Music from Stephen Gates

Music from Melissa Yakes

The Sustaining Love of God

Times for Prayer

"Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and application..." Ephesians 6:18

There are other duties of religion, and of our stations in the world, but we must keep up times of prayer. Though set and solemn prayer may not be seasonable when other duties are to be done, yet short and pious prayers darted out, always are so. We must use holy thoughts in our ordinary course. A vain heart will be vain in prayer. We must pray with all kinds of prayer, public, private, and secret; social and solitary; solemn and sudden: with all the parts of prayer; confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgiving for favors received. And we must do it by the grace of God the Holy Spirit, in dependence on, and according to, his teaching. We must persevere in particular requests, notwithstanding discouragements, We must pray, not for ourselves only, but for all saints. Our enemies are mighty, and we are without strength, but our Redeemer is almighty, and in the power of his might we may overcome. Wherefore we must stir up ourselves. Have not we, when God has called, often neglected to answer? Let us think upon these things, and continue our prayers with patience. We must join prayer with all these graces, for our defense against these spiritual enemies, imploring help and assistance of God, as the case requires: and we must pray always. Not as though we were to do nothing else but pray, for there are other duties of religion and of our respective stations in the world that are to be done in their place and season; but we should keep up constant times of prayer, and be constant to them.

*Taken from Matthew Henry's "Daily Readings"

Lozi Mission Update

Dear Family,

Greetings in the name of our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of all things; including this work among the Lozi! As I'm writing you, Steph just told me that we only have water up to the first ring in the tank. That means there hasn't been enough city water coming through the pipes to fill the tanks. Oh well, some things never change. The Lord's grace has brought us "safe thus far and grace will lead us home." It's amazing how some of these challenges (notice I said some - not all) just seem like no big deal anymore.

We are very thankful to the Lord for the three guys - David, Wendell, and Mark, that God brought to us. They were a tremendous help in getting the toilets and showers and septic about 85% complete. Both Wendell and David, who have been here before, commented about how different it was this time living a "day in the life" of a missionary with us compared to when they used to come with the South Africans. Not better or worse, just different. Speaking of a day in the life, I'll let you in on on something that happens quite often. A woman just came to our door, just a few minutes ago. She said her baby was sick and she was going door to door asking for "piece works" (which means odd jobs). This happens fairly frequently. I told her nicely that we didn't have any work for her but that she should go to Trinity Baptist Church and talk to Gloria, the secretary, tell her that I sent her, and see if Gloria had any suggestions. But now that I'm sitting here, my conscience is wrestling with me. What does Jesus mean when He says "give to everyone who asks without expecting anything in return." Does He really mean EVERYONE? Surely not. Because then we might be penniless; we might be taken advantage of. What does James mean when he says that our faith without works is dead when someone comes to our door without proper food or clothes and we send them away saying "Be warm and well fed" and do nothing to provide for their physical needs. What would you do family? It seemed so much easier to live my "missions theory" back in the states. But life here doesn't seem to fit my nice, neat little boxes and categories.

Sean and Joyce and the kids have been out at the land for the past three days. They come back today. Sean wanted to finish the connections to the toilets and showers. He sent a text last night saying that Jackson (our thatcher) was there and that the guys were finishing the roof (finally! praise God!); and that the cover for the septic tank is finished, all the rocks needed to finish the shower walls have been gathered, and both toilets and showers have been connected. Alicia is not feeling well. Please pray for her.

Winter is coming. The nights are beginning to get very cool. We really enjoy that.

Please pray for our brother Enoch, from Trinity Baptist Church, who may be joining us in the work. He is half Lozi and half Shona. He has proven himself to be a valuable asset to the team. We feel unanimously that he is the "bridge" that we need to help us communicate the truth of the Gospel across language and culture. He is from the capital city of Lusaka. He was a member of Kabwata Baptist Church and sat under Conrad Mbewe for years. In fact he played his guitar and helped with the music there for years. We tease him that he is a "Lozi Wendell Durham". He plays and sings with the same passion and joy that Wendell does. It was really fun to watch and listen in on a jam session with our nephew Michael, Wendell, Enoch, and his son Mordecai as they all four played their guitars and we sang together around the campfire. I'm not kidding, it was a small taste of heaven and the Lord was in our midst. Enoch is well-grounded spiritually and academically. He has a university degree. He can truly understand us and the Lozi in the villages at the same time. Please pray that God will give us wisdom and that He will lead the way and provide finances and resources for this brother.

Enoch says that if Sean and I will really focus on the language he thinks we could be conversant in six months. He's a good helper. So please also pray that we will be able to learn the language quickly as we work.

Satan continues to wage war against us and the work here. Why should we ever be surprised? He has no choice but to wage war. Because he certainly won't bow in surrender, not willingly anyway. So here's the latest with the Lozi Royal Establishment. You will see that this is clearly spiritual. We wrote a cover letter from HeartCry for immigration when we first came and applied for our work permits. In the letter we used the following phrase, "we are coming by invitation of Trinity Baptist Church in Livingstone, Chief Imbwae and Induna Ilwendo of the Lozi people in Western Province." The Senior Chief in Mwandi saw this phrase and made a huge deal of it. He thinks that Chief Imbwae and Nduna Ilwendo recruited us to come from the US as

investors posing as missionaries and that they intend to profit from our investment! Can you believe that? How twisted. So now we have to have another big village meeting so they can amend our document and sign that they (the people) want us to come to their area. And so it goes on and on.

Praise the Lord we do feel like we have turned a corner spiritually. Lately I've been reminded of two passages of scripture that I believe are promises from the Lord for us to cling to by faith.

Psalm 138:8The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Habakkuk 2:1-3I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord will answer me: "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so He may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."

Even if this work seems to crawl along at a snail's pace, it is the Lord's work; He owns it and He will not let it abort. Please keep praying with us that the Lord will triumph and that we will endure to the end.

Your brother, Shannon

P.S. We have also updated our blog. http://www.lozimission.blogspot.com/

He Cannot Love You More!

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6 The Lord cares for His children! He knows our needs--and has promised to supply them. He knows our foes--and will deliver us from them. He knows our fears--and will make us ashamed of them.

All creatures and things are in His hand, and at His disposal; all circumstances are under His absolute control. He . . . directs the angel, feeds the sparrow, curbs the devil, and manages the tempest! He is your Father--and His love to you is infinite. You are His delight--His dear child. Will He neglect you? Impossible! Cast then your cares upon Him. Tell out all your desires, fears, and troubles to Him; let Him know everything; keep nothing back. And then in the confidence of faith, expect Him to fulfill His Word, and act a Parent's part.

Bless Him for all He has given, for all He has promised. Plead with Him for all you may need. But never for one moment, or under any circumstances, distrust Him! He cannot love you more! He is your ever present help. He will rejoice over you to do you good, with His whole heart, and with His whole soul. "Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares about you!" 1 Peter 5:7



*Taken from Grace Gems daily emails