The Truth Baptist Church at the TRUTH Center celebrated its 4-year anniversary in March. Many of the church people invited friends and relatives for the special day. There were 5 baptized on this day and it was a joy to baptize Hannah as one of them.
It was also a special day because the Burkholder family (Mom, Dad, and brother) was here for a visit. With Brad and Tricia Henderson (Steve's sister and brother-in-law) now in Katesh working with us it was a unique family reunion in the African bush.
We have officially begun Stage 2 of the TRUTH Center project. The first step in Stage 2 was the drilling for water on the property. As we continue to grow and expand the ministry we will need more water. After a month of trying, we drilled past 200 meters and no water was found. However, hundreds of people received the news of the "Living Water" as we handed out copies of the book of Romans to those who came to watch the work. Please pray for water to get to the TRUTH Center in some other way. Pray also for the other steps in Stage 2 such as building new classrooms and getting more land.
The vision of the Truth Baptist Church is to start churches in the villages surrounding Katesh. From May 1-3 we saw this vision in action as a team from the church led by missionary partner Nate Wolf held evangelistic meetings in the village of Basotu. This new church plant met for the first time on Sunday morning May 3. After all the weekend activities 5 people made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The Truth Baptist Church will continue to help this new church until it can stand on its own.
We will be heading to Nairobi, Kenya in the middle of May to wait for the birth of Samuel (Baby Burkholder #3 which is due to be born the first week of June. Please pray for a safe delivery for Natalie and a healthy baby.
