Safely Through Another Week

The week started out rather ominously with warnings for everyone to stay at home on Monday & Tuesday due to scheduled protests.  In some ways this dealt with the UN presence in the area, as well as the M23 rebels.  Schools, stores, and businesses were closed, and traffic was at a minimum.  Fortunately we didn't see or hear any uprisings, but some reports did show unrest in parts of the city of Goma.  A favorite tactic is for protesters to throw big rocks in the road to disrupt traffic, then start the unrest.  We've thankful for the protection of God here at the guesthouse, as well as the print shop.

 

   When Judd finally returned to the print shop on Wednesday, it was a day of  reorganizing and getting ready for a busy week.  Thursday several visitors from other ministries in Goma visited the print shop and saw for themselves the enormous impact of the printed word that was now available to them.  The men were able to get several sample copies available for the guests to see the quality of the work produced at Imprimerie Siloam.  They also worked on printing 30 copies of the Kikanu New Testament as well as covers, and they were left to dry overnight to be bound on Friday, a half day of work.  It turned out to be a very productive week of work after all.  Sandi was able to join us there for a couple of days to work on some edits, this time for a commentary on Esther.

    Another highlight of the week, the Swahili waterproof Bible (New Testament) project that Chapa Serve has been working with for the past two years finally reached it's final destination here in Bukavu, DR Congo.  What an exciting day that was for all involved!  Hopefully we'll be able to help with distribution of those New Testaments while we're here in the Goma area.

Pastor Kitoto with the recent delivered Waterproof New Testaments.

There are 15 local language translations of the New Testament that will eventually be available for print at the Imprimerie Siloam, but most are not yet ready for printing.  In the meantime, we are happy to offer some books from our Chapa Serve library (paperbacks, booklets & many tracts) that the workers can familiarize themselves with the printing and binding processes, as well as get these titles into the hands of the people.  

    One new item we've been working on is a package of Sunday School curriculum. These are materials that Judd's sister and brother-in law made available to us from their ministry in SW Uganda.  We had the first  workbook translated from English into Swahili while we were still in the States.  Now that we're here in Congo, we're investigating the job of getting the other 8 children's workbooks, and 3 teacher's guides translated into Swahili.  At this time we're not quite sure of the cost to get all of these books translated, but in case some of you are interested in helping with this project, please let us know.

We wanted to take a few minutes to thank you all for your prayers and support for our time here.  God continues to direct our steps.  We're reminded so vividly that this is a day by day, hour by hour process.

Because He lives!!

Judd & Sandi Kile