Five accompanied Doyle Kee from Geneva, Switzerland, two came from the U.S., and Steven Ashcraft, an American missionary in northern Ghana, joined the group in the capital city of Ouagadougou.

Burkina Faso is a land-locked, sub-Saharan country of seven million inhabitants, 90% of whom are Muslims. The name of the country means “men of integrity.”

The campaign workers participated in a daily eye clinic directed by Rosemary Cuesta, an optician assistant from Geneva, daily children’s classes, public preaching conferences, and street distribution.

There was good contact with and cooperation with the two churches of Christ in Ouagadougou.

Michel Sam, Shadrack Simporé, Paul Idueno, and Jacob Yaméogo are Bible school graduates who work with the churches in Ouagadougou and in Pô, a city 140 km south of the capital.

Through a recent Burkinabé convert, André Minougou, opportunities were given to have eye clinics and public preaching in two villages, Dapelogo and Gogo, and a suburban denominational church. Children classes were taught daily during the eye clinic.

Three conferences were presented in Ouagadougou in a public hall which the church rented. The campaigners and local members distributed in the streets and markets.

As in many African urban areas, the two Ouagadougou churches are struggling to find adequate meeting places. Newspaper advertising has developed many new French WBS contacts.

The fact of a Muslim majority has not yet limited the preaching of the gospel, though there have been recent terrorist outbreaks in the northern part of the country.

For more information about churches in Burkina Faso, contact Jacob Yaméogo or Doyle Kee.

(BNc) — The Geneva, Switzerland, church celebrated its 40th anniversary Sunday, June 13.

Participants in the week-long work and celebration emphasis came from Scotland, Canada, France and the USA. James Jones, Yann Opsitch and Arlin Hendrix were special speakers.

The church in Geneva began in the spring of 1970 with the arrival of Doyle and Barbara Kee (photo) and their three children.

With the help of many other workers during campaigns and one to two years’ residences in Geneva, the church has matured.

Today, there are four elders, four deacons, and one full-time brother who works with the educational activities of the church.

The teaching and preaching is a mutual ministry with as many as eight brothers involved.

There are about 90 members and an attendance regularly surpassing 100 participants.

The church has good facilities of five classrooms and an auditorium which can hold a maximum of 130 people.

The Geneva church is ready to move ahead into its next 40 years of history. It is growing locally and has a strong mission program into French-speaking countries.

More information can be obtained at www.Geneva-churchofchrist.com or Thekees@bluewin.ch.

It was a foretaste of heaven. Part of the New Song is, “For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 13:7).

Those gathered to remember the Lord’s death could communicate in nineteen langauges: Aramaic, Bassar, Chinese, Dutch, English, Ewe, Gallego, German, Fanti, French, Italian, Nzema, Papiamento, Polish, Portugese, Sign language for the deaf, Spanish, Turkish and Twi.

Roel De Gruyter and Roy Davison work with this congregation.

After the 25-hour trip to Singapore, he spoke at the Lim Ah Pin congregation during their Thursday night English Bible class.

On Friday night he began a gospel meeting at the Jurong congregation with the topic, “God’s Word is Relevant.” Brethren from Lim Ah Pin were also present on Friday and Saturday nights. The last lesson was given on Sunday morning.

Sunday he preached in Chinese for the evening service at Lim Ah Pin.

On Monday morning he left for the island of Bali, Indonesia. The trip to Singaraja in the northern part of the island, that should have taken three hours, took all day because of heavy traffic in connection with a Hindu holiday. Because of the same holiday, he could not leave the hotel all day Tuesday, so spent the time studying.

On Wednesday morning he had a two-hour Bible study with Singaraja Christians.

Wednesday afternoon he flew to the island of Java and the city of Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia (city 3 million, environs 7 million). Because the flight was delayed, the Bible study did not begin until 9:30 pm. Additional Bible studies were conducted for three hours on Thursday and Friday afternoons.

On Saturday morning he flew on to Jakarta (largest city, population 8.5 million, metropolitan area 23 million). Saturday afternoon from 1 to 4 pm a study with about 15 brethren was conducted on the eldership, which was continued for five more hours on Sunday.

On Monday morning, March 22nd, he flew to Lampung on Sumatra with brother Victor Nainggolan who had accompanied him for seven days as guide and translator.

From Tuesday through Friday mornings he taught for four hours on leadership from the book of Nehemiah at the Southern Sumatra Bible Academy and also spoke in chapel on Tuesday.

From Tuesday through Thursday evenings he preached in a gospel meeting.

After spending Saturday and Sunday with the brethren, he flew back to Jakarta on Sunday evening, on to Singapore on Monday afternoon, and from there back to the States on Tuesday.

John Grubb served as a missionary to Taiwan from 1982 to 1992. In October of 1992 he began working full-time with ‘Truth for the World,’ an evangelistic work of the Duluth church of Christ in Duluth, Georgia that produces television and radio programs, and written materials in Chinese, Spanish, Indonesian and English. John speaks Mandarin, and reads and writes Chinese. Materials he has prepared and translated into Chinese are used around the world and are available from the website.

ASUNCION, Paraguay (BNc) –

Graduates of the Southwest School of Bible Studies, in Austin, Tex., the Spradlins are overseen by the Margaret Street congregation in Milton, Fla.

Troy began chronicling their move and his reactions Jan. 25 in “Culture Shock Chronicles,” on The Fellowship Room website.

In one of his chronicles, Troy attributed to the providence of God their readiness to begin the work. “… we have hit every one of our targets and met all the goals we set out to achieve. We are fully funded and have completed all the preparation that we possibly could,” he said.

Mission team members already working with the Sacramento church in the capital are completing their commitments. The Spradlins and Josh Blackmer families will replace the returning workers and continue reaching out to the city and region, according to the website Paraguay Mission.

SWSBS instructor Kevin Cauley told BNc, “Having known Troy as a student, I can say that he is a conscientious and hard-working Christian.  He knows how to be the kind of leader the church needs today.  He and his wife Andrea always displayed a can-do attitude.  The Lord’s church in Paraguay will benefit from Troy and Andrea’s efforts there.”

“Lots of emotions are tumbling around inside as we are dealing with the anticipation of leaving Friday, sadness from all the farewells and well-wishes, to the stress of finishing up a few final details for our departure,” Troy wrote Tuesday on their weblog, The Spradlin Summary.

In an email to the Central church in Gadsden, Ala., republished today by the church, Solomon Aguh wrote that after morning services they heard a loud noise about two kilometers away from the school. Muslims had attacked a denomination church while in worship. Solomon wrote:

Two students from the School of Biblical Studies went to worship in town and on their way back were taken by Muslim attackers. One student escaped. The other, who was a student from Cameroon, is still missing. We reported it to the police.

We are still hoping the Lord will bring him back safely. Lots of people were killed and houses burnt. Pray for us.

According to the school’s website, the SBS is affiliated with the University of Jos, which authenticates graduates’ certificates.

Terry Tripp of the Center Hill church in Paragould, Ark., informed BNc that there is a foundation, primarily Church-of-Christ sponsored, called Hope For Haiti’s Children (HFHC). HFHC is a program of sponsorship to fund education and health benefits for Haitian children.

“My brothers and I, as well as others from our congregation and across the U.S., have participated in mission work in Haiti through this program,” said Tripp.

HFHC is planning to deliver medical supplies, water and food for the short term, and plans to help in rebuilding homes and schools.

If you would like to help with relief efforts in Haiti, please visit their webpage: HopeForHaitisChildren.

Haiti: Estes Church of Christ

The Estes church, in Henderson, Tenn., is planning to send a group with food and medical supplies to Haiti. If you would like to help, you can send your donations to: Haiti: Estes church of Christ, 3505 US Hwy 45 South, Henderson, TN 38340, telephone 731-989-7990.

“They will see that the monies are well spent,” said Mike Greene, a writer for Forthright Magazine .

The Estes church has been involved in a work in Haiti for several years. There is an article in the most recent Christian Woman magazine about Roberta Edwards who has been working among the children in Haiti.

When Stephanie, the first speaker, had been teaching for only a few minutes, a rat made its appearance and started running around under the feet of the ladies. After going back and forth several times along one wall, he finally crossed the room, went up the wall and climbed out a window.

The attendees knew little about the Bible but were eager to learn. Only one knew who Eve was, only a few had a Bible and could read. Neema translated into Swahili and a ten-year-old girl translated from Swahili into Maasai.

The first picture shows the ladies in attendance. The second picture shows Neema, the Maasai translator and Stephanie.

Longido is about 80 kilometers north of Arusha on the road to Nairobi at the foot of Longido mountain. The Maasai people pasture livestock on the mountain and surrounding plains. Their families live in small mud houses called ‘bomas’. Early in the morning the women leave the boma to fetch water and collect firewood. Children start helping to care for kids and lambs at an early age. There is an abundance of colorful birds in the area. Animals include giraffes, zebras, gazelles, buffalo and jackals.

MYANMAR (BNc) – Living in Myanmar has been a real experience so far. Spiders as big as your fist in the kitchen, poison snakes on the back porch and government monitors watching and reporting our every move. Telephone and all email communications are monitored by Big Brother and the list goes on and on.

Twenty or 30 truckloads of riot police roam the city putting down demonstrations and showing force to intimidate the opposition party. Much like pre-1989 Eastern Europe, except they are not communist and allow free enterprise.

For these reasons our email reports will be much less frequent and sent only when we get outside the country, like now while we are back in Cambodia on the Ship of Life.

The church is growing, and because of the government restrictions on us, local Christians must be the ones doing all the public work.

Our job is training, advising and encouraging. We have daily contact with the Christians and spend lots of time advising and helping them work through situations. They understand how to work with the restrictions the government has placed on them and just need to be encouraged.

They requested a weekly meeting of two to three hours to discuss Bible questions they have, and we are meeting each Saturday from 3:00-6:00 p.m. for that purpose.

Their questions show their strong desire to grow and that they are evangelizing among their friends because that is where most of the questions are coming from.

Their love for singing is unique. They want to learn every song they ever heard or saw and have two or three hours singing practice every week.

At their request we have been able to help them learn many new songs and have asked brother and sister Claude Lewis, who have been here several times, to get their family to make a recording of the songs that the Burmese can sing along with.

Wes and Glena Harrison passed through on their way to Mandalay, where they work a month each summer with a congregation up there. They are long-time friends and co-workers from our days together in Germany, so the reunion was sweet, though brief.

The relief work in the Delta continues to go forward. Deliveries to those who lost everything continue to nine villages, and people are coming to the Lord. We are planning a September effort to bring the newly converted men together for a week of intensive Bible study as we help them plant new churches in the cyclone Nargis-devastated region.

We believe the future in Myanmar is very bright and tankful God is allowing us to help shape it.

CAMBODIA. We were greeted with the baptism of four on our first day back in Cambodia. We will  start a new intern program next week to bring preacher students from the Sunset Bible school in Phnom Penh on board ship and train them in village evangelism for the next two months while we are on board. This is something we have desired for a long time and it is finally coming to fruition.

None of these things would be possible without your partnership. You provide the prayer, the concern and the finances and we provide the hands on labor.

May God bless you for your love for the lost and suffering of this world and for your willingness to form this partnership with us to proclaim the Word in Asia where 63% of the worlds population resides, mostly without having ever heard the name of Jesus.

EAST KILBRIDE, Scotland (BNc) – Five young Christians in the process of forming a mission team visited Scotland in March. The team plans to begin a new work.

They are very interested in coming to Scotland, so we spent a week showing them areas where new congregations are needed, primarily in the central belt, where we are located.

The team met at Freed-Hardeman University, where they all have been, or are, students: Justin and Nicoll Burleson (left), Ian and Brittany Wheat (right) and Bethany Oldham (front).

Of the areas we showed them, they were most impressed with Falkirk, near Stirling, and Hamilton, the next town over from East Kilbride.

Keep them in your prayers that they will be successful in raising the support that they will need.