Soulwinning visits: Exactly five years to the day before 9 year old Ketura accepted the Lord, she narrowly escaped death. Her mother had been warned about leaving her husband for another man. He was tipped off that she was at Sunny Point, and arrived with a shotgun in the night. At that time, Sunny Point had no electricity, and the only light was a few kerosene lamps inside homes. He crept to the right house, and shoved the gun through the window when he spotted two women lying sleeping on the floor. But which was the right one? He threw in a clot of dirt, and a woman awoke and asked who was there. Recognizing his wife’s voice, he fired. She died instantly, and her blood poured over the four year old daughter cradled in her bosom. He escaped, called a friend, and found out that she was dead. “Good” he said. Then he killed himself with the same shotgun. The family refused to take the body, leaving the government with the task of burying his remains.

Ketura has been cared for by her godly aunt, and has been raised by her for five years. Her aunt first came to the Lord after listening to our radio program regularly. The aunt did get saved when Liz witnessed to her, later moved, and has attended our church for nearly 19 years. She has been responsible for many other family members receiving the Lord and coming to church. Liz and I had the joy of visiting her in her home last Saturday, and seeing Ketura accept the Lord. Our Sunday school workers are quite effective, but somehow she had not made a decision in Sunday school, but did accept the Lord after we presented salvation to her.

We then went to visit C.P., a Saramaccan 79 year old lady, who was a soulwinning partner of my wife during the years when she attended the Winti Wai Church. About 15 years ago, her family left the church during a split trying to move our church into a Pentecostal direction, but she has remained a good friend, as has her family. We wanted to see her again prior to leaving Suriname. She embraced us, and thanked me profusely for encouraging her to have a pacemaker. She had been in chronic heart failure with a slow heart beat a number of years ago, but was afraid to have surgery. I went to the hospital, told her that I had personally inserted about 60 pacemakers, and that she should not be afraid of the procedure. She had the pacemaker implanted, and immediately improved and came out of heart failure. However, now her balance and vision are deteriorating at her advanced age. We were very pleased to see her, as well as several family members. Such are the blessings of being long-term on the mission field.

Pray for extra strength for us: Please pray for us as we work on breaking down the house. Not only is our home the guest house with 2 offices and 4 bedrooms, but we have also stored Bibles, literature, etc. We plan to take just our suitcases back to the USA, and perhaps bring some personal items and books back gradually, if the Lord permits our return from time to time to Suriname. We would like to be able to bring back some students for mission experience in the future. It is a huge job to turn things over, to send items to the appropriate place, and to clean up the house to turn back to the landlord prior to leaving.

Prayer requests:

1. Health and strength for the tasks at hand
2. Our spiritual growth and ministering to those around us
3. Safety driving
4. Our nationals as they take over the responsibilities for the ministry
5. Souls saved and disciple
6. Our leadership team to work together to push the Lord’s work ahead
7. Our preparation for moving to the USA
8. Our ministry responsibilities as we relocate at Crown College this summer.