God has truly been very good to us in these recent months and we have experienced His grace in greater measures than ever before in the work here. It seems that sometimes the trials come so thick and heavy that we feel we can hardly bear the pain of another blow...such as we recently experienced with the sudden death of Kristina’s father and her emergency trip back to Pennsylvania in the midst of Rebekah’s bedrest pregnancy, harvest season, bouts of malaria, pink eye, boils, Rachelle’s critical hospital stay, vehicle breakdowns, etc. BUT GOD! We have found when another situation comes there is strength and grace available that was not there before, and when it is all over we look back in amazement and can say from the bottom of our heart that it was not I, but Christ! It seems that the depth of our commitment has come up for testing through some of these times, but praise God, that the sun is always found shining on the other side and Christ’s name is being exalted. The Lord is teaching us about trusting Him more deeply as He puts His finger on those who are dearest to us on earth. A confidence of His closeness grows in our hearts as we realize that He will be here for us no matter what we face in the future. There is no doubt that a missionary is called to give up his family into the safe keeping of the Lord more earnestly than what is normal in everyday stateside life.
Looking through the eye of faith it has been interesting to watch these numerous attacks while at the same time sensing that it would all bear fruit if we would just be faithful and hold on. At the present time the doors seem to be opening in so many surrounding villages at once that we’ll need to beg for more laborers to meet the needs presenting themselves. The local brethren are extremely excited to see interest stirring among their own Dogomba people We find ourselves excited and sobered at the same time...we want to stay out of the way of God’s plan and recognize His hand in the springing up of events. Of a truth HE is the one doing the work, these people are too satisfied in their sin and religion for it to be possible for a man to convince them to come to Christ. God Himself must draw them and show them their need. He is allowing us to get into villages where the chiefs wouldn’t grant permission even for the Jesus film folks to come in and set up. It seems we hear the rustling in the mulberry trees and the move is ON!
The crusades started here in Gushiegu on Mon. and about 300 people showed up! That is more interest than we have ever had at crusades held here in the market square! It takes Jacob about 2 hours each evening to set up the lights and PA system beforehand, and about the same to tear everything down. We heard many positive comments after the first night including some favorable ones from our neighbors. People were saying that we teach differently than the imams (Moslem leaders) and that the messages go right to the heart and are so sweet. Please do keep these crusades in your prayers. We will set up at a different strategic location each week for three nights, in a total of eight locations, which will take us two months to completely saturate our town. Tonight is the last night at the first location. Daryl opens the crusades the first night by preaching a message that lays the foundation of the creation facts, centering on how God looks at sin from the Old Testament stories. Latif preaches the second night on the life of Christ, then Joseph preaches the third night tying it all together and presenting a clear gospel message. This will be the set schedule at each of the 8 different locations. It was encouraging to see and hear of such interest right here in our own town after being here for 2 1/2 years. The first location was close to our house, but people from the other side of market said they could clearly hear the message at their homes. We are praying that everyone will have an opportunity to hear the message this way even if they do not come to the services! There are many older people who always stay in their houses who could never actually come out for a service but who are in desperate need of hearing the gospel. The chief was very helpful and agreeable to the services being held when Daryl talked to him. He said, “You just let me know if anyone here causes you any trouble at all and I will take care of it!” To have earned the trust and confidence of the authorities through the testimony of the church and clinic work is proving to be invaluable.
We’d like to share a bit with you about how the work in Manacheti is progressing. It seems like the people are at a very crucial point right now and need to be prayed into the kingdom. They have had almost 3 months of clear biblical teaching and therefore have become very accountable for what decisions they make. Since the gospel has been being preached now for the last couple weeks, 8 people (mostly stable men) have made clear decisions to follow Christ. Since they are a Konkomba village, the people are very caught up in idolatry. Their chief recently died and so right now the village is full of witches to help them decide on a new chief. Many of the people who have been attending regularly are wanting to follow Christ but are afraid to make a public decision because some of the witches are also in the audience and they are afraid that a curse will be put on them if they publicly make a decision. Pray much for them. We have been asking the Lord specifically for 40 believers there. There have been that many adults at all of the teaching sessions each week. Since they preach two messages each Sat., (Latif preaches one and Daryl the other one), Daryl wants to preach one message for the believers and the other message on sin and salvation until all 40 have come to Christ. There are adults attending from about three other villages so we are looking at a total of 4 new churches in the future! Do it Lord! How we need your prayer support, people who are willing to wrestle with us on their knees to bring these people to Christ. God is doing a work here but the devil is not happy and it is him whom we must wrestle against. These people (the Dagombas and Konkombas) have been his for so many years and nobody has challenged his possession of them. But! Jesus died to purchase them for HIMSELF and they have been deceived again and again as to whom their rightful owner is. Let us join together to fight this battle to the end that their eyes may be opened and they will crown Christ as their Saviour and Lord of their lives and be set free from the bondages of generations of sin and idol worship!
Much of our time these months has also been devoted to the completion of The Creation to Christ translation, which we’ll now refer to by it’s appropriate Dogbani name of Nama Hali Ni Yisa. It is a tremendous sense of accomplishment to have all 50 of the lessons completed and on their way to the states to be printed. It would have been interesting to have logged our combined hours to see just exactly how much time went into the project! We are so thankful for the youth workers from the states who assisted us in the many months of typing and correcting and for the Lord’s provision of helpful natives here who cheerfully labored by our side through the strain of finding the most precise word to use in each illustration and example so that the clearest understanding could be presented. Our school teacher friends would find our literacy lessons a challenge we think! We have always appreciated the Beginning Steps to Reading program back home, and began using a similar format here...hmm, some major snags...Dogbani doesn’t have any words that begin with their vowels except for Aa! There are NO words for Hh and only two of the words for Ff can be pictured. Our clipart range is pretty limited also, and it feels quite strange to put a picture of a dog on the letter page for Ba, but Baa is dog, so that’s where it belongs! We need much wisdom and patience to effectively create a program that will enable our people to be able learn to read and write in their own language so that they will be able to read and glean from the Word of God!
It’s a full life and a very full schedule of outreach ministering to each village on a weekly basis! Please pray that we will be able to discern which direction to go as these new opportunities arise. We’re grateful to be serving Christ where we’ve been planted,
Daryl & Rebekah Nolt
P.S. Concerning baby Nolt...as of Nov. 5th Rebekah will have excitedly reached week 38 of the pregnancy! We hope to share baby news with you in the next Mission Newsletter! Thank you for all of your prayer support!
