Maria and I celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss at the end of June. What a great lady! I am blessed to be able to serve here in Africa with her.
Common Faith Work Day
This past Saturday our Sunday school class held a work day. Our class is responsible for weeding and trimming the grass on certain parts of our property. I was so pleased when 11 of our class members came and helped. Kotoko, two Emmanuels, Michael, Twumasi, Stella, Agnes, Nana Ama, Adwoa, Millicent, and Kwame all worked hard; and we finished the work in about two hours. Several of these had also gone out visiting for our class earlier that morning. We had a great time working together!
Alberta
Recently Maria was out soul winning and met a 13-year-old deaf girl named Alberta Boakye. Alberta had only about three years of schooling in a deaf school, but her parents could not afford to keep her enrolled. Maria visits Alberta each Saturday and is learning to communicate with her using finger spelling and basic signs. On Saturdays Maria teaches Alberta a story from the Bible and tries to teach her a new sign or two.
The Speer family is helping to reach Alberta too! Mrs. Speer watches Joy and Faith on Saturday mornings so Maria can go soul winning. Rachel and Grace Speer alternate weeks going soul winning with Maria, which includes visiting Alberta. Mrs. Speer translates for the deaf in our services, and she believes that Alberta is starting to remember some of the signs she learned while enrolled in the deaf school. Please pray that Alberta will understand the Gospel message soon and be saved.
Family
John stays involved in the ministry here. We encourage our church members to complete our discipleship booklets and then come early on Sunday nights to test their knowledge of the subjects. John helps me administer this program each Sunday night. Also, he goes soul winning with me each Saturday, and he is always eager to help during work days at the church.
Maria has a special program for John and Joy this summer to keep them busy reading, learning, and memorizing verses. Also, we have taken several mini-vacations as a family this summer, like going to the zoo and going out for ice cream. And just this week, we tried out what we believe is Ghana’s only go-kart track. Maria was a little nervous as John zoomed around the track. As for Faith, she is keeping all of us busy. She has just learned to crawl, and she can quickly disappear from one part of the house and appear unexpectedly in another.
Thank you again for your prayers and support!
Mike, Maria, John, Joy, Faith