Dear praying friends,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God.” Isaiah 61:1-2.

What a weekend!

My journey began at 6:30 on Friday morning. We went to MAF’s (Mission Aviation Fellowship) airstrip and before long we were in the air! The journey in the plane was very short, only forty minutes or so. There had been a lot of rain in the area so the grass airstrip near the village was not in best shape! After a risky landing we were set for the next stage of the journey. The village, Sahakevo, was a one hour walk from the airstrip. We walked and slipped though muddy paths, crossed a huge river by “boat” and passed through another hilltop village before we reached our destination…we indeed journeyed through hill and dale for the sake of the Gospel.

When we reached the village we were VERY dirty so our first stop was to the river for a wash! The school stopped for the children to come out and have a look at what was going on and the whole village gathered around us. We soon introduced ourselves and told the village that we came in the name of Jesus Christ and anything we were going to do for them was in the love of our Saviour. We quickly set to work. There were two doctors on the team and three of us were there as assistants. On the Friday we spent the afternoon doing operations. The patients were all awake during the operations and in considerable pain so it was my job along with the other assistants to hold them down. We worked long into the dark hours. On Saturday morning Doctor Jonathan, also an AIM missionary, set to work pulling out teeth or what was left of them! I held the hand of each girl as she winched in pain. I could only speak a few words of comfort but I believe that the hand of friendship and the squeeze of love was able to speak more to those girls than a thousand words. Our prayer for those patients was that our love in their pain would demonstrate to them Christ’s love for them, even in their sufferings. On Saturday afternoon I was able to give a few brief talks on basic health, especially care of the teeth, with the help of a translator. In the evening time I played worship songs to them on the violin and again with the help of a translator explained the meaning of the songs…Christ’s compassion on the cross and their need of a Saviour. On Sunday morning before we left we did one final operation at 6am before it was time to hit the muddy tracks again.

From the village it is a three day walk to get to a road so you can imagine just how remote we were. They have many many medical problems, the most common in that area being sexually transmitted diseases, hernias and cancer. Many people suffer from burns, infected wounds, clipped lips and fungus related pains. There seems to be no end to their physical sufferings and over one thousand people queued outside the small hospital waiting to see a doctor. Most of them said the reason they came was because they saw the plane flying over head and thought someone might have come to help. In this village they are very confused about the message of the Gospel and have very little understanding. It is our prayer that through medical trips like this one they will soon trust the “foreign people” who come into their village with the message of the Saviour they need.

I arrived home safely on Sunday, my only ailment being mosquito bites! But want can I expect sleeping in a wooden hut minus a mosquito net! We’ll know to prepare better next time! So thank you for your prayers over the weekend, God’s protecting arms surrounded us.

Next weekend, on Good Friday we will have a “Membership Training” weekend with the students. We will all go together to a Scripture Union camp where we will spend Friday evening in games, fellowship and the sharing of the Gospel. As AMI teachers we then hope to give our testimonies and do Bible studies with the students on Saturday. Nearly all the students attend church but only a few of them have a personal relationship with Jesus. Through this weekend we hope to encourage the Christians to grow in their faith, witness and love for Jesus and that those who do not know Christ will find him. I hope next weekend will be one of rejoicing in heaven because of souls won for the Saviour. Pray that my close friendship with so many of the students would be a witness of Jesus. The title for the weekend is “For His Fame”. We wish the students to see that their talents and lives are not indeed for their own fame as they so often think but for the fame and renown of Jesus Christ.

Please pray always for our safety as three foreign missionary girls living together in the one house. We our very aware that we are in a real spiritual battle and wrestle with the powers of darkness. On Sunday evening our guard saw a lady involved and practising witchcraft encircling the grounds of our house. We realise that as we do Christ’s work the devil is seeking to attack.

Wishing one and all a Christ focused Easter as we remember the price which was paid and the new live which is now ours to live in Him.

Yours in Christ,

Mandy.

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