Great joy It is with great joy and excitement that Francois and four Mwinika believers left for Alara’s village this morning!
Can you still remember how Alana came to visit a sick family member in our village and started to attend the Bible teaching? This was about a year ago. Alara went home with a portion of the Mwinika Bible and some audio lessons. Within a month she returned with her brother and a long list of people from their village asking us to come and teach them more: they want to know God! 
They were fascinated to hear God’s Word in their own language for the first time. Francois and five men later went to visit this village where they were warmly welcomed and asked by the leaders and community to return to teach them about God and his Word.
This weekend is our first official outreach to Alana’s village! The guys left early this morning on three motorbikes, packed with the portions of the Mwinika Old Testament and more lessons on audio. They also took Bible picture books with them – put together by the Mwinika Literacy Team – to use as a tool to teach the Word. Francois and the guys will demonstrate how to use the material effectively so that they can understand the Gospel and will be able to duplicate it among all their people. One of the first things that needs be done in this process, is Literacy classes so that they will be able to have access to the Bible and read it for themselves. Future teaching and the Literacy classes must be discussed and organized this weekend. 
Praise the Lord for this amazing opportunity! Pray for prepared hearts and much fruit on the seed sown by the Word. Pray for wisdom in communicating and the Holy Spirit’s direction and protection.
Great loss It was with great sadness that we heard the news about the death of Nadia’s cousin’s wife earlier this month. She was also our project team leader, Willie and his wife, Klein Moller’s daughter in law. This young mother died a few days after the birth or their 3rd child. She leaves her husband and three small children behind. The funeral was Saturday May the 10th. It was an especially difficult time to be so far from friends and family. The Lord is gracious however to both the family and us. We can all testify to his care and grace. Please pray for my cousin and his young children, as well as our project team leader and his wife: Nadia’s aunt Klein has moved in with my cousin to help take care of the kids, while my uncle Willie will continue to travel between the two cities.
A different kind of missionary visit 
Our community recently had a visit from a missionary of a well known middle eastern religion (98% of the Mwinika people group belongs to this religion). He visited the local prayer houses and taught on their doctrine. We experience a definite unease among the people of our community, especially the believers, as a result of this visit. We have always encouraged people here not to necessarily change the form of their religion, but rather to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. As time goes by this may not be compatible anymore and have the potential to bring great division in our community – in fact we know it will. Pray for the believers to have the spiritual maturity to know how to respond to all this. Pray for their security in Christ and their protection.