8/28/2004
Dear Friends,
Sorry for not writing in so long, we hope that not too many of your addresses have changed.
Ericka and I are fine, Edward and Vance both have malaria, but we caught it early and both boys are responding very well to their treatment. I'm taking antimalarials as well but Ericka will wait to see if she develops symptoms befores starting treatment. Pray that the boys continue to recover quickly.
The last two weeks I traveled to three villages where we have churches. The first was at Namoroputh where we walked hut to hut every morning, preached in the village in the afternoon and in the evening showed part of the Jesus film and had a time for preaching. At the end of four days there were 77 professions of faith in Christ and 42 baptized on Sunday, August 15th! From there I traveled to our church in Juluk and spent two days in a nearby village that Pastor William has been preaching in for a year now. I had a very warm reception and we discussed the continuing building project at Juluk and future plans to evangelize villages further into the bush, provided the security remains good. Lastly we held a crusade/cinema at Neremit, again using the strategy of going hut to hut, preaching in the village and in the evening showing part of the Jesus film followed by preaching. At the end of four days there were 89 professions of faith in Christ! Many are eagerly awaiting baptism, but Pastor Areng wants to have a discipleship/baptism class with the new converts first.
The video projector has been a wonderful tool in showing the Jesus film. I'd like to send a big thank you to the church who helped us buy it! We are using a different strategy with the Jesus film now, we show about one third of the video, then a pastor preaches about what they have seen in the video and invites people to respond.
Interesting things happen while I'm out at the villages. In Neremit, a puff adder started moving from a tree toward where everyone was seated on the ground watching the film. I was one of the first to notice it and grabbed a fighting stick from one of the men seated nearby and we quickly gave him a headache. Needless to say it caused no small stirr among those seated nearby and the rest of the evening many of us kept looking over at the dead snake to make sure it didn't move. I killed a good sized scopion with my shoe at another village while setting up the tent and later that week one of our ladies was bitten on the foot by a hunter spider (wind scorpion).
Ericka has been pretty tied down at home with the boys, but she has been able to get out most Wednesdays and go to the Ladies meeting here in Lodwar. This last Wednesday I watched Vance while she took Edward and taught the lesson. The ladies really like Edward because they can hold him and he smiles and coos, but with Vance he is a busy boy, wanting to get out and explore and not just sit, so he is a little more work and bit of a distraction. Ericka has started teaching a series of lessons about Running to Win the Prize from 1 Cor 9:24. The lessons are going well and we pray that the mamas are taking the meat from God's Word to heart.
We'd like to thank you all for your prayers and please remember our boys and those who have recently come to know Christ.
In Christ, Bob Clark
9/6/2004
Dear Friends,
Thank you for praying for the boys and myself. We've recovered well from the malaria and thankfully Ericka hasn't come down with it.
Not sure if we announced it or not but we're expecting baby number three in January or February. Yes, we know that we are making a family quite quickly, but the Turkanans say that we are very blessed. I do feel very blessed to have Ericka and the boys, I would have never imagined that in five years time I would go from being single to a family of five!
Please continue to pray for Ericka and the little one who will be coming along.
God bless you all, Bob