Ministry update, Fourou & Study room

This past weekend was interesting. We took the van to Fourou. Our colleagues, Tom & Laura Requadt have been working there with a miracle church. The church is a miracle because a cluster of 4 believers began meeting without a Bible in their own language or a pastor to lead them. They did have a hymnbook in Bambara, which they speak as a trade language. They prayed for someone to help them.
God sent Tom & Laura. (God contrived to have their house in Cote D'Ivoire destroyed in the war there, and when they sought a place to relocate, Fourou was the best place in Mali for their language translation project.) So Tom & Laura were brought into this congregation. They began basic theology classes, and baptism classes. More people are now coming to church, and getting saved.
This weekend we went to a grounds dedication ceremony for the new church. They have bought property and are ready to build their building. They are a small body of believers. About 12 adults, and 30 kids. (Laura has a very active backyard Bible club!!) It was such a joy to stand with the people and pray over the land that God had provided for them! Here is a pic of the service at the Fourou church that day. With Tom Requadt in the foreground. Danielle is in the background...


Danielle started her ESL conversation class last week. We were dissappointed that after radio announcements, and personal invitations to which 7 people showed marked interest, we only had one person show up. Too bad. The good news is that Issa, who showed up is a moslem, but very open to hearing about the gospel. At the end of today's class he mentioned that he had to finish a bit early because he had to go pray. I told Danielle he was a moslem. She asked him "are you a moslem?" He said "yes, what are you?" She said "I'm a Christian." He says "are you allowed to
have a moslem friend?" She says,"Of course!" He had a big grin on his face...
I've been working with Issa all year. He is very brilliant as a student, and wants badly to improve his english. The catch is that he has only about 40% of his hearing left. He had an illness which robbed him of his hearing, and he wasnt' able to finish high school because of the illness.
Pray for Issa, pictured here. He is a soul who needs Christ. (Issa means Jesus in Arabic...)

We had four students on Monday. :-) (We actually have 8 that have said "Yes, we will be there, but obviousley, some aren't showing up. I hope they do...)
Two others of our study room students have asked for Bibles at the end of the school year. Just in the last two weeks. Pray for them, that the Word of God would not rot on their shelves, but be read, and have life in their hearts. Pray for Ibrahima (Abraham) and Khahki!

Also, We've had a terrible time connecting to the internet recently. I have to dial up 20 times to get a connection, and the last two days I was thrown off before I could download email. Email is so important to us out here!
I also value greatly this blog connection so that you can come and see pics, and hear current events! Please pray for this email problem to be resolved.

We have heard of an opportunity to sign up for sattelite high speed connection. We're considering that.

Thanks for stopping by,
Tom & Lisa Seward Seward