Settling Back In
December 20, 2023Dear friends and family,
We have been back in Chad for almost three weeks now. While it was lovely to visit with family, we were quite busy with ministry responsibilities during our stay in America. It is nice to settle in and feel a bit more stable now. We praise the Lord for a smooth trip, and all of our 15 suitcases arrived intact! Thanks to our small but faithful team of volunteers here in Chad, the ministry continued and a lot was accomplished while we were gone.
Perone has been working on some small agriculture projects on the land around the print shop. We look forward to sharing more details in an upcoming newsletter. She also progressed well on our many translation and editing projects. We will be able to publish quite a few new products within the coming weeks because of her hard work.
Thierry did a great job managing construction of a staff house, as well as helping to keep things running smoothly at the print shop. He manages printing and our book inventory. He is also our literature evangelism director, and has been working on developing the literature work. This includes training two Bible workers we are sponsoring who are stationed in Lai, about 12 miles away.
Beni has been busy as an assistant to the chaplain at the Adventist Hospital in Bere. He has also continued with the prison ministries in Lai. There are presently over 260 prisoners there now. This coming Monday, on Christmas day, our family (my wife and kids and I) plan to visit the prisoners and give them some literature and a little food.
The administrators of the Gabon Mission have been busy preparing for the installation of a small print shop there. The rooms are being remodeled with new wiring, lighting, doors, and flooring. The pallet of equipment from America, that we sent, has arrived in Libreville (via airplane) and should be moved to the Gabon Mission office any day now. We should be able to purchase the bigger printer soon. Please pray for this project as it is getting established. The pallet for Cameroon is being shipped by boat, so it may take another couple of months before it arrives.
Please pray for our team as we reorganize a fresh vision for 2024 and continue the projects already started. The staff house needs to be completed, and we need to finalize the contract for building a water tower. We are also putting together an irrigation kit to water our orchard and garden spaces. Does anybody want to come and help us?
Thank you for your prayers and for your financial contributions to our ministry. We are amazed at how God is providing for the expansion of the publishing work. It's exciting to be used by God to help the publishing work go forward, not only in Chad, but in Gabon and Cameroon, too! Perhaps our biggest purchase in the near future is a container of paper to use in local printing. We also are hoping to print close to $100,000 worth of literature within a few months at another press outside the country, once we finish the necessary editing work. We always can use smaller contributions to sponsor tracts (which cost about $2 per pack of 100 to produce) and to help with food and medical help for the needy. God is blessing the donations coming in to do a great work.
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.
Have a blessed Christmas and New Years, and we'll be in contact next year!
In His service,
Jonathan, Melody, Gideon, Liliana, and Eliora Dietrich