Growing Pains

April 7, 2023

Dear friends and family,

We praise the Lord for His goodness to us each and every day. Hot season is in full force now, but He is giving us strength day by day. Let me share with you just a few exciting events that have been happening recently.

One one of the most exciting things in recent history is our new deep well! It has been quite a journey of many years to finally get this well (I'll spare most of the details). We finally got our own land a couple of years ago, but it is not easy to find a drilling rig team that can go as deep as we want. One morning I heard the news from a couple of our staff members, "A well-drilling team is passing through our village!" Quickly, we get in contact with them and arrange for them to begin drilling in the next couple of days! At one point the drilling rig broke down just before arriving at the required depth. There was no possibility of pulling up the drill stock, so they called in a second machine and were able to salvage the bore hole. Now we have a good, clean, and plentiful source of water in a nice layer of quartz sand around 59 meters (193 feet)!

Thank you so much to the donors who made this possible. We have already purchased a solar water pump and somebody has donated solar panels. The next step is to get a good water tower built so that we will have running water on our campus and irrigation for our orchard and future agriculture projects.

Each of our staff are involved in some off-campus ministry at least once a week. One example is prison ministries. Beni is our evangelism coordinator, and he has been organizing weekly visits to the prison in our regional capital, the town of Lai. Michael is going with him to study with and encourage around 200 prisoners. Many of them want Bible studies and are eager to learn. Beni and Michael recently distributed a tract about alcohol to which several prisoners commented, "It is because of alcohol that I am here in prison today." Please pray for prison ministries as our team distributes tracts and prays and studies with them each week.

We were recently able to purchase a motorcycle for our ministry use, which has already been a big blessing to us. Thank you for those of you who donated to make that possible!

The work here is truly great. God has blessed us with a couple of people who can translate and edit in French to help in the development of literature. If you are skilled in this area or know somebody who may be interested to help us proofread and review literature in the French language, please contact us! We need more help!

Please pray for the work starting in Cameroon. Promise is beginning to establish a small publishing center for the English-speaking population of Cameroon. We already have some donations coming in for that, and we will keep you informed for future needs.

The Gabon Mission has expressed interest in establishing a publishing center in Libreville, Gabon. It is near the Union headquarters, so is an ideal place to start. Please pray for wisdom, financial support, and God's timing as we begin to plan for this project. It looks like I may try to go there on a scouting mission soon to finalize plans.

We are also planning our next container of literature. This time, Lord-willing, we will be printing mostly evangelistic literature with an emphasis on present-truth tracts. It is a huge project that will cost us around $100,000USD, but God is already providing some funding for this project.

Our campus is far from being finished, and there is a growing list of needs for construction. We need to build a water tower for our new well, and plumb the houses and irrigation for the orchard. We need to build a family staff house and a single/couple staff house.  Enough donations have already come in to build at least the family staff house, but we are praying for someone or a family who can help us with some of these projects, even if it is for 3 months, 6 months or a year. It would be helpful if there is a basic knowledge and some experience in working with cement. There is also a workshop to roof/tin, along with a few future building projects on the horizon. Contact us if you are interested in coming for a time to help us.

We believe Jesus is coming very soon. Jesus says,

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

Literature will play an important role in fulfilling this condition of preaching the gospel to all the world. We need more help (construction, translation, maintenance technician, etc). We are also considering restarting our evangelism training program to train lay members to be literature evangelists. I know that God will faithfully supply all our need. Thank you for your prayers, and for keeping in touch.

If you would like to learn more about how you may help our work financially or to volunteer, please click the How to Help link at the top of the screen.

In His service,
Jonathan, Melody, Gideon, Liliana, and Eliora Dietrich