PROGRESS AT FAKWASI
I am thankful to God Almighty for the Christ, the church, and our great and wonderful brethren. I am also thankful that Christianity has taught me patience and longsuffering. Still, like many brethren, I do expect things done in a reasonable amount of time and without much confusion. The African brethren, however, have a slightly different mindset.
Once again, I want to thank those of you who contributed to the Fakwasi well project. The project is not yet done but it is progressing. Please let me explain. The funds were gathered and sent to Ghana by brother Yaw Boateng, and the man was contacted to dig the well in February. He told the brother overseeing the project for us, brother Francis Baffoe, that he needed an additional $500 to complete the project and, because of one of his personal projects, he could not dig the well until the end of April. I told him, via email, this was unacceptable because the agreed upon price was good and the end of April was too long. Another man was found and he did begin the drilling in just a few days. However, the first place he drilled, the water was muddy and foamy and not a good place. The second place was far too hard for his drill and so a third place was decided upon. The community objected to the third place saying it was too far from the village. This is when the Atebubu District Assembly got involved and offered to help dig the well with a larger drill. But, they too wanted to wait until the end of April and, in the meantime, use the money we sent for the Fakwasi well project to help build a medical clinic. I then contacted the brethren and explained to them that this money was donated for a much needed water well in the village so that the villagers could have clean, fresh water. I also explained that when folks in the States donate funds for a certain project, that is what they expect the money to be used for. The well comes first. The third well will be started sometime during the last week in March. Thank you, in advance, for your patience.
AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND AMERIKA SAMOA
Linda and I have secured our airline tickets and visas for our trip. However, we are still in need of about $2,000 for our lodging, food, and ground transportation. If you can possibly help with these costs, it will certainly be appreciated. We leave on April 25th and return May 18th. This will be Linda’s first trip since her knee surgery in December last year. She will be busy with Ladies’ and Children’s classes throughout the trip and we will be traveling quite a bit once we are on the ground. Please pray for her that all will go well.
On a personal note, I have lost $500 in my monthly support. I am certainly thankful for those who support us in the work and pray that your generous support will continue. If you know of others who may be able to support us, please tell them about our work and encourage them to help us. I know “the Lord will provide – Jehovah-jireh” (Genesis 22:8, 14).
Thank you for your sacrificial support. May our God pour His richest blessings on you all.
In Christ Who Saves,
Jimmie B.Hill
Greetings from Georgia!
I have news on so many fronts, I hardly know where to begin. Workwise, things are going amazingly well with the new websites. In fact, I never dreamed they would generate this much traffic this soon, so the stats have blown me away. The ICOTB site I helped to replace had just over 1,000 visits in the year it was in place. Our new sites saw that many in just the first 5 weeks! And these visitors have been from all over the world. I had had a secret hope that we might reach people in at least 100 nations by the end of this year. That goal zipped right by in February. Right now, souls from 156 nations have visited and I’m adding to the list almost daily. In the past month more than 3,350 people have come to the site, and most have stuck around to read the Gospel materials. 175+ of them have also enrolled in the Bible correspondence course program. I have continued to work with the online courses as Jimmie is busy with other aspects of the work, so I know well that IBTM is blessed with some wonderful, dedicated teachers. But the program is growing even more quickly than we anticipated, so we could use a few more good men and women to teach the Gospel. If you are interested, please let me know.
Healthwise, the news is mixed. Jimmie just received another great, cancer-free report from the doctor. Yay!! But my knee is still being a hassle. Apparently scar tissue developed after surgery and is interfering with my physical therapy. The doctor recommended another surgical procedure to break through this scarring, but I declined to return to the operating room. Now I’m on a new torture regiment to try to accomplish the same thing more slowly. I would appreciate your prayers that it works.
Familywise, we are excited to be welcoming a new member. Our daughter, Julie, met a wonderful Christian young man, Bronson Roper, on the Church of Christ Singles website last year and they are getting married in April.
Personalwise, I was pleased to have an article and poem published in the January/February issue of the Christian Woman magazine. It was my first time submitting something cold, so it was pretty neat to find them in print.
Between preparing for the wedding and the campaign, flying off to Australia and intensive therapy for my knee . . . April is going to be slammed. So we don’t plan another newsletter until we return from Samoa. But check our blog. I will post campaign updates – and maybe even a few wedding photos – when I can. In the meantime we would appreciate your prayers.
Linda Hill
