August update

The Bible Institute (EBBI) welcomed four new full-time students and three returning students for classes which began on Monday. They all jumped right into serving along with the staff, as one of the senior ladies at Emmanuel is moving to a new apartment this week. Everyone served with a smile helping to load and unload the truck yesterday.  There will be a softball tournament held September 5 (Labor Day) with several Maritime churches participating and a luncheon offered by EBBI.  The purpose is to strengthen church-school relations and encourage prayer and financial support for the school.  This semester we are responsible for preparing the students for music ministry through weekly choir chapels, and giving piano lessons.  I will have the two men that started lessons last year and Cherith will be giving piano lessons to 10 students outside of EBBI, all of them children of those in full-time ministry.  

Regular attendance was down for the French ministry in August, but the Lord sent us visitors from Quebec churches for three of the Sundays.  A special blessing was learning of a music ministry in Quebec that is working hard to write, translate and record music for French believers in the “language of their heart”. They have made their resources available online at cantiquenouveau.com.  We are thankful that three of our students at EBBI are French speaking and will be participating in our French ministry.  Two of them are returning and one is a new arrival from Quebec.  We are asking the Lord to burden several French speaking members of our church to join our core group for this ministry for one year.  Also this month, we published our new French ministry website (Espérance Vivante) and prepared outreach business cards for the church family’s use and prepared signs that can lead people to the website and to the ministry location. We continue to use the FB page of the ministry to publish attractive posts to communicate Gospel truth and seek to increase visits to the website.

Praise for

• the visitors to church over the summer, many who continue to attend. Praise for the completion of another new members class, with a baptism scheduled for September 11. Praise for several men that are participating in a weekly men’s prayer meeting that started in August.
• the salvation this week of one of the men that has been attending church for several months.
• God’s help with our French competency tests and for blessing with good results. 
• the safe travels for EBBI students coming for the new year, both new and returning. 
• a safe return for Adrianna back to Greenville and for God’s guidance and help as she begins her Sophomore year at BJU. Praise for a good beginning of the  homeschool year for Caleb (11th grade) and Josiah (8th Grade).

Pray for

• our work with preparing EBBI students for music ministry and for our ministry with the church choir that begins again in September.
• God to guide us with the French ministry and that He will lead church members to join our core group for a year.
• a new women’s ministry that Cherith will be starting (first meeting at our house on September 29) with regular monthly Bible studies. Pray that God will use this ministry to deepen relationships with Him and with each other.
• God to move other required documents ahead so we can move ahead with applying for Canadian residency.  Now we are waiting on the assessment of our formal education to see how it compares to education in Canada.  This could take 30 weeks but we know the Lord could move it quicker if He chooses to.
• God to bless our interaction and discipleship opportunities with the EBBI students, and for great growth in each one.