IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF
MOSES…
Wow! What an amazing, surprising and life-changing time of ministry we have had! Our time at the Coptic Orthodox Church has been a great time of learning and we are SO thankful to the Lord for what He has done!
Kim spent most of her mornings helping
Evelyn, our missionary-friend, to prepare for the next school term. Evelyn is a kindergarten teacher and Kim helped her prepare visual aids, etc. Jacques and Lana were involved in ministry at orphanages during the mornings. They did dramas, taught songs and played games with the children. The kids were wonderful and once again, it was a sad goodbye when we had to greet them at our last meeting on Saturday. God has really challenged and taught us a lot this year through ministry to orphans. We must agree with James, “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27),
In the evenings, Kim and Lana were teaching English classes to the youth. They had LOTS of fun and the young people were eager to learn. Most of them can now say the books of the New Testament (in order) in English without looking at their notes, and they can also sing the song “Lord I lift Your Name on High”! Kim designed a few learning games and everyone enjoyed them tremendously!
One evening, all of the World Race girls were invited very suddenly to lead a youth meeting of a nearby church. We weren’t prepared at all, but agreed to go because of the invitation. When we arrived at the meeting place, we heard that these young people belong to a persecuted church. Their church building was destroyed 10 years ago and they have not received permission from the government to rebuild it since then. One could see the dismay and hardship written on their faces, and we felt like we had SO little to give them! We only had one song to sing and one short drama. Fortunately, God is Strongest in our weakness. The young people ended up asking many questions about life as a Christian in the rest of the world. We could share with them stories of the persecuted church in China and India – and for the first time they felt like they were not alone! One could see the heaviness lift off their shoulders and faces! We believe that many people’s lives were changed that evening – OUR LIVES MOST OF ALL! We learnt a great deal from these young people’s commitment to the Lord in spite of the hardships that they face. We all realized the amazing privilege we had of growing up in countries where we had absolute freedom to follow Christ!
We also had the privilege of spending time with Bishop Thomas. This kind, gentle and wise man of God shared MANY profound truths with us! He is loved and respected by the whole community, both Christian and Muslim. We were very aware of
the big differences between the Coptic Orthodox Church and Church as we know it back home. Bishop Thomas’ greeting words to us, though, were: “We are all organs of the same body. We look very different and we function very different. In spite of this, we share the same DNA – Christ.” WOW! We have learnt that even though the Christian Church across the world has many different faces, we all share Jesus Christ, The Father and The Holy Spirit. Being different is not always wrong. And we should rather embrace the things that we DO share. All of us have been changed… We were accepted unconditionally by fellow brothers and sisters and they will remain dear friends of ours always.
We are now in Cairo for a time of debrief before we head off to Kenya and then Tanzania. Stefan is back from London and had a very blessed time in preparing for The Global Challenge UK. Our team, along with the Yellow Team, will be ministering at a Bible School in Arusha, Tanzania, where most of our work will involve joining Evangelism projects run by the local church, as well as some physical serving. We are flying out on Friday evening, 1st September and hope to arrive in Arusha on the 2nd.
Please pray that we will keep on learning and changing! None of us want to miss ANYTHING of what God wants to change in us and build into our lives!
Many thanks for all the prayers and support!
Greetings in Christ,
The Lime Team
