Update on the Car.

Hello everyone...I just wanted to write to share with you that our car sold today!! Now we are just looking for another car to get. Julia and I went around today at all the dealers we knew and we only found 2 trucks in our price range. We did call about a 2005 Mazda 2.6. The owner is out of town, but will be back this weekend or monday. We are really hoping that one will work out. It has low km's and according to the seller is mechanically perfect. He said there is a few things on the body that needs help, but all fixable. We are hoping that will work. We will continue to look. We basically have till next tuesday to find a car...that is when our honda will go to the guy that bought it. Please pray that God would provide a good reliable truck for us. We have figured that we have about N$85,000 for a truck. We will keep you posted.

Worship in song!!

This is the young adults singing at church this past sunday...I hope this works!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxEKQ5xa4JM

picture !

A few updates...Car/Christian and Nelda

Hi everyone....I wanted to write a short post to update on a few things.

First, after getting a email from a friend about Christian and Nelda, I realized I had not shared what the outcome was of the divorce. Now as the divorce is finalized, she was awarded the house(full sell price minus amount owed) and all the contents of the house. We are thankful to the Lord for protecting her through this and we will continue to help her and council her after. Please continue to pray though!!

Also, I wanted to update everyone on our car situation. We still have not been able to sell our car. As I wrote before we were given $4000USD toward a new car. We had found what seemed like a perfect truck for us, but found out today that it has sold. It was in perfect condition and everything we were looking for, but it is gone. So now we are back to square one. At this point we are not finding any trucks for the price we originally thought(N$65,000). We have seen some for around N$90,000 and above. This will be very hard to reach with out help. We are in need of more money towards this truck. I would ask that you please pray about what you can give. We would like to have a double cab truck that will be dependable(being we really can't afford a lemon..:)). All in all we trust the Lord that he knows our need, and He will lead us and provide when the time is right. It is an opportunity to help us both as a family and in ministry. Please pray!

Thanks for reading! May God continue to show His amazing grace in your lives. I included a picture of Grace...

ministry update...for this week: )

So before I get to this week in ministry, I wanted to give everyone a brief update on us as a family. Things have been going well. We continue to learn that our lives now seem to revolve around our disciple(commonly know as Grace). Grace is doing well. It seems as though she is sleeping alot longer, which is such a blessing!!! The last few nights she has been sleeping between 4 and 6 hours at a time at night. I figure for most parents this is the most exciting thing to happen in since the babies birth...: ). She is now 2 months old!!! I can't believe how fast that time has gone by. Maybe it is all the lost sleep...hmmm??:). Julia and I are doing well. As we have come to the next big phase of our marriage, we decided it probably would be good for us to revisit the biblical principals of marriage and our role's. It has really been a refreshing time. Where as we study together we recognize area's where each of us needs work and where we can be more obedient to God in our marriage. We continue to try to take each tuesday as our family /date day. Sometimes we are able to go out, but sometimes not. But all in all, I consider myself to have been shown so much grace(God's grace) when I think of my marriage and family. God truly has been gracious to us!! Please continue to pray that we would be an example to all that see our lives, and that we would echo these words by John Newton, "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be.Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God I am what I am.”

So now...what have we been doing in ministry this week? This week has been a good week, and also a different week.

Last friday I continued with the membership/baptism class. It went well, except that this week the girl that usually translates was not able to make it, so we did not cover much in the class so that we would not leave any behind. See the class is in english translated to Oshiwambo. Julia was the translater before the baby came, but since it has been cold and we meet in the evening she has not come. So this past week we only looked at one section and that was "what is the purpose of the local church?". We learned about the chief purpose of glorifying God, and then we looked at Matt. 28:18-20 expounding the great commission. Over all it still went well.

This sunday we did not attend Monte Christo Baptist church. Once a month we are given a sunday off to go and visit one of the other churches we are associated with. The hope is that when we are able to get a truck we will also be able to visit some of the churches up North as well. This sunday we visited Westside Baptist Church. This church is primarily Herero in attendance. The Herero people are another major cultural group here in Namibia. The church seems to be doing well. We joined them for there bible study which started at 9:00am. They have been going through the book of Exodus. So this week they looked at chapter 24. It was a good bible study, and it was evident that there was good understanding of the Word. The sermon then was in Galations 5:13-26. It was a great sermon and overall we really enjoyed the service. Please pray for this church, that God would continue to lead there leaders and bless there ministry.

The house to house ministry went well this week. This is a part of our week we really look forward to. We are still meeting at Tate Immanuels house. This week we finished chapter one of Ephesians(Eph 1:18b-23). We looked at three things Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand. 1. That our Hope was received at salvation(vs18b). 2. That our future is to be Jesus' inheritance or "riches"(vs18c). 3. That we would understand God's Power(vs.19-23). It was a good time. Then we spent about 30 min. in prayer for one another and for the church. And as always then we had some great time in fellowship as we ate together. Our hope is that sometime soon we would begin to reach out even do ministry together. I believe that it is important not only to study the Word, but to put it in practice by sharing the gospel to those outside. Please pray for strength and wisdom as we strive to be obedient to Christ.

I also thought I would share with you this week how my studying has been going. I have been reading various books as part of my study. First, I have been reading a biography on Dr. Martyn LLoyd Jones. It is a two book biography, and I have started on book one which is on his first 40 years. So far it has been really good. I have found that I really enjoy reading biographies of missionaries and pastors. I am just in his early years right now, but already it has been great! Martyn L. Jones for a long time would not agree to anyone doing a biography because he feared he would be glorified rather than Christ. Even in the early chapters one thing is evident...He was all about God's Glory!!! I also have read The Doctrines of Grace by James Montgomery Boice. I tell you the truth!!!!...This is one of the best books I have ever read, and in my opinion the best of this doctrine. If you are able to get this book....BUY IT!!! It is wonderful. After finishing that book I have just started The reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. Although just started..really looking forward to it. I will keep you posted!

Lastly, I wanted to update you about Christian and Nelda. We went into Okahandja today and were able to meet with Nelda for some time. She is doing ok. The divorce has been finalized. So there is a little relief on that side. She is now trying to kind of start over(if that was at all possible). Please pray that God would continue to guide her. We will meet with her again next week. Also please pray for Christian that he would repent and turn to Jesus.

Well...thank you for reading this post. I know it may be long, but hopefully you enjoyed it and have been encouraged. Again, if anyone reading has any questions or comments please leave your comments here on the post, or email me at gtbutters@gmail.com. I will write again soon!

some ministry pictures!!

Here is a few pictures of the house to house ministry meeting together at Tate Immanuel's house. My photographer has been on leave since she just had a baby girl named Grace.....ha ha ha. I love and appreciate my wife and her help to me in taking pictures. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of the sunday childrens class(under 12 years)

These are a couple of pictures of the bible study(family bible hour) on sunday mornings as I teach through I Cor.

Stay tuned...I will post our weekly ministry update tomorrow.

ministry update...

Well...as promised I want to give you all a update on how ministry has been going in the last week or so. Really it has been going well, but very busy which seems to make the time go by very fast.

The church is going well. Last week I was able to meet with Zecca ,who is the sort of youth leader, about various ministries and targets. This was important since still over half of our regular congregation are of the young adult age. So we discussed how things are going now, and how we can improve and be more effective. Last Sunday I had the grace to preach on Acts 6:1-7. This was an important passage. We saw the great mandate to serve, and how service is needed in the church. I preached through this passage and explained some principles of church leadership and the need for deacon type service. It went well and there was very good feedback. See, the church has been struggling with serving. Every sunday before the service starts we have to set up chairs and things. Well, past week people have started to come later and later to avoid helping set up. Then came Acts 6:1-7!!! This week people came and helped early to set up. It is a joy to see those that came to serve and to see the joy they had as they did it. This week pastor Laban came back from visiting the churches in the North, so I was back teaching the family bible hour. So I continued in our study through I Corinthians. I taught this week on I Cor. 6:9-11. I have been teaching that Paul has been giving reasons why we as a church should judge each other in the church. So this week I explained another reason was for the sake of the self-deceived. Paul shows that part of the responsibility of the church is to judge each other so that there are none deceiving themselves. Here is one of the points I made:

"The church must be honest about sin, and that ones life should not be marked by these sins paul lists in vs 9-10. We some times see people deceiving themselves into thinking that "as long as I prayed a "prayer" of salvation, then I am good". Those that think such things are deceived! In Eph. 1:3-14, we can see God active in all parts of our salvation. That there is no part that we can claim to do. This is evident also in Rom. 8:29-30. And we know that in Eph. 2:8-9, that "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." So if our salvation is grace alone, as in God is the one that gives salvation. Then how can we prove our salvation based upon something we do? We can't!!!! It must be based upon something God does. And as we can see in Rom. 6, one of the things God does is regenerate our lives! So it is our lives that can be a proof of our salvation. It is true that we need to pray for salvation as we confess that we are sinners and ask the Lord to save us as He is the only Saviour, but it is our regenerated lives that prove that we truly have excepted Him. I believe this is what James is saying in James 2:17-26(read)." It was a good sunday!

The house to house ministry continues to be a wonderful part of our week. Both last week and today went very well. We are now meeting at Tate Immanuel's house. We have been going through the book of Ephesians in our bible time. Last week we looked at Eph. 1:15-18a. In this we saw Pauls prayer that the church would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation. I explained that Paul prayed this for the purpose of them having a closer relationship with God. Vs 17, "in the knowledge of Him" shows this. Then today we were going to go through the rest of the verses of the chapter , but that did not happen. Some times when we meet, there are many questions or something someone is wanting to understand. We will take time and answer them. So this week one of our members shared how she had been struggling through wondering if she truly is saved and wether she really will go to heaven. We read through a few passages including Romans 8:29-30. Vs. 29 says, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren". I explained like I had explained in the bible study yesterday that those God elects also will be conformed to be more like Jesus. Explaining to her that the fact that if our lives are regenerate that is evidence of that salvation. Also explaining to her that it is God that seals our salvation. There was obviously much more that we talked about and said, but that is a part. After this she shared how convicted she was after reading the passage in Rom 8:29. And how she can see that that she has no need to worry about her salvation. It was a good week.

The membership class continues to go well. We have now started a section on the local church. This will be one of the last sections of the class. After this we will look specifically at what Monte Christo is doing and how if these become members they can and should get involved in some way. I am looking forward to this friday to continue this.

Well...hope this update has been encouraging to you and gives you a little understanding to what is going on here. Please continue to pray for each of the ministries we are apart of and that God would open more doors so that we may share the gospel to many more. Also be in prayer that we sell our car very soon. We did look at what seems to be the perfect car for us today. We don't have enough money to buy it without selling our car. (about $2000USD short to buy it outright.). So be in prayer that God would send the right buyer or reveal to us that this is not the car for us. We will try to take some more pictures of these ministries soon and post them here.

picture !

Family and stuff...

Well...we have come to another week. I truly do not know how this week has gone by so fast. I guess maybe because it was so busy.

I figured I would start this weeks post with a brief update on us personally. Grace is now 7 weeks old. Last week I forgot to mention that she had her 6 week shots...That was not so fun. We have been really debating on wether she really needs all these shots. So we will see what we do next time. But other than that everything is going well. Grace has grown so fast!!! When she was born she was 2.56kg and now she is a little over 4kg. And...when she was born she was 49cm, but now she is 57cm. She is growing like a weed. She has been doing ok at night. There are some nights that she sleeps right through the night, but then others when it seems like she is up every hour. Julia is doing well. She has pretty much completely recovered. Also it was her birthday yesterday. So we spent some time out during the day, and then I cooked her a meal for dinner. These are pretty much what we do for special occasions.

I also wanted to give everyone an update on our car. As you may have read before our desire is to sell our car and purchase a double cab truck so we can get to the north easier for both family and for ministry. Right now we are just waiting on the radiator to come in from Japan(21 days) so that we can fix it and then sell it. As we have been looking at the price of trucks, and when we tell someone that price for our current car...they pretty much do not even ask further because it is too high. Well, this week we were contacted by a supporter that is giving $4000USD toward the car for us. This was such a humbling gift! This will allow us to sell our current car for a little less(more reasonable) and have some extra money to add to the price, so to buy the truck. So now please just be in prayer that our car sells quickly and a good truck becomes available to buy for us.

Well that is a little update on us right now. I will post the ministry update next...stay tuned!

July 30th

Well greeting once again to all you who are reading this, which might just be both of you. ha ha ha...I know...I think I only have one more time to use that joke. Well I hope you all are doing well. Things here have been busy.

This week has been good. The membership class went very well last week as well as today. Our topic has been prayer! As we came to the close of the topic tonight I could see how it has been edifying to those in the class. When they would pray you could hear the deeper understanding and sincerity of there prayers. I just pray that going further, that prayer would be a key part of there day as they and we strive to be more and more conformed to His will. E. M. Bounds wrote.. "What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use -- men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men -- men of prayer." This is my prayer for us and Monte Christo Baptist Church. That there would be men of prayer!!!

The sunday church service went well this past sunday. I preached on Acts 5:12-42. I love this passage because it is one of those times that God was glorified so much. I loved in this passage how when Peter responded to the jealous accusations against them, he just shared the gospel!(vs29-32) He shared the message that the religious leaders were condemning them for. It truly is the Gospel that is "the power of God unto salvation". At the end of the sermon I contrasted the religious leaders and the apostles. This week we will look at Acts 6:1-7-A call for servants! It should be a good one. But that is for next weeks post.

The house to house ministry went well this week. This week was the last week at Meme Ester's house. Next week we will meet at Tate Immanuel's. We continue to study the book of Ephesians. This week we studied vs11-14. Our study has gone into discussion of how Salvation is totally given by grace, worked out by all three persons of the Trinity(God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit). It really has sparked some good conversation. After our study we spend some time sharing various prayer requests or praises and then pray. Then we enjoyed a meal together talking and growing in community.

This week we have also been vary busy with leather bag orders. We had two unexpected orders this week, so in some of the evenings I have been busy with that. See all the bags I make are mostly custome made to the persons needs, so it requires much time to design the bag and then the actual making of it. Maybe some of you didn't know that we do leather work as a sort of "tent making". It is a way that sometimes God provides for our needs. We actually set up a website...www.buddybagsafrica.com. Check it out. Read the bio of us...It's the most important part!

Well I think that is all for this week. Tune in again next week!!(saying that in my head like a radio announcer). Please continue to pray that after we fix stuff on our car that it will sell. Hopefully, we will be able to get a more practical vehicle(double cab truck) for both ministry and family. Thank you again for reading!!!

Praise the Lord!!

Hi again...I just wanted to write a quick message so to share with you all that God has provided for the radiator for our car. We had someone donate the money needed to fix it. Thank you all for your prayers! Now we just will wait the 21 days until it arrives from Japan...

Update on car situation!!!

Hi everyone,

Well I thought I would blog again....I know...two in one week...wow! Anyways, I really just wanted to give a quick update on our car. As I said in the previous post..our car is in serious disrepair. We found out that our radiator is cracked. And a replacement will cost us N$3892($556USD). Well, today I went to a radiator place to see if they could just repair it and that way keep us from having to get a new one. Unfortunately after looking at it they said there is no way to repair it, I would have to get a new one..: (. So I called Honda and asked if they could order one in being that it was a Japan item. They said they could, but it will take 21 days. This is not so good!! Most of all we do not have the funding for this part, being we are actually already fixing other issues like brakes, shocks, aircon/any air flow, ect. So again if anyone is willing to help us to fix the car we really would appreciate it.

Really our main goal is to sell this car. We are really needing a small truck so we can get up north to the villages. A used 1995 ford or mazda will cost us on average N$65,000($9,285USD). So our hope is that when we fix the few things wrong with our current car we can sell it for that amount or raise money to offset the amount. Please be in prayer for us with the car. If we were to not have a car it would greatly decrease our ability to do many ministries. It is one of our biggest needs right now. If you would like to help us in any way or have any questions, please contact me via email and I can give you our bank details there in the states. My email is gtbutters@gmail.com. Thank you for reading this post and your support.

Buddy

pictures!!!!

Here is a few pictures of Grace. And there are a few pictures of the house to house ministry. Enjoy!

Greetings!!!

Well as I promised...here is the first of many blog posts.....This week has been a pretty eventful week. Last friday we had the membership class that I lead. This week we started our next section on "Prayer". Already it is shaping up to be a pretty good lesson. After this we will start to talk about the importance of the local church, and look at what the role of the church member is as a part of it. We will also be looking at what is a healthy church member. For this I will be referencing a book by Thabiti M Anyabwile called "What is a healthy church member?". This book corresponds with Mark Dever's book "9 marks of a healthy church". I am thankful for both of these books.

Sunday service went well. I preached on Acts 5:1-11. Oh yes!!...Ananias and Saphira...After expounding the sin they had committed I gave three points from Peters response. 1. There is a right of ownership(vs4)..2. The role of Satan in there sin-spiritual warfare(vs3)...3. Sin is always against God(vs4). It went well and people responded well to it after the service. The family bible hour went ok this week as well.

This week we were not able to make it to the house to house ministry. It is always hard to miss the house group. The other leader in our group Nitu, led the group through the next few verses of Ephesians. We are looking forward to next week already.

Our daughter Grace continues to be such a blessing. She is doing well. Last night was a good sleep night!!! We love those, they seem to be few. Julia is doing well. There is next to no pain and recovery is good. Thank you all for your prayers during the birth and over this past month.

I also want to share with you all something to pray for us and a opportunity to help. Today as I was driving I noticed steam coming from the front of the car. I wasn't far from the house so when I got home and investigated I found that there is a major crack in our radiator and it will need to be replaced. I called Honda here and they said the part would have to be shipped in from Japan and would cost us N$3,892($556USD). That is about N$3,892 more than we have to put in the car. That is also without labor cost. We are wanting to sell the car to get one I can do the work on, but we have to sell this one first. Really we are wanting to get a new(used....alot!) car that will better suit us. Please let us know if you would be willing to help us with this. We really need any help possible.

Well I think that is all for now for the blog post. I hope you and the other person reading it enjoyed it(ha ha ha). I will write again soon.

Blogging on the way!!!

So...if you have ever checked this blog you maybe have thought..."they really don't write on this thing much". Well, that will now change. Starting next week I will start to post weekly blog posts. This will involve a brief update on mission, and we will post any needs on here we have as well. Enjoy and please comment with any comments you may have.

Buddy

February ministry update

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

Back in ohio.

We have been in ohio for three weeks now, and have and will have many opportunities  to share with some house churches what the Lord is doing in Namibia.  And share some of our needs and ways you can support us.  For time sakes we wont be able to visit all the house churches.  If you want to know more about what God is doing in Namibia and ways to get involved, email us and we can set something up/ get together.  Here are a few ways you can support us.

-Prayer

-House

-Monthly support

-Furniture

When we go back, we'll be moving to Windhoek and this means we will need to buy a house, its more expensive to rent in Windhoek than Okahandja.  We looked at some houses before we left and they range between 710,000 and 800, 000 N$ and that is $88,750 and about 90,000 US$ and this is with all costs included. Furniture is 6,000 to 7,000 N$ and that is 750 t0 875 US$. I'll give an update on how much we have raised so far when we get it in from apex.  If you would like to give toward any of the above, you can give through apex. Checks should be made out to apex and post a note on the check with our name on it...the IRS doesn't like names in the memo line...or you can put the check in an envelope with our name on it but still make it out to apex either way is fine.  Or for some whom we talk with and wanted to put the money straight into our account you can still do that just email us so we can give you our bank info.

Thank you all for your support i'll give an update soon as to what the Lord has provided thus far.    

   

At home!

  Today I had a knock on our door.  It was Daniel the man who cleans our yard came over to our house today.  I went to the door and we greeted each other like we usually do.  He then turned to me and asked me to pray for him so he could get more power(as he flexed his muscles).  I asked...What?  He said he wanted me to pray for the Holy Spirit so he could get more power.  I quickly corrected him that the Holy Spirit is not a power that he needs more of, but He is God.  I then went on to explain that what he really needed was Jesus.  So I asked him if he had some time to talk.  He said yes, so I went back in the house and got my bible.  I then sat down and took him through Genesis 1-3 explaining God’s(Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) act of creation, and mans sin.  I explained to him that because of sin we have all been separated from God.  And that through Adam and Eve’s sin we all have sinned(Rom 3:23).  We discussed many other area’s of scripture as well.  I explained to him that because of our sin we are in need of God’s grace through Jesus.  I explained that salvation is excepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour, that salvation changes our outward actions.  So then I went into what the Holy Spirit has to do with Salvation.  That He takes our heart of stone and changes it to a heart of flesh.(Ezekiel 11:19)  After going through many more passages, I asked him if he had any questions.  He paused for a moment and then turned to me and asked,”well then how do I accept Jesus?”  I turned to Luke 18:9-14.  I spoke to him about Humility and realizing he was a sinner.  I told him that was the first step.  Then I went on to tell him of what it means to accept Jesus as his Saviour and Lord.  He said he understood and was thankful.   I explained how I could not make him saved.  He needed to pray himself and ask Jesus to forgive him and to be Lord of his life.  I also shared with him the importance of sincere prayer.  That although we only see the outward, God ,who really matters, sees the heart(I Sam. 16:7).  After that he prayed, and I prayed as well for him.  He thanked me and I encouraged him to read Matthew-Romans.  I had read alot from Romans when we were talking so he was eager to read the whole book.  I told him that he needs to get to know his Lord.  I read him Rom. 10:17, that it is through the Word that his faith is strengthened and even comes from.  He agreed to meet with me again when we come back.  I look forward to sitting with him and reading the word with him again.  Please pray that his decision to fallow Jesus would be genuine and that he would be continually watered by the Word.

Hello Everyone,

   We now have what we would like to call our family blog. http://bahunsinnambia.blogspot.com/.  This will be our ministry blog and we will try all we can to keep this ones up to date can't promise to blog everyday but when we do have something to write we'll do so...we will continue to send out our newsletters as well.

We'll be in ohio as from June 16th till August 19...Hopefully we can get to see you all during our visit.  If anyone wants to see us please feel free to contact us via e-mail or whatever way you can.

Thanks  

December Update

Dear friends and family,

The year is almost over and here in Namibia things are going good.  We are now into our summer and it is really hot!  Looking back now at another year I can't help but be humbled by what God has done.  Not only in the ways He has grown the ministry here, but how He has grown us as well.  When I look at the fact that we have been married now for 18 months, I wonder where the time has gone.  It has been a wonderful 18 months.  With everything I consider myself so blessed by Gods grace.  When I think about where I was to where I am now, I praise God for it.  It is His grace!  And I want to say here at the beginning of this update that we are so thankful to God for our supporters.  I know that as it is says in Acts 20:35 that "It is more blessed to give than to receive", but when we look at the fact that all are needs are met by those God has called to give, we feel pretty blessed.  I look forward to the day when the church here is able to support missionaries to other area's.  We also want to thank those who have faithfully prayed for us and the ministry here.  Prayer is so important!  It is God not us that establishes, sustains, and grows the church and it's ministries.  So, I guess what I am saying is that looking back at this year gets me excited about what God will do next year and the coming years.  

The woodcarvers bible study has continued to be a study that I look forward to each week.  We are still going through the Book of I Corinthians.  This week was our last study for this year.  We will start back in January when everyone gets back from holiday.  We have just finished chapter 1.  I am hoping to see Tiago take some more leadership in this study next year.

The school bible studies have been on break now for exams and holiday.  We will start those back up in January.  Please pray for more students for these bible studies for next year.

I have started to meet with Tiago and Christiaan on saturdays for our mens study where we are going through Systematic Theology by Wayn Grudem.  So far it has been going well.  We will be starting in January by going back and studying church government.  We will hopefully go through this with another local pastor as well.  So I am really looking forward to this.

We are doing a summer camp next week.  This will be a great opportunity to build some new relationships with some students we have not been working with yet.  So this will set us up for youth ministry next year.  We will continue to do bible studies at both schools and do a youth night at the MPMC on friday nights.  The camp will be from monday the 8th to thursday the 11th.  The theme is freedom.  We will be going through Romans 7:14-chapter 8.  I am looking forward to this a lot.  There is 21 students that will be coming.  Please pray for our time at this camp.  Pray that God would open doors for us to build some good lasting relationships with these students.

The wed. night study has also been stopped for the holiday.  We will start up again in January when everyone comes back.

The church continues to go well. I am preaching the the book of Acts.  So far It has been great!  I will post my last two sermons onto our blog if anyone would like to check them out.  I have had alot of good feedback from this series.  I am definatly looking forward to next year continuing this sermon series.  We will be stopping the sunday morning service on sundays since everyone will be going places for holiday.  I know this may seem strange to some there, but this is pretty typical of churches here.  The whole town of okahandja pretty much closes down.  So we will start back up with normal services on January 11th.  

Alot of my time right now has been going into the planning of this camp.  All in all things are still going well, and we are looking forward to another great year.   Thank you again to all our supporters that have been along side of us though this year.  We hope to raise some money for a house for us next year.  We are needing to move from where we are now, and we would like to get to a more stable place to live.  A house here costs to buy about $25,000USD.  So please pray for us in this.  We would appreciate your prayers or if anyone would feel led to support us with funding in this You can contact me directly.  Thank you again for all your prayers.  We have also uploaded some new pictures on our flickr site.  May God bless you all.

blog: http://buddynamibia.blogspot.com/

Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bahun_family_in_namibia/

               

           Serving Christ,

                      

                          Buddy and Julia