Change and Progress

Written by Jonathan DietrichOctober 21, 2024

Dear friends and family,

We have been too busy to write newsletters. Instead of writing a lot, we'll share a few brief updates along with some pictures. That should save us a few thousand words, assuming a picture is worth a thousand words!

Literature Evangelist Training

Recently, our team conducted a two-week training program on our campus for eight people who wanted to learn more about literature evangelism. We are very thankful for Perone's talent of organization because things ran very smoothly during the two weeks. Thierry, Director of Literature Evangelism at our publishing house, has been working on developing training material and helping church members to understand how to do this work.

At the end of the training, we provided a large box of books and tracts for them to start with. Please be praying that they will practice what they learned and make the best use of the talents God is giving to them.

Desert Tree Ministry is currently supporting four literature evangelist pioneers: two in Laï and two near Pala. They are distributing Bibles, books, and gospel tracts.

Perone Leaving

We are sad to say "good-bye" to Perone. She has been an immense help to our ministry for the past few years and has helped us to grow and to mature as a ministry. Her example of selfless service is an inspiration to us all. She has helped us move forward with our translation work, and she has also spent a lot of time training people in various aspects of the work.

Translation is an important aspect of our work in this country of around 120 languages. It is also a big job. We are looking for some people to help us, especially with English/French work. The work is great and the laborers are few, so please pray for more workers!

Rainy Season

We have enjoyed rainy season this year, as it brings cooler temperatures and fresh green colors to the countryside. It also brings pesky bugs to the cattle herds. So the herders make smokey fires and bring their cows close. Apparently the smokey smell absorbs into the hair and skin of the cows and helps repel the bugs.

The rains have been extra heavy and extra long this year. Because of the  deteriorated condition of the bush trails and roads, our village has been mostly cut off from outside access, at least for vehicles. Those who come and go do so by moto, sometimes crossing the road on a canoe if the water is extra high.

Our LandCruiser has caused us extra grief this year. After changing the front wheel bearings three times so far this year, I parked the vehicle for a couple of months until we could get parts and a mechanic in from N'djamena. The picture below is the third time the bearings went out and we spent the entire night along the road until we could get help the next morning.

We ended up replacing whole section of the front end, so hopefully we won't keep having these breakdowns. Overall, the vehicle is still in good shape since we purchased it in 2013! Since then, we haven't opened up the motor! We do not consider it wise to buy another vehicle yet, as this one is still in good shape. But it is very expensive to maintain a LandCruiser properly in these rough conditions. The last repair alone was around $1,000 USD, and there is still more to do. We would welcome some help in the vehicle maintenance fund.

Lost Ink

Please pray for our box of lost printer ink!

We received an order to print 60,000 Bible studies along with 60,000 questionnaires (one for each lesson). We were happy to print, but since we are not accustomed to printing bulk quantities in 4-color, we do not usually stock a lot of ink for that particular printer. I calculated that we had almost enough ink, but decided to order some more. The value of the ink we purchased is around $6,000 USD. I also ordered a part to repair another printer. Both boxes were shipped the same day from America via USPS. One box arrived in Chad about when expected, a number of weeks later. I went and picked it up from the bus station with our motorcycle.

But the big box, where most of the value is, was lost. To this day, no trace of it can be found. The USPS tracking number stops before it goes overseas. Please pray that the box will be found, because it is a very expensive loss if it doesn't show up. Satan is, of course, trying to block this project. But this is the Lord's money, and we leave it in His hands. Thankfully, we were able to deliver the first 18 (of 20) boxes of lessons to the pastors of the Chad Mission. But even more than the lost ink, please pray for the lost souls that will come into the kingdom as a result of all this literature and the several associated evangelistic series around the country.

Thank you for keeping each one of our team members in your prayers. Be looking for more updates soon to come through the end of the year!

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