Prayer Request

Dear Praying Friends,

Preetika and I would like to bring two matters of prayer to your attention.

First, we were informed on Monday that Preetika’s father was in the hospital undergoing some heart tests after he passed out on Saturday. We have since been informed that there is no apparent heart damage and the brief loss of consciousness may have simply been due to overexertion. All other results from the tests have seemed encouraging as well – Praise the Lord! Please pray for him and the doctors as they attempt to determine the health and condition of his heart, especially in light of his previous heart attack. God has been comforting and encouraging both Preetika’s parents and us here in Zambia though it is tough to be 10,000 miles away at times like this.

Secondly, we had missed calls on our cell phones while on the phone with Preetika’s parents this morning. After returning those calls, we were informed of another serious problem. Pastor Kebby, our Zambian pastor, had been beaten and stabbed severely and was in the hospital. Upon visiting him, we saw he was in pretty terrible condition. He has loss much blood as well as several cuts and huge knots on his head, so much so that his head looks incredibly misshapen. He is extremely weak and cannot speak much. It is quite miraculous that he is even alive. The thieves left him for dead and he was found by a real-life Good Samaritan who loaded him in his taxi and took him to the hospital. The thieves had taken his phone, and he was so out of it that he was staggering in the direction of a house he used to live in thinking he was going home according to the man who found him. Without that man, we may have never found him before he died from his injuries. Pastor Kebby remembers nothing of what happened.

The next hurdle, as is often the case in a third-world country, (as evidenced by some of the reports coming out of Haiti) is the substandard medical care. When we first saw Pastor Kebby (early this morning after being admitted in the wee hours of the morning), he still had on the same dirty and blood-covered clothes on. There were a pile of bloody sheets in the corner presumably soiled from when he had first been brought in. We were finally able to take his wife to get some clean clothes from their home. Please join us and the believers of Fallsview Bible Baptist Church in praying for Pastor Kebby, his wife, Etambuyu, and their 2 young daughters.

We are to always trust God with every need, but the condition of the Livingstone General Hospital seems to really drive that point home in this case.

Thanks for your prayers.

In Christ,
Justin & Preetika

THE BAPTIST CHURCH GETS A BAPTISTRY

On the last Sunday of 2009, the Fallsview Bible Baptist Church had the privilege of seeing 24 new converts baptized. This was the first time that we were able to perform the baptism on church property. The second structure built, after our storehouse, was a baptistry. It was such a blessing for the new converts to see the work going on at our church plot as many had never seen the place before. It was also nice not to have the thought of crocodiles in the back of your mind as had been the case previously when baptizing in the river.

One of those new converts baptized was a man named Trevor Rabson. He is one of the builders we hired to supervise the building of our church. He and his wife, both Zimbabweans, have been attending church for the last 6 weeks since receiving Christ. He also helped us construct the new baptisty. During that project, he expressed his desire to be the first convert baptized in the new structure. It was our privilege to fulfill his desire of being baptized and to see him be the first to be “raised to walk in newness of life” at the future home of Fallsview Bible Baptist Church

We have now baptized 60 adult converts into our church since its inception in June 2007 with 50 of them taking that first step of obedience over the last 9 months since our return from furlough! Praise God that His work is marching on.