JOY News

Dear Pastors & Praying Friends:

I want to start by thanking all of you for your continued support of the ministry God has given us, both those who have supported us for many years and our new partners in the ministry.

God has incredibly blessed my time here in the States. We have raised our support level to 80%, with the remainder needed to fund several ministries we seek to establish on the field. We know God will supply in His way. I will finish my last few meetings in the coming weeks and am preparing to return to Africa in May. I also have a few medical things to take care of (nothing major) before I return.

We are continuing to try to raise support for Carella. We have a great need to do this without him leaving the field. We desire to bring him to the States in a couple of years, but at this time, he must remain in Botswana for work and to help his wife, who just had their second child! We only need about $300 more for him to be able to be full-time in the ministry. I cannot express how important this is for us. As some may know, Carella is more than a pastor; he has been traveling with me for the past three years. Please pray and ask God if he would have you support this young couple.

A recurring theme in many missionaries’ letters is paperwork. I, too, request your prayers in this area for my papers in Botswana. This paperwork is required to eliminate the 90-day limit I have per year in Botswana. This was not an issue when I was based in Ethiopia, but now that I plan to spend more time in Botswana, I must obtain a long-term resident and work permit. I applied for this nearly a year ago. As long as the long-term papers are in process, I have temporary documents that I can renew and use.

We have many plans this year, which promises to be fascinating. We will work with the two Botswana churches and some partner churches. We will travel to Maun to meet with Ofentse, a young man who grew up in our ministry. He has worked in the northern region, and we hope to establish a fruitful partnership with him, as this will aid us in establishing ourselves in the three major hubs in Botswana. Pray we can be a blessing to him. We are also looking forward to establishing an arm of our church in Gaborone (the capital city). This will establish the foundation for our first JOY Life Center. For more information, visit our JOYMissions.com website and click on the JOY Life Center page.

Building the parsonage in Ramotswa.

Thank you to those who contributed to this. It is mostly complete. I will write more once I am there and see what is needed.

I also plan to visit Ethiopia, officially open the Early Intervention Center and do ministry there.  My following letter will come from Africa, and I look forward to sharing the great news of what God is doing on that side of the world!