Greetings brothers, Praise the Lord for bringing us peacefully through this month. Thank you for your support towards me. This month has not been peaceful in WZ. At the end of this month, several brothers were taken away by the police because of the events surrounding the tearing down of the crosses. They have not returned home and this is causing the churches in WZ concern. Thankfully this has caused all the churches to remind each other to be more vigilant in prayer. This also moves several young brothers to leave the government “Three Self” church.Please continue to pray for the spiritual environment in WZ.
My family and I have been very thankful this month. I went for two weeks to the seminary to study Greek. In order to help us in understanding the Bible better, the seminary required (near) graduates who had not passed Greek before to return for this course. My leaving to study was going to be difficult for my wife and son, so several sisters from the church actively arranged to help take care of my son and stay with my wife in the evenings. This took a burden off me while I was studying and enabled me to see their love for my family and I. God used them to encourage and comfort me. With their help I gained a lot through this study of GreeI spoke four Lord’s Days this month. My co-worker went to study so during the weeks of Greek I returned home on the weekends.
After preaching I got a flight back to school. Though it was very tiring, I was thankful to be with my brothers and sisters each Lord’s Day. We are now in Mark 14. In a few more weeks we will be done with this book. While preparing to speak on the passage about the woman anointing Jesus with pure nard, I constantly asked myself what is my nard, and am I willing to pour it out for Jesus. I also shared these questions with my wife. In my Lord’s Day sermon I challenged the brothers and sisters with these questions.
Because I was out studying this month, the Thursday studies only happened twice. The other weeks they had special times of prayer for the situation in WZ. I encouraged them to take time to plead for God’s grace and blessing in this time of difficulty. Some brothers and sisters began visiting others in the church this month. We slowly are beginning to spread our discipleship throughout the church. When I heard about this I was greatly encouraged. Usually I bring some brothers with me when I do visitation and oversight, but to see them doing visitation themselves made me thankful. They are growing and I am seeing the fruits of my labors. This further encouraged me to continue steadfast in my work. We co-workers decided to put the selection of elders on our schedule.
Please pray for us. We are preparing for the next few months to teach on the qualifications and responsibilities of elders, the responsibilities of the congregation, etc, and early next year to have an ordination. We hope to be able to carry on according to our plan so please pray for us even more. Also the brothers and sisters of our church extend an invitation to you, if the Lord wills that you can come and visit us.
Timothy began working for HeartCry in 2015 and assists with the work in Asia. He is married, has eight children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren.
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