Allen's African Adventures
April 2009
"I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now."
Philippians 1:3-5
Philippians 1:3-5
Dear Prayer Partners,
The month of April was one busy month for our family, mission team and ministry but God did some great things. As always, we treasure and cherish your prayers and support for our family, ministry, team and the Swazi people.
Praises/Prayer Requests:
- Steven is faithfully teaching at a new outreach area called Lesibovu each Saturday afternoon. The group is averaging around 50 people, including children, youth and adults. A couple weeks ago, nine people made the decision to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Praise the Lord! Continue to pray for this new outreach group and God's direction in reaching the Swazis for Jesus.
- Our team is sad to report that we are losing another team member this week. Kimber Ringler is finishing her two-year term with us and flying back to the USA on Thursday, April 30. Pray for Kimber's final days of saying good-bye and bringing closure to her ministry in Swaziland. She will be greatly missed and know that she has impacted many lives for the kingdom of God. Kimber did share with us this morning that three youth guys accepted Christ yesterday when she was out leading her final Bible studies and saying some good-byes. Praise the Lord for these youth that chose to believe in Jesus!
- Our Baptist churches all gathered together in Big Bend for Easter services, April 9-12. We were pleasantly surprised that many folks made the effort to attend the services despite the distance and high costs of transportation. It is always good to be with our churches worshipping together. There were some doctrinal issues that arose among the leadership that was addressed by the missionaries. Pray for wisdom and discernment as we seek to teach the truth of Jesus Christ. There is false teaching that is easily influencing people all over Swaziland.
- Our True Love Waits International consultant, Kelly Woody, was in our area at the beginning of the month to meet several of our trained TLW leaders. We were able to discuss ideas and share vision on how we can continue to partner with TLW in our ministries in Swaziland. Pray for our leaders to be bold in sharing the message of TLW and for Swazis to really understand the meaning of the word, love. Kelly plans to return to Swaziland in August and we will be making plans for some new ideas. Pray for God's plans to be shown and not just our own plans. - Thank you for praying for our family holiday to Cape Town. It was an amazing time for our family and a great getaway from life and ministry in Swaziland. We wish we could have stayed longer! :) Thank you also for all your birthday wishes to Steven. He had a great birthday on April 20, even though we did celebrate the following day as we were traveling back from our mission meeting on his birthday.
- "For Such A Time As This" was the theme for our annual missionary meeting in Johannesburg last week. It was a great time of being able to worship in our heart language (English!), hear others preach the Word of God, fellowship with other missionaries, learn about how our company is going to be moving into a restructuring time starting July 1, and having wonderful volunteers watch and teach our children in their own classes each day. As we said, lots of changes will be happening in coming months for our company. Pray for how all these changes will be affecting folks in several different ways. The bottom line though is that we still seek and desire for ALL nations to know Jesus Christ. We are blessed to be part of a mission organization that cares about seeking the lost, taking care of their missionaries and working with other mission organizations all over the world.
- We do have updated prayer cards available and many of you have already received them. A huge thanks to First Baptist Church, Washington, North Carolina and specifically Elinor Hunter for sending out our prayer cards to everyone back in the USA. We still have some and if you want one or some to pass out to your churches, groups or Bible studies, please let us know by sending your name and mailing address, and we will get them to you.
- A few months ago, the Attorney General of Swaziland was in a severe accident not far from the Nkhaba Bible study area. He was critically injured as his legs were crushed, broke ribs and had a collapsed lung. Steven was one of the first vehicles on the scene and stopped to help where needed. It turned out that we were one of the few that had a first aid kit in our truck so Steven started helping him with basic aid care while they waited for the ambulance. Because of the distance, it was decided that another vehicle took the AG to the hospital as they did not want to wait for the ambulance. Steven was asked to go collect his family to take to the hospital as well. The AG is now doing much better and is almost ready to return to work after months of healing and rest. Throughout this time, Steven and some of the ladies from Hawane Baptist Church have been going by to visit with the AG and pray with him and his family. He has a Bible but we are not clear if he knows the Lord personally. Steven was able to lead the AG's gardener to the Lord recently. We do not always know why God gives us divine appointments by Him but continue to pray for opportunities to share with the AG, his family and perhaps other government officials in the future.
- This coming week, our family will be traveling back to Johannesburg for medical reasons. Our daughter, Lacie, will be having her tonsils and adenoids out on Wednesday, April 29 in the early afternoon, African time. She will also be having a scan done on her left ear at some point while we are there, too, for the ENT doctor to see if the bone structure is the reason for her hearing loss. Pray for these medical appointments to go well and for speedy recovery and healing. We praise God her hearing loss has not gotten worse and she is doing very well in her preschool!
- Another huge praise is that the Lord gave Monica, Kimber and two other friends much protection on Wednesday morning. They were on their way down to the weekly international Bible study they attend in Ezulwini and the weather was rainy. Monica was driving our truck and going slower than normal because of the weather down the mountain highway. When they came around the curve, cows were coming up the highway and Monica put on the brakes to avoid the cows. While doing this, the truck started hydroplaning because of the rains. They went off the road and straight into a ditch. Praise the Lord that no one was hurt, the truck is fine, Monica stayed calm while driving and what could have turned out not good ended up to be all OK. The tow truck was there to get them out in less than 30 minutes, very rare for African time and several folks stopped to try and help them. It shook Monica up a bit but the group in the truck were all laughing by the time Steven came to check on them.
- We have a new team prayer blog that Monica has created and maintaining for our mission team. We are thankful for the folks that upkeep our team's website and partnership prayer website. We wanted to build another avenue for folks to pray for our team, family and ministries as well as share stories and photos.
Check out the new blog and leave a comment!
***Remember, we live in Africa and there is no guarantee that our e-mails are received or even sent out correctly. If you have written and not heard from us, please write again. We would rather receive e-mails two times than not at all.
Skype - allensinafrica
IM - MoMissions
Monica is part of Facebook so if you are on, let her know.
Thank you for your faithful prayer support!!! Steven, Monica, Lacie and Nathan Allen
IMB missionaries serving in Swaziland
Lacie with Aunt Kimber
Easter services 2009
How many people can we get into the back of the truck for church?
Lacie singing with the children's choir at a homestead church (Mabeleni Baptist)
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