Multiplying Opportunities

Yes, you haven’t heard from me for a while. I’m glad the rest of the family have been keeping you posted about many of the goings on around here….

Just thought I’d ask you to pray for me as opportunities to present Bible truths have multiplied in the last few days.

About once a week, a group from our school has been visiting families within a few miles of our school, and I was invited to present a worship talk at a local church member’s home Wednesday evening of this week. I asked our Bible teacher who arranges the visits whether there would be any non-Seventh-day Adventists present. He said, No, not other than our Buddhist students. That reminded me again what an opportunity we have in working with our students. They are wonderful young people.

A new worship schedule was posted this week, and the next two mornings (including this morning), I had the worship talk for the students at the beginning of our school day.

Now to the one I’m asking you to pray for: Yesterday morning, after worship, one of the teachers spent some time with me talking with me about Revelation 13. She said, “I really don’t understand Revelation 13. I will come and get you Sabbath morning if you would be willing to teach our Sabbath School class at our church this Sabbath.” Since I had no obligations, I consented to go to her church, which is about 30 minutes north of us. I told her, “You really can’t understand Revelation 13 if you don’t understand the prophecies of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. If I’m going to teach Revelation 13, I need to cover Daniel 2 and 7.” Since this lady is a kind of lay leader of her church, she arranged for me to teach Sabbath School, preach the church service, and give a presentation after church as well. Whew! Three messages to prepare for. And each one must be simplified in a way that it can be understood by her as she translates. I know God will bless, and I certainly need His help!

These opportunities all developed in the last week, and each one is a blessing for me as well as those I can share with. Thank you for your prayers that the Holy Spirit will enable me to present the truth in a plain, simple manner and that the people will be able to understand the issues that are so important in this last hour of Earth’s history.

In closing, I want to praise the Lord that we haven’t felt the need to emphasize our financial needs. However, we have a strong desire to help with other pressing needs here at Sunshine Orchard. Although we do use a significant portion of our income for needs here at the school, there are certain projects that we would love to help with in a bigger way. Here are three–and we will probably share about more in the future:

• Dietary improvements: We would like to see at least 50% brown rice in the diet, rather than 100% white rice as it is presently. A generous donor from Japan has donated enough funds to purchase white rice and some vegetables each month, but we would like to be able to contribute an additional $5 per student per month–about $1,000 per month–to purchase brown rice and a few other items.
• Electrical system upgrade: For those of you who have been to Africa or other third-world locations, the wiring here at the school campus might look quite familiar. Right now, the entire campus is supplied with electricity through one medium-guage wire supplied from the rented house next door in which our main office (our family’s temporary home) is located. The wire is strung from building to building—dorms, teacher huts, the chapel, etc.—in order to provide lighting, and once the electricity is supplied in a hut, it is very easy for teachers to add things such as a rice cooker with little understanding regarding the individual electrical load or the total load on the main line. If there is a short somewhere in the system, the entire campus loses power until the problem is resolved. Just this week, we spent a number of man-hours troubleshooting problems that would have not existed or would have been much easier to solve had our buildings been wired properly. Not to mention, it scares me sometimes when I consider how easily someone could be electrocuted. It seems like a miracle that no one has been seriously hurt and no buildings have caught fire. As funds are available, we would like to bring in electrical service (power poll with electric meter) to our classroom building. Then the campus could be independent of the office/house, and we could supply electrical service to various campus buildings on separate breakers. We hope to accomplish this upgrade and a few other improvements in chapel and classroom lighting for under $3,500.
• Bibles and hymnals: We have many new students this year, and we would like to order about 80 Bibles. A Karen Bible (the older version, translated from the KJV) is available for around $9 each, including a Bible cover. If we could order another 25 to 50 hymnals (about $5 each), there should be enough to go around that every student should be able to share one.

These are some of the needs that we have a burden for. They are small in comparison to the need to pay off the property we are purchasing (and already beginning to use) across the road, but these needs must be met in order to provide the proper physical and spiritual nourishment and safety that these young people deserve. The “overflow” donations that we receive each month will help with the above projects and other needs here at Sunshine Orchard.