Gary and Verda Keck: January and February 2008
At number 6 we started the year off with a revival. We had good attendance and many commitments to the Lord were made. Six people gave their hearts to the LORD. A young man, named Matias, surrendered for ministry. He will be attending Bible school next year.
February marked the beginning of another school year. We are blessed to have four families and two single men come to train for the ministry. Each came from village churches around the country that are in need of pastors. I know this year will be a special year as God prepares hearts for the work of the ministry.
Verda, Kimberly, and I were in Lae at Liberty Baptist Church with Pastor Jacob Kepas the last week of February. He is a graduate of our Bible school and doing a good job in Lae. I was privileged to be the guest speaker for their first annual mission's conference. One elderly man was saved and many Christians made commitments for the Lord during the week. Friday night was a highlight of the week where K20,000 ($7,500.00) was raised for missions this year.
It is so awesome to know that God can bless even in adverse circumstances. The past two months, January and February, we have had record rain fall. Raging rivers and flooding has taken its toll on the area. Road conditions have been horrendous with landslides blocking some of the road and other places the road was washed away. Praise the LORD the road crew has been working diligently to make repairs and keep the main roads open. It has given us the reality behind the old saying "If the Lord willing and the creek don't rise."
Our church building was flooded two different times leaving mud and debris. People worked for hours cleaning and clearing debris. We are grateful that we now know the tendency of this particular piece of land. The structure we want to build will have to be revised to accommodate for future flooding. We are also praying about the possibility of securing a different piece of ground, before starting construction. Pray that God would direct us in what HE wants us to do.
Our land line phone service has not work properly for 4 months now and has been completely dead for the last 4 weeks. The road crew, in their diligence to fix the roads, has dug up phone cables making the problem greater. It may be another month before we have our phone service restored. During this time we will only be able to check e-mail once or twice a week, when the phones in town are working and we are able to get across our river. Please have patience concerning any correspondence with us, as we will make the best effort possible to respond quickly.
Who would have thought new technology (mobile phones) would cause such problems in a marriage? An elderly man took his mobile phone to the garden. His wife tried to call him several times during the day. Each time the call was diverted to the voicemail. At the end of the day the man went home, pleased with his day of work in the garden and bearing vegetables for the evening meal. Upon reaching the house, he is greeted with a good wallop in the head by his wife. In anger she asked who the woman was that kept answering his mobile phone. After a good tongue lashing and a few blows...her husband finally succeeded in explaining that the woman's voice was only........ the voicemail recorded message.