connection updates

'Jambo' (hello) from Kijabe, Kenya. We pray and trust that this finds you praising our Lord and serving Him as you wait for His return. We praise the Lord for His faithfulness to us. It has been a busy half-year. All the different ministries are going on well. God is making a difference in people's lives. We have had a few challenges. Something happened last Friday night when our small group of Moffat students and another missionary couple who serve with us came to our house for fellowship. When they parked the car in our driveway, which is on a hill, and the couple and one of the students had gotten out, the car started going backwards. We heard some screaming and Paul went out to see what was happening.

Glory to God for what He is doing in and around us! I am grateful to God and thankful to you for your prayer support. We were able to share the Gospel with about 100 people when we visited the down-trodden camps and 4 villages. Thank the Lord for three persons who accepted the Lord as their personal Saviour. We are thankful to you for your prayer support to the poor and needy ones and the Orphan children.

After much prayer we have started the construction of the Gospel and Prayer Hall and a residence. We are currently staying in a rented house. Please pray for the work of the construction and the needed finances. Thank you very much.

Dear Prayer Partners,
Many warm greetings to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. On behalf of the Asian Ministry and on my own behalf, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all who have been earnestly and sincerely supporting our ministry since its inception. It would not have been possible to effectively continue our various ministries had there not always been encouragement and prayer support from all the prayer partners. At this most crucial moment for our ministry, your support and prayer have really enlightened and given us new hope, even though we are deeply hurting and left almost hopeless due to untimely demise of our dear brother, Leishiyo Shimray. I would like to thank Rev. Dr. Jim Starr and Rev. Athem Chothe, who have encouraged and helped us to be strong in the Lord even at the darkest moment of our lives. We extend our heartfelt thanks to them and also to all of you.

Greetings in the most blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Family: My family and I would like to render our sincere thanks to you for your faithful prayers and financial support, which has been a blessing to our ministry. We are doing well by His grace. My son started KG and my daughter is in nursery school, and my youngest daughter is now nine months old. Please continue to pray for our family.

Ministry: By the grace of God our ministry is steadily going forward; please continue to pray to be able to reach more people with the good news of our Savior. Our ministry has been very eager to serve the Lord together with all of you; it is only together that we can accomplish the goal of our evangelism.

We are glad once again to write these few lines to update you on the progress that has been made lately in the ministry here in Togo. We can only thank the Lord for His enablement and the encouragement from many of you; individuals and churches.  We do appreciate your prayers and material support for the ministry in this part of West Africa. Many efforts have been made in the area of church planting, evangelism, youth ministry and adult ministry as well.

MINISTRY
By the end of June, schools will be closed. This will give us the opportunity to begin our summer activities. The plans for this year's activities include VBS in the various churches

July 7th will be here before I know it, and I will get on the plane to Manaus and then to Miami, arriving at 8:25 pm. A couple from Fort Lauderdale will meet me and take me to their home for the night. The next day I will fly to Houston to meet my brother, David, and his family. That will be a big day for his two grandsons and me. July 20th I will continue to Pittsburgh, where I will meet my sister, Ruth Ann, and her family, with her 4 grandchildren. We will have a good time together with sweet corn, yellow beans, blackberries and all the good things of farm life that I miss here.

Yesterday I had to go into Belém, which is only 25 kilometers (15 1/2 mi) from Benevides, where I live. Even so, it took over an hour on a 4-lane road. The long line at the bank to exchange

Since June 3, Rex has been having fever, chills, night sweats, headaches, fatigue, etc. He is still having the same symptoms 3 weeks later. We have been to the doctor twice, had various blood tests three times, and the doctors still only say anemia, and to keep taking the iron supplements. He had another series of tests done yesterday. If all the tests come back negative, he's to be referred to an infectious disease specialist, since he's been in Africa and India recently. We will be traveling to New York this weekend and have a busy schedule. Please keep Rex in your prayers. He's very fatigued and exhausted.

Thank you for your prayers and your faithful support during this second quarter of the year. We praise the Lord for his protection and his support in the ministry. It is with joy that we share here with you what God made in our lives and through us during these last three months. In April we celebrated Easter with joy. On this occasion we baptized five people, including Michée, our son. After worship we organized a church fellowship meal. Then we evangelized in the district in the afternoon, and God saved four people that day.

On May 13, we commemorated our Lord Jesus' Ascension Day in the classified forest of Ouagadougou. We were seventy people who met together; it was a great moment in worship and fraternal communion, meditation and prayer. We reserved a good time for entertainment, we walked in the forest and the children visited the animal park. It was really edifying.

Connie and I are so thankful for your continued prayers and support of this ministry. The Lord has blessed with salvation professions in the Vigo County Jail and better attendance at Vermillion. The Clark County Jail has good response and the Carlisle prison has a good spirit.  Please be in prayer for Carlisle as the afternoon Bible studies have ended; however, the church services are continuing on Wednesday evenings. The attendance at Robinson varies, but the hands raised during the invitation are a blessing. Pastor McIntyre from Independent Baptist Church in Montezuma has ministered with me a few times and filled in occasionally. Chris McCoy is also a blessing in the Vigo jail as he has led several inmates to the Lord. Please continue to pray for our counselors who send and grade the Bible lessons. One is still recovering from a broken arm in February. She is doing better, but is still having therapy.& We praise the Lord for our counselors.

I would like to take this moment to share with you about my return journey to India. I was supposed to depart with Shimray (IGM National Church Planter Shimreipam Phungshok), on June 17 to go back to India. Unfortunately, I was detained at LAX airport by Virgin Atlantic Airline. So, only Shimray flew back to India. I was left behind, in a desperate situation.

Honestly, I couldn’t understand the main reason why they didn’t allow me to go back to my country. But, I can share with you how they responded when we checked in at the airport. First, they said that my passport visa date was expired. So, I showed them the date of the extension of my I-20 (Student Visa), which is extended up to 2013. And they responded that the I-20 is not sufficient. Second, they said that my college should have processed the file to notify the British Consulate of the extension of my Student Visa since I was to fly to India via England (Heathrow Airport). They told me to go online to fill in the form.

These were the reasons they didn’t allow me to fly. Please continue to pray for me as my college is helping me figure out all the stumbling blocks in my visa status. I was very much disappointed to hear that my flight ticket was non-refundable. It is a huge amount for me.