July 2009 Newsletter

Dear brethren,

August 03, 2009 is drawing closer day by day and I am currently involved in putting the finishing touches on my lessons for the Zambia School of Biblical Studies and planning and staging the luggage for the trip. I plan on taking four (4) pieces of luggage with me to take over the things provided by the brethren here at home for the preaching brethren there. And, I am still trying to raise the needed funds for this missionary effort. My projected need for airfare, food, lodging, and benevolence is about $4,000.00. To date, I have only received $900.00 and therefore, am looking for another $3,100.00. The Lord has always provided ("Jehovahjireh" - Genesis 22:14) and I am sure He will come through once again. Please, if you can help, please send your contribution to Truth for the World, Post Office Box 5048, Duluth, Georgia 30096-0065 and mark them for the Hill Mission Fund - Zambia as quickly as you can. Also, please keep me and this mission effort in your daily prayers. Thank you, in advance, for your help.

Many of you have sent checks for bicycles and have also sent good, used suits and shoes for the preaching students and this is truly appreciated.

Some of the bicycles purchased during Jimmie's last campaign to Zambia.

It is a pure joy to see the smiles on the faces of the brethren overseas when they see the results of the love and concern that their American brothers and sisters have for them in sending these much needed material things for their use in expanding the borders of the Lord’s Kingdom. The outpouring for this need has been good and our God has been glorified. It reminds me of the heart of Israel in building the tabernacle. The Bible states, "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering" (Exodus 25:1,2). And how did God’s people respond? "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work for which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing" (Exodus 36-5,6).

As our work together of saving souls for the Lord continues it is still His plan that the work be funded from the free will offering of His people (Luke 6:38; 1 Corinthians 16:1,2; 2 Corinthians 9:6-10).

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer for all the ills of our nation and the world no matter what they may be; the economy, politics, social matters all, Jesus is the answer. Thank you brethren for all you do and may our God bless you as you give. And, to God be the glory now and forever!

In Christ Who Saves,
Jimmie B. Hill



Greetings from Georgia!

June really kept us hopping – literally, since Jimmie had gout and cellulitis both in the same leg. But the last weekend of the month was definitely the “hoppiest”. That Saturday was VBS on the Life of David at the New Hope Road congregation, complete with a 9’9” Goliath. The kids got to sling tennis balls at him in the 99 degree sun during one of the outdoor learning stations, but they loved it! (Only the adults melted.)

The elementary class meets Goliath!

Some of the pre-school

"shepherds"

Some teens demonstrate ancient warfare . . . wait! is that girls?

"King David" telling the kids about his life.

Just hanging out waiting for the next learning station.

I taught the elementary kids while Jimmie conducted adult classes.

Then we “hopped” in the car and sped away to Tennessee. Jimmie’s brother, Bob Hill, had recently had a heart attack and was scheduled for surgery on Monday to replace a failed bypass. (Thankfully, Bob did well and is home now.) The day of the surgery was also our wedding anniversary, so Jimmie and I celebrated 36 years in the Cookeville hospital cafeteria with a chocolate parfait. The biggest challenge during all this hopping was keeping Jimmie’s foot elevated (and frequently packed in ice) because it swelled tremendously.

I also created more work for myself in June. Why do I do that?

For the last 1 ½ years I have walked past the huge stacks (37,500 copies) of sheet #1 of the December 2007 Equipping the Saints magazine and lamented because this edition on Unity was still not printed. This was the project in the works when our Ryobi printing press went haywire. It started spitting out more paper than it printed and refused all enticements to be nice, so our printer shut it down. And it has remained shut down since. It was a real workhorse and did a great job for many years, but no one could be found who was willing to work on this dinosaur. Every time I asked I got the same answer - that the missing pages would be printed if we ever got the press repaired - but after 1½ years that prospect had dimmed dramatically. So I checked the funds available for this magazine and came up with another idea.

Ellen Mills and I are printing sheets #2, 3 and 4 on our Riso copy printer. After checking the various mailing lists I decided to break the project into 3 parts since about 12,000 go to individuals overseas, another 12,000 are mailed to individual American readers and about 13,000 are shipped in multiple-copy packets. It took Ellen and me a full week to get the first 12,000 copies printed, another 2 days for Katrece Howard to get them all through the booklet maker, and 2 weeks plus for volunteers to stuff and label the foreign-reader envelopes. But at last they are going in the mail!

Now I get to start the whole thing over again.

The heat is on so try to stay cool this summer.

In Christian Love,
Linda Hill