March 2015 Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

Thank you for praying for our family as Elijah and I traveled to Zambia over the last month.  We had a great trip and Preetika enjoyed a refreshing time while we were away. As I write this, both Elijah and I are still slowly getting over jet lag. We are, however, rejoicing in the blessings of the last 3 weeks.

First, Elijah was able to gain the approval to receive US citizenship. This is a tremendous answer to prayer as it will allow us to travel (back to Zambia) once the Lord restores Preetika’s health without restrictions. Elijah did not quite grasp the importance of this and had his heart set on a “green card.” It was all I could do to keep him from asking the officials for a green card instead of complete US citizenship! When we returned to America, his mother had a green card waiting for him!

In addition, Preetika has been greatly encouraged over the last month. Not only did she benefit from some extra time with the Lord lately, but we also received some unexpected direction in regards to her health situation. Two incidents, in particular, have greatly bolstered our spirits. During our days in Zambia, we met a missionary colleague (from another part of Zambia and previously unknown to us). As we chatted about Preetika’s condition, I was surprised to find that this missionary had a medical background and had come across similar symptoms over her more than 20 years in Zambia. She suggested we look into parasites as being a possible cause of Preetika’s problems. We have been recommended to a doctor who specializes in such things here in Southern California. We have an appointment on Wednesday, March 11. In addition to this development, we saw a “minor miracle” (especially for Africa!) in regards to Preetika’s biopsy done in May 2014 in Zambia. As we have mentioned this procedure performed at the beginning of this ordeal, several doctors in America had wondered aloud if the slide from the biopsy might be available to run further tests on. I was quite skeptical that the slide would be able to be found. While in Lusaka, I asked the doctor about the slide. He was also dubious that the lab would have held onto it, but thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Two days later I had the slide in my hand. We trust that both of these developments will prove to be a help in getting Preetika well. Please continue to pray for my wife and her health.

 

It has also been my extreme pleasure to be able to work among the Zambian believers this past month. To be on the field, among the people to whom the LORD has called me is always a tremendous blessing. During the few weeks there, I was privileged to meet a new neighbor of mine named Ernest. He had come to Livingstone from a distant part of Zambia to find work just 2 weeks prior to my arrival. On our second day in Zambia, Elijah and I went out soul winning with some men from our church in the neighborhood near my house. Ernest was so open to hearing the gospel of Christ that he invited us to sit down in his house and share about Jesus with him. He trusted Christ that day and was in church the next Sunday.

A week later he had a man from our church come back and witness to his sister about salvation in Christ Since then, he has attended every service and Bible study held by our church. He is about to begin being discipled and is planning to be baptized soon. (Once the water cooperates… Please pray for the city water at our church. It has been an ongoing problem to get consistent water to our property.) Ernest is hoping to bring his wife and the rest of his children to join him and his seven-year-old son in Livingstone. We are praying that the Lord will allow the entire family to be together and that the hearts of the rest of the family will be open to following Jesus as well.

We are so grateful to you all who have stood with us in support and prayer these last several months. You have encouraged us to trust God’s purpose even when we cannot see it.

February 2015 Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

I want to start off this quick update by thanking you all for your faithful prayers and support for our family. While the cause for Preetika’s health issues are still undetermined, we are making steady (if not quick) progress. She recently had an EMG and nerve conduction test performed, and we expect the results in a couple of weeks. We praise the LORD that the test was able to be moved up o before I left for Zambia so that I was able to be with Preetika while the test was conducted.

In addition to ongoing prayer for Preetika’s health, we are asking that you pray for Elijah and me as we travel tomorrow to Zambia. We will be in Zambia for three weeks to accomplish two main goals. First, I want to be able to get a feel for how things are going in the ministry. I hope to encourage those who are serving in the ministry to keep on going for the LORD! I also look forward to being able to preach, teach and share Jesus with many Africans while I am there. Secondly, and the reason that Elijah is accompanying me, we must attend an interview at the US embassy concerning Elijah’s US citizenship. We are praying for wisdom and favor in these two endeavors. Over the last several months we have been sending funds for the work in Zambia, but it will be good to be on the ground putting our “shoulder to the plough” in the harvest field.

Finally, I would like to share a story about a mailman named Ariel that I recently met in California. I had the opportunity to talk to him about salvation in Jesus and he claimed that he has lately been seeking for something in his life. Truly that is an answer to prayer as I often pray for the LORD to lead me to people who are seeking. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29: 13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Please pray for Ariel that he will keep searching until he understands and trusts in Jesus with all his heart.

Over the next 3 weeks, my wife will be able to be reached on our cell phone (951-376-0510), while I can be reached at jpwarner@hotmail.com.

 

Thanks again for your friendship and support.

August 2014 Prayer Letter

Thank you to all who have been praying for Preetika during these last few months. God has been good to us. After counseling with our sending pastor as well as several doctors, we have decided our next step is to return to the States to seek further treatment and a diagnosis. The response of the people here in Zambia has been encouraging, and we believe the ministry will continue forward for the cause of Christ in our absence. 

 Pastor Chris Teis, our sending pastor, set up a fundraising campaign to help us meet the expense of traveling to America as well as some additional needs (both medical and ministry). We have been blessed by the outpouring of love and help in response to our need.

 I also want to update you on our recent trip to into Zimbabwe. We were blessed to have Pastor Darrell Hurst and Bro. Donnie Foley from New Zion Baptist Church, as well as Bro. Jeremy Snipes, Taigen Gonzalez, and Charles Newton from Hyles-Anderson College.

 

They were used of the LORD to greatly encourage the believers in Zambia before heading across the border to Zimbabwe. Bro Snipes and Pastor Hurst had a great impact through their preaching from God's Word. Scores of Zimbabweans made decisions to trust Christ, to win others to him, to plant churches, to cling truly to God's Word, and to disciple others to follow Christ. The three younger men of our team were also a personal blessing to me. Additionally, they were an inspiration to African Youth in both countries during their stay. Our young people were motivated by seeing men near their same age serving the LORD!

 

 Thanks to all who had been praying for our trip to Zimbabwe. The LORD gave us a better reception than we could have hoped for. God was very evidently involved in bringing this meeting together. One man in particular was instrumental in the conference taking place.  Leonard Mlotshwa had left Zimbabwe for the UK 10 years ago. The LORD had laid it on his heart to find someone who would go to Zimbabwe and help train some believers in his home country. After approaching several people over the years, God finally lead him to cross paths with Pastor Hurst about a year and a half ago.

That meeting lead to this conference in June. As Bro. Leonard planned to make the international trip for the conference, he became sick and it seemed that he may have to miss the conference he had been so looking forward to. Though he grew weaker, he was able to travel to Zimbabwe. When he greeted people at the conference,

he said that he was so glad to be home in Africa - especially to see his 10-year dream come to pass. Little did we know that 2 weeks after the end of the conference, he would leave his home on earth to go Home with the LORD in Heaven. Bro. Leonard had finished his course and possibly his "for such a time as this" moment. I am thankful to have met this man and grateful for his part in directing my eyes and heart

toward the needy and open field of Zimbabwe!

May 2014 Prayer and Praise Update

In the past few weeks, we have seen our church reach new heights – literally. Due to the sacrificial love gift of the Broadway Baptist Church, we were able to put part of the roof on the church! It was an exciting step for our church people.

They are encouraged, not only by the roof itself, but by what it represents – that they are loved and remembered by Christian brothers and sisters halfway across the world! Thanks again, Broadway Baptist for being a blessing!

A few weeks ago, while celebrating the Resurrection of Christ, we were able to baptize several new believers. See the picture for some of the young men that followed Christ in believer’s baptism on that day.

 

 

In addition, on Easter Sunday, we were honored to remember our Lord in the participation of the Lord’s Supper, for the first time as a church.

 

After some teaching and explanation concerning the significance of Christ’s sacrifice for us, each believer was eager to take of the elements in remembrance and thanks of their Savior. We look forward to this becoming an important and special time in the life of the Fallsview Bible Baptist Church.

 

 

 

Please keep praying for our work here in Zambia. Also please keep our fast-approaching conference in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe before the Lord. From June 24-26, I will travel to Zimbabwe with several American visitors. We are trusting the Lord to use His Word and His power to make an impact in our neighboring country of Zimbabwe during that meeting!

 

 

 

April 2014 Prayer Letter with additional pictures

 

Pastor Chris and Bro. Decision preaching in a village school.

 

2 Guys from NJ

 

Pastor Chris preaching at Fallsview Bible Baptist Church

Dear Praying Friends,

                Thank you so much for your prayers and support for us and our work here in Zambia. The LORD has greatly blessed His work in Africa! One of the greatest blessings to us over the last couple of months was a visit from my friend and sending church pastor, Chris Teis. We were greatly blessed by his time and work here. Accompanying him on the trip was Bro. Andrew Garcia, a Christian filmmaker, who is planning to make a short documentary on how God brought Elijah into our lives. The film will appropriately be called Elijah and should be released toward the end of the summer. During their time in Zambia, they shot video and conducted interviews for this film project. We are excited for this film and believe it will be greatly used to bring glory to the LORD! Here is a link to some of the scenic footage Andrew captured during the trip.

                We were also able to do some preaching in a new village area during their trip to Zambia. We spent the night in the bush and preached to several gathered in the village of Nsalali. There were between 30 and 40 who made a profession of faith in Christ and showed interest in seeing a church started in their area. Please pray for us (and specifically for Bro. Decision Siampondo) as we continue to work in this area for the cause of Christ. In addition, this village area has 5 schools that have welcomed us to teach and preach the Bible weekly in the schools. Bro. Decision makes the 40-mile circuit each week on his bicycle. I am praising the LORD for Bro. Decision’s dedication to the work of Christ! 

                During Pastor Chris’ visit, he encouraged us in the starting of a one-on-one discipleship program at the Fallsview Bible Baptist Church. I have already started with one man in our church and am training 5 or 6 of our church leaders to be able to do the same with others. Please keep this exciting and needful ministry in your prayers.

                Finally, we would like to give sincere and heartfelt thanks to the Broadway Baptist Church in Muskegon, Michigan, for their generous love offering, which they gave toward our building project. We are set to begin this week with making some progress on our building. We will do the roofing on the “classroom section” of our church building. Thank you, Broadway Baptist, for helping to push the work of Christ forward in Livingstone!

                Let me also take time to let you know how much we appreciate your kind thoughts, cards, and expressions of love during Preetika’s birthday and our 11^th anniversary. You encourage us more than you know!

 

AND DON'T FORGET TO CLICK HERE TO SEE SOME OF ANDREW'S FOOTAGE FROM AFRICA!



 

December 2013

Dear Praying Friends,

                Merry Christmas from Zambia! Regardless of the hot, humid, and rainy weather, we are enjoying the Christmas season. Preetika and Elijah have worked on baking Christmas cookies and Elijah is learning about giving. He is currently figuring out which of his toys he can give as gifts to his friends. Preetika and I are thrilled to have had Elijah as part of our family these past 3 years. We are amazed, as surely all parents are, at the things he learns and picks up.  I was recently telling Elijah about the wise men who came to worship Jesus, when he confirmed that those wise men had built their house upon a rock. He had been hearing about the wise man and the foolish man (who built his house on the sand) much lately as it was the theme of our recent youth conference.

                Speaking of our youth conference, it was a great success in spite of the wet weather! Being the first ever conference hosted by our church, we were very pleased with how it all went. We had at least 100 youth with dozens of pastors and chaperones who camped with us. As you can see from the pictures, it was truly a Youth “Camp” – Zambian-style. Over the week, we had 5 young people trust Christ with many making decisions to serve the LORD with their lives. I cannot forget how a similar decision at a youth camp set my heart toward serving the LORD as well! My wife worked hard organizing the cooks and menu for the nearly 130 people we had to feed each meal. Have you ever tried cooking over an open fire in the rain? All in all everything worked together to make it a memorable week for the youth. Everybody went home encouraged, full of good food, wet, and blessed. A pretty great youth camp if you ask me!

                Please keep us and all of your missionaries in prayer during the holidays. These are often the most difficult days to be far from home. Also would you continue to pray for two areas of need in our ministry?

·         Our large church vehicle is broken down again- please pray that we can fix it or upgrade It with a more reliable one soon.

·          We are trusting the LORD to make it possible to continue on (and complete) our church building. The next stage is to put on the roofing sheets!

Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support throughout 2013. You may never know this side of heaven how much it means to us. Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our home to yours.

 

Building Project

We have been working on the second stage of our church building over the last few weeks. We will put up the steel structure. A group of men from our church have been tirelessly working in the extreme heat - 95-105*F every day - with almost no shade!
Please keep our safety in your prayers as all is done by physical labor - no heavy machinery!

Before



Man-power to lift trusses into place...



...with a little help from block and chain pulley

Half a truss up

a little welding

One truss done, six more to go...

October 2013 Prayer Letter

The past month of July has been a whirlwind of activity. While seemingly running in several different directions at the same time, we believe that we have recently seen some important foundations laid for the cause of Christ, both in existing ministries as well as in envisioned future ministries.

Village Meeting

Typical Village Life

 Recently we’ve had two very productive and blessed meetings which bode well for some new church- planting opportunities. First, a group of men from our church took a journey to an area we had never been before. We were able to have a meeting with Chief Siachitema about preaching the Gospel in his villages. We presented him with a Bible and were graciously welcomed to begin a Gospel work among his people. Please keep this open door in prayer, as we plan to survey some of the villages of that chieftainship in August or September.

Pastor Donga greeting our Bible study

The second meeting was with Eliot Donga, a pastor from Zimbabwe. As we mentioned in our most recent prayer letter, we have been trusting the LORD to open obvious doors concerning our involvement in preaching and training believers in our neighboring nation of Zimbabwe. With that aim in mind, we received Pastor Donga and his adult son Andrew as visitors in our church and Bible Institute for a few days. As we got to know these men and see their heart for serving the LORD, we noticed a kinship of spirit and agreement of purpose with these servants of God. We look forward to seeing the LORD continue to guide us as we plan to make the six-hour trip to their area of Zimbabwe in the coming months in preparation for a Biblical Training Conference during June 2014.

 In addition to the new opportunities, we are pleased with a few developments in our existing ministry. In July Preetika started a Ladies’ Bible Study, which meets on Thursday afternoons. The meeting has been an encouragement not only to the ladies themselves but also to my wife, as she sees their hunger for learning the Word of God. One lady named Christabel, who cannot read, was able to say her memory verse. Her husband, a student in our Bible institute, had read the verses over and over again to teach them to her. Stories like this remind us of the great need to personally bring God's Word to those who would not or could not read and understand it for themselves. We ask your prayers for this needful ministry to the women.

Ladies' Bible study

                Also in the coming weeks, we look forward to continuing work on our church building. The LORD has provided us with materials and equipment to move into the next stage of our building project. We are now able to put up the steel structure and framing work. Once completed, we will be about halfway to having a fully enclosed church building, leaving us with the need to install the roofing sheets and build the walls. We are confident that this building will prove to be an important tool used by the LORD to bring many Africans unto Jesus, as well as train them to serve Him!

 Finally, would you make one other area of our ministry a matter of your prayers? The last six weeks or so, our ministry has really been hampered by the lack of reliability with our vehicles. We use three vehicles in the ministry, including my personal vehicle. For a couple of weeks, all three were broken-down at the same time. This made many activities in our church a struggle just to get people to the right places. Our "fleet" is aging, and rare is the week when at least one of our vehicles is not out of commission. (As I write this, two of them are not moving as they await needed repairs.) Our newest (but worst-conditioned) vehicle is a 1994 minivan. Our best vehicle (usually, but not lately) is my '92 pickup truck, while our most useful is a 1989 open-bed truck. The constant drain on our funds to keep them maintained and repaired to a reliable and safe level has been a burden sometimes. Thank the LORD that He has always provided what has been necessary to keep them running! Pray that He will continue to do so and also that He would provide the means to upgrade a couple of our vehicles.

 Thank you always for your continued and faithful prayers for our family and ministry in Zambia!

Bible Institute

End of Term 1 Tests

The students are taking their end-of-term tests. A couple of these students had not taken a test in 10 years since they left school. They worked hard and ultimately did very well. We praise God for them!

 

June 2013 Update

The last couple of months have been exciting times in the life of our ministry. In May, we opened our Bible Institute with 5 men enrolled. We look forward to this ministry being used of the LORD to train Africans believers to serve the LORD and plant churches. Already we have seen several of the students win their first souls to Christ as well as each make preparation to begin a home Bible Study in some of the areas of Livingstone where our church reaches. Please pray for these students as they learn and grow in Christ that they will be faithful and willing to sacrifice in the necessary areas to serve Him.

                We also recently celebrated our 5 Year Church Anniversary at Fallsview Bible Baptist Church! We were able to reach our second-highest attendance including 61 first-time adult and teen-age visitors with 13 making a profession of faith in Christ. Pray for many more of those who visited our service to be saved during the follow-up visits.

                One final aspect of our ministry that I would ask you to keep in prayer is a new opportunity that the LORD seems to be presenting to us. Over the last several weeks, I have been in contact with Pastor Darrell Hurst of Williamsburg, KY, one of our supporting pastors, about an opportunity to train some willing men in Zimbabwe. Though the border for Zimbabwe is not very far from our town, I had never been across the border until recently. As many of you may have heard through the international news, over recent years it has been both politically and economically unstable in Zimbabwe. During that time, we have met numerous Zimbabweans who have crossed the border to look for work in Zambia. Some of those have come to trust Christ and are serving the LORD together with us in the Fallsview Bible Baptist Church. In fact one of those Zimbabwean believers is enrolled in our newly started Institute. Please pray that the LORD will open obvious doors in Zimbabwe and that He will give us wisdom concerning this venture.
 
                Thank you as always for your faithful prayers for our family and ministry. I hope you realize how vital those prayers are to our continued mission here. It truly would be impossible without you bringing us before the LORD constantly! Keep it up!

Men Enrolled in the Bible Institute

Our Adoption Story

Here is our recently produced Adoption Tract. We have given many of these out around the world including to George W. Bush on his recent trip to Zambia.

Warners' Ministry Video

Warners' Zambia Video 2012/13

Click on the link to see a ten-minute video about our life and ministry in Zambia.

February 2013 Prayer Letter

           What a blessing these past few months have been for us while on furlough! We have greatly enjoyed seeing our family and watching them meet and get to know Elijah a little bit. Our family has also been blessed to see many friends and partners in the ministry during our times in America. Each church has been blessed by being able to meet Elijah. In fact, one of our supporting churches that I visited when Elijah was sick kindly requested—okay, demanded—that we come again when Elijah was better. We gladly did so and have been encouraged by the many praying friends in churches all around the country who have told us how much they asked the LORD to help us during Elijah's adoption process. Elijah has also enjoyed America. Though often intimidated as we enter a new and, in his view, big church, he soon settles in and loves meeting people, especially the children! Many kids across the country have been on the receiving end of an "Elijah hug." Thanks to all who have made Elijah and us feel so welcomed during our time in the States.

            While we have been in the U.S., the work of the LORD has continued in Zambia. Recently during a couple of special soul-winning days, our church people saw a total of 65 people trust Christ in the neighborhood around our church! Also, we have finally gotten our big church vehicle repaired after months of being off the road. It can once again be used to bring people to church where they can hear the Gospel. Please keep praying for our vehicles, as the Zambian roads really take their toll on them.

  We will be returning to Zambia on April 1. Upon our return, we are prayerfully planning to open a Bible institute in May. Several of the faithful believers are excited about enrolling. In addition, we want to continue the building program at our Livingstone church. We would be grateful if you could make this project a matter of prayer, as we look forward to seeing these future structures being used as tools to preach and teach the Word of God.

          Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for us. We are honored to be your ambassadors for Christ in Zambia.

October 2012 Prayer Letter

October 2012 Dear Praying Friends, Well, we finally have some wonderful news to share about Elijah’s adoption! A little over one month shy of two years since he was found abandoned under a tree, Elijah officially has a family. Of course, in our hearts he has been part of our family since we laid eyes on him. Though there have been long periods of inactivity—at least from our point of view—during this adoption process, when things started moving, they really moved quickly. It seems that we have accomplished more in the last 5 or 6 weeks than we had in the more than 1½ years prior to that. Over the past 5 weeks, I have taken the 12-hour round trip to the capital Lusaka 5 times. All but one of the trips, I took public transport and stayed from 3 to 8 hours before heading back home. A couple of times I took the night bus and would arrive in Lusaka about 4 a.m. I would then mill around the bus terminal until daybreak. As I walked around the un-walled terminal, which housed scores of buses from all over Southern Africa, I was amused to read the rules of the terminal posted in huge letters. Though I did not understand all of the rules, of the ones I did comprehend, all were being broken with multiple being broken by me! “No loitering and no idle standing.” The biggest terminal commandment that was being broken by nearly everyone was “No sleeping,” as hundreds of people were sprawled out anywhere and everywhere on the hard cement floor. I could barely find foot space to step around and over them, hence my “idle standing.” Though it has seemed unnecessarily long at times, we can say most assuredly that it has been worth it to see God’s guiding hand as He has led us through this often frustrating and confusing process. After breaking off this letter about a week ago, I will now continue this writing from America. We all made the 36-hour trip very well. Preetika and I were very pleasantly surprised with how well Elijah weathered the nearly 24 hours in the air. He made many friends among the flight attendants and fellow travelers. It seems all are touched with his story, which so wonderfully illustrates God’s protection and personal involvement in the lives of people. So far we have thoroughly enjoyed having Elijah meet many of his relatives for the first time, as well as so many who have been praying for him and us over the years. We look forward to many more such meetings during our furlough. If you would like to have us pass through your church to update you on our family and ministry, please e-mail me at jpwarner@hotmail.com, and we will endeavor to schedule as many churches as possible.

July 2012 Prayer Letter

The past couple of months have been a blur of activity for us here in Zambia. Allow me to use this letter to bring you up to speed. In May we were blessed to have Preetika’s parents visiting us. They are the first of our families to meet Elijah in person, though many have met him face to face on Skype. Their time with us went by too quickly and was truly a blessing to us, as well as many in our church family. During their visit we were able to have a special Mother’s Day service. In addition to all the regularly attending mothers who were there, we also had 11 mothers of the members visit on that day. One mother was there with her daughter, grandson, and several great-grandchildren! She received a rose for being the mother with the oldest child in church that day. Fortunately, it was obvious, and I did not have to pry too much into the daughter’s age, as some Zambian women can be touchy about that. The month of June brought the celebration of our fourth church anniversary. It was once again wonderful to see the believers exerting themselves in bringing visitors to hear the Gospel preached at the anniversary service. We had 68 adult visitors with us and were able to reach our third-highest attendance thus far in the history of our church. Over 20 people trusted Christ, with more continuing to be saved as we follow up on them with visits in their homes. Please pray for us as we attempt to locate each visitor, since Zambian addresses are often difficult to navigate. So far, we have had many of the visiting people from that day return to be in our services in subsequent weeks. The last event that we wanted to bring to your attention is an update on Elijah’s case. While Elijah grows and changes nearly every day, his court case moves at a much slower pace. In our last letter, we mentioned that we had been given a court date, but that date and others have come and gone with no resolution. In fact, we have yet to even set foot in a courtroom. However, we have recently been given a hearing date for the third week of July. Your prayers are greatly desired that this hearing would go ahead as planned and would bring some progress (if not completion) to Elijah’s adoption. Our hope is to be able to visit the States beginning in October around Elijah’s second birthday. We look forward to many family and friends being able to meet this special gift that God has given us. Finalizing his Zambian paperwork would greatly simplify a trip to America. Also, if you would pray for the ministry and church as we prepare them for our absence, as well as the funds to purchase the tickets, we would appreciate it. Thank you as always for you faithful prayers, friendship, and support. They truly mean more than we could ever express.

Elijah's Adoption Update

Thank you to all of you that prayed for our trip to Lusaka this past week! We had a great time and a nice break. Our meetings went with the US Embassy and social welfare office, we got some helpful information.

After turning in some additional paperwork, we are now waiting for the official notice of adoption to be prepared by the social welfare office of Zambia. Once the letter is issued we have three months to wait until we are summons to court to finalize the adoption. The final step of our journey is for Elijah to be an American Citizen. We have been told by the US Embassy the best option for us is to wait until Elijah has been in our home for two years (Jan 2013) Then he will be automatically eligible for citizenship.

Elijah is such a Joy and Blessing! We are so thankful for him!

We are waiting and trusting God for His perfect timing in all of this. Thank you so much for all your continued thoughts, prayers, encouragement and love!

September 2011 Prayer Letter

September 2011
Dear Praying Friends,
As we leave the pleasant cooler season behind us, we in the Southern Hemisphere gear up for some “real” African weather. For our family that means putting away our space heaters (honestly, it does actually get cool enough to use them sometimes) and making sure all fans and air conditioners in our home and vehicles are in working order. It also means once again making sunscreen a part of our daily wardrobe. At church there are some definite advantages to the hot season, the most noticeable being the start times of our Sunday service. Because of the cold and the fact that many people use the sun to tell time, people generally wake up and get out later during the cold season than they do in the hot season. So during the hot season, things will get underway considerably earlier at Fallsview Bible Baptist Church. As an American preacher, there is something ingrained inside of me that wants to hurry through my message as I see 12:00 and 12:30 come and go on my watch. Most Zambians are not concerned in the least, but starting earlier will enable me to fit into a more “normal for me” schedule for church. More importantly, it will also allow us more time for our after-service Youth Bible Club meeting!
Recently the LORD has seen fit to send more adults to our services. In the 11 weeks following our 3rd anniversary, we have averaged 95 teenagers and adults in our Sunday morning services. This represents an increase of more than 20 from our adult average before our anniversary. Our total attendance, including children, has averaged 165, including our fourth-highest attendance ever (behind only our 3 anniversary Big Days) of 191 a few weeks ago. God has moved in the hearts of several of our members as well, with many responding to the call to surrender to God’s will for their lives. Three in particular have indicated a call on their lives to serve God in a full-time manner. Please pray with us and these believers about a Bible institute and training program that is in the preliminary stages.
Finally, thanks for all your prayers for us, especially Elijah. He is a joy to our home, and we are blessed to watch each new milestone in his life. We will be in Lusaka the first full week in September meeting with the American Embassy and the Zambian Social Welfare Office to discuss Elijah’s adoption. Our prayer is that his adoption will go smoothly and steadily. We would greatly appreciate your continued prayers for our wisdom and understanding of the whole process. There are times that it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is the next step to take. Once again, thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and sacrificial support for our family and ministry over the years in Zambia.

May 2011 Prayer Letter

May 2011
Dear Praying Friends,
Our life and ministry in Zambia have taken us in several different directions lately. We have enjoyed learning and growing as Elijah’s parents. Preetika was recently blessed to enjoy her first Mother’s Day. Also, these past few months have found us (patiently?) waiting for the paperwork for the adoption to progress through the system. We are encouraged to have received a fostering document that appears to give us guardianship of Elijah until he turns 19. I say appears because few things in Africa turn out as they first seem to be. With that being said, our social worker has assured us that the document for foster care carries plenty of legal weight. The process of adoption here seems alternately too easy to be true and impossibly difficult, with unreasonable delays for incompetence and red tape that seems to be used as a way to avoid the necessity of creative problem solving.
For example, we are currently working on obtaining Elijah’s birth certificate. When at the office that handles such documents, we were sent to the hospital to procure a birth record that was needed before issuing the certificate. Reasonable enough, so far. However, at the hospital we were told that a record of birth could not be given by the hospital if we were not sure that he was born in that hospital (the only one in Livingstone). Of course, many babies are born at home or in clinics in and around Livingstone. Despite our repeated explanations about Elijah’s story, no one was able to really give us the solution to the fact that we did not know where he was born. Since nobody knew how to handle it, they did the next best thing—they passed our inquiry off to someone else. We finally tired of this exercise when we were told to go to the office and person whom we had started with. We eventually made some progress by going to a rural health clinic in a nearby village, whose head nurse (who also happens to be the chief’s wife) knows the Hadens well. She kindly gave us a birth record with Elijah’s full name and date of birth (both chosen by us), indicating that he was born in that village (Mukuni Village). We are still working on getting the actual certificate, so please continue to keep this and the entire adoption process in your prayers.
In the ministry we have watched lately as the LORD has breathed new life and excitement into our youth as they participated in a Youth Conference during the holiday month of April. They made several spiritual decisions in addition to competing in some Bible games like a Bible quiz, Bible-memory contest, Sword drills, and preaching and singing contests. They were encouraged with how well they did this year as compared to last year and were able to attribute the growth and improvement to our Sunday Afternoon Youth Bible Club begun after last year’s conference. We continually marvel and praise God for their eagerness to serve Him.
While our young people have been encouraged to press on in their lives for Christ, we have also mourned the loss of two of the charter members of our church. Both men were part of the first 10 we baptized nearly three years ago on the opening Sunday of our church. Even though Mr. Aaron Sililo (78 years old) and Mr. Benard Banda (58) were considered old men in our church, they both possessed a humble spirit and child-like faith. It is such a comfort to know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord for those who believe in Christ (II Corinthians 5:8). Seeing their heart for the Lord through their questions and our discussions about the Word of God truly made them a blessing to know.
Thank you for your prayers and sacrifice, which enable us to be on the mission field preaching the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Elijah

On November 20, 2010, while most in America had thoughts of Christmas gifts under a tree, God was at work halfway across the world putting a special gift under a tree for Preetika and me.
This particular tree in Livingstone, Zambia was roughly 10,000 miles away from where we were in California at that time. On that Saturday evening, one of our missionary friends in Zambia, Tammy Haden, heard a baby crying outside. She thought to herself that the baby sounded so loud that it seemed to be right inside her yard. As the crying did not diminish and no one seemed to be calming the baby, she went outside to see what was going on. As she stepped outside and headed for the gate in her wall fence, the Lord impressed upon her heart that the crying baby had been abandoned. At that point she began running toward the sound of the cry which was coming from outside her wall at the base of a tree. There she found a 4-6 week old baby boy The crying must have also caught the attention of her landlord who lives across the street. He, being a long-time resident of Zambia, and not nearly as tender-hearted as a missionary wife, told Ms. Tammy not to touch the baby while he went to get the police. As he turned the corner, she picked up the baby and was joined by Bro. Joe, her husband, who was just returning from a village trip in the midst of all the commotion. After picking him up and soothing his crying, the baby gave her one of his beaming smiles for which he is now well-known.!

Soon after, the police arrived. They took a statement from Ms. Tammy, but did not seem to have any procedure in place to handle the abandoned child. Their only instruction was to take the baby to the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, Ms. Tammy was directed toward the registration desk with the baby. The registration nurse asked his name in order to register him. Since she hadn’t really thought about his name, Ms. Tammy was unsure of what to say. The nurse insisted that he needed a name, so Ms. Tammy replied that he is Moses, which makes sense to all familiar with the Exodus story of the baby Moses being saved from death when his mother sent him afloat down the river in a basket. He was found, cared for, and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter as her own son. Despite that inspired name choice, the LORD had a different name in mind. The nurse responded that Moses was not a good name because there were too many babies with that name already. The next name that came to mind at the registration desk was Elijah. This name was promptly accepted by the nurse who attached Haden as the last name. As the doors to adoption have opened up for Preetika and me, we have kept these names and expanded upon them. His full name is Elijah Paul Haden Warner – a bit of a mouthful no doubt but each name is full of meaning. Paul, by the way, is my wife’s maiden name, not to mention a great missionary of the New Testament.
After examination at the hospital, Elijah was sent home with the Hadens with a clean bill of health. Ms. Tammy and Bro. Joe were quite relieved to be able to take him home as they feared he may be put “in the system” that night. The nurses and policemen, on the other hand, seemed surprised that these Americans would be willing to take home and care for an abandoned Zambian baby. As promised the Hadens reluctantly brought Elijah back to the hospital the next day late on Sunday afternoon. When some of the nurses saw them approaching, they asked if Elijah was sick. Ms. Tammy said that he was not, but they were bringing him back as they had agreed to. The nurses replied that since it was Sunday and the administration offices were closed, there was no one who could see them today about the situation. They said the best thing to do was to wait until Monday and bring him to the Social Welfare Office in town. Through the next week (Thanksgiving week), the Hadens had several interviews and a home inspection. By Friday, they were in the magistrate’s office getting legal papers naming them Elijah’s foster parents.
We have been amazed at God’s Hand in orchestrating every detail. Notwithstanding a few appointment changes, the relative speed and ease of the process has been astounding and very “un-Zambia-like.” That God is at work here is extremely evident. Many Westerners have the idea that since the number of orphaned children in Africa is so alarmingly high (due to AIDS and other such calamities), therefore adoption is quite common. The opposite is actually true. In fact, since the year 2000, the number of Zambian orphans adopted by American families has been 77 -- or less than 8 per year. Compare that with China, India, or the Philippines whose lowest number of adopted orphans per year over the last decade are 3001, 297, and 171 respectively. Those countries have many more orphans adopted per year than Zambia has per decade. Most orphans in Zambia are cared for by their extended family members. Cases of abandonment are even rarer which indicates to us that Elijah’s family situation at his birth may have been unthinkably desperate. The social worker handling our case says Elijah’s is only the fourth abandonment he has heard of since he began working at the Social Welfare Office over 5 years ago. All of these stats emphatically remind Preetika and me of what a miracle Elijah’s life has been to this point has been.
We cannot help but recognize that God has a purpose and plan for his life. How privileged we are to be used of the Lord in the working of His plan!
The rest of the story, especially concerning what was going on in our hearts and lives in California concurrently with the events related from Zambia can be found in our January 2011 Prayer Letter which can also be found on this site. Preetika and I look forward to further updates along our journey to adopt Elijah and raise him up in the nurture and admonition of the LORD.

JANUARY 2011 PRAYER LETTER

Dear Praying Friends,
We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas, and we wish you a very happy New Year! This holiday season has been a blessed one for us for one extremely special reason. The Lord has seen fit to add to our family. A few days before Thanksgiving, after having delayed our return to Zambia because of a few necessary medical tests, my wife noticed a rather unusual post on Facebook from a friend and fellow missionary in Zambia. Joe and Tammy Haden, who live in our town, had found an abandoned baby outside their fence. Unbeknownst to my wife, I asked God to let the Hadens contact us if He wanted us to adopt this four- to six-week old baby boy. Preetika and I have considered and prayed about adopting a Zambian child for the past three years. The process always seemed rather daunting, and we were overwhelmed with thoughts of where to begin. Incidentally, I had been told in my research of Zambian adoption that a prospective adoptive parent had to have a targeted child in mind before beginning the process. Our purpose in considering adoption was not only to fulfill our desire of parenting but also to care for a child truly in need. Though there are plenty of orphans in Zambia, most are cared for by their extended family members. While this can often lead to mistreatment and a “Cinderella” syndrome for the orphaned children, it is the typical way of handling this common situation in Africa. So we planned on visiting some of the orphanages in our country on several occasions; but each time God closed the door, and our plans for a visit fell through for some reason or other. We are now convinced that He already had His plan set in motion. And when God does something, He does it right!
Now that you have been brought up to speed on God’s pre-workings in our hearts regarding what He is shortly to bring to pass, this is where the story really gets good. The next day after hearing about the baby (and praying for God’s will to be known) was a Sunday. While returning from church that afternoon with my wife and her parents, Preetika checked her Facebook page on our cell phone. She was sitting in the backseat, and I was driving. When we arrived home, she came to me with tears in her eyes, looking like she was about to burst with excitement. When I asked what was the matter, she replied that Ms. Tammy had sent her a message asking if we would be interested in adopting Elijah, the abandoned baby’s name given by default by Ms. Tammy. (For the complete story about his name, please see our website, www.warnersinzambia.blogspot.com.) I told Preetika that the Lord had answered my prayer, and we replied that we were VERY interested in adopting Him. Within one week, the Hadens had been court-appointed as his foster parents until he turned 19 or was adopted. We laughed about that “until age 19” clause since Bro. Joe and Ms. Tammy are doting grandparents expecting their 13th grandchild in a few months (actually that unborn grandchild has been pushed to number 14 now that Elijah has entered their life!). Over the next two weeks, Preetika and I frantically prepared for a new baby in our house—from 10,000 miles away. We praise God for the tremendous support, encouragement, and help in preparing for Elijah from our family and Foothill Baptist Church family, my wife’s home church.
We traveled to Zambia with at least 150 pounds of baby gear in tow. It especially attracted a lot of attention to be carrying a baby car seat with no baby in it. Several times we were asked if we had mistakenly left our child behind somewhere. We didn’t mind the questions, but I just imagine all those that thought the same thing but didn’t ask. I am sure there are dozens of people from Los Angeles to London to Johannesburg, South Africa, who think we are the most careless parents alive. At any rate, the anomaly of the situation allowed us to share Elijah’s story several times over the journey. Preetika and I have decided to work on a tract or pamphlet tying in the message of God’s adoption of sinners into His family through Christ with our own adoption of Elijah to prepare for the questions that we will undoubtedly field regarding our multicultural family over the years. Since our arrival in Zambia, we have spent much time with Elijah at Nonna and Granddaddy Haden’s house. We have met with Mr. Kawana, the social worker handling our case, and he has encouraged us with his effort and concern to push Elijah’s adoption through the system. He also enabled us to have the unspeakable gift of having Elijah in our home over the Christmas weekend! We have been assured that Elijah should come for good to our home in the first or second week of January as we take over the fostering of him while waiting for the adoption to be finalized. Please be in prayer that God will open doors and allow the paperwork to be completed soon. We are trusting God and have been amazed at His working in this situation. Many times through the last couple of weeks, we have remarked that things are just going too smoothly—nothing is this easy in Zambia. We can’t go to the store and buy groceries as easily as things have worked so far in this process! While we don’t completely expect smooth sailing, we know God is in control, and He opens doors no man can shut! For more on Elijah’s story including pictures, you can find my wife on Facebook or check out our website. Thanks as always for your prayers.
“God setteth the solitary in families….” (Psalm 68:6) Praise God He does!
In His service,

Justin & Preetika Warner