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Recent Missionary Updates
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In the past 5 months, I’ve looked at over 30 houses and apartments as we’ve searched for a home. On Sunday, April 22nd, I decided I’d buy the newspaper one more time and look through the entire classified section. If we didn’t find anything we liked, we decided we would just look for something to rent. I ended up visiting 7 places on Monday, and the next to last one I looked at I knew we would really like. It is a new apartment, and actually as I’m writing you, it’s not quite done yet. We began working on purchasing the apartment and were able to settle on a price last week. The constructor has begun pushing hard to get it done in time. We need to be out of the home we are currently living in within a couple of weeks. Pray with us that God will allow us to get into the home on time.
We felt some real struggle to trust God in all this as we got very close to the date we have to leave our current home and we didn’t have a place to go yet. The Lord reminded us that He is always good to us and that He wanted to show us once again that He will take care of every detail. The apartment meets almost every one of our priorities. We want a home that will facilitate having guests with us often. We were hoping for a little bit of yard for the kids. We also wanted something that would be in an area where Cheryl and the children will feel secure when I’m traveling. The Lord has met all of those desires with this home, and He deserves all the praise.
One other factor in purchasing this home was that we needed a loan to be able to make the purchase. It would have been very difficult and probably impossible to secure a loan from a bank here in Peru or from a bank in the U.S. A friend of ours graciously agreed to provide a loan for us. Without this loan, we would not be able to buy the home, and we are very grateful.
Pray with us as we make the transition of moving to a new home!
We’ve been asked how folks can give a gift toward the purchase of the apartment. Checks should be made out to:
EMU International
209 Roberts Rd.
Taylors, SC 29687
On the memo line put “Tim Chapman- House.” Our mission board will direct those to the appropriate account. All gifts are tax-deductible.
On Wednesday of last week, our lawyer, a Christian man, was with me at the apartment working on negotiating a price with the constructor. As we were finishing negotiations our lawyer began to witness to the constructor, Guillermo. He gave a clear gospel presentation and then asked him if he wanted to accept the Lord. Guillermo said he wanted to do that, so our lawyer asked me to lead him. I clarified a couple of points and then led Guillermo in prayer as he asked Christ to save Him.
To all of you who have prayed for us concerning God’s provision of a house, thank you! God is showing us again that waiting on Him is always the best way to live.
In Christ,
Tim Chapman
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As our ministry opportunities expand and our cultural understandings increase, Hope and I are thankful for the influence of our children and the friends they are making. Our little princess, Taylor, has no apprehension among the Africans and moves comfortably among them regardless of the setting. Each visit to the village for church or other activities throughout the week, Taylor can usually be found holding another little girl’s hand, walking around in the bush, and giggling incessantly together in spite of the barriers we often encounter as adults. Taylor’s “best friend” (in Africa) is Abbisara, a sweet, little girl who is just a year younger than her. Abbissara is the first one Taylor runs to every Sunday morning and the last one she hugs before we head back to town. Because of the age and size difference, Abbisara receives many of the clothes that Taylor grows out of. They use the sharing of clothes as just another excuse to giggle even more.
One of our greatest concerns for our children when we initially transitioned to Africa was the anticipated lack of friends with whom our children could share a closeness like they enjoyed in the States. Of course it’s not completely the same, but God has indeed responded to our prayers and gifted us and our children with new friendships that continue to increase.
Jim & Hope
- Please pray for Hope. She has been sick with Malaria since last Saturday and is now on a second course of treatment. She seems to be improving now. Typically, Malaria symptoms pass after three days of treatment, but this time has been different for her.
- Please pray for safety on the road as our family travels to Lusaka Sunday afternoon for business and a time of family fun.
- Praise the Lord for the completion of several large, administrative projects we’ve been working on for ARC and our Ministry Teams since last year. The completion of these projects opens the door for expanded ministry and better understanding among our growing team of missionaries.
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Dear Praying Friends, Family and Prayer Partners,
Great news! There's a new name written down in glory and it's ...Cliff
H!. Thank you for your prayers for him to be saved this week. We just
knew God was working in his life.
Tonight Polly and I invited Cliff and Ruth to come to our house for dinner
after the evening service. After the meal, we went over the new gospel
tract I had written for our church "No God - No Peace / Know God - Know
Peace". As we came to the end of the tract it asked, "Do you are know that
you are saved?" He said he did not, but wanted to be saved now. At 8:00 pm
Sunday evening (NZ time) Cliff prayed and asked Jesus Christ to be his
personal Savior! AMEN!!
Not only that, but the Lord has been working in Ruth's heart to repent from
her wayward direction and to return to the Lord. This week we will be
counseling with them more in how to honor the Lord with their lives.
It has been evident in the last few weeks that the Lord has been working in
the hearts of this young couple. Praise the Lord for the changes we have
seen in them as a result of many prayers and the preaching of God's Word.
For those of you who have been praying - "Thank You". Your prayers have
been answered. But please continue to pray for them as they now witness to
their fellow family members who have turned away from the Lord as well.
They will need God's grace to help them explain to others what God has been
doing in their lives. They truly want to have God's blessings on them - and
so do we.
Thank you for your prayers for them! "God is so good - all the time." We
have been greatly honored to be His servants to reach souls for Christ in
New Zealand. Thank you for your help in sending us and praying for God to
use us. Let us rejoice together to the praise of His glory.
Your servants in New Zealand,
Bob & Polly McLain
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On Monday we begin two very full weeks. Our friends
Kevin and Isetta Moses are bringing three teenagers from their Christian high
school in Chattanooga and they will be helping
us with an evangelistic campaign at the Good
News BaptistChurch in Musa, Lima. They will be with us for 9
days. Pray that God will give us great fruit in that local church.
I met with the pastor and a group of his leaders a few days ago and they
are planning well and praying for God to do some good things during the
campaign. I believe they will have unsaved friends and neighbors in
attendance on our evangelistic nights.
The group leaves on Wednesday, April 4th, and
that same night we start an evangelistic campaign with our own church in Santa
Anita, Lima.
I will be preaching three evangelistic nights for that campaign.
I will take a few family days the week after that and then
we will be making our final preparations for moving into a new home.
We’ve been seeking the Lord’s will and are looking toward the
possibility of buying a house or large apartment. We’ve found
several nice homes in an area fairly near our church. Though we
haven’t been completely satisfied with any of them yet, we feel like the
Lord may have something for us in that area of Lima. Pray with us as we seek the
Lord’s will concerning a house.
Cheryl, and our new baby, Abby, are doing well. We
thank the Lord for his help in everything concerning her birth here in Lima. Thank you for
praying about that for us.
We’ll keep you updated as things progress concerning
our search for a house.
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Last Sunday morning, we had a baptism
followed by a meal. There were many visitors, several of whom were in a
church other than Catholic for the first time in their lives. Here in
Québec, the baptism is always preceded by a public testimony of salvation.
Lucie's testimony was clear, personal, and powerful. There was also
special music, which included Jonathan in a duet, and a short evangelistic Bible
message. At the meal afterwards, I had more meaningful discussions with
visitors than usual. Please pray for all of those who heard the
Gospel. Please pray particularly for Jacques, who works with Lucie and her
husband, André, and has begun reading the Bible.
"For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph
6.12
It seems that whenever there are special
spiritual breakthroughs, or exceptional opportunities for witness, we are more
aware of the spiritual battle that is the ministry here in Québec. The
past week has been no exception as we have felt the oppression more than
usual. This oppression manifests itself in many different ways. We
know that the enemy can do nothing except God allow it but we so need your
prayer support during these times.
Today is a big day. I preach/teach the
regular three times. We accept Lucie as a new member. At 2:00 p.m. a
second political candidate will come to the church, just like before. We
will show her the building and explain who we are and what our concerns are as
Bible-believing Christians. She will also be presented with a
Bible.
Melanie hurt a hip joint during the week and
it got worse until since yesterday she is pretty-much bed ridden. We did
manage to get her to the church yesterday to speak for a baby shower that was
held for two mothers. There was a good attendance with a few unsaved women
present. Pray about Melanie's hip. I need to get her to the doctor
but just have not had the several hours necessary over the weekend. We
plan to go tomorrow morning.
This Friday we leave for a weekend in New
Hampshire which includes a leadership conference in Concord on Saturday, and a
meeting at Charlestown Bible Church on Sunday.
We thank the Lord for each of you!
Have a great Lord's Day!
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(Read by Max McLean. Provided by The Listener's Audio Bible.)