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From
the Dial's…
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June 18, 2009 Dear Prayer Partners, The verse above rings true about those who have come to us bringing the gospel of peace to the Maluti Mountains. The early part of this month, we watched as volunteers came on mission from the Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, FL. We watched as God treaded on the heights of the earth…on our mountain peaks. We watched as God treaded on places like Ha Tsolotsa, Ha Maphike, Pakoeng, Cell Tower Mountain, Liseleng Primary School, Ha Malimole, Ha Kanono, Khohlo-Ntso, Mokhetuoa. It was a time of great fellowship and co-laboring in isolated places where many had never seen faces like ours before. All but one place was off the beaten path (actually there was no path, just boulders and rocks). Mostly it was just driving up the side of a mountain and over rocks and boulders. In one of these villages, it required that we travel by horseback to a school way back in the mountains called Liseleng. The children all ran to touch our skin and the joy in their smiles was like a sunray busting forth. They were so happy and excited that visitors had come to them. They had never had visitors before and certainly none who looked like us.
Looks exciting headed up the mountain It’s downright nasty looking back!
We always do a nightly debrief with our teams and on the final night we always ask what has left the great impression with them. What will they take back with them? The answer is always the same…seeing the in-your-face poverty, and the great physical and spiritual need here. What a great team and what a great work they did while here. We thank you Bell Shoals for loving us and the Basotho. Thank you for sharing the love of Jesus here in the mountains by your personal witness, your smiles and passion for the Basotho, for your boldness as you did hut to hut evangelism and shared from Creation to the Cross in the villages, for praying for those who were sick and dying with HIV/AIDS, and for those demonically oppressed and possessed. We thank you and love you. Hurry back to us!
We also have with us at this time three fantastic winter volunteers…John and Drew from the University of GA and Therron from Shorter College. They are all from the Atlanta, GA area. They are living an incarnate witness in the village of Khohlo-Ntso. The other night they prepared a dinner for some 12 or so neighbors. Before the close of the evening, their next door neighbor asked how could he become a true believer in Christ. The guys had an opened door to share the gospel and share they did. Pastor Phoka and Mema Neo also shared with him but sometimes a Mosotho may not be open to ask questions like that from another Mosotho because that Mosotho knows all about his past. John, Therron and Drew had an open door to witness. We praise God for these fine Christian brothers. They have become like sons to us and we are enjoying their fellowship and ministry. The guys have also been working closely with the pastor and his wife, even working in the fields with them. They have been working with the youth in the schools and just loving the Basotho to Christ. Today they are on a 8 hour pony ride to a village high in the mountains to share the love of Jesus. Please pray for these guys as they live out their faith before their neighbors.
We love working with teams. They encourage us, excite us, and we part as dear friends. Together we are bonded as one in the love of Christ. Our goal….to engage lostness for the glory of God. With our teams we have shared laughter and tears and we have always been blessed by them. How true is Isa. 52:7….how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news, peace and happiness who say: “Our God reigns!” One of our greatest joys is watching God move in the hearts of those who come on mission. As they are a blessing to those they come to minister to, they are also blessed and God reveals more of Himself and speaks to the hearts of the teams. That is our greatest joy…to be able to participate and witness God at work in the lives and hearts of the team members. To Bell Shoals and to our GA winter missionary volunteers we say thanks. We love you and pray for you. To all our prayer partners, we also say thanks…for praying for us and the Basotho – they are mighty and God is working through them; for loving us when we are not so lovable; for coming when it could have been so easy to stay; and for giving sacrificially which allows us to stay on the field and work. This has been a month of blessing! We also have our newest team family living just across the road from us. We have been blessed by their presence, their wisdom and their loving natures. So meet the Floras….there are five of them: Jim, Teresa, Anna, Gracie, and Rebekha. They have begun language study and doing very well (though I do suspect that Teresa has been bribing her language instruction with her good cookingJ). They have worked with us in the villages on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Jim has preached and Teresa has done chronological Bible storying. It has been a time of wonderful fellowship which we have missed for a long time as we have been the only ones like us up here for so long. We praise God for adding them to our team. We also give thanks for the Peppers, another new team family. Praise God for the work they are doing as the Director of Lesotho Flying Doctor Service. Please pray for these new families as they continue in language study and minister among the Basotho. We ask also your prayers for our oldest son, Alan (whom we call Abby). He is bringing a team to minister to the Basotho in November. There can be no greater joy for a missionary than to have a son or daughter desire to minister along side of you. They have their own website and we encourage everyone to visit it: www.missiontolesotho.com. Please pray for him and his team (Andrea, Chad and Carissa) as they make preparations, both logistically and spiritually, to come to Lesotho. Pray for their safe keeping, pray that God will speak to their hearts and draw them closer as they come and as they seek His will in obedience and trust. We would greatly appreciate your prayers during this month and into July as it will be a busy time for us. We will be receiving a great team from FBC, Perryton, TX in just a few days, an IMB media team coming to do work with us, strategy leaders Darin and Shawna Davis and family coming for a visit of fellowship and planning, the winter volunteers and the Floras also here working. For all of them, we give thanks. Please pray for all of these who will be coming . Pray for the Davis family as they lead our cluster and make difficult leadership/management decisions in this time or reorganization within the IMB. Pray for the teams that God will break through hard spiritual ground as they share the love of Jesus through their own testimonies and living out their faith before the people of this nation. Pray for the Peppers and Floras as they adjust to the culture and language. Pray for the Melvin’s who serve in the lowlands as they prepare to return home for stateside assignment and for the Bickers from Bethlehem in the Free State of South Africa currently in America. This morning I woke early with a song in my heart about remembering….it is called “I Will Remember.” I don’t know who it is written by but an amazing praise/teaching team from the Baptist Church in Lyons, Ga., taught our children and led the adults in praise and worship during our last missions conference. This was one of the songs they sang for us. It really spoke to my heart. it is a song about remembering what God has done for us and from where He has taken us. It is my prayer that we all never forget what the Lord has done for us. Not only has He redeemed us spiritually but He rescues us in our times of need and when we walk through troubled waters, He is with us all the way and sustains us in our hour of need. He gives strength that we just can comprehend just at the time is most needed. We must remember….from where He has brought us and where He has placed us. I will never forget a time years ago in the neonatal ICU at the hospital in Tallahassee, FL. Our daughter had gone into labor while visiting us one Thanksgiving holiday. I remember the words the doctor said…words of defeat to our ears as they informed us that this beautiful child would not survive the night. I remember the look in our daughter’s face as she looked into her daddy’s eyes and cried: “Daddy, do something.” Such a feeling of hopelessness…what can be done at a time like that except fall on your knees and cry out to God, the Creator of life. I know that sometimes God says no but that time, He said yes. After seven weeks in the ICU our little Joshua (who is not so little anymore) went home with his mom and dad and today there is no visible sign that anything ever happened except for the little crosses on his chest left from the draining tubes….some call them scars but we all call them crosses and they still cause us all to remember. We remember God’s power in our need, we remember God’s compassion in our pain, and we are filled with thanksgiving for His wonderful blessings and mercy in our lives. Since then, there have been many times that have caused us to “remember” and in remembering we are reminded of God’s faithfulness and power. There is a song the Basotho sing that says “He took me from down here and put me up there.” May you be filled with joy and peace as you remember and be filled with thanksgiving because the Lord has taken us from way down there and placed us heavenly way up there. Be blessed in your remembering! Thank you for loving us and for allowing us to love you. Be blessed. In His Name, Alan, Babs, Daniel and Mohau Maluti Mountains, Lesotho, Southern Africa |
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