Power Perfected in Weakness(2 Cor. 12:9)

Written by Bruno, translated by Sammy

My Beloved in the Lord,It is a great joy for me to share with you what is going on in ourlives. For it is in many ways because of your prayers and yourfinancial gifts that we are getting to see God do many great thingshere.

Thank God For...

- Our visits to the different small villages have been going well.

- We have finished the recording of the New Testament into my heart language, Kwanja.

- Everyone's health during the recording process..

- His continued blessing on my relationship with Florence and Sammy's relationship with Kelsey.

- Bible Studies with the high school students in both Bankim and Banyoare going well, and the students are growing in their understanding ofGod.

- His protection and provision of health for everyone in the scholarship program.

A Difficult But Rewarding Work

I have had the privilege during this past month to be involved in the recording of the New Testament into my mother tongue. This project was a lot of work and all of the team involved is now exhausted from the long hours. But it was definitely well worth our effort. Not only will it have a lasting impact for my people, the Kwanja people, but during the project I also gained a great deal personally. I gleaned many lessons on how to be a good leader from the way that Jesus interacted with the Pharisees and from the Apostle Paul's epistles. I am grateful to have been used by God as his channel in this project, and my prayer is that many more of my people would come to know Christ through it.

A Funny Story: This past Saturday, at around 5pm I was going out to bring in the goats that Sammy and I are raising. I was detaching them from where they were tied (to eat fresh grass) and was going to bring them into their shelter for the night. Sammy came along to help so I gave him the three goats that I was hanging onto at the ends of ropes, so that I could go and untie our other two goats. But before Sammy had gone five steps with the goats, a little kid came along the path. This kid, who we'll call Billy, is very cute, about eight years old, very small for his age, and always wanting to do very big things. He's a friend of ours and has sort of adopted Sammy and I as his uncles. He comes to my Sunday school classes and hangs around our house as much as he can. Anyways, as soon as little Billy saw us, he ran up to Sammy and said that he wanted to help. He said that he wanted to take the three goats to the shelter for Sammy. Sammy hesitated but he insisted and all but took the ropes from Sammy. So finally Sammy consented and he took the three ropes. The Sammy said, "Are you sure you can handle all three?" He said, "Oh yes, it will not be too hard for me."He said this phrase about three times, each time a little louder. As he was saying this Bruno and I watched as one goat turned to his right and two to his left and started running. Little Jimmy was pulled into in forced run with his hands spread out in both directions holding desperately to the ropes. Then there was a wall in front of him. For a second Sammy and I were afraid for him, but he managed to stop himself against the wall with his foot so that he didn't get hurt, while the goats broke free from his hands. Sammy was right behind himso he was able to quickly retrieve the goats, but both of us could not hold back our laughter. To see little Billy getting pulled along by three goats bigger than him, and hearing him shouting all the while, "Oh yes, it will not be too hard for me" - well that put some great laughter into our day. But when we stopped to think about it later, it reminded us of what we feel like sometimes. There are three different parts to the work that we are doing here, and each one part is certainly way too big for us to handle on our own strength. If we think to ourselves, "Oh yes, it will not be too hard for us" then we'll bound to get pulled along in directions we don't want to go and end up losing our grip. That is why people like you are so important to us. We are not in this work alone. And even more importantly, what we are doing here is by the power of the Almighty God who works in and through us for His glory. So thank you for being a part of this with us, and helping us bearthe load. Your prayers, your emails, and your sacrificial gifts are enabling us to do what God has called us to, and they mean so much to us.

Please Intercede for Us Concerning the Following...

- Sammy is sick with a sore throat that he's had for a few days now.

- Our teammate Emma was stung by a scorpion last night and is in great pain.

- This week we will be sending out invitations to church leaders in this region for a second meeting with them. We will be discussing with them whom among them have people in their congregations who want to be missionaries to the Wawa people, and what qualifications we are looking for in the missionary candidates. Please pray that the preparations for this meeting would go well. The meeting is planned for Dec. 11th.

- That God would give us peace and clarity concerning our next steps in mobilizing missionaries from churches. We sometimes feel unsure whether the churches in this area are really ready to be mobilized in this way, but we don't know if this uncertainty is coming from our sinful natures or from God.

- Pray for the missionary training sessions that we plan to start in mid-January.

- For our different ministry endeavors and goals to remain focused on our greater goal, the goal of reaching the unreached with the message of Jesus Christ.

- For the teachers who plan to come and teach in the missionary training program.

- That thoughts of our future marriages would not distract us from the work that God has before us right now.

- That God would be our guide, in all that we do and all that we think.

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord, may God grant you all sorts of blessings and grant you the desires of your hearts, as you delight in Him.

Your Brothers in Jesus,

Bruno and Samuel

Power Perfected in Weakness (2 Cor. 12:9)

My Dear Brothers and Sisters, Thank you once again for continuing to pray for me. Your prayers aretruly making a difference.

Story for this week: It was Sunday morning, about 8am. I was on the back of a motorcycle on my way to a remote village. The path we wereon was about 1.5 meters wide, and there was eight-foot-tall grass onboth sides. There were three of us on the 125 cc. motorcycle, thedriver, myself, and another passenger. I was in the back. We hadalready crossed the Mbam River by canoe and were about an hour fromthe village we were going to. The path we were on was rugged, takingus up and down hills, through small streams and mud holes, and throughdense jungle.We were on our way down a hill, going fairly fast, when wenoticed aherd of cows ahead of us. So our driver tried to brake. But at thatmoment something on the moto snapped, causing our brakes to beuseless. So instead of slowing down, we gained velocity as wecontinued down the hill towards the herd of cows. At the last moment,before we would have hit a large bull, our driver turned the frontwheel so that we went flying into the tall grass at the left of thepath. My body slid up over the heads of the other two riders and thenI landed in the grass, then they landed on top of/next to me, and themoto ended up on top of our legs. But amazingly none of us were hurtor even scratched and the moto didn't have any damages from theaccident. We were then able to fix the brakes on the moto andcontinue our journey, thanking God for his protection.

Please praise God with us for His protection, and also for...

- Giving strength to Bruno and I as we continue to perfect therecording of the Kwanja New Testament. We expect this project to bedone by this coming Saturday, which will allow us to take a few daysof rest and then get back to all the other work that we need to catchup on. But we are thankful that we have been able to be a part ofthis project, and it is exciting to hear Paul and Jesus speakingnatural Kwanja!

- The continued spiritual growth of Assan and other youth in thescholarship program whom God brought to himself during the summerthrough our Bible studies.

- The progress of the prayer groups in different churches, prayingforthe Wawa to be reached with the message of Jesus. We are excited byhow many prayer groups have been started and by the growing interestin the congregations of this region in reaching the unreached.

- The fact that Emma's visit to the church in Gah and my visit tothechurch in Mbeng-Mbeng on Sunday went well, and the congregations werereceptive of what we had to say.

Please Continue to Intercede With us For...

- Good relationships with the churches here at all the variouslevelsof their leadership. As we work with several different denominationsand with numerous different congregations we are careful tocommunicate to church leaders that the focus of our work is helpingthem plant new church plants among unreached villages, and notstarting a new denomination or a new ministry that would beindependent of them. Usually this has been well understood andappreciated. But recently Satan has tried to hinder our work by usinga certain pastor who does not like what we are doing to spread somerumors about us. Please pray that this misunderstanding can becleared up soon and without too much trouble.

- Ongoing protection, in all our travels and against any attacksofthe evil one.

- The completion of the recording project, so that the Kwanja NewTestament would be available to be listened to as well as read.

- Wisdom as Bruno and I prayerfully plan for the rest of this yearandnext year.

- Good time management, that Bruno and I would know how we canbest beusing our time for God's Kingdom and that we would not get caught socaught up in the details that we lose sight of the big picture.

- Discernment. Frequently, Bruno and I have many people coming tousasking us for money, or other kinds of help. We both want to helpeverybody, and can't. We both feel badly about the needs that wecan't meet. Pray that we would know which needs we can meet, whichneeds are true needs, and how we can best address each of these needsin a way that reflects both the love and the wisdom of Christ. Prayalso that we would not take others' needs upon ourselves, but rathertake them before the throne of God. Pray that while feelingcompassion and genuine concern for those around us, we would fullytrust God with others' problems as well as our own.

- Humility. Pray that in everything we would consider others as better than ourselves and that we would be eager to serve, and notlook for human praise or gratitude as a reward.

For Me Personally...

I often feel frustrated with myself because of how little faith I have, and how many times God has to teach me the same lessons againand again and again. One day I see God doing amazing miracles and the next day I find my mind doubting for a moment if He is even real. One day I see God providing for my every need in and providing so generously and bountifully that I am blown away by His love, and the next day I find myself worrying about how I'll be able to pay for all the ministry costs coming up next year. Please pray that God would continue to increase my faith. Pray that the would enable me to commune with Him, and be in tune to what He wants to say to me each day. Pray that I would not be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition, present my requests to God. There is another sinful tendency that I see in myself. When I am about to write a Bible study, or preach, or teach, or have an important meeting with someone - I at that time am made very aware ofhow unqualified I am and how incapable I am for facing the task thatis before me. This is good. And then I call out to God in desperation for His grace to do what is before me, and to do it well. He then gives this grace and gives it abundantly, so that I write Bible studies that others consider to be excellent, and preach and teach in ways that touch people and bring them closer to Him. Then, having done this, I think to myself in my utter stupidity, "What a gifted teacher I must be", or "What a good writer". Then I repeat the cycle a day or so later. If this cycle had only repeated itself a couple times, it would already be sufficient proof of "what a wretched man I am!", but it has repeated itself literally hundreds of times in the last several years of my life. Please pray that God would help me to overcome these sinful patterns in my life, that I might live and act and think in ways that bring glory and honor and praise to Him, and not to myself. Pray that I would be as aware of my own utter weakness and need to depend fully upon God after times when He has graciously enabled me todo things well, as I am before such times - and even more so. And may His mighty power continue to be beautifully perfected in our feebleness and weaknesses, as we learn to depend more and more on Him!

Thank you so much for your prayers! I praise God for you.May God remind you this week of how weak you are and how very strong He is, and may this reminder bring you into deeper intimacy with Him.

Your Fellow Servants of the Master,

Samuel and Bruno