ROCKids
Tanzania, East Africa. This month – on Africa’s largest lake island – we celebrate the opening of Tumaini Jipya (Swahili: New Hope) Secondary School for Girls! (In Tanzania, the academic year starts in January and runs through December.) Praise the Lord, this project, which, from conception to construction, has been underway for nearly a decade has at last reached its official “start line”! We thank God for His perfect timing and continuing provision. Last month, our partners in the region were able to recruit and hire four teachers and a headmistress. Thank you for your prayers for these believers/professionals as they invest into these at-risk girls in this first semester, that they will not only inspire academic excellence, but that Christ’s love and truth will be magnified through them and embraced by the students.
Togo, West Africa. Meanwhile, on the Continent’s other side, a Soap & Water Project has been approved – flowing from a gospel-resource relationship established two decades ago with a Togolese evangelist. In November, with the mission being to listen and encourage (and quietly assess if ROCK can help), two of our Senegalese brothers traveled to Togo. In the main region they visited, one practical problem for believers and neighbors alike is the lack of clean water, causing sickness and even death. Another struggle Christian families face is how to generate more income (in addition to what their seasonal field crops provide). Long story short, in fellowship with the Senegal team, these dire needs will be met through two self-sustaining projects: One is a soap-making business for these Proverb 31 ladies. The other is a well/pump system, dug through the 150-meter-deep solid rock on which the town is built. Our evangelist friend just wrote: “We hope to start the drilling project soon. We pray the Lord to guide us to a good water table with plenty of water. By providing these funds and counsel, you have honored us, and the name of Christ is being lifted up among this population!”
ROCK Resources
Amazon Jungle, South America. Last month’s update listed 32 new-language resources released in 2022. One of those resources was the KING of GLORY picture book for the Yanomamö people of Venezuela. For more about what God (and Satan) is doing there, watch this interview with our friend and faithful servant of Christ who was born in that jungle more than 6 decades ago. www.rockintl.org/spiritual-warfare-in-the-amazon-jungle Next month he will begin to distribute 200 Yanomamo KoG books to key believers and readers deep in the Amazon Forest. And some months later, the plan is to ship 5000 KoG books into the Amazon region – to evangelize, edify, and equip.
As we enter 2023, the spiritual and physical needs and gospel opportunities before and beyond us are endless. May each of us know what God would have us to do – and not do – “That [His] way may be known on earth, [His] salvation among all nations!” Psalm 67:2