Dear friends,
Well we are coming to the end of yet another month. This month has been a good month. There has been much going on both with us as a family and the ministry of the local church. We hope all of you are doing well and are encouraged by this update as we are encouraged.
The woodcarvers bible study continues to be a bit of a struggle. We were able to meet with the ladies last week and will try to meet again this week. It has been hard to get them all together. The Market has been very slow and some of the women may not even come to the market until later in the day. Tiago, the other man in the group, has been in swakop for business there. Please pray that God opens that door again that we will be able to continue to meet with them. Even as we seek to move to Windhoek where Monte Christo BC is we would like to still see that study continue.
We continue to look for a house in windhoek. This is personally a major struggle for me. If you know me, I am a “doing” person. If I know where God has called me and what He has called me to, then I want to be out doing it. It is hard because while we are still in Okahandja, it greatly limits what we can do with the church. We are driving into windhoek as much as we can, but it is still hard. We continue to trust the Lord for a house soon. I am getting up every morning early so I can get the news paper by 7:00am and start calling places available. Please pray for a house for us soon. Our price range seems to be the range that many others are interested in. For example, today I called two houses in our price range from the paper at around 7:15am and they were both taken meaning someone called before me.: ( So tomorrow I am going to try 6:30am.
Now I have much to share about the church. And much to rejoice about. Things have been going well. I have continued to lead the family bible hour every sunday morning. I am continuing teaching through the book of I Corinthians. Again this has been a wonderfully practical book for the church to study. This past week we started chapter 3. We saw how the church at Corinth was acting “carnal”(or childish). And that they were in need of maturity. I have gotten alot of good feedback from many people at the church. Again I think this book is really addressing issues that the churches here are having as well. I look forward to this study every week. I have also started to meet with Pastor Laban every Wednesday. This has really been a time to talk about things with the church, read scripture together, encourage each other, and to spend much time in prayer. These meetings have become very encouraging to me.
Probably one of the newest areas of ministry for us is that the church has started home groups. We have been meeting in our groups for two weeks now. This is groups from the church meeting in homes for a time of prayer and bible study. We also will bring some kind of food to share with all. This is a much needed thing in Monte Christo. For a long time the church was pretty much just a sunday morning gathering with no informal fellowship. The result was a body of believers who didn’t even know each other. We are calling it a house to house ministry. And so far that is exactly what it has been. I along with two other men are leading a group. In our first two weeks we met together at Meme Linea’s house(one of the members of the church). There is about 10 meeting regularly in each group. We started out just sharing our testimonies with one another. This was a great time. It was great to see how as testimonies were shared everyone seemed to get closer. Also, at our first week together a neighbor women came in to join. Her name is Maria. She shared with us how she was really struggling and is really questioning God because of a bad hypocritical pastor who was just after money. We talked with her a little while and encouraged her to come back and even come to the church service on Sunday. The next week when we came back together on monday evening, she came back. This time she brought with her her boy friend and son. Now the previous week we had not had the time to share all our testimonies so we decided to finish them this week. And at the end of sharing we talked about how with all our testimonies we all had times when the Lord had changed our lives and saved us, as we could not ever save ourselves. And then we all started to read different scriptures. One read Luke 5:27-32, and another from Luke 18:9-14. And another from John 3:1-21. This was a precious time! We then went outside and sat talking and getting to know the visitors a bit better while we ate and drank some tea or coffee. We are excited to see how God will use our group and others in the community. Please pray for Maria and her boy friend. Also pray for us as leaders that God would give us wisdom in leading these groups and helping them to grow. Pray that we spend much time in prayer and lead the church to deeper fellowship and unity under one Lord, one Saviour, and one God.
Lastly, I want to give you an update on us. We are doing well. Julia is now 21 weeks along in her pregnancy and the baby is doing great. Our last check up went really well and the doctor said the baby is healthy and as we could see very active. Julia is really doing a great job. She is experiencing some back pains, but thats about it for now. We thank the Lord for that. Other than that we are doing well. I have been spending some time working on our leatherwork and Jewelry as I mentally prepare for the expenses of a child(ha ha). Julia and I are doing well in terms of our marriage. With the baby on the way, we have been spending alot of time talking about new things...: ). All around we are so thankful for Gods grace in our lives.
I know this update was along one, but if you are reading this then you endured through it and we thank you for your interest in what the Lord is doing here. Even as I look over all the things that are going on, I am humbled by Gods amazing grace! And at the fact that there are people who God has called to support us in this calling. To all our current supporters, we want to thank you for your support and hope you have seen how your support has helped us and the church here. May God bless you beyond your labor.
Serving Christ,
Buddy and Julia Bahun
