May 2, 2007

Dear Fellow Laborers-

“A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”

  Proverbs 16:9

Greetings to all of you in the Lord! Our God is a great God full of wisdom and power, merciful and slow to wrath. Praise His name! What joyous news we have to share with all of you in this letter. God has revealed His plan to us, and we are more than happy to follow Him!

As you can see our verse this month is very fitting for what we will be sharing. We prayed before starting deputation three years ago, that the Lord would guide us in our mission, lead us in His way. After starting deputation, we had felt the Lord leading us to pray about what He would have us to do.

Our original plan was to work in Botswana and plant churches. A hearing man trained in sign language from Zambia was to come down and work with us, but his plans changed and he is staying in Zambia for the present. Also, there is a couple working with Deaf people near the capital city already, and we were told by two different missionaries there are not as many Deaf people in Botswana as we had originally thought. Part of the plan was for us to help train a hearing pastor in Mochudi. Without this hearing man’s help, it would make things very difficult for my wife who would have to interpret for me full time, and is home-schooling two of our three girls, not to mention her other home duties and ministry involvement.

This, of course, forced us to seek the Lord and see what His plan would be. We would have been happy to stay on the course to Botswana, but God opened wide the doors for us to work in South Africa with our missionary friends.

Chris and Lucinda Radebaugh have been working with Deaf people for over 25 years, specifically in Africa for 16 years. Currently they are on furlough. They are good friends of ours, and the Lord put it on our hearts to pray about working with them. So we did. Circumstances orchestrated by the Lord brought us together in Ohio, where we were able to talk and ask questions. Turns out they had been praying about us working with them. Chris had planned a trip to South Africa in order to take care of some business there, and with our deputation being completed, I was free to go with him.

What a blessing my trip was! I preached in the Deaf church in the north side of Johannesburg once, and was able to teach at the Bible Institute to national Deaf pastors twice. There is a young man who has been trained and will be establishing a Deaf church in the southern part of Johannesburg who needs a mentor. I can work with him, and help him in ministry. The Deaf church voted and approved me to come and work with them in helping to establish churches. What a blessing that is!

Chris also has a vision to establish a full time Bible College for the Deaf. Currently they meet for four hours on Saturdays. His vision for Jan 2008 is to expand the college to meet T-F from 9AM-2PM. He had been praying for more laborers in order for this to be a reality. The Lord has since sent his nephew to work with him, and now our family. God is so faithful to send the laborers where they are most needed.

We plan to make this first term a time of learning. Chris is very experienced in the ministry, raised three girls on the field, and can be an immeasurable help to us in learning the ropes. After this first term we will see where the Lord would direct. If He would have us go to Botswana at that time, we are willing and happy to do so. If He leads us to stay in South Africa, we are happy to do that as well.

Please pray for us as we plan. Right now we have airline tickets reserved for July. We need paperwork approved, and are in the process of filing it. Please pray that all these details would be taken care of well, and quickly.

As we are sure you may have many questions about the change in field, you can certainly call or email us.