Tuesday, November 17, 2009

More info to blog

Unless I have missed something, I have the only laptop in Lassin; with the exception of our fellow Baptist missionary friends. Mrs. White's instruction requires repeatability. So, should / could I buy a laptop for every church member? Nope. This leaves the 'printed' Bible study program as the practical option. There are still members who do not read well, but practice will help. The slow readers can travel along with a proficient reader until they have learned the lessons. Then they can venture out.

So, the next question. Which study programs are available? Were you looking for a reason to send Carol and me a text message? Here's your chance. Text us your suggestion; your favorite bible study program and why. Send consecutive messages if necessary. Note: put your name in at least one of your messages; sometimes we have to do detective work to know who the author of the note was.

I was thinking. God has work to do in Porterville, Modesto, Sacramento, SoCal, etc, but by coming here, we got ourselves in so deep that we have had to think (and pray) in ways that we never would have 'back in the states'.
The experience has been priceless !

Once again, we apologize for not responding to most of your text messages to our Iridium phone. Think of us living at the bottom of a lightless well.
If you yell down into it once in a while, we'll hear and enjoy getting your message free, but we just can't afford the 78 cents per 140 character reply too often. There is no other form of internet access in the whole town.
The 'village phone' does not always work and it is the same price to 'the states' as the iridium phone when it works. Travel to a local hill top (35 minutes each way) for cell phone reception is not practical for routine need. I had no idea of how practical and necessary this phone would be, it'
s just expensive. Even it is not 100% reliable; it often loses satellite connection during e-mails. So I divide long messages into multiple short messages so as not to have to resend too much data. All-in-all I'm very thankful to have what we have!

Your friends,
Steve & Carol

'One more story'. Last Sabbath after church the members gathered for 'announcements'. I wanted to plan a topic for the 4 - 6 PM meeting. It was the general consensus that the meeting should be delayed until after the football game between Cameroon and Morocco which began at 3:30 PM and would not be over until after 6 PM. Carol and I looked at each other as the realization hit us. Our members and near-members alike were planning on listening to this game on Sabbath. They sincerely believe that Saturday is the 'correct' day to 'go to church', but have yet to enjoy a complete Sabbath rest and restoration with their Maker. Remember, it was quite some time between the 'Advent Movement' and the Seventh-day Adventist church.

No comments:

Post a Comment