Newsletter (September 15, 2011)

Dear all, As we write, power has been off for two hours. We have not had a power cut for quite a while now, so there must be some problems somewhere. As it turned out, it seems that one of the main hydroelectric power plants developed problems and the whole nation is affected. This is a major problem, so we do not know when we will have power back and so we are prepared to have a long dark evening. It is not too good for these sort of problems to happen so close to the elections, so we hope everything will be back to normal soon.

We forgot to tell you that the Chinese doctors have returned to China in July. We do not know when the new batch of doctors will come. Most probably they will come after the elections.

We have an English couple visiting TCCA for a month and the husband is teaching a course on cross-cultural communication. They had been in North Africa for more than 20 years and so are very suitable to teach this course. They are a lovely couple and are staying in one of the new flats which was completed not long ago.

Our pastor has asked Timothy to preach in church on 2 October. He will be preaching both morning and evening services. Here the morning service is more evangelistic and the evening service caters more towards believers. Please pray for him as this is the first time that he will be preaching in English. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will grant him power and strength and he can express himself well, and will speak clearly. Please also pray that the messages he prepares will be helpful to the congregation.

Our principal is in Hong Kong right now, and he will be preaching in our home church on Friday and Saturday evenings. We knew he would have to go to Singapore for a conference early this month and visit a church which supported him throughout the years. So we arranged with our church to invite him to go to Hong Kong to preach as well. He has never visited Hong Kong before, and we hope his preaching will be very helpful to the brothers and sisters there.

Recently, parcels from Hong Kong and New Zealand took a very long time to come. We can think of five or six items which should have arrived but have not. Today one card and one small packet came from Hong Kong and they took more than two months to arrive. Timothy is still waiting for some medication to arrive from New Zealand. They were sent two months ago. He has finished his medication yesterday but thankfully he could find a replacement here. Zara also is waiting for something from Hong Kong. We do not know the causes of this delay, but we pray that everything will arrive soon.

Some friends in our home church in Hong Kong also sent us many books. We received 12 huge boxes last week and one is yet to come. Altogether there are more than 400 quality books and they will be a treasure for the library and Christians here. Timothy has to get the TCCA truck to collect them from the central post office as they were detained by customs. When the officer confirmed that they were all books, she quickly released them to us as books, especially Christian books and Bibles are not liable for taxes and VAT. With Christian love.