Dear friends,
It has been a while since I have been able to write on here. Many of you know that our power cord to our computer shorted out and we have not been able to get a replacement here. We had a supporter that graciously donated the cord and it will come with a friend who is coming here on Aug. 2. Until then we are using a old computer that freaks out if it is on to long. But we are thankful to have it and to be able to still communicate.
This past month has been a whirl wind. We have been so busy I am not really sure where the time has gone. I will try to be brief, but no promises!!: ) I will also put a list of prayer requests at the end.
Campus ministry:I will be continuing at polytech this week. The college has been on holiday and is now back in session. I met with the campus crusade leader at the campus for coffee and we discussed about working together some this semester. So I am looking forward to that. I will see about getting some pictures for later updates and will keep you all posted as this ministry continues. I will go there this Thursday.
Grace Minister Conference:A couple of weeks ago I attended the grace ministers conference. This is the yearly pastors conference that Eastside Baptist Church puts on. This is a time for pastors to come together and fellowship and here teaching according to the topics. The topic of this years conference was "Preaching-our principal work". We had a guest speaker from Zambia named Ronald Kalifungwa. We also heard teachings from some of our local pastors as well. Over all, the conference went very well. It was a wonderful time of both fellowship as well as sharpening. Every year this is something many of us here look forward to each year. I was able to share about the Grace ministerial academy and hope to see many men coming for this next module. The topic was a wonderful one. It was a good reminder of our main work we have to do...Preach!
Grace Ministerial Academy:I thought I would share briefly about how the seminary training is going. As I mentioned above, we are getting ready to have our second module. We have two men coming from the States for this one from Midwest Theological Seminary. We are looking forward to having these men here. We are in process of trying to organize things better for this module. I am currently just trying to finish the course requirements for the last module. I will keep you posted as we get closer to this.
Church!!!!:The church continues to be our number one focus here. And it continues to be the biggest part of our ministry. As I have mentioned before, I have the opportunity to preach every two weeks. I am currently preaching a series on a healthy church member. The last two weeks I have preached two very important sermons for us as a church. Two weeks ago I preached "A healthy church member is a selfless servant". This was a sermon really for all believers. I focused on the examples of Jesus as our perfect servant. Then a week ago I preached, "A healthy church member is a loving disciple of Jesus Christ". I preached through John 15:1-17. In which I challenged the church that we can not call ourselves Christians and not love one another. It will be a few weeks before I will preach again, as Pastor Laban will be preaching the next few weeks. The membership class is continuing well. We will be starting our section next week on church membership and what the church believes. This is one of the last sections of the class. And like past years after we complete the class we will baptize many of them.
House to House ministry:This has been going well. The last month we have been meeting at our house. This has been a great time having the group meet here. We have started now going through the book of Mark. This will be a great book for us to go through. For many in our group this is the first time they have ever gone through this book. I am looking forward to what the Lord will teach us in the coming weeks. We are meeting at Meme Hilma's house this week.
Family:Julia and Grace are doing well. Grace is growing way to fast, and is such a joy! Julia and I are now married four years, and Grace is now 13 months old. Grace is such a cute and funny little girl. She has a wonderful goofy side of her, which I think is a prerequisites for being my daughter. Julia continues to be my great partner and support in ministry. I am so thankful for her! Grace has two teeth, and has at least two more on the way about to break through. That has been fun.
Update on States Trip:I wanted to update everyone on our plans to come and visit the States. As most of you know, we had wanted to come and visit June and July, but the needed funds to travel was not raised. The good news is that we now have all needed documents to travel. So now we are hoping to come and visit Dec and January or maybe even for thanksgiving. This would be huge for my family. Not only have they not met Grace, but If we were able to be in the states for Christmas it would be the first Christmas we have spent with my family in 5 years(since I have been here). If this is going to happen we are going to need everyones help to get there. We are raising the funds for our trip. If you would like to contribute you can go to this website:http://pouringout.me/index.php/campaigns/buddy-bahun-serving-windhoek-na/ and give through them.
Support/funding:I wanted to also just let all of you know how we are doing funding wise. We have seen a drop in our support recently. We are in need of at least $1400USD per month to pay our bills and needs. That gives us about N$10,000NAD. This past month we only received N$7950, and for the month of August we will only receive N$5687.50. So we will need extra support for this next month.
Leather Work:I have also been working alot on leather work. This is my "tent making" if you will. I am making leather bags and other leather goods. It has been hard starting, being that it takes alot of money up front to start. We are thankful to the Lord for the provision He gives through this means, and that we can use it to help others and provide for my family.
Prayer requests/needs:-Please pray for opportunities as I go to the college campus(polytech) this week and the weeks to come.
-Please pray for us as a church that the Lord will help the church to grow in His Love, Joy, and Grace.
-Please pray for funding for a trip to the States!!!
-Please pray for extra funding monthly.
Lastly, I just want to thank all of those that are giving faithfully to the work here. Your gracious gifts allow us to do the Work the Lord has called us to. I want to also specifically thank all of those that are praying for us and the ministry here. Your prayers are much needed and much appreciated. Our prayer is that we will glorify God in all that we do as we strive to be obedient to His calling. Thank you for reading! Please leave any comments or questions. Or you can contact us at gtbutters@gmail.com.
Buddy
