Update!

Dear friends,

 Well it has been a very long time since we have written on here. Please forgive us for this. In a attempt to write on this more frequently I will try to post something new every Wednesday. I will just give a brief update now and will try to post some pictures a bit later. I realized that as I am sitting here in a cafe using free internet that I hadn't uploaded pictures from our camera. So please check back later or tomorrow to see some pictures.

  Brief Ministry Update:

I will keep this very brief…sort of bullet like. Since I have been back things have gotten pretty busy. I have had many opportunities to preach at three of the college campuses along side campus crusade for Christ. About a month ago I was able to preach on a sunday morning at a college outside windhoek. The students don't go anywhere so there is great opportunity there. I do hope to see more opportunities to go back and preach. The church is going well. As I was coming back here as member of the church(not a pastor) I have had the opportunity to serve in that capacity. I am basically taking every opportunity I can to serve and encourage the church. I have had many of the members come to me for council which is a big deal. I have led some bible studies and will preach in the next few weeks. I am taking it easy at the church so to show a good example to the members by being a member. I have also at UNAM(university of Namibia) started a tennis ministry where I am able to build relationships with some of the students. I have already been able to begin building some good relationships. All in all I am finding myself very busy with study, travel, and preaching and teaching. Julia is doing better now. We are expecting our second born here next month, so we would appreciate your prayers for that.

 During the Easter weekend we held a Easter Conference at Monte Christo. It was attended by many people from churches all over the country who were a part of the EBM(evangelical Baptist Mission). Also, last week I was able to attend a conference called "the pastors book set". Those that attended received 10 very useful books. The goal was to help equip pastors and ministry workers with solid resources to help in ministry. I will add a picture of the books later. Please pray for this ministry. Books are very expensive here and most are not able to afford them. This ministry allows the equipping of many pastors around the country. More later....

Count your blessings!

This song has been on my heart for days now......so just sharing once again!


When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings, name them one by one
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done

Chorus:
Count your (many) blessings, name them one by one
Count your (many) blessings, see what God hath done
Count your (many) blessings, name them one by one
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly
And you will keep singing as the days go by

Repeat Chorus

So, amid the conflict whether great or small
Do not be discouraged, God is over all
Count your many blessings, angels will attend
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end

Repeat Chorus

This is a great video and had to share! :)

Just follow the link. http://vimeo.com/29632892

Thank you!

THANK YOU!

A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO RESPONDED TO OUR NEEDS THIS PAST MONTHS! We are truly thankful for all your support be it finances or prayer! Words cannot come close to expressing our gratitude. Thank you! Praise the Lord for all of you.

We are close to having one plane ticket covered (US$2,060)! Still have one more to go, than our plans to visit the states will be completed. We still have hopes to visit for Christmas and New Years, so please do continue to keep this in your prayers. Thanks!

This weekend!
This weekend we are in Swakop. There is a mission's conference here at Swakopmund Baptist Church. Buddy will have some time tomorrow in the evening to talk about his experience from pre-church organizations to a Church. Should be fun!!!

Needs/Prayer requests

Dear friends,


I hope you are all doing well. I thought I would write you all a quick message to share with you somethings that we are needing prayer and support for. Also I am wanting to write to let you know where we are at and some upcoming plans.
First, I wanted to update you all on our plans for a visit to the states. As many of you know(hopefully you are following on our blog) we were hoping to visit the states in June, but because of lack of funding we were not able to come. So now we are desiring to come and visit this Dec. and January. This would be a trip for two reasons. One, to personally update our supporters of what is happening here in Namibia, and to share ways others can get involved. Second, to visit my family and introduce Grace to my family and friends. We greatly desire to come for both of these reasons. If we were able to come it would be the first Christmas we would spend with my family ever as a family, and my first time with them since 2005. Needless to say it would great to spend this time there. We also realize that there is the whole "out of sight, out of mind" thing. So we know that we need to get back to face to face communication. Our greatest need right now is funds for this trip. We are raising funds through this website: http://pouringout.me/index.php/?cID=284. Here you can donate using credit card as well as see the progress of our raising. If you go to that sight you will see that we have only raised so far $1060USD. This is about 1/5 of what we need to come to the states. Please be in prayer about how you can help us in this way and that we are able to raise the needed funds.
Also, I want to share with you about our financial need. We are needing more support monthly. We have been struggling these last few months. Our need per month in order to pay basic bills and living expenses is just about $1500USD per month. Which after bank fees and charges ends up being about N$10,000NAD. This month we only received $1110 or N$7,600NAD. Being that last month we were also under we had to try and pay back bills that we were not able to pay last month. Needless to say we are struggling this month. We are needing assistance! We have not been able to pay our medical insurance this month, plus a few other things. Please let us know if you are willing to give. I am hoping that if we can visit the states we can raise extra monthly support, but for now we are in need. The difficulty for us is that if things continue the way they are we may need to leave Monte Christo and work under another local church that can support us this side. There is opportunity at a few sister churches. Monte Christo has expressed there desire for me to stay but are not sure if they could support us in our need. There has been many increases on food, electricity, ect. Please pray that the Lord would supply our needs for these next few months until we can come to the states to raise more funds.
Lastly I want to extend our sincerest Thanks to all of those that continue to support us. Although our funding has been low, we do have faithful supporters that continue to give to us. You are so appreciated and we praise God for allowing us to minister with such supporters. You truly are how we can stay in ministry in this Local church. Please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions. Thank you!

Buddy

More News on Grace Ministerial Academy!

Here is a link if you would like to read an update from the lecturer.

http://www.mctsowensboro.org/2011/08/serving-christ-in-namibia-africa/

Enjoy!

Grace Ministerial Academy!!!

Well we had our second module of Seminary classes just about two weeks ago. It was a great week! We learned alot from our first module in April and this one went alot smoother. This month we had two courses, Hermeneutics and Christian Worldview. We had two lecturers from the States..Rich Barcellos and John Divito. The courses both went very well. Each of the men gave 15 lectures through the courses of the week. We really appreciated having both of these men with us! Both courses were very helpful to the students. The students now have three month to read the books and complete assignments for both courses. We had three new students join the classes this time around. So total we had 8 students and about 3 auditors. We hope to see more men join in to next years modules.

On the administrator position...I have learned alot from these two modules! Our plans for next year is to add a third module to the year. So that means we will be able to offer six classes instead of the four we have this year. We will also be looking at the curriculum so to see if there is some namibia specific courses needed. There is still alot of structure that is needed that we will be working on for next year. But we are still very hopeful and excited to see what the Lord does through GMA.

Prayer Requests:

-Please pray for the students as they complete there assignments and study for exams.

-Please pray for us as we plan for next year, that the Lord would give us wisdom in the decisions needed.

-Please pray for the growth of the Academy.

I have included a few pictures of the week. Enjoy!

This week!

I feel like this week I have been living on planet busy. I think mostly because we (Grace and I), only got to see Buddy for like 30min in the morning and spent like 2 hours with him at night before he needs to study for the next day's tests. Buddy had seminary classes which will be ends today. They are/were doing two coursers one on Christian Worldview and Hermeneutics: Interpreting the Bible. After today he still has two more essays and three books to read and final examinations. The teachers were from states John Divito from Owensboro, KY and Richard Barcellos from Palmdale, CA. Buddy will give an update on all that later.
Grace is a little walker now. She is LOVING it and going from room to room calling for her daddy. So SWEET!

Spoke to my granny yesterday and she told me my uncle's room burned down and the omahangu (food) the storage was closer to my uncle's room. Praising the Lord that no one was hurt and that it was not the whole house. Pray for my uncle who lost everything and pray for God's provision with the food. The harvest is over for the year so now the only option to to buy omahangu from someone. Pray for funds!

Thank you all for your prayers.

Nelda and her Grace :)

Last Saturday we had a chance to go to Okahandja for the first time in a few months. We visited with family and friends. It was so great to see them again.

We also visited with Nelda and her baby Grace Elizabeth. So small yet so beautiful and percious. She remained me of my Grace at birth so much...oh the sweet memories. Don't worry honey I'm not ready for baby #2 :). Grace Elizabeth is doing well. Thank you all for your prayers.

Here are a few pictures from our visit with Nelda. Enjoy!

Ministry Update.

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

Praise the Lord!

About two weeks ago Buddy went to Home Affairs to check on the status of his domicile. Long story short.....while he was there he met a lady who is a agent and works with citizenship and domicile. She called the person up stairs who deals with domiciles and asked them to check on the status of Buddy's domicile..........it was done but just needed the permeant secretary's signature. We went back today and the 1st person told us it was not done so we asked to see the person ourselves, so went up stairs and talk to the lady. She was nice enough to go into his file and check (we think she was so nice to us because Buddy helped two guys with a very heavy file case that they were struggling with....he took it like it was nothing ;))........we get it. The lady looked at Buddy and said "you are a very lucky man, no one's domicile is out yet". She kept say that over and over again. Praise the Lord we got our domicile. We are so thankful to God for this domicile. We know that this is all the Lord's provision not because of luck :).
We have all our paper works that we have been waiting on, now all we need are funds and we'll be able to travel. We would love to be in ohio for Christmas Lord willing. If you are interest in helping us with funds for our plane tickets please give your donations here http://pouringout.me/index.php/campaigns/buddy-bahun-serving-windhoek-na/
Thank you all for your support.

Happy 1st Birthday Grace!

Our little angel turned 1 today. We are truly thankful for Grace. We cannot imagine our lives without her. She is so much fun! We also know that this is all by the grace of our God. That He has chosen to show us His unfailing love in so many ways and parenting being apart of that love. Today we look back remembering the day we met our baby. Its so fresh in our memories as if it was just a few minutes ago. The excitements, anxiety and of course the many tears.
So many people have asked me numerous times about our journey to having Grace. The first time someone asked I was taken back.....I asked myself what does she mean? I had a c-section there is nothing more to that (this was not my answer just in my mind). Well as time went by, I got this question so many times than i even expected. This got me thinking about my whole journey and what the Lord taught me through it. You know so many times you read someone's labour story and all that they went through. I in many ways wished I had gone into labour and given birth to our daughter without the help of medicine or a Caesarian. One thing i know now for sure, is that no matter how your baby comes into this world the important thing is that you love them, enjoy them, have fun with them and above all remember you are an ambassador of the Lord shepherding a child/ren's heart.
A few minutes before Grace. Can you tell i'm nervous.
Grace a few hours old
Grace ready to enjoy her first taste of sugar :)
YUM!!! Happy 1st Birthday sweetie. We LOVE you!

Update

Just a quick update on things here on the grounds of Namibia.

So there has been much going on. There are some weeks that I truly am not sure where they have gone. I will try to be brief, but we will see..: )

Home group:

Our house to house ministry group has been going well. We have been meeting at Tate Emmanuel's house the last 4 weeks. We have continued to go through the book of Ephesians. This has been such a wonderful book for us. We just this week went through the armor of God in chapter 6. Starting next week we will be meeting at our house. We have talked a little about what we will study after this book, but not for sure yet. Please pray for this group that we continue to grow in community and love for one another.

Campus ministry:

We have started to do ministry in the university and colleges here. I have been going to Polytechnic College. There is a commons area that I have been hanging out at talking with students, and teaching the bible. I was also able to join in to one of Campus Crusade meetings. I am hoping to be able to work more with them in the future. Please pray for direction in this being we are in the beginning stages of this ministry. Pray that God would open opportunities to do more preaching and bible teaching on the campus...even to the teachers.

The Church!!

Well, with this being our main calling and main focus this one may be a bit longer. Monte Christo has been going well. I have taken a break from preaching through the book of Acts, to preach on a series of sermons on a healthy church member. I am mostly following a book Entitled "What is a healthy church member?" by Thabiti Anyambwile. I have preached the first two sermons so far. Pastor Laban and I are sharing the pulpit where I preach two sundays and he preaches two sundays. I am also, continuing to teach the membership class at the church. This has been a wonderful time with this group. We have about 6 people coming. The church continues to grow and we are encouraged by seeing how many of the members are growing and showing more love for each other. We have been asked about Ordination. Currently we are praying about this and would be loking at early next year for this to take place. Please pray with us on it!

Seminary studies:

I am currently working through the first two courses of seminary school. I have been reading for one of the courses a wonderful book. It is called "Thomas Charles' Spiritual counsels". I have so much enjoyed this book! It is truly the kind of book that as you read you want to underline every page. I was talking to one of the pastors here about the book and explained that in my opinion Thomas Charles writes likes John Piper preaches. He writes with a passion!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Please pray that I would have enough time to finish the requirements for these courses in time. With everything going on my time is very busy.


The weather here in Namibia has quiet cold these past few days. Very cold and windy at the same time......and even snowing in some parts of the country. Also, the houses here are not built to withstand the cold. There are many here even in the church that have been very sick. Please pray for Namibia

This month we also celebrated 4 years of marriage! Some friends offered to take grace for us for a evening. It was the first date we have had since grace was born. It was a wonderful time! Please join us in praising the Lord for 4 years of marriage!

Well...I tried to make that a bit short. We want to as always thank those that are supporting us. You are truly our partners in this ministry. We are still praying that the Lord would provide for our needs to come back and visit the states. Please pray for this! We really would love to go back and visit our family and our supporters. Thank you!

SNOW.....YES SNOW IN NAMIBIA!

I (Julia) stand corrected......it does snow occasionally in Namibia. I would have loved to see this for myself though. I get the pictures from a friend. They were uploaded on the internet on June, 8th. Enjoy!

update...

Hi everyone!

Quick update on Nelda and baby. They are both doing fine and have been out of the hospital for about 2 weeks now. Nelda takes the baby to the clinic in okahandja every 3rd day to get weighed. So far since they left the hospital the baby hasn't picked up on weight, her weight remains the same (1.8kg). Her grandma (Nelda's mom) gave her the name Grace and her grandpa (Christiaan's father) gave her the name Elizabeth after his late wife. So her name is Grace Elizabeth. Nelda is doing well but her feet are swollen.

Praise the Lord that Grace Elizabeth is doing well. Pray that this continue and that she picks up weight. Also pray for Nelda, for a good recovery and as she raise this baby as a single mom and that she spent time with the Lord both in His word and in prayer.

Thank you!

Plane tickets!

Hello everyone,

Here is another way you can make your donation toward our plane tickets. You can still give through apex if you want this is just another a venue. We are hoping to come back and visit as soon as we can. Here is the link...http://pouringout.me/index.php/campaigns/buddy-bahun-serving-windhoek-na/.

Thank you all for your prayers! And hopefully we will see you soon.

Buddy and Julia

Praise the Lord!

Its a girl!!! She weight in at 1.7kg (about 3.7lb). She is doing well and breathing on her own. She has jaundice and is currently reaching care for it. They will be good to go home when the baby weight 2kg. Please pray that the baby picks up weight well and for Nelda's recovery. Thank you!

Update

I spoke with Nelda on Monday or Tuesday. The doctor has at this point has schedule for a caesarean section for Sunday. The baby is still very small and chance are low that he/she is even 1,5kg (about 3.3lb). Nelda is alone in this.....her husband divorced her last year. She is not alone, alone she has God her father and you and me, her brothers and sisters in Christ. He (ex-husband) is the father of the baby but VERY little involvement. Please continue to pray for her and the baby. Every time i speak with her, she is trying not to get her hopes up. We know God is in continue, He is big, He can do the impossible, He knows what the results will be in all this, God is SOVEREIGN! Please I ask all of our readers to take a few minutes of your time go on your knees and pray to God, bringing Nelda's request before Him. Pray for His WILL in all this and that whatever the result Nelda would worship Him and give Him praise. We will visit Nelda on Sunday or Monday after the baby is born. We will update if any changes arose.

Here are few verses that come to my mind as I'm thinking and praying for Nelda

Psalm 139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshipped. 21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD." 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (ESV)

Thank again for praying. God Bless you all.

Prayer request!

Our friend Nelda has been in the hospital for a few weeks she was discharged and is now back in the hospital again. She is pregnant and has a broke leg. She is currently in bed rest and things are not looking good. The amniotic fluid is very low and the doctor is looking at doing a c-section possibly this week. He first wants to see if the baby is at least 1.5kg (about 3.3lb). She is 6 months along. Please pray that if they do go for the c-section the baby would survive. This is Nelda's 5th pregnancy and she has never gone pass 6 month of pregnancy and all her babies has passed away. Pray that the will of God be done in this. Thank you all for praying.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Happy Birthday to my husband. Already i would say it is a good one. Grace woke up at about 6AM and i put her in our bed and she went straight for her father's face with a kiss :). She heard me say Happy Birthday daddy....looked at his face and marbled a similar sound.....Happy Birthday daddy with a big smile on her face just like her daddy :).

Happy Birthday Buddy! You are a great husband and father. Grace and I are both so blessed to have you in our lives. You are a great example to me and many others in so many ways. Your walk with the Lord, your patients with people, how easy you forgive and move on, your honesty, your smile that goes along way and etc. Again happy birthday!

Here are some of my favourite memories of my husband. I love you!!! God bless you with many more birthdays :).