The End of an Era

 Before focusing on "the end of an era," celebrate with us over a huge answer to prayer. Both of the East African projects we shared previously have been abundantly funded through donations. Praise Him!  

• Tanzania: Swahili Self-Control module, to be printed on all 3 levels – the goal was $20,000 USD...and God has pushed that over the top! 

• Ethiopia: Amharic translation and printing of the Purity module on the Secondary level – the goal was $5,000 USD...and yes, more than that has been given! 

AND we know that at least one gift has not yet arrived. This week, a VBS in Maine is collecting money to go toward the Ethiopia project. Ruth plans to join their VBS this Friday, during which they will reveal how much they have raised which will then be submitted to SEND.

We’re excited, and even more so are Scripture Union Tanzania and Scripture Union Ethiopia. SEND readily agreed that any excess can be put toward conducting trainings to equip churches and Christian groups to use these modules once they are available.

THANK YOU to each one who gave toward these projects and prayed with us. As we praise our faithful God, please ask God that both of these projects will be used to reach more children and youth with God’s standard of Self-Control and Purity and introduce them to our Savior and Lord.

We've so enjoyed sharing such victories and answers to prayer via this blog which initially was updated weekly. Then following retirement, it went to monthly and more recently to bi-monthly. We did some research and found that the first "Lion Sighting" blog was published in August, 2013, and this is the 278th blog! However, as Proverbs reminds us, there is a time for everything. And we feel this is the time to conclude our regular bi-monthly blog...the end of an era. 

THANK YOU, dear friends, for joining us on the journey of cross-cultural ministry first in the Philippines and then East Africa. God has answered your prayers and blessed us tremendously through your interest, kindness, and support. Praise God with us for His faithfulness! It's been 43 years since God called us to work together as co-workers. We can never thank God enough for the many prayer and financial supporters, friends, that He has given to us. You have been such an encouragement and blessing. To God be the glory!

Besides this blog, we have also concluded the Bi-monthly Concerts of Prayer. But, we are more convinced than ever of our need of prayer. A local church will be piloting a face-to-face Missions Prayer Focus, probably starting in September. We anticipate keeping in touch with workers on the field including East Africa. If you are interested in joining this prayer initiative, please be in touch with Laura (lbonney2@gmail.com).

(Having said that this is our final bi-monthly blog, we may still use this avenue occasionally for special happenings...like if God opens the door for us to return for a visit to East Africa later this year. We hope you don’t mind.)

Three Thrilling Clips from recent communications regarding VOICE Philippines

 (The first two clips are from VOICE Philippines.)

1. “Amazingly, when a former Cebu VIC [Values Instruction Class] student of more than 10 years ago died, our Cebu champions - who were the student’s former teachers - were allowed by the parents (even from another religion) to hold a necrological service for him. The Gospel was shared and many received the Lord. Truly, trust relationships built open doors for Gospel proclamation.”

2. “We are pleasantly surprised that Life Gospel Church-Payatas is blessed with dozens of young people attending and participating in worship services even in less than two years of teaching VIC, visiting and following students up, and inviting them to youth fellowships.”
   
   (This third clip is from Jake Leyenaar, former SEND Philippine missionary who also served as the previous VOICE Philippines Director, now semi-retired in Canada. He has kept in touch with a large church in southern Metro Manila where godly values have been taught for many years.)

3. “More or less routinely they [the Metro Manila church] have a jam-packed 2-page Sunday bulletin, plus a 3^rd page giving an update on their outreach which is anchored by the VOICE values curriculum. I was nearly blown away the other day when I read that they currently have ministry in 22 public schools, sharing God’s word with over 16 thousand students weekly...Plus they’re active in follow-up with the students’ families. Let’s praise God!”

Two Numbers to Think About

 

The First Number

4148 
in 2024!

According to VOICE Philippines records, coming from the churches’ reports sent to them, during this past calendar year, 4,148 students put their trust in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior as a direct result of being taught Biblical Values in their school classroom. Praise God for such abundant fruit and pray for wisdom and perseverance in following up each profession.

In case, that number makes you uneasy...

• Stating a number of professions does not necessarily mean that each one was genuine and life-changing—only God knows that. But it does indicate a good direction and for some, true faith.
  
  

• In keeping with VOICE’s commitment to avoid “proselytism,” most of these professions of faith have been made outside the school during followup activities for the values students planned by the sponsoring church, usually held in the church. In such case, on-going followup and discipleship is very doable. Pray with us that more churches will go the 2^nd mile to hold followup activities.

And the Second Number

2

Financial Projects

Between now and the end of June, 2025, we would like to see God bring in the final amounts needed for both of these projects:

 

1. Printing of the Self-Control module in Swahili for Tanzania on all three age levels. Many have given sacrificially toward this but when the totals are calculated, we are still $4,000 USD short of the print cost of getting Self-Control printed in Tanzania. 

2. Translation and printing of the Purity Module in the Amharic language (Ethiopia) on the Secondary level only. At this time, we are also $4,000 USD short of what Scripture Union Ethiopia tells us is needed. A New Hampshire Ladies’ Group gave an initial $1,000 toward this project.

PRAY:

Would you please bring these two projects before the Lord as we trust Him together for His promise of Matthew 18:19:

“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Please share with any prayer groups that you are a part of.

GIVE

If you sense God’s nudge to give toward either of these two projects, please be sure to designate your desired project:

VOICE Africa, Tanzania/Swahili or
VOICE Africa, Ethiopia/Amharic

Both Canadians and USA can give on line – SEND.Org/give
You will not find either of these projects available in the drop-down boxes (they are too small), but you can give “where most needed” and then in the box at the bottom of that window, please type in one of the two designations listed above. If you have trouble, email Ruth (ruthlhaynes@gmail.com) or
Laura (lbonney2@gmail.com)

Or you can mail a cheque, again be sure to add one of the two designation statements above

SEND Canada
1-22423 Jefferies Rd., RR
Komoka, CA N0L 1R0

Or

SEND International
Box 513
Farmington, MI 48332

Both of these projects are only open until the end of June, as per plan.

Thanking you in advance

Honesty and Purity Teaching Makes A Difference

Only Beth would dream up a scheme of teaching one entire module of Biblical values to all the students (2,000+) in 3 Primary and 2 High Schools within a 3-day period...and actually pull together, with some help from Scripture Union offices, all that was needed to see that happen! Indeed it did for the five schools connected with a Christian ministry called Musana, about one hour east of Jinja where Beth lives. Four teachers besides herself and a few assistants were recruited, and the chosen modules, Honesty for Elementary Schools and [Moral] Purity for High Schools, were distributed.

Each teacher taught a combined group of students of that school in an assembly style*, covering one lesson during the morning and a second lesson during the afternoon, making it possible to finish all 6 lessons in 3 days, November 25-27. The Elementary Schools focused only on grades 3-6 (Upper Primary). However, one of the teachers, Joan, was asked by the principal in her school to please also teach the Lower Primary...so she taught them at a separate time!

Elementary students thoroughly enjoyed having different teachers, singing the songs, learning the actions, and hearing the stories. High School, as can be expected, presented a greater challenge. Beth taught the largest of the two high schools and it was rather difficult; she had 700+ students who were required to be in the class. The one lesson when she felt maybe the majority of the students were with her was the story of Amnon and Tamar--seemingly a new story to them. But through it all, there was a core of students who tracked well with her. A married male teacher taught the other High School with less students and so a few less challenges.

At the end of each lesson, each student filled out an Activity Sheet and passed it in to the teacher. So for each teacher, going through, commenting, and sorting all of those Activity Sheets filled the evening hours. The first five Activity Sheets were returned to each student during the 6^th and final lesson. The Activity sheet at the end of the 6^th lesson is an evaluation which the teachers kept. 

Although Beth’s car took a beating traveling over the rough roads and everyone was exhausted, there was evident fruit gathered from students’ thank you letters, an invitation from a Musana Administrator for more VOICE teaching in 2025, and the news that several students (including Muslim students) professed faith in Christ as Saviour. One Grade 5 student confessed that in response to her friend’s prompting, she took tomatoes from her mother’s garden. After the teaching of the Honesty Module she promised to be honest and never to steal again.

Thank God for the freedom in these nations to teach Godly values using the Bible and for His servants that are ready to take advantage of that opportunity...and pray that what was taught will result in life-long changes to the glory of God.

*Just for clarification, the VOICE program and curriculum are designed to be taught in a school classroom (not assembly style) and one lesson per week. However, obviously it was God’s leading and will that the above pattern be used and He truly spoke to students' hearts—praise Him!

 

Radical Behavioral Change

 The following is taken from a recent Scripture Union Global Communication. Referred to in this article as “a life skills program,” this is the VOICE Africa program and curriculum. Enjoy and praise God!

Global News Update – September, 2024

Stories and updates from Scripture Union around the world

Global News aims to keep you in touch with how our network of Scripture Union teams is having an impact on young lives each month. 

School program changes lives

In South Sudan a life skills program run in schools is having a profound effect on the students.

National Director of Scripture Union South Sudan, Manase Woja Alfred, said that Scripture Union volunteers go into schools to share about life values from a biblical perspective. 

Manase said there was one boy who was quite aggressive, detached and always sitting at the back of the class, totally uninterested and disengaged. He also always referred to his own mother as, “that woman”.

Over the course of the six-week program, this boy started to listen. Week by week he moved further up the classroom, until finally he was sitting in the front row. When the course was completed, his behaviour had totally changed. He had become agreeable, polite, respectful and was volunteering to do jobs around the house without being asked.

Manase said: “The mother was so shocked by the radical improvement in her son’s behaviour that she made an appointment with the school principal and asked what he had done to make the huge turn around in her son’s behaviour. The principal explained it was not the school but the SU program.”

“The mother said she wanted to meet this SU volunteer and when she did, she fell at the volunteer’s feet and said, ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’. The SU volunteer said, ‘Please stand up, it was not me, it was the Lord’s doing, all the Glory belongs to him’.”

The Mission Field At Our Doorstep

 Has it ever hit you how small our world is? New immigrants keep coming into my town here in New Brunswick. Counting children, in the last several years, I have met more than 70 Filipinos. A few families have moved on to other provinces or cities with greater opportunities, but other new immigrants fill their place. This influx of other nations provide us with cross-cultural opportunities for ministry.

• A couple of local believers delivered and hooked up a used washer and dryer for two new-to-Canada Filipinos.

• In early summer I completed teaching the Initiative and Courage VOICE Philippines Module on Saturday morning in my home to three middle-school Filipinos.

• This month, a local church invited and even provided transportation for some 18 Filipino adults and children to a Barbecue at their church!

  
  
  

• Earlier this year a South American family purchased a townhouse in my building just two doors away! This week while visiting in their home, I met their mothers (communicating via a translator) who are both visiting Canada for the first time.

• 
  Last month, Ruth and I were privileged to receive Beth Baleke from Uganda. She brought fresh news from East Africa and was able to personally say “thank you for sending us to Uganda” in Ruth’s home church in Claremont, NH. Later Beth gave updates in a number of our former supporting churches here in southern New Brunswick. As Beth visited my Mom, I reminded her, “God has brought Africa to us.” During Beth’s time in NB, she highlighted a need for printing a Swahili version of the Self-Control Module for Tanzania. God’s people responded to this need, including children in a VBS program. To date over USD $14,000 has been raised for the printing of this Module.
  
  
  

In spite of bad news swirling all around us, God is working behind the scenes and building His Kingdom. As God enables, let us be available and obedient, to reach out and join what God is doing locally and globally.

June, 2024, Road Trip

 Don’t you love seeing God use the gifts and opportunities of His children, all working together to share His Word/Truth with those who haven’t yet heard? While praising God for how He is using the VOICE ministries in both the Philippines and East Africa, we are so encouraged to see/experience how God is using other ministries right here in our secularized Western Culture to present the Truth. That’s what Ruth & I are enjoying right now as we vacation/travel together. Our roles as navigator (Ruth) and driver (Laura) are strangely familiar from past decades, ha. We have rated our Air B and B’s along the way from good to delightful, and especially have appreciated the use of their kitchens in our travels. Being together again has been wonderful and all events thus far have more than met our expectations.

Our first destination was Pennsylvania to take in the Daniel production at Sight & Sound. Wow, talk about using the arts to bring glory to God’s Name and share His Word—an excellent and powerful drama presentation of Daniel’s life, weaving in Daniel’s prophecies which include the coming of the Messiah/the Gospel. Our B&B hosts were committed Christians and the fellowship was uplifting.

From there, we drove to northern Kentucky where we are as we write this, to take in the two attractions put together by the group, “Answers in Genesis.” Yesterday we spent about 8 hours trying to take in as much as possible in the Creation Museum. How encouraging to see God’s truth presented in creative and dramatic visual ways being passed on to the next generation. Evolution and humanist lies are being exposed in powerful and convincing ways. We have both wished for greater capacity to comprehend and retain the excellent content we have been privileged to enjoy.

At the entrance of the Creation Museum

Today (Sunday) we joined a nearby wonderful Bible-believing/preaching church for an excellent Father’s Day sermon which was easily applicable to all of us.

Plans are to spend most of the next two days at The Ark Encounter, focused especially on the undeniable evidence that there was a world-wide flood that changed our world in such dramatic ways. No doubt, we’re in for more mind-boggling presentations of God’s truth! And then we’ll begin the long drive back to New Hampshire, where, Lord willing, we’ll pick up Beth Baleke at the airport.  A couple days later, I (Laura) and Beth will drive back to New Brunswick for a full time of visits and ministry.  Ruth will begin helping in a week-long VBS at her home church.