Newsletter (July 26, 2018)

Dear all, Greetings from Hong Kong and trust you all are well. It has been four months since we last wrote to you. We have been quite busy in the past few months and below is a summary of our lives in Zambia:

1. Timothy has been busy cataloguing books for the Covenant College, using the new library system. He could do it from Lusaka, as the Internet connection is much faster. He has finished about 70% of the work and hopes to finish it as soon as possible. He has ordered quite a lot of new books for them and the books have arrived and been sent to the College. Please pray for the College as they are facing lots of challenges. The College needs to have a farm ministry leader as soon as possible, so that the principal can concentrate on college affairs. The College has to terminate the contracts of a number of staff because of integrity issues. This is a not uncommon situation in churches and Christian institutes which is very sad. Please pray that God will raise up many more committed Christians that are honest, trustworthy and with integrity, and that he will also provide good staff for the College. Recently someone wanted to create more problems and tried to burn down the student dormitory a day before the students were due to return for the new semester. God protected the College and the damage by fire was not too extensive, although they need to replace the windows, curtains and other things in some rooms.

2. We attended our SIM Zambia’s Annual Spiritual Life Conference in April. The speaker was Bishop Mwiza, our board chairman. His talks were excellent and very relevant, and we were all greatly encouraged and challenged. We managed to meet many of our missionaries whom we haven’t met for a long time. SIM Zambia finally will have a director after the position fell vacant for many months. The new director and his wife will come from Canada and hopefully will arrive sometime in February 2019.

3. Timothy is continuing preaching and Zara is teaching children’s Sunday School at the Chinese Church once a month. Please also pray for the Chinese Church as they are also facing many challenges. The Church has recently been registered through the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia. With a new constitution there will be election of new church leaders. Please pray that the Church will be able to elect godly and mature Christians to the leadership. Because of this development the launch of the 10-week Christianity Explored course in Mandarin will be postponed.

4. Zara continues teaching the Bible weekly to grade 4 pupils in the small community school which mainly caters for orphans and vulnerable children in townships. The number of students each week varies a lot. Please pray that she can relate well with the children and they can learn God’s words and understand the gospel message. Attached is a photo showing the students in her class.

5. We are in Hong Kong visiting Zara’s father since the end of June. He is doing reasonably well for his age though he complains of pain in his legs. He turns 88 this week and it is good that we are around for his birthday. We adjusted to jet lag much better than last year and we are very thankful for this. We will be returning to Zambia on 3 August.

6. Our home church in Hong Kong has a number of summer camps and special meetings and we managed to attend some meetings last week and met some old friends who we haven’t seen for a very long time. We also managed to meet some friends who are interested in missions and we are very encouraged by what they are doing to further God’s kingdom. Timothy was invited by the men’s fellowship of Zara’s father’s church to share our lives in Zambia. The meeting went well.

7. Please also pray for Timothy’s preaching the day after we return. We will spend a week in Lusaka, and then go to Covenant College in the Eastern Province for several days. Timothy needs to do some work for the library and teach the students how to use the library and encourage them to read some good books.

We are still very thankful for the availability of the small cottage in which we could stay in Lusaka. It has a nice bush setting and is peaceful and quiet.

That possibly is everything worth mentioning. Please continue to pray for us as we need your prayer support. Blessings.