News For February 26, 2009

Content! (Glad!) Content! (Glad!)

Dearest friends and supporters,

Last night after teaching our Introduction to Mission class at the Bible College I went home. My kids spent the day with grandma at the village where my in-laws are from. Arriving home, my little girl wanted to tell me all kinds of things as fast as she could.

She wanted to be the first one telling me some of the exciting things that went on during the trip. After my two year-old took a breath, I found my chance to ask her the question to which I already knew the answer. I said to her, “How was your day?” She replied, “Content, content, m t’ale we grandma.” Literally, “Glad, glad, I went to see grandma.”

Thinking and seeing what God is doing at Living Water, I feel like saying, “Content (glad), content (glad) that I have the privilege to serve God in a place like this.” “Content” in French is spelled the same way as “content” in English so I am very content. It is a rich experience to see baby Christians getting more and more mature. Oh, yes, it is a lot of fun. It is a joyful thing to see that every week people are deciding to surrender their lives to Christ in the water of baptism and become Christians. So I say with my little girl “Content! Content!”

Last Sunday we had 475 people in worship. It is obvious that the seating problem is back on the table again. Today the chair problem is even more serious. Like every preacher I know, I say this is good problem to have. So again I say “Content! Content!

Today another wonderful thing happened here on campus. The cafeteria began operation. Some students said last week, “It is about time for that beautiful building to be put into good use”, meaning to be used to feed the students. Well, this dream finally came true today.

It has been a long road. Some of you may say a very long road. We started the feeding program today. We should all say “content (glad), content (glad)”. Jesus said, “You give them something to eat” (MT 14:16). My wife and an army of ladies fed more than 400 people (about 380 students and the rest workers and teachers). I am glad, very glad to see that.

I hope you will enjoy the pictures as much as I do.

Thank you. Thanks to everyone who has supported RBK (Rice and Beans for Kids). You made this happen. Thanks to everyone who supports a child. You have worked hard, faithfully and tirelessly to make this happen.

Thanks to everyone who financially supports Living Water. You can see for yourself how you have made our success possible. Thanks to all those who pray for Living Water. You are the ones who makes this possible.

Thanks to those who come to work here. Thanks to my big brother, Joe Green, with the team from Central who came last January. Thanks to Bill Fudge. Thanks to the team of the 13 men who came from Miamitown, Bright, and Mount Carmel Christian Church. Thank you, thank you and thank you. You all make me glad.

I have a very special thanks to IDES. Oh these soldiers of the Cross have done a number of things for us. They have paid to ship the containers to us. All the tables in the cafeteria are from the containers. They paid for the past years shipment. All the chairs you see, stacking chairs and folding chairs, are here on campus because of the financial help of IDES.

We have finished repairing a home and we are now building a second one. In fact the last concrete block is to be laid today. Thanks to our brothers and sisters of IDES who have made the funds available. I will be forever grateful to you all. May the Lord richly provide for IDES.

Please pray for the Church that we will launch in Marmelade on the first Sunday in April. We are in prayer everyday for it. Please join us. We will have a mission trip there on the 29th. We will do door to door evangelism. We will go to their market place and to the fields. We will hold a crusade every night. We will start the Church regardless of whether it is with 2 people or with 20 or with 200. We are still looking for a place to put the Church as no one wants to sell to us yet. Pray that God will provide the place by next weekend — He is able. When this Church starts it will be another reason for me to say with my daughter “Content, content.”

For all of you, I am doing well. There is so much to do — so much to accomplish. So pray for us all.

We deeply love you,

Salonique and team

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” … “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the fundation of this temple, his hands will also complete it.” (Zech 4:6, 9)

website : www.livingwaterchristianmission.org

Phone : 001 – 509 – 3767 – 5951