August, 2019, VOICE Ministry "Lion Sightings" (Praises)

As you may know, this blog, Lion Sightings, was used to highlight ministry (usually) situations where Laura and Ruth saw God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, at work. Although we are no longer in "full-time cross-cultural" ministry, we plan to continue using this blog to highlight God's ongoing work in both VOICE Philippines and VOICE Africa now being carried on by nationals. Praise God with us for all that He is doing. For updated prayer requests from these ministries, please click the "Prayer Zone" tab (above). Your continued prayer support is much needed and appreciated.

• During May and June, 2019, God enabled VOICE Philippine Staff, Bevs, Emil, and Raffy, to promote and train volunteers from more than 70 churches in the southern Island of Mindanao including General Santos City, South Cotabato and Northern Mindanao.  
• Only two of the 81 provinces of the Philippines, both in Mindanao, remain without any VOICE Classes--Sulu and Tawi-tawi!  

Uganda

• Volunteer teachers are currently test teaching the new Responsibility Module Upper Primary level.  A debrief meeting was scheduled to happen today, Aug. 17^th. 
• A testimony coming from the Namungona Parents School states that school officials have noticed increased "anger control" among the 200 students who were taught the Self-Control Module.

Tanzania 

• Chris, Beth Baleke’s Assistant, recently traveled to Tanzania to interact with Swahili translator, Christine. She reports that 70% of the Swahili translation of Truth, Forgiveness, and Purity are complete.  
• A recent gift of $1,000 gift was received and receipted by SEND Canada to go toward this project, translation and printing the three modules on all 3 age levels. 

South Sudan

• A VOICE Training is taking place currently in Nimule, South Sudan; the VOICE Curriculum was earlier sent to them from Kampala, Uganda. 

God Knows His Own

I (Ruth) have never set up housekeeping in my passport nation, as incredulous as that may seem. And so when retirement began to loom, I sensed a bit of panic/fear of living on my own in the not-so-familiar culture of my “home town.” I’m still a farm girl at heart despite the fact that for most of our career in missions we have lived in cities, especially Manila, which now boasts of over 12 million people, and even Kampala with more than a million people. So I naturally thought about my 2^nd brother who owns several apartments on his property which is known as the Crazy H Farm. (He makes his living off the farm but puts in more than "full-time" to keep the farm with quite a variety of animals running smoothly.) There were no empty apartments but Peter immediately offered to make an apartment in his basement, something he has been planning to do sometime anyway. I breathed a great sigh of relief that I could at least start in a rural safe place.

Due to a number of circumstances, Peter had not been able to finish the basement apartment by the time I arrived, but graciously offered for me to stay with them until it was finished. Within a few days, I was finding delight in helping take care of chicks and hens and especially helping his daughter with her amazing market gardens, primarily watering the greenhouse and helping with weeding. That has been wonderful God-ordered therapy for me as I have eased into this period of huge transition.

Within the first week of my arrival, one of the tenants of a one-bedroom apartment rather suddenly vacated. Unfortunately, there was repair work needed before it could be rented again—which meant Peter had two apartments to prepare amid these extremely busy summer months. So we talked together and it was agreed that he prioritize the recently vacated apartment (which required less work) and I would move into that, taking the pressure off to finish the basement apartment for now. So, God has provided a win-win in every way. I can get settled more quickly without adding to Peter’s work load as he tries to get the haying and pasturing done…and a 1,000 other things! What a gift to be able to live close to family and be part of a fun and busy farm—God knows His daughter through and through and provides so perfectly!

An Amazing “Finale” Weekend

Our “finale” weekend (meaning the last weekend/day that Laura and Ruth would serve together as co-workers) started with an overnight with Pastor Rick, who during his single/student days, pastored the church where Laura’s family worshiped. Under him a Wycliffe missionary came as a revival speaker and at the close of the 2^nd meeting, Laura responded to the salvation invitation. Soon after, she was baptized—the first person Pastor Rick ever baptized. So it was very fitting that she was able to connect with him and his wife on this “finale” weekend. In fairly recent years, Pastor Rick and his wife pastored the church that we reported to the following day, now known as New Hope Community Church.

The current pastor of New Hope was new to us until we met him several weeks ago. Of course, he didn’t know us well and due to a somewhat recent merge with another church, we didn’t know very many of the congregation by name. So we had no expectations that this would indeed be an extra special “finale” report. BUT God arranged it so that a “missions champion” in both of our lives from back in the mid-70’s, had an active part in planning the service, Pastor Gordie and his wife, Marianne. Pastor Gordie was involved in Laura’s preparation for her first cross-cultural missions experience to the Marshall Islands (central Pacific). Back then, the church he then pastored supported both Laura and Ruth under separate missions. It was immediately after a Missions Conference in that church that Ruth sensed God’s call upon her life to serve with Laura as she headed to the Philippines…and that church enabled us to go through an amazing Faith Promise push. Each church that Pastor Gordie has been involved in since then has been a part of our support team and we’ve connected with him during each Home Service/furlough.

Unknown to us, Pastor Gordie and his wife went the 2^nd and 3^rd mile to make this a special “finale” Sunday for us. As he prepared to direct a “Father’s Day Women’s Choir,” he shocked us by sharing with the church a well-researched overview of our Mission Career and read two letters of thanks and congratulations that he had asked for—one from the first mission Laura served with, Bible Club Movement, and one from the first mission Ruth served with, Child Evangelism Fellowship. He then announced that the special choir piece was dedicated to us in honor of our years of training others in children’s ministry—a beautiful arrangement of “Jesus Loves Me.” Flowers, a love offering, and a wonderful church lunch, followed with time to connect more personally with the people, including some from other churches who came special to see us. Marianne, who has served cross-culturally and has experienced some very painful transitions in life, shared a gem of truth with us: our transition from a career of full time cross-cultural work into retirement is not “the end” but the beginning of a new chapter.

We were overwhelmed with such love and interest as we reflected and thanked God corporately. Tears come even now as we think of God’s amazing gift to us of being able to enable others to proclaim to thousands of children and youth God’s truth and salvation and the extraordinary “finale” weekend He provided for us. We look to Him with “New Hope” as we anticipate continued expansion of teaching Biblical Values in classrooms in both the Philippines and East Africa, while at the same time, finding what He has planned for this “new chapter” in our lives. All the praise and honor goes to our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Harvest.

Reunion in Sussex

Back in 2003, six friends, 3 Canadians and 3 Americans, all single with one being a fairly new widow, met together for six wonderful days in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains near the Kananaskis River. We had an amazing time hiking, animal watching (including sighting a grisly bear), touring Banff and Lake Louise, viewing the Colombia ice fields, and marvelling and savouring God’s creation together. It was amazing to think that such a fantastic vacation worked out for all of us…what would be the chances of it ever happening again?

God did just that, allowed it to happen again this past week. Last Monday, June 3, four of our friends arrived here in Sussex, NB, coming from Toronto and Maine; the next day the 6^th friend joined us from Moncton. I, along with Ruth, had the special joy of hosting this special group here in Sussex. We had an amazing 4 days of enjoying the local sights as well as touring St. Martins, Saint John, and Moncton. We sampled authentic Maritime homemade fish cakes and fiddleheads, enjoyed ice-cream on several occasions, sampled a Ugandan bean recipe and haystacks (curried chicken and rice with toppings), plus Donairs and Macarons. But the true joy was being together and catching up on each other’s lives, praising God for his faithfulness over the past 16 years. Lots has happened…back then all of us were actively serving the Lord in full-time Christian work. Now, two have retired and another two are close to that milestone (us), two transferred membership to another organization, one moved from western Canada to eastern Canada, and for Ruth and me, we moved from the Philippines to Uganda; back then, VOICE Philippines wasn’t even thought about yet, never mind VOICE Africa! We each face our challenges but rejoice to know that our God never changes and He is actively working together all things for good…even the opportunity for six friends to be reunited. Praise Him!

Despite a Lack of Parental Encouragement

While chatting with a pastor last week, we heard a true and thrilling story that happened a number of years ago and involved one of our supporting churches.  It seems that two fairly young siblings, a sister and brother, heard about the Sunday School program of this church through friends and were granted permission to attend by their non-religious parents. Throughout their childhood, every Sunday morning found them walking to that church and eventually they also brought along their younger siblings. During that entire time, their parents never once darkened the door of that church, not even when their children were part of special programs. As God’s Word was faithfully proclaimed, all four siblings trusted Christ as Saviour. Today the “sister” is the wife of the pastor we were chatting with! He also shared that in more recent years, at least one of the parents turned to God for salvation.

What an encouragement to continue reaching out to the children, loving them, and leading them to Christ. Although there are so many more distractions these days, let us pray for churches to diligently find effective ways to attract children to activities where they will hear the Gospel and then disciple them to be missionaries to their own families, friends, and beyond.

Here Am I!

One of our aims as we go through Home Service is to be on the lookout for others, especially young people, who are open to or considering cross-cultural missions as God’s call on their lives. This particular Home Service, we have not heard too many express an interest or willingness. So it was a special delight this past weekend to hear a high school person verbalize a desire to pursue the opportunity to invest their life into sharing God’s message of salvation with people in the uttermost parts of the world. This statement was especially meaningful because it was so very obvious that this young person was already actively and whole-heartedly serving the Lord right now in their home church. We passed on some literature for them to prayerfully read and indicated that we would follow them through continued contact via email. Praise God for young people and others who want to pour their lives into building and expanding the Kingdom of God no matter what the culture or language that God directs them toward...and pray the Lord of the Harvest for many more needed laborers.

Unsung Heroes

The evening before leaving Hamilton, ON, we took the opportunity to join the West Highland Prayer Meeting. As anticipated, there were a good number of heroes of mine who have tracked with us for decades, included a precious black lady that has kept in touch with me since the mid 70’s! Just before Prayer Meeting, we shared a meal with the Missions Committee Liaison and her husband and enjoyed a sweet time of catching up and recounting God’s faithfulness through losses and gains…in fact we lost track of the time and were a bit late arriving at Prayer Meeting. But the welcome was warm and so gracious, and almost immediately their discerning questions about the ministry and our plans began to fly! Time went far too fast, but included in those few minutes was a request to purchase a copy of the VOICE Curriculum as well as another person’s willingness to make an audio edition of the VOICE Curriculum on a micro-chip. What a privilege and encouragement to hear these saints pray for specific people, needs, and challenges of the VOICE ministry as well as praise God for His amazing work. Without doubt, what has happened thus far is in answer to prayer and what will happen is also connected to prayer. Who knows how God will use the prayers of these unsung heroes as together we press onward. “God lead us and open the way according to your Sovereign plan.”