Sunday, April 6, 2003
Greetings
Dear Friends, Hello
from Hot and Humid Suriname. We hope that it is warming up where you are. After a few difficult weeks,
we have several upbeat praises to
share with you! I am in the process of updating our webpage, and I have had the opportunity to reflect back on this school year. I have
forgotten
how much we've been through this year, but I want to praise God for all the trials and victories that we have been given.
"No temptation (or
test) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are
able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you
may be able to bear it." I Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV). God is faithful
to
keep all of the promises He made to us.
First, let me update you on our home security status. As you know, we
were
broken into last month. Although we don't have insurance here, slowly God has made up for a few of our losses:
A student at school gave us
a nice discount on a brand new VCR from her parent's store, I have ordered a new power cord for the laptop-it should arrive here at the end
of this week, a lot of encouragement from the Suriname community has
been poured out to us, and a lot of encouragement from our students-this
has indeed been a blessing. Satan
tries his best to discourage us: through sickness, through negative people, through break-ins, through
drunk drivers running over Patricia, through no renters for our home in
NC; but this just goes to show that we are doing exactly what the Lord
has called us to do here. The more
we do for God, the angrier the enemy becomes. We have victory over the enemy through Jesus Christ our
Lord...Well, I kinda got off track (I must be turning into a preacher!)...the
home security...well, we have
an iron gate installed at the top of our upstairs. It looks like a jail cell door, but this is a wonderful addition
to our home. We lock it at night
and when we are away. Everything of value is now kept upstairs. We had
new locks installed and the doors are
very secure. We have new screens where the baddies slit the old ones. We have a wonderful Rottweiler
named Nina who is viciously racist against
non-white people and she shows her aggression towards people who pass by (I'm getting a Rottie when we move back for good!). And we now
have the entire outside of our home lit up at night. It is so bright,
Patricia
said that she needed her sunglasses. We hired local security to watch our home throughout each night.
So, we are very pleased that the
light exposes the darkness around our home (see Ephesians 5:8-14) and we trust that God will continue to protect us.
Thanks
so much for your prayers on our behalf. We know that God has answered and is protecting. Before
we hired the security and got the lights
installed this past week, it was evident that the thieves had returned on at least 2 occasions. We discovered
that a new screen that we installed
had been slit again (this was within 2 weeks of the original burglary). Nina is kept in the house at night,
because it is common practice
for thieves to poison dogs. She went nuts barking on the night they slit the screen. And a week
later, the guard next door told us that
2 men were running through our yard early one morning that week. So, God protected us. The very next day, we had the lights installed and we
hired the security. We have peace
and a true sense of security. We have no fear because we know who is in control.
Well,
this past month has kept me very busy. It seems that I have been on the sermon circuit. God continues
to give me opportunities to deliver
the message at our local church once a month (the most recent one was on the book of Ephesians-thank you Pastor Barry).
I am giving another
sermon tonight at the Missionaries' international service. I have invited a lot of our high school students to come out tonight. Next
week,
Palm Sunday, I again have the awesome privilege to speak at our local church. At school, during chapel, I spoke about
peer-pressure (the negative
effects of wrecking my dad's car when I was in high school [due to peer pressure] and then the positive effects of peer pressure
[Shadrack, Meshack, and Obendego]). At
after-school bible study, I had the remarkable
experience of teaching about the significance of the Lord's Supper. We then participated in the Lord's Supper together. This was a
first for most the students! It
was excellent!!
Patricia's girls' bible study continues to go really well. Keep her
and
her girls in prayer. This week, she is making the final arrangements for the class trip to Trinidad. Please
keep in prayer that all the details
are worked out. A special praise, as it looks as if dear friends of ours, Rob and Amy Krieg, will be joining us on this trip. What an
awesome
time for fellowship. Please keep in prayer for Rob and Amy's availability to join us.
Patricia
is attending the Ladies Group at our local church. This past week, she was given the opportunity to give the devotion. It was on
"Having
the Mind of Christ". It went very well.
The ladies were very receptive
and involved.
We request prayer for a local family here in our local church. The
father's
name is Randy. He has a large kidney stone and may need surgery. They are
asking for praying in regards to wisdom and Randy's pain. This family has been very welcoming to Patricia and myself, and we count
them as good friends.
Another
prayer request-Please pray for us this week as the Accreditation
Team will be here to evaluate the school. This is the final step for accreditation. Satan has fought
this process tooth and nail. Please pray that all goes smoothly and that our school is granted
Accreditation. We will not know
the results until June.
Wow, our 10 months has quickly turned into 10 weeks! We just have 10
more
weeks in Suriname. We have started our Fourth Quarter at school. Spring
Break is next week. Time flies when you have fun.
Please be praying for
teachers for next year and a new administrator. Pray that God calls the right people to come to ACS.
If
you happen to be making out your summer schedules and would like for Patricia and me to speak at your church this summer (only 10 weeks
away) please drop us a line to schedule a tentative date for us to speak.
We
ask that you continue to pray for renters for our home in NC. We are praying for our troops in Iraq. We
know that you are praying too. We also pray for President Bush. Personally,
I stand behind him 110%. I feel that this is the right thing and part of God's overall plan. It
is sad
to see how dark and evil this world truly is. The media is so deceptive and biased. The media
here in Suriname falsely reported that Suriname
was housing 1500 Iraqi POWs-they eventually said that it was an April Fool's Day joke. Just goes to show that
the media is deceitful. I pray that we all can shine through this darkness, and that during
this dark hour, people may see the Light of Christ shine through us.
I
am slowly updating our website. I've added this year's monthly update letters to the Online Journal section and I am slowly adding updated
pictures of our students to the album page "Awesome Pics". Just follow
the
links. If you get a chance this week, check out the site:<http://johnmcclung68.tripod.com>
In Christ's Love,
John
and Patricia
