John, Joy, Faith, and Ben Sarver
Birth of Ben
We are very happy to announce the birth of our fourth child, Benjamin Paul Sarver. We had considered returning to the States for this birth. However, since Joy’s seizures necessitated that we take our two-month furlough last fall, Maria decided she could and should trust God to face childbirth in a third-world country for the third time. On April 1, my wife was a week overdue, and still Ben had not come. Our primary care physician and midwife scheduled her for a C-section. We were fearful and had been praying that a C-section would not be necessary, but we knew God had brought us to this point.
Maria was already prepped for surgery when the surgeon arrived and told us he wanted to do an independent assessment. We were thrilled that he determined that Maria should be induced and have the baby naturally! In between contractions, Maria wept tears of joy that God had answered our prayers.
Growth in Grace
I praise the Lord for how He is working in the lives of our Sunday school class members:
• Twumasi has been a faithful member of our Common Faith Sunday School Class for several years now, but he would only come to the evening services for special events like graduation or a conference. However, at the beginning of the year, he realized that attending church on Sunday and Wednesday evenings would benefit him far more than sitting at home watching TV. Now I see Twumasi at every service.
• Lydia has attended our church very faithfully since she was saved and baptized about a year ago. Recently she decided to officially become a member. She also has been coming to more of the evening services, and she has started coming for Saturday soul winning. Last month Lydia even helped us with a mailing we were doing to promote our August pastors’ conference.
Kwame (left) and his friend Kwame from Ampabame
• Kwame is another faithful member of our Sunday school class. He comes for soul winning on Saturdays and works as one of our church’s security guards. This past month I asked him to help me follow up on adults who come from Ampabame, the area where Kwame lives. As a result, our members from that area have been much more faithful for the last several weeks.
Prayer Requests
• Pray for Maria as she continues to recover from the delivery.
• “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.” (II Thessalonians 3:1)
Your servants and His,
Michael, Maria, John, Joy, Faith, and Ben!
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