Missionary Update - Phil and Jennifer Leber

We recently enjoyed Jennifer being with us here at Clear River. She is now back in Africa, and these prayer requests came out yesterday (July 20). You can visit www.ugandamission.org to sign up for their newsletters.

Urgent Prayer Request

July, 2008

David and Jennifer arrived in Kenya Friday night after a tiring 20-hour trip. Phil was waiting at the airport, and we were looking forward to our family reunion with Owen on Sunday. Owen had returned a week early to attend his alumni reunion at Rift Valley Academy (RVA) where both David and Owen attended high school. After the weekend of festivities, a group of 25 classmates traveled by bus to Mombasa on the Kenyan coast for several days of sun and fun, renewing old friendships. Owen spent most of the time with Ben Entwistle, his roommate at both RVA and Covenant College, and Jon Milligan, a friend from RVA who now attends Wheaton College.

We arrived at the missionary guesthouse in Nairobi at 11:00pm and found Owen unexpectedly waiting for us in the parking lot. He interrupted our exuberant welcome saying, "I am not here on the best of terms, and my friend, Jon, is in our room and needs to spend the night with us."

Owen then began to tell us the following horrific details of his Mombasa trip --

During their trip to Mombasa, Ben didn't feel well most of the time. He had a sore throat before leaving for the trip. Four years ago Ben had surgery to repair a valve in his heart. Since then, he has taken penicillin daily. His mother doubled the dosage due to the sore throat. Soon the sore throat went away, but additional symptoms of fever and tiredness seemed to indicate malaria. Owen gave Ben his malaria medicine and made sure he had plenty of food and liquids. During the week, Ben seemed to improve. Thursday night Ben was well enough to join the group on the beach as they sat together telling stories and reminiscing about their days in Africa and life at RVA.

They boarded the bus early Friday morning, headed for Nairobi. Owen could never have imagined the difficulty that was ahead of them. Only two hours into the bus trip, Ben began to feel very ill. There were no options but to continue the long trip, over potholed roads, a hot breeze filling the bus. Then his symptoms worsened. He became extremely weak, unable to support his head. Owen and Jon took turns caring for Ben, each one sharing a shoulder for Ben to lay his head. Soon Ben was slurring his words. One of his hands became clutched, with his arm drawn tightly toward his upper body, and one leg was unable to move. Owen and his friends, gripped with fear, prayed for God to hold Ben and bring healing.

The long journey continued with Ben's condition worsening with every kilometer. A friend on the bus called Ben's father, Dan, who is a missionary doctor in Mozambique. Ben's family had remained in Kijabe during the week after the graduation of Ben's brother from RVA. His parents said they would meet the bus in Nairobi and take Ben to the hospital. Unfortunately, the bus went to a different bus station in Nairobi and Owen realized that it would take too long for his parents to navigate the heavy rush-hour traffic, which would delay Ben getting the emergency medial treatment he obviously needed. Ben's parents agreed to meet them at the hospital.

The bus arrived at dusk in the industrial section of town -- the most dangerous part of Nairobi. Owen ran the darkened streets frantically looking for a taxi and praying for God's protection as he passed ally ways where thieves and thugs await unsuspecting victims. Another friend lifted Ben off the bus as he had lost the ability to move both of his legs. With the Lord's provision, Owen found a taxi and managed to get Ben, who was quickly fading, into the car and they sped through the snarled traffic to meet Ben's parents at Nairobi Hospital.

The seriousness of Ben's condition became quickly evident, as the doctors determined that Ben had contracted a severe bacterial infection in his weakened heart valve, and the infection had led to an embolic stroke.

Owen and Jon crashed in our room. Saturday, we visited Ben at the high dependency unit at the hospital. While Ben recognized them, his condition was obviously life-threatening. His words are very slurred and he was paralyzed on his right side.

On Sunday, Owen, Jon and several other classmates went to see Ben for the last time at the hospital. His parents were preparing him for an emergency air evacuation to South Africa for surgery to repair his heart valve.

It took all day Sunday to complete the mound of paperwork required by the U.S. insurance company for approval of the emergency air ambulance. The plane was to arrive about 2:00 am Monday morning, but for some unknown reason it was delayed 5 hours before landing. Dan took Ben aboard the plane and rushed to Johannesburg, where more doctors awaited their arrival six hours later. Tragically, one hour prior to their planned arrival in South Africa, Ben died from an apparent heart attack. After 20 minutes of resuscitation efforts, Dan pronounced his 20-year old son dead. He arrived in Johannesburg with Ben to face many legal and logistical complications for the removal of Ben's body to the USA. Dan flew back on Wednesday to be with his wife and their remaining four children in Kijabe.

Friday they had a beautiful memorial service at RVA. Ben's father read a letter he wrote to Ben about how much he will be missed and the amazing impact he had on his family and friends. A story was told giving the following account of a close friend's little 3-year old boy who had been told about Ben's condition: The little boy prayed, "God, please make Ben all better." After he was told about Ben being on his way to South Africa he prayed, "God, please make Ben all better, so he can go home." After Ben died, his mother went to tell her young son the sad news and he said, with a child's profound insight, "Jesus made him all better -- he is home now!"

Ben was a wonderful young man who demonstrated his love for the Lord by his vibrant love for people. Please join friends all over the world who are praying for God to comfort the Entwistle family as they walk the road of grief and process the shock of Ben no longer being with them. Also, please pray for Owen and his friends who were with him in Mombasa and tried their best to care for him on the long bus ride back to Nairobi. Owen is returning 3 weeks early to the USA to attend the funeral service next Saturday in North Carolina.

Our disappointment that we will not have our mission to Kitgum, nor the remaining time in Africa as a family, is overshadowed by the big heart of love and compassion we see in Owen. We are watching Owen be a faithful and loyal friend to Ben -- to the very end.

Please pray as everyone gathers for the funeral it will be a time of remembering Ben, honoring his parents and most importantly, glorifying the Lord through the love being poured out during this tragedy.

We have seen the evidence of God's love in one of the most difficult moments any of these young people have ever experienced. It is amazing how Jesus shines His light and love and penetrates our darkest hour. Please pray for Owen on Saturday as he says his final goodbye to one of his very best friends.

Phil and Jennifer Leber

Prayer for Jennifer

July, 2008

Jennifer was admitted to Nairobi Hospital early last week with a serious pulmonary infection. The initial x-ray was so clouded with infection that it hid the specific culprit for some days. With a follow-up x-ray, the doctor realized she has pneumonia in the lower left lobe and will in the hospital probably until Tuesday. She has been on intravenous antibiotics, steroids and oxygen, and only now does the combination seem to be working. She was receiving 80mg intravenous steroids and several intravenous antibiotics, as well as supplemental oxygen. Her white blood cell count was 23,000 when admitted (7,000 is normal).

Today, she is doing better. Her white blood cell count is down to 11,000 and her blood oxygen content is up to 90% from a low of 79% late last week. Please pray for her full recovery and for God to give the doctor wisdom in her treatment. Needless to say this has been a week of grief and emotional exhaustion.

Phil and Jennifer Leber

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Missionary Update - Rob and April E

This update was taken from Rob and April's summer newsletter. You can contact them to get on the distribution list.

Visa Update- Praises!

Thank you for praying about our visas. In a very sudden and unexpected way, the Lord has provided! Even though the university had refused visas to many of our friends in the same situation as us, we approached them about the possibility of giving us not only a student visa for April, but also a ‘dependent’ visa for Rob, who would not be studying. Much to our surprise, they filled out the paperwork with no questions, and we should have our visas this week. Praise God with us for meeting this urgent need!

A Summer of Win, Build, Send

Usually when working with university students, the summer is a time of less activity, as students head home for a few months. But our situation was a bit unusual- most of our students live in the city where they study, and most of them will be around for the summer. So this summer, we have been able to continue pursuing our ministry distinctives of winning, building, and sending.

Win- Most summers, we are blessed to have a short-term group from the U.S. come to our campus for a month of meeting and sharing with as many students as they can. This summer was no exception, and as that group heads back to the States, Rob and April will be ‘following-up’ on their work here. We have a number of names of students who have shown an interest in the gospel, and some of whom have even begun to follow Christ! Pray with us for these new believers as we seek to establish them in their faith and incorporate them into our campus fellowship.

Build- Our students surprised us this summer when they insisted on continuing to meet weekly. We were able to offer our new apartment as an ideal, central location for our students to use as a meeting place this summer, and since classes ended, we have had a weekly time of study, prayer, and fellowship. Our students have been greatly refreshed and encouraged by this time, which we have devoted to studying and memorizing Romans 8 as a group. Because the summer group ‘feels’ more casual, we’ve been able to encourage some of our students to lead the study time, helping them to develop skills as teachers and leaders in God’s kingdom. Our time has also resulted in some unexpected conversations (see “Wolves and Sheep” below)
Send- Due to the Olympics, security in our country is heightened, and we have been unable to send our students on the evangelism summer projects we usually offer. But one great opportunity this summer was in response to the recent earthquake in East Asia. Our ministry has been able to find open doors for relief trips to earthquake-affected areas, trips that would combine meeting the practical needs of the people there and sharing the gospel to meet eternal needs. So far, one of our students, Linkin, has already been sent, and our fellowship has been supporting him through prayer and giving. We are seeking to have two more of our men, Cleveland and Grudem, be able to join a later group. Please pray for this sending opportunity, not only for the blessing it will be to the people in need, but also for the tremendous leadership and spiritual development that can take place in these young men’s lives.

Changes

Many of you received our email at the time of our move- an experience that tested our patience and faith. Thankfully, our second effort to move went very well. Now that we are settled in, we would like to share with you about some changes in our ministry that resulted in our move.

Over the past few months, in conversation with our leadership, we have been closely considering three things: the situation of our campus, our personal needs and well-being, and the needs of our regional ministry. One difficult (and yet very hopeful, as you will see below) was to not have a full-time team of missionaries on our campus this next school year. With inadequate numbers of missionaries arriving, combined with some changes our university is undergoing which make ministry there very challenging right now, we decided to place our staff on more strategic locations for the year.

At the same time, we (Rob and April) have found it very difficult living as a new couple on a geographically remote campus. For our own well-being, we have felt the need to live closer to some other believers with whom we can build longer-term relationships.

A third factor was some needs of our regional ministry. Our campus ministry is one of many campus ministries grouped together in a region. Many of you know that Rob and April both came to East Asia on a “Stint”- a one-or-two year commitment- before committing to long-term service here. Every year, we have many stinters serving in our campus ministries, and they are a vital part of the work we do. The region has observed a growing need to devote more attention to the training and care of our stinters on the field.

Given Rob’s experience here, he will be devoting more of his time to the training and care of stinters- developing them in their knowledge, skills, language, and character in order to enable them to be more fruitful in their ministries.

April will continue to study language, and she will add to her responsibilities some event planning as well as work with orphans.

But we are not done with campus work! Rob and April will both continue to meet with our students and help provide leadership for our campus fellowship. The absence of a team in the fall has forced our students into realizing that ministering to the campus is their responsibility. Rob and April will seek to counsel, teach, train, and mentor our students, especially the student leaders, as they begin to take ownership of their campus as a field of ministry.

Please pray for our transition, both logistically and personally. Moving to a new location can be stressful, but we are very clear that this is God’s leading for us, for our campus, and for our region.

An Unexpected Phone Call

One confirmation that it was the Lord’s hand leading these changes was a phone call I (Rob) received once the decision was finalized. ‘Roger’ graduated from our campus more than 5 years ago, and along with some friends from our fellowship, began a house church. I had not been in touch with Roger for some time, when he called me to set up a lunch appointment. He shared that recently God has been challenging the members of his church that they should be more involved in ministering to our campus. He asked if it would be ‘feasible and desirable’ for his church to partner with our campus fellowship!

I can’t describe our mutual joy when we compared stories and saw that God’s leading in this coincided with the prayers of our students and our team that He would provide leadership for our group as the Americans moved out. We are currently working with the church to involve them in teaching and discipling our students. Praise God for amazing provision! And join us in praying for this growing partnership.

Of Wolves and Sheep

One of the reasons we are excited to partner with this church is because of how hard it is to find a legitimate house church, one that is not teaching some form of heresy- mild or serious. Our recent experience illustrates this:

During our summer fellowship, the conversation has often turned to the topic of cults. Some of our students have encountered Christian cults advertising on the streets or on the internet. One of our students, Cleveland, is a mature believer who is very familiar with the way many local cults pervert the gospel, and he has been able to warn and educate some of our younger believers.

Over the course of the discussions, we discovered that two of the women in our group had been attending a house church for a while; however, some of the teaching contradicted what they were learning in God’s Word, so they ceased going. They shared with our group some of the materials the group had given them, and Cleveland immediately identified the marks of a Christian cult. He was able to show them some of the serious errors in the teaching and compare that to what God’s word really teaches.

Please pray with us for protection from wolves in sheep’s clothing. Pray that God would purify his church and protect his sheep. Pray also for Cleveland, in whom we see a genuine shepherd’s heart to preserve the purity of the gospel and warn against falsehood.

Increasing Financial Need

Finally, in light of these changes, we would like to share with you the current state of our financial support. Thankfully, God provided the financial support we needed in order to return to East Asia last summer. However, the past year has been one in which the value of the dollar here has dropped significantly. Our current income will quickly be insufficient to meet our needs here. We will be sending another, more specific letter at another time, but for now, would you please pray for our finances, perhaps even that the Lord would lead you to begin or increase giving to our ministry. If you are able to give to our immediate needs, you can do so by contacting us or online by visiting https://give.ccci.org/give/0511233.

Thank you again for your prayers and partnership!

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Missionary Update - Al and Elizabeth Dyck

This update was taken from Al's blog (see link at right).

Family Road Trip - July 18, 2008

Tomorrow we leave for a three week road trip that takes us to a few of Europe’s major cities, Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna and then the small towns of Sopron, Hungary and then Garmish and Freiburg, Germany. It is a mix of work and play. We’ll visit our staff and church in Munich and do some site seeing while there. Then on to Vienna where we visit some friends that used to live in The Hague. And Hungary, several days of CA leadership meetings and then our annual conference. Our third week will be a week of solid vacation in Southern Germany enjoying the alps and seeing if we can revive the little bit of German lingering in our brains.

Pray for safety as we travel, good connections and conversations along the way, fruitful meetings, and a successful conference that helps all 275 of us connect with God and each other. There is a team doing a camp for the teens and another team doing a VBS program - pray these team really make a solid impact on the kids

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Missionary Update - Dov and Lyndee Gelman

June 2008 Greetings from balmy Jerusalem! School will be letting out here in Israel on June 30. The majority of kids we work with in the schools and kindergartens live in the same housing projects. While there is excitement amongst the kids for the two month break, there is also the reality that their more affluent classmates will be attending full-day summer camps while they are left at home without much to do and often without parental supervision. In light of this reality, we are focusing our attention this summer on creating programs that will help to diminish the idle, unsupervised hours that these kids will have. Check out our plans...

VALUES, VOLUNTEERING & VACATION

Rachel will be taking our girls' group to the next level this summer. Aside from the once a week values and character training that she has been doing since the Spring, she will lead the girls into the realm of volunteerism by way of an Ethiopian new immigrant absorption center in Mevaseret Zion (just outside of Jerusalem). We are building on a relationship that we forged with this center this past winter when we purchased 500 brand-new winter coats for their inhabitants. Once a week, Rachel and "her girls" will volunteer with the center's summer camps. (As an aside, the center houses Ethiopian new immigrants for 2 years while they learn Hebrew and how to be "absorbed" into Israeli society. They have their own school, their own language school and they run their own summer camps). Finally, to sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of the values-training and volunteering, Rachel will be taking the girls on a fun field trip once a week as well. They have tons of options - from exploring Jerusalem's archaelogical history, to paint ball, to hanging out at an amusement park. Go Rachel!!

FAMILY SPONSORSHIP FOCUS
We currently have 41 children in our Family Sponsorship Program, most (but not all) of these children are from single parent homes. A strong focus of ours this summer is to increase our home visitations - with the intention of getting these kids outside to play. In addition, we are planning field trips for these kids during the month of August.

COOL NATE

We are bringing on a new staff person for the summer. His name is Netanel, but we call him "Cool Nate." He is 17 and is one seriously gifted children's worker! He has grown up his whole life without a dad, has faced many obstacles and trials, yet has incredible leadership abilities (that he admits could lead those that follow onto good paths or bad). He is one of the leaders in the 'Hood, and Dov has taken him under his wing. Cool Nate has helped with some of our trips and outreaches in the past, and we've decided to give him a summer job, and more importantly, some purpose!

35 DAYS

We (as in Dov, our 2 children and I) will be embarking on a 35 day adventure to the States in June/July. We will be in 10 different states (maybe 11) and various cities within those States. What sits most heavily on our hearts is children. We plan to bring an awareness of the poverty that kids in Israel face. MBKI is helping to meet those needs (in the area of influence that the L-rd has given to us), and we want to give churches and individuals the opportunity to help support the work that we do. The L-rd has also laid other messages on Dov's heart to share in the different regions that we will be in. We feel that the L-rd has called us to trek to the States as a family, and He has allowed this trip to become a reality through the hugely generous donation of a friend of ours in Georgia. So to him we send out some serious thanks!! Go to www.mbki.com to sign up for this monthly newsletter!!

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Missionary Update - Phil and Jennifer Leber

10 year Anniversary

May, 2008

We are blessed by the incomparable richness of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus ... For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2: 7,10

This month we celebrate our 10th anniversary serving in Uganda. It has been one of the most challenging, rewarding and life-changing decades of our lives. We know with certainty that God has called us to be faithful in serving the people of Uganda. Even though we have sometimes felt we are not "spiritual enough" to be missionaries, and have battled feelings of discouragement, we have also learned the importance of being faithful to do the work God has called us to do. We have seen His miracles of provision, His healing touch and His power to transform hearts. We pray that the seeds we plant will reap a harvest that will remain long after we leave Uganda.

We thank God for you and remember you often in our prayers. We greatly appreciate the love and support that our Uganda Mission family has shown us. In answer to your many prayers, closed doors have been opened, finances have been provided, and lives have been changed. We understand more than ever the need for an army of intercessors to be behind us. You will touch Uganda with the hidden work of prayer even though you may never meet the people for whom you are praying.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

-- Worship is a lifestyle of holiness, abandonment to Him, and comes from the depths of our heart.

-- God's joy in following Him is greater than the challenges we face.

-- God's vision is never given without His provision.

-- Love is our most important work.

-- Our first mission is to our family and then God calls us to reach the rest of the world.

-- We are learning to "finish well" even with an ocean between us and our family.

PRAISE REPORTS

Lango Diocese

Thanks to the generosity of a grant by the Church of Apostles, our home church in Virginia, 46 clergy in Northern Uganda received new bicycles. This is the area that has suffered from the 20-year war inflicted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) where thousands of children were abducted to be child soldiers and sex slaves. The clergy told stories of the difficulty to spread the Gospel because of the many hours they had to walk to visit their parishes. Each pastor is responsible for as many as twenty parishes spread over many of miles of difficult travel. Most pastors would get to meetings late or not at all because of the great distances they had to walk to get there. Many said it was hard for them to fellowship with the community effectively because of the distances they must walk. With their new bicycles, these pastors can now reach the surrounding villages to share the love of Christ and encourage people to come to church. One pastor said that he was planning to buy a bicycle this year and had saved to make the purchase, but God did a miracle with the gift of the bicycle. Now the money could be used to take care of his family. Another said that he would be able to transport his family to the clinic and school more efficiently than before. A pastor who serves several IDP camps with twenty thousand or more people said that he was not able to visit them often because of the great distance between them, but now he can go to see the people regularly to encourage them to go to church. His new bicycle makes it possible for him to reach out to these people who are thirsty for God's Word. It is such a blessing to put a smile on the faces of so many.

West Ankole Diocese

During three weeks of travel to regions of the diocese, church leaders came together for a series of Phil's teachings on the Biblical Foundations of worship. A village church held a youth retreat where Phil spoke about the power and presence of God — there was an explosion of praise and worship with hundreds of youth from surrounding villages. Phil was amazed at the commitment and depth of these young people, as we had hour-long praise sessions which typically ended with one of the youth praying a prayer for the church that was Holy Spirit empowered. Heartfelt intercession and the fire of the Holy Spirit is alive and well among the youth of West Ankole Diocese.

Coming Up in Uganda

In June, Phil will travel to Mityana and Bunyoro-Kitara Dioceses to teach clergy and other church leaders. In Hoima, Phil will once again join a large team from Christ Church at Grove Farm in their annual "Encounter Uganda" mission. This year, the mission will reach out to the clergy of Lango Diocese. This will give Phil a good opportunity to build relationships in both Dioceses.

In July, our whole family will lead a youth team from Kyamboga University, Kampala, to Kitgum in Northern Uganda. The mission will include outdoor evening evangelistic music programs and each day the youth will participate in ministry in local schools and nearby IDP camps.

Jennifer in the U.S.

In early May Jennifer spoke at "First Friday", a group of women leaders that meets once a month in Fairfax, Virginia. She also spoke on "Forgiveness" at the Friday night Praise and Worship service which combines South Riding Anglican and Christ the Redeemer church. And she was invited to speak to the women's group at Annie Lienert's International Church on "How to Hear God's Voice in a Busy World."

May 24 -- Jennifer was invited to Ohio to attend the wedding of Bob Orombi, son of Archbishiop Henry and Phoebe Orombi. It was a blessing to join in the celebration. Bob will continue attending Seminary in Pennsylvania at Eastern University with his new bride.

June 1-6 -- Diocese of West Texas with a full speaking schedule planned by the Diocese. She will travel to many Churches in the diocese.

June 8 -- Clear River Church, Centreville, VA, Jeff Ling, is a long time friend and he was the worship leader at Church of Apostles years ago where we forged a friendship with him and his wife, Zibby.

June 11 - All Saints, Woodbridge, VA. Bishop John Guersney is the Rector. He has been appointed by Archbishop Henry Orombi to care for the churches in the USA who have affiliated with the Church of Uganda.

June 13 -- Speaking at Annie Lienert's home group from the International Church in Washington, DC.

David and Owen

David completed his first year at Gordon Conwell Seminary and is attending summer school, working towards his Masters in Divinity degree. David is playing the bass in the praise band at the Anglican Church he attends and has a small group for prayer and accountability at Seminary. He was invited by Bishop Bill Murdock (Kenya) to attend the international gathering of orthodox Anglicans this summer in Israel. Nearly 300 bishops and 600 senior church leaders from around the world will meet for prayer, worship and planning the future of the Anglican Communion. It is a significant time in the life of the church, and David is pleased to participate in this important event.

Owen just completed his sophomore year at Covenant College and is working at Koons Honda dealership this summer as a sales consultant. He has a very sweet girlfriend, Sheryce, who is from Arkansas and also attends Covenant. They have demonstrated amazing maturity in their relationship. Owen has been leading a "Wild at Heart" small group at school and has seen the guys grow in their faith. He will be attending the Wild at Heart seminar in Colorado in August with our dear friend, Ron Holt.

We had a joyful time during David's 10-day break from Seminary. It was fun for our guys to be together again and the house rocked with music and laughter.

Serving with joy,

Phil and Jennifer Leber

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