October 2007

Dear Friends,

Praise the Lord for the miracle of prayer!  It is at the foundation of our ministry to the children.  We do not understand why the Lord has ordained it so, but “Heaven waits for earth’s feeble cry.”  We want to share some recent answers to your prayers, as well as some new prayer items.

Praise items:

·        During the last eight days of August we were in USA, along with Jakob Wiebe (Area Director for Eastern Europe) and Asel Samenova (Team Leader for Kazakhstan) to share the need of support for 18 new national workers in Central Asia.  The total amount needed each month from friends in the West is nearly $5,200; the new workers are raising $576 a month.  The Lord touched hearts during the four special evenings and 75% of the support needed for the first year is covered.  Praise the Lord that the 18 new workers are beginning their ministry and many more children will hear the Gospel in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.  It is God’s harvest time in Central Asia.

·        The CEF team members were very encouraged by the commitment shown by pastors and volunteers during the training conferences in September to launch the distribution of the Wonder Book to two million homes in the Vladivostok and Kursk regions of Russia.  As part of the follow-up, interested children, young people and adults will receive Mailbox Club Bible correspondence course lessons.  Praise the Lord and pray for this ongoing outreach over the next 20 months.

·        More than 400,000 children are using Wonder Devotional Books across Europe.  We want to see half a million children following these daily Bible reading booklets by the end of 2007.  Here is an excerpt of a report from Latvia, where the booklets are being used in the public schools.

“One of the teachers in the public schools said:  “Even children who didn’t like to read books have started reading The Wonder Devotional Books.  When I’m teaching about something that is in the devotional books, they say that they already know about it, because it is on page number … of The Wonder Devotional Book.

We have a prayer request:  Please pray for the possibility to have Bible camps for children who are reading the Wonder Devotional Books in schools.  Some teachers want to see this happen and are passionate about it.  Pray for wisdom on how to organise and run camps like this.”