Jan 2024 Update from Abel and Sarah

We trust you are doing well. Thank you for your love and support.
  These past couple of months have been busy. We have done a lot of traveling together and separately. Pacey and I went to South Africa for a week for a south East African missions conference within our organization. It was good seeing teammates that work in other Southeast African countries who we haven’t seen in a while. It was good to be encouraged in the Word together and being reminded and encouraged in our vision as an organization. We also spent time sharing God‘s faithfulnesses in the different ministries. Where we stayed was so beautiful.
  Abel, Andrew, and Heidi were missed in South Africa because they were in northern Tanzania at an annual sports weekend. Abel is the ultimate frisbee coach at the kids school, so he went up with Andrew and Heidi who participated in a variety of sports that weekend. They did very well with a second-place finish. 
  Not long after that Andrew left for Denmark with seven other classmates and a couple of teachers on a service learning trip. They got to experience another culture, different foods, they got to see how schools run up there, they got to stay with a host family while they were there, and they got a break from the heat and were able to play in some snow! Andrew made it back safely this morning.
  As I write, Abel is in Northern Tanzania with some teammates at a workshop. On the team are a several Tanzanians and a man from Mexico. The diversity causes difficulty sometimes, bot overwhelmingly increases the effectiveness of the team. Last week, they were teaching the Tanzanian pastors who have been teaching the Bible using the Milele Hata Milele book. There were 25 teachers from different regions of Tanzania at the training. This week, he is continuing to teach a group of Maasai pastors through the Bible with some of those teachers using the Milele Hata Milele lessons. They started through the Bible in September and are spending another week, starting at 8 in the morning, carrying on to 8 in the evening. God has done amazing things during this time.
  Overall, Abel is spending two weeks away from the family. It has been difficult because #1our car is being fixed and it has taken two weeks longer than expected to get it finished. Abel is away and hasn’t been able to go and press the mechanics to finish the job. #2, The electricity has been off for the last two days. We are in the middle of hot season, and it is uncomfortable to sleep with no fans, and we must sleep int the main room, where there are a lot of mosquitos, putting us at risk of malaria.
  Please be praying for our electricity to come back, our vehicle to be fixed, for our attitudes (that we would trust the Lord and His provision), and for a safe trip back for Abel tomorrow. He is riding on public transport, and it usually takes about 11 hours. Please pray for us to love well even when we’re hot and tired, even when we aren’t getting treated like we think we deserve, even when we don’t see any fruit of our labors, and even when people just don’t like us.
When Abel gets back, he must finish training teachers through their Bible curriculum for a new Christian school that is being started in the big city. He said that on Monday he needs to correct 65 lessons that they wrote up and hold a meeting with the teachers in the evening. Pray for him to pay close attention as he corrects the lessons, and that will be able to catch small signals indicating bigger theological misunderstandings, and the drive to faithfully discuss with the teachers through Biblical issues, leading them to scripture for their answers.
 We are looking forward to getting some time away as a family this Christmas season. The truck was getting fixed so we could travel. Please pray that it is fixed soon so we can get some time away as a family.
We thank you for your prayers. Please pray for us to love well even when we’re hot and tired, even when we aren’t getting treated like we think we deserve, even when we don’t see any fruit of our labors, and even when people just don’t like us.
May God bless you. Please let us know how we can be praying for you and your people.