September 2006 Update
Dear Friends and Family,
There are quite a few
developments to tell you about for the last month. My
intention with these e-mails was to be brief, but I am sorry, brief is
difficult this month. I hope you won’t be too overwhelmed by my
loquacity.
Regular
Crusades started
James Fox received a leading
from the Lord for us to begin holding open air crusades on school grounds
and parks throughout the island. He felt that the first of these should be
held in Burnt Ground. So we began to pray regularly as a group with
earnest intercession for Burnt Ground. We
held the event on the evenings of August 11th ,12th
, and 13th on the
public school grounds. One of our friends here had given a sizable
donation for Wesley Smith (our music guy) to purchase high quality sound
equipment that could rival anything that the world had to offer, and this
was our trial run for the equipment. (For
my brother’s sake, this purchase was of 4 large self-driven Mackey
speakers to compliment Wesley’s existing 2. Wes already had the sound
boards, mics, and other stuff) We
had worship, intercession, and preaching that could be heard for miles. It
was quite a sense of teamwork with several ministries and churches
participating. Several of our intercessor friends in the community came
forward and testified that this was an incredible encouragement for them
and an answer to their prayers. A notorious crack cocaine addict gave his
heart to Jesus, and there have been widespread whisperings in the
community about it. He is ablaze for Jesus, but he is struggling with his
addiction as far as we can tell, and we are not experienced in
detoxification. Please pray that we will be able to effectively help and
disciple this very intelligent young man. His name is Emanuel.
Transitions
and changes
After 11 years of being the
pastor of our partner church here (First Assembly of God), Franklyn
Burrows has moved on. Pastor Frank left on the 4th of September
and took up a teaching job in Nassau with a private school as their Bible
class teacher. James Fox, our Maritime Ministries Bahamas President, is
now the interim pastor. This is an enormous development for us. The
ministry and the Church have always been yokefellows, but now we have a
freedom to accelerate the work together like never before.
Immediately there was a burst of
collaboration and doors opening up in every direction. We held a meeting
which officially launched the new youth group on Friday nights as well as
several other children’s ministries.
Prayer
moving mountains in the public school.
There has been quite a
connection with most of the public schools since we have been here. The
environment among the staff of these schools is becoming increasingly
Godly. God has been bringing in teachers and faculty who are intensely
dedicated to Him, and we are being given open doors for ministry in the
schools—especially North Long Island High School.
I was given the opportunity to
speak to the opening assembly for the 7th and 10th
grade student/parent orientation. I have also been invited to help teach
in the high school art program. I
never saw that one coming. I will be assisting with drawing and
painting especially with the juniors and seniors a couple of days a week.
This will give me the ability to really get to know them. I also have the
freedom to teach about the Lord as I teach art. We also have been asked to
help with a fifteen-minute daily devotion in all classes for all grades
7-12 Tuesday-Friday. Our good friend Wesley Smith, who is the music
teacher for the high school, has been put in charge of coordinating this
effort.
Rachel
in Pre-School
We
are so blessed to be able to send Rachel (now 3) to a very wonderful
Christian pre-school here. It is as much of a ministry as it is a local
business called Habakkuk Pre-School. Many of our friends have children in
the school. She was somewhat lonely before, and now she has many friends
which she plays with every day. She has also experienced a new level of
success with the potty since attending! Deb is experiencing a new level of
freedom as well.
Thank you for your support, and
your prayers. Please pray harder than ever for unity in our team. Satan is
relentless in his efforts to try to stop all of this by attacking our
emotions, and our unity. We
also have a very heart-rending situation with a dear brother Aaron
Burrows, who is in a terrible tailspin and has gone back to alcohol with a
vengeance. He has been on mission trips with us, and we love him dearly.
Please pray for him with us.
We love and appreciate you all.
Reuben
P.S. My distribution list for
these updates is far from complete. If you happen to talk to anyone who
should be getting an update, and is not, would you help me out by replying
with a current e-mail address for them. I will add them on.
