Home: News Archive: August 2003

You Never Know Who's Watching
In our last update we introduced you to "Moose" from Egypt, with whom we have been chatting about spiritual matters. Since then, Moose informed me that his friend "Rocky" also wants to talk. Unknown to me, Rocky had been watching Moose and I talk for quite some time. So Rocky has made contact with me as well. He said that when he saw how "patient" I had been with Moose's probing questions, he felt like I was someone he could talk to. I was so glad to hear that! I can remember a few times over the last so many years when I have been anything but "patient" in my responses to comments Muslims make. God has helped me to see that even if someone tries to provoke me to anger, the best policy is to answer gently (Prov. 15:1). May God grant us strength to continually exercise patience with Muslims, as well as with everyone else in our life!

Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk
Karen's injured leg continues to heal well. She is walking pretty well, though she is not running any marathons. Her physiotherapy sessions will be ending soon, but the assigned exercises will need to go on for quite some time.

In the meantime, Karen feels like she has found her niche, teaching English to a variety of immigrants. She has begun teaching a Spanish-speaking woman eager to improve her English literacy skills. She also teaches a Chinese couple English as a Second Language. That couple also attends Karen's brand new Sunday School class for English learners along with two other Chinese couples. All of this developed just in the last month or so! Pray that God will use Karen to not only help them in their English, but also to give them understanding of the Gospel message.

This and That
As in recent years, Dr. Viggo Olsen and I team-taught fellow missionaries once again in ABWE's Center for Excellence in International Ministries (CEIM). My subjects were Internet Evangelism, Introduction to the Quran, Hadith and Shariah, Jesus in Islam, and Islam in America.

The children keep moving on in their education--Adam has finished his second year at Heritage College, Amy has graduated from High School, Lisa completed grade 11, Aaron finished grade 10, and Angie graduated from grade 8. Now some of them are working at summer jobs, others are volunteering at Christian camps.

Improving Communication
You may have noticed that although we send out regular email updates, our printed updates are infrequent. During the 12 years we served in Bangladesh, we enjoyed the volunteeer services of dedicated ladies who took care of getting our prayer updates printed and posted. Eventually, it was no longer possible for them to continue, and for the last 4 years we have tried to do it ourselves. It's not a hard task, but it does take some time. We have found that the important jobs of copying, labeling, stuffing envelopes, stamping, sealing and mailing have often been crowded out by the "tyranny of the urgent." So despite good intentions, we have found ourselves to be dilatory in sending out regular printed updates. We would like to remedy that situation, but realistically, it is more likely to happen if someone else steps forward to take over the responsibilities involved. If you have an interest in helping in this way, please let us know. We have new prayer cards available which we plan to send out with the next mailing.

We thank God for you,

George for all
August 2003