documentary film called Inside The Revolution, to be release during Easter 2009, with much more detail on this subject, including first person accounts of former Muslim terrorists who have become the new Apostle Pauls of our time -- murderous religious zealots who had visions of Jesus Christ and are now pastors, evangelists, church planters and powerful Christian leaders. Other books I would highly recommend on this subject are Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen; and Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe In Christ.

Is life easy for these Muslim converts? By no means. They face ostracism from their families. They face persecution from their communities. They face being fired by their employers. They face imprisonment by their governments. They face torture and even death at the hands of Muslim extremists. But they are coming to Christ anyway. They are becoming convinced that Jesus is, in fact, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father in heaven except through faith in Jesus' death on the cross and powerful resurrection from the dead.

Dudeck News and Prayer needed

Greetings to all our friends,

This past week we took a road trip to Indiana from our home in Charlotte. We visited Pam's sister Paula and her husband Bob in Warsaw, Indiana, and took Jennifer for a campus visit at Taylor University where she plans to attend in the fall. It was nice to see Paula and Bob, and Jennifer thoroughly enjoyed her visit at Taylor.

But not all went well on the trip. The engine on our car, a 1996 Camry with 186,000 miles, decided to give out just as we pulled into Warsaw. The car is now in a shop in Warsaw, and we rented a car to return to Charlotte. When a rebuilt motor has been put in I will drive back to Indiana to pick up the car. At least that's the current plan. We would appreciate your prayers that this unexpected situation will be worked out. It takes 11 hours to drive between Charlotte and Warsaw.

For the past 8 months or more Pam has been experiencing severe insomnia. With medication, on a good night, she gets 5 hours of sleep, and 3 to 4 is more common. As you can imagine, she is feeling tired all of the time, and it is causing her to struggle with anxiety and irritability. She has had to quit her job in the law office, and is now helping in the archives at SIM International a couple of mornings a week. This is a real trial for all of us. The Lord has been working in her and each of our hearts through this time. But we really need your prayers that the Lord will restore her health.

We would also appreciate your prayers concerning our financial needs. Our financial support from donors is at about 67% of what we need on a monthly basis. So we need to find some new supporters. We have no plans other than to continue our ministry in SIM for the remainder of our active years, which should be at least 9 or 10 years more.

And speaking of finances, the cost of Jennifer's college is considerable. We have the funds to cover the first year, but at this point, we don't have a clue how the Lord will provide for the rest. We believe that Taylor is a great place for Jennifer, and she is really excited about the school. It is a small school with under 2,000 students. The school has an excellent Christian atmosphere. They offer a major called New Media that combines computer science, art, and communications in a way that is right up Jennifer's alley. We have made friends with some of the faculty and staff, and Jennifer has already been offered a job in the computer services department. But with all the scholarships, grants, and work options, there are still several thousand dollars per year beyond the "expected family contribution" that are not covered. Most students take out loans to cover the shortfall. But we really don't think it is right for a student to leave college with huge loans to pay off. This is one of the factors that causes so many young people to never go on to missions. By the time they have paid off their loans, they are married, have children, have bought a house, and are no longer willing to go overseas. Because of this, we are not willing to take out a large college loan. Pray that the Lord will provide. Unless He does, Jennifer will have to transfer to a cheaper school after her first year.

Of course the repairs on our car are an added major expense at this time. And we anticipate needing to replace the roof and the air conditioner in our house within the next year or two.
So we really need your prayers at this time.

Thanks, and keep in touch.

For Pam and Jennifer,

John Dudeck

jdudeck@zenia.simcsg.sim.org

"Have you ever noticed that God has an awesome way of messing up your plans?" -- Kelvin Smith

The Rain Has Returned - Katie Herbst

This is Africa: One of my officemates recently named the lizard that lives in our office. “Patrick” is a quick little guy with an unusually long tail. I glanced out the door during a Good Friday church service and noticed a HUGE pig just cruising by; I’m not sure where his home was. On my way to work one morning a little kid ran up to me, eager to show me the head of a chicken that his family had just killed. He was most excited to show me how the eyelids opened as he opened the beak and then shut as he closed the mouth. One night while reading by candlelight I looked up to find a huge spider INSIDE my mosquito net about 12 inches from my face. For my housemate’s sake it’s a good thing that I go silent when I’m scared...


My job: I love the interactions I have been having with the kids here. If it’s playing chase with a group of little ones or discussing truth with the older ones, it is a privilege to be a part of their lives. Many of the little kids around New Hope have become my friends. At first a few of the staff children were a little unsure about me, but just the other day one of the ones who used to avoid greeting me, ran full speed at me and jumped in my arms. I love the little ones. My involvement with the older kids provides many great opportunities to discuss real issues. I have been able to see more into their lives, what they believe, what they think, what they don’t believe, what they feel. These discussions have been exciting because the students are being real. They have a lot of good questions and I really consider it an honor to be a part of their journey. If you’re praying, please pray for the Investment Year students as they begin to truly establish for themselves what they believe about God, his Word, and their lives. This is a crucial time for them. It has also been great to be a part of the process of deciding what’s next in life. Many of these students are making decisions now that will affect them for years. It’s fun to hear what they think and what they want, and to see how God is directing.

Easter: As I mentioned briefly above, my housemate and I walked about 3km to the nearest town to attend a Good Friday church service at an Anglican church (Church of Uganda). This was a great experience. We were assigned a personal translator for the parts that were not in English. It was so cool to be reflecting on the death and sacrifice of Jesus with Christians in the middle of Africa. They have a different color skin and they speak a different language but He’s the same God, it was the same sacrifice, and it is the same freedom given, for ALL who believe. I almost started crying because the little old lady next to me was so precious. She sat there, diligently reading out of her Luganda Bible with her cute reading glasses and singing from memory every song. On Easter Sunday it was equally amazing to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and the confidence and life that that gives. I had Easter lunch with Pacific family-smashed and steamed cooking bananas, rice, pieces of beef, and yams. After lunch I had a great time with a handful of kids and my camera. = ) It was so fun to spend my Easter lunch with them. I am becoming attached to those kids...

My heart: March provided two great opportunities for me to get away and go deep with God. I went to a week retreat with a few fellow staff members, where we focused on issues of the heart, the past, and what God has to say about it all. This time was significant for me; I’m learning more and more about what it means to be real, with myself, God, and others. Just last week I went away for the day with a small group of women to go through “The Steps to Freedom in Christ”. This was another great time of being real before God and realizing in a new way the freedom I have, and claiming that freedom for my life. I am currently in a Bible study based on the concepts that are laid out in the steps. It is extremely life-giving and a great time with the women involved. God has been so faithful to “work” on me, helping me see how much I need him, because without him I’m a mess. I think the more broken I become, the more he will use me. How often I think the opposite, that I need to have it “together” and then he will be able to use me.

Appreciation: I had a “profound” thought a few weeks ago that I want to share. Those of you who are supporting me in prayer and financially are not just supporting me, but you are standing in the gap and providing for the children here. The other day I was reflecting on how New Hope operates and realized that people like you pay and pray on behalf of children who cannot do so for themselves. So thank you, not just for supporting me, but for providing for children half way across the world.

with many thanks, katie = )

Willis March Newsletter

Dear Partners in the Gospel,

Thank you for your prayers and gifts to our ministry! Tricia is feeling much better now and she is almost back to her daily self. She still has some discomfort in her lower back along with numbness in her legs, but overall she has made a good recovery. We thank the Lord for that and all of your prayers for her. I can look back on this as a time in my life when I really began to understand what it means to be a mother, a lot of hard work! As I had to step into many of Tricia’s roles while her back was healing, I learned to have more respect and sensitivity to all mothers everywhere for the job that they are doing raising children.

Since Tricia is doing much better, we were able to attend several missions conferences that we were invited to speak at. Pastors Tim and Danny of Grace Church in San Luis Obispo invited us to come and spend a week speaking to various Sunday School classes and Growth Groups during their missions week. We had a wonderful time connecting with many of you and having special meals together. Thank you for inviting us into your homes and praying for us. Also we want to thank Pastors Dave and Darrin Rusco of Paso Robles Bible Church for inviting our family to come to their first missions conference! We had a wonderful time sharing with you all and visiting with many of you while we were there. Thank you for the wonderful meals you made for us!

As Tricia and I get ready for some of the trips that I will be going on, we ask you to pray for us. There are still many people who are needed in order for the trips to have enough people to go. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers into his harvest. We still need about 15 people to go to Russia and Ukraine with us. If you would like to find out more information go to our website: isptrips.org and you will be able to click on the link to see all of our upcoming trips.

Part of our job is to speaking to people in the US and recruiting them to go on these trips. We need volunteers to go so that there will be enough people to help share the gospel with teachers and create long lasting friendships with them.

In the most recent trip to Guatemala, 448 teachers attended the Moral Ethics training! Here are some of their comments: “This is the best conference I have ever attended.” along with “I have heard about these conferences, but now I realized about the importance that my family is for me. I am sure I’ll use the curriculum with my students.” and “I am very thankful because I was invited to attend; please continue helping me. I will share and do all to work with my entire school in this project about values.”

Betty Harrington from Paso Robles Bible Church will be going to Ukraine during the month of March. She needs your prayers and encouragement. If any of you are interested in going to Ukraine with her or myself in the future, please let us know. Ron and Cyndie Hamley from Grace Church in SLO are also going to Guatemala in July. They will also need your prayers and encouragement. If anyone would like to go on that trip, you can contact me directly or talk with them and we can show you how to sign up for the trip.

Wade and Josh have been sick lately, so we ask for your prayers that God would heal them and protect them from further bouts with Bronchitis. Thank you again for all of your prayers for us and enabling us to be a part of this ministry.

Love, Bob, Tricia, Wade, and Josh!

Please make a note that our address has changed to:
PO Box 3104, Mission Viejo, CA 92690

John Nadolski Returns from Kenya

Thank you for all of your prayers.

It was a special and blessed trip to Kenya. Here are a few stories of how our prayers were answered. Since this is about PRAYERS, I’ll use those letters to tell the story. Send us a reply if you want more information or send us a note to let us know what’s new in your life.
John and Marcia


Prayer. I prayed for y’all on the days you were praying for me. I took the prayer list with me wherever I went, and I prayed for y’all, too. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Rain. It hasn’t rained in Marsabit for over a month and that wasn’t much of a rain. It did rain the day I left and that gave people hope that the rains would come early this year.

Answered prayer. Where do I start? There were so many answered prayers: health and safety were obvious, but there were many subtle answers to prayers. One that comes to my mind is about giving: I took two hats with me on the trip and I bought caps for the guys traveling with me. One day, Joseph was riding in the back of the pickup truck and his hat blew off. So, I gave him mine and I started wearing a leather hat with a broad rim. I liked the big hat because it kept the hot sun off of my ears, neck and nose. As it turns out, my partner David (Dr. David Adolph, PhD Engineer and program manager for the project) drove us to the air strip so that we could catch the small plane flying back to Nairobi. It had started to rain and David didn’t have a hat. I gave him mine and he seemed tickled. (It looked real good on him. It made him look like Crocodile Dundee.) When I got to Nairobi, I stayed at the guest house for African Inland Missions. While I was checking in, a guest came up to the front desk and gave them three hats to give away. I asked and they gave me one. It was a good reminder that God provides.

Yes. There is a desert in Kenya. We went through the edge of the Chalbi Desert, doing about 100 km/hour for about an hour. The road changes every time they get a rain, and they close the road every time it rains. They got rain a few days after we went through and they closed the road. It may stay closed until things dry out in May or June.

Education. Almost all of the kids start off at the primary school and they usually stay until they are about eight or nine years old. By that time, the kids are big enough to be useful in taking care of the sheep or walking the donkeys to the well. It’s sad to see kids drop out of school, especially girls. Maybe one in four kids finish eighth grade and only a handful of kids move to town to be in high school.

Rotary projects: LWI’s team drilled two of the four wells in Western Kenya and finished the project at Sabatia Eye Hospital.

Sand fleas. Those buggers bite – and leave welts that last for weeks.

Greetings from Utah!

Hello from the Gunns! It has now been almost two months since the Missions Conference and I still think about how encouraging it was. I just wanted to let everyone know we are doing well and Miriam is feeling better and better as the effects of the chemo and radiation fade. Our next benchmark will be April 22 when she goes in for PET and CAT scans to see if there is any sign of the cancer.

Thank you again, Grace Church for all of your prayers and support!

Rob,Miriam,Jessica and Ethan

Peterson's Prayer Guide - April 2008

If any of you needs wisdom – if you want to know what God wants you to do – ask Him and He will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. James 1:5

I’m memorizing James 1 at present, and this verse has been a great reminder to me at a time when we need wisdom with a number of important decisions.

Gary has been asked to consider joining another department at our Wycliffe office. Church Relations is getting a new beginning. They would like Gary to be available to speak to churches about Wycliffe and our work, not just locally, but in other parts of the US. He is very interested, as he loves that type of work and has done it in the past. His current job is mostly at the Orlando center, so has involved little travel, and he does miss that. He enjoys what he’s doing now, and there’s no doubt God is using him there too. Please pray for ears to hear God’s voice on this new possibility. He might be able to work part time in both departments for awhile, but the details are still being worked out.

Esther has only a month left of this college year, so is rather buried in big assignments at present. She received several unexpected scholarships and a gift towards her college expenses recently, so we are all praising the Lord for the way He is taking care of her needs. She hopes to work as a Resident Assistant next school year, so that will help with her fees too. She is still working through the options for the summer, so please keep her in your prayers for those plans and the purchase of airline tickets at a good price when we get to that stage.

On Thursday, March 27th Gary & Josiah began their road trip to visit 3 colleges: Columbia International University in SC, Liberty University and Patrick Henry in Virginia. They spent a night with the Gosses at the JAARS center along the way (for those of you who know them). On Wednesday Gary will drop Josiah off for a two day visit at Trinity College of Florida, where Esther is attending. Please pray for safety in their travels, discernment as they check out these possibilities, and a good time as father and son, brother and sister. Gary returns on Ap.2nd. I’ll go and pick Josiah up on Ap. 4th.

I (Robyn) had some health problems last month. I had the three H’s: hayfever, hives and heartburn. Gary and I both get hayfever each year about now. We’re told it’s the oak pollen that is at high levels right now. So we’re living with antihistamines each day to cope. The hives were something new for me. They hit suddenly last week and were a real nuisance, especially during the night. I’ve been to the doctor, and we can’t find a cause, so think they may be viral. Medication has helped. About the same time I also had heartburn for the first time, badly enough to wake me in the night and keep me from sleeping. So now I’m also on medication for that. It’s helping, but I’m not used to taking medicine and would really like to get off all of this. Pray for healing and praise God for doctors and medicine to help when we have stuff like this happen!

My mother got the results of her recent tests and nothing new was found. That is a relief, but still doesn’t help in finding the cause of some of her problems. Thanks for praying for her. It is hard to be so far away when she is dealing with serious health problems…

We enjoyed our various house guests in March. Please know that we’d love to have you stay if you’re ever in the area too.

Gary had a lot of fun at the car races. He got to do and see things he’s only seen on TV before, so it was a great time.

The various events on his schedule for March went well. I got to see him in action as he shared with 70 college students visiting Wycliffe last week. I think it was a real eye opener to them. It was great to see a number of them commit to praying for a Bible-less people group.

Last month Gary mentioned the big Children’s Missions Jamboree for the Central Florida Nazarene Churches. They expect 350 elementary kids and 100 adults for this all day event on Saturday, April 5th. Please keep him and the rest of their team in your prayers for that.

There isn’t a lot on Gary’s schedule for April so far. Maybe it will be a chance to get caught up on e-mail and work through things regarding the new position.

Thankful for your partnership in prayer, Robyn & Gary Peterson