POINTS OF PRAYER AND PRAISE
Praise the Lord for the church that it seems to be moving forward. Since late last year there has been some ill feeling between some of the believers in the church and those who were placed in authority. However, just in the new year the main believers called a meeting and there was a public apology by those who had been in the wrong. The local population are known for being a very proud people, and to publicly apologise for something is an incredible move forward for them.

We are very thankful for having a teacher here with us for six months to teach the children. The teacher seems to have settled in really well and is adjusting excellently to her life here with us. The children have really warmed to her which is a real answer to prayer. For us oldies it's a little strange having an extra person drafted into our family for a few months but things seem to be going okey. Do pray that this will continue to work out well.

We have a team of people coming out from our home church at the end of February for two weeks. Do pray for all the organisation involved in this and that the time would be of great benefit both to us and our work and that this trip will give a real insight to those who are coming out into what is involved in reaching the local people with the gospel.

For the following months we would value your prayers. As you would have read from our newsletters the rains last year were really good. And we would like to say that we shouldn't have any problem with hungry people this year. However we live in a far from perfect world and things never seem to be that simple. Growing crops here is a delicate thing. Not enough rain and the crops don't survive. Too much rain and the crops get sick. Unfortunately the abundance of rain we had in the rainy season brought sickness to many people's crops, and although many people got more than they did the year before, praise the Lord, many people still failed to get enough to survive the whole year and even now people are at the point where they have nothing or they are coming to the end of what they managed to salvage. Do pray that God would give us wisdom on how we should go about helping people this year, and do pray that we would have the resources to help those who really need it.

And fianlly, do pray for new people coming into the church and that the Lord would lead us to the right people as we seek to make new contacts both in and around this area. Do pray for a young man who has just started to show an interest in the Gospel. Pray that it would be the Holy Spirit that convicts him and nothing else. It is often difficult for the missionaries to know someone's motive for showing interest in the Gospel, but we thank God that He knows men's hearts and it is by His power, and His power only that a man may be truly saved.
Thank you again for your support.