Nelson June 2022

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ ” (Isaiah 52:7).

This verse from Isaiah provides an Old Testament picture of a messenger running from the scene of battle across the hills to Zion with the good news that God reigns. Those messengers prefigure the evangelists who will announce the gospel of Jesus Christ.* Now, as Christ’s representatives, the Church, we are the feet who are blessed to deliver the good news of Christ to the nations. Recently in Ghana, we received from our Home Office a container full of materials for our school and general Village operations. It also included 28,000 pounds of Sunday School curriculum, Reformation Study Bibles, and commentary books on Romans for the Methodist denomination in Ghana. The Methodist denomination represents 4,000 congregations across Ghana! Please thank God with us for the provision to Rafiki of these biblically sound materials which we can share with our church partner. Please also pray that the Methodist leadership will quickly distribute the materials across Ghana, and that many will come to faith in Christ and/or a deeper understanding of God’s righteousness and grace as they study the Book of Romans.

Speaking of beautiful feet, we currently take care of 58 pairs of growing feet at the Rafiki Village and 20 more in schooling outside the Village. God has been very generous in gifting many of our Rafiki young people with artistic abilities, whether it is music, poetry, songwriting, or visual arts. Our residents also love putting together a program at the end of breaks. During the past break, among other team activities, the residents wrote song lyrics for a popular tune and performed it as a team during the final program. Their performances were very polished and included coordinating clothes and movements. They also designed and colored maps of Africa which they presented to a panel of judges. A total of eight maps were presented each one unique from the next. Please thank God with us for gifting our Rafiki residents in so many ways. Please also join us in praying that they will be diligent to practice their God-given gifts.

Online classes have wrapped up for the year for the Nelson Equatorial Academy student body—aka Grace and Ian. Grace is now packing and preparing to move back to the U.S. She is also preparing her mind and heart for the next phase of life. The Rafiki residents are planning a combined graduation and farewell program for her which will be an important part of saying her ‘goodbyes’ to Rafiki Village Ghana. We are thankful God has continued to confirm Grace’s choice to attend Liberty University. Please continue to pray for our family as we help Grace re-enter life in the U.S. Please also thank God with us for blessing Scott and me with Grace and Ian.

We also thank God for you, our support team, who are faithful to our family in myriad ways—encouragement, financial support, faithful prayers, housing on furlough, to name just a few. May God continue to bless you, too, as we work together for our good and His glory.

Please Pray

• that all our staff and resident orphans will know the Lord and be growing in their faith.
• that God will clearly guide our family in this season of transition.
• that we will see fruit from of our work in Ghana.

Please enjoy the following pictures from these past few months:

One of Grace’s requests before leaving Ghana was to visit Kakum National Park and walk the jungle canopy walk. We saw a family of monkeys move through the treetops!

On a recent holiday from school, we played water games together. In one game, the kids had to balance a basin of water on their feet and then remove their sandals one at a time without losing balance of the basin. Many people were very wet at the end.

Grace will miss the other ‘guitar girls’ when she leaves.

Here are two of the eight Africa maps.

Unloading 28,000 pounds of Sunday School materials was a big job!

*excerpt of study note on Isaiah 52:7 from the Reformation Study Bible, Reformation Trust, 2015

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