Joey Update Vol. 11

Sesegeh tarbema!

Greetings and peace to you all, my family. My last few days
have been busy and especially productive in terms of project goals. Let me
share what I've been up to and how I've been working with the Owner of the
harvest field.


We had an opportunity to go out to a village about 20km from our town. This
is a primarily Ar. Village but there are a few followers of the Way there
and they had some great news for us! They know some people from our group!
There were a few there even who spoke our language and I might add, a few
followers. We talked with them over much tea* and they were excited to help
us in our work. They shared some ideas of getting the News out to our people
in their own language. I am encouraged that they p'ay for us and are "ready
to go today and share the News." We would appreciate your p'ayers for wisdom
not to douse the zeal but to direct it in the best way so we can see these
groups they shared with us come into the Kingdom.


We also went back for a naming ceremony just yesterday. Naming ceremonies
take place a week after a baby is born- it is a critical time for newborns
as infant mortality is rather high here. All seems well for this baby
though, praise Him. There we also talked more about how to effectively reach
our people. There was some talk of getting a vehicle to travel in, either a
car or motorcycle. We need to p'ay some more about it because there are many
factors involving these vehicles. We do not want, for example, to be seen as
the white guys who have lots of money and will give money to anyone who
asks, as this detracts from our work. Please also p'ay for this opportunity.


Also we are planning today to go out to another nearby village where our
people are. I happened on one of those chance meetings our Father gives, to
have met the chief of this village back in Jan. I want to go visit him and
his village because we heard news that a fire ate some house in their
village, to use the N. expression. The contacts out in these villages are
key to getting an opportunity to visit them. It is not the best idea to just
walk into a village uninvited and without knowing anyone there. Fortunately,
I do know a few people now from there and I will take this opportunity to
visit them and see what I can do to help. I heard the fire also ate their
granaries with the village's whole food supply for the rest of the year.
Please lift this up too. Perhaps our Father will see fit to send another
Joseph to help in this time of their famine (Gen. 41:33-36).


Thank you all so much for your constant p'ayers for me and for this work. We
are seeing more openness to hear stories and things seem to moving smoothly
so far. We still have much work to do in these three weeks left here. I am
confidant that our Father hears our p'ayers and knows our needs and will
keep us on task. You see, He's had our people in His mind before we did and
the whole goal of this spread of the News through them is His work. He's a
big G'd so lets p'ay big p'ayers to Him. I have been p'aying that He would
even use our people to jump start this "dead heart of Africa"** that His
life may flow from our people to the rest of the nation and spread to other
nations. I've been p'aying that He would use even us in His work to
accomplish this. Please join me in this weighty work. Remember that He said,
"If you believe you will command this mountain and it will be cast into the
sea for you." It does sometimes seem that our task is just that, but He is a
power stronger than dynamite.

-Youssef



*Tea is terribly important here. They call it the "key to the mouth" and I
find it true in my case. It seems to help my language flow better. I will
even liken it to spinach for Popeye- though it is tastier than spinach.

**Before I ever came to this land I wanted to know all I could about it.
There was precious little info at that time (I did manage to see a picture
of a camel in a desert though, supposedly from this country). I found the
"dead heart" saying somewhere online and it has since stuck with me. It gave
me a good hope because I know One who steps into hopeless situations and
breathes new life into them. May the dead heart beat again!