Dear Friends,
Velda and I want to express our thanks to each of you for
your love, prayer, and support over the last few months as we seek the place
God would have us serve as missionaries. We recently made a vision trip to
Malawi, Africa to explore the possibility of serving as Church Planting
Supporters to the Yao people. We asked you to pray with us, that God would give
us a clear vision as to how we might be a part of the ministry there. SIM’s
vision for reaching the Yao consists of having a base of operations in the town
of Mangochi where missionaries who live in the rural mountains can come back to
every few weeks and restock and rest after living in very harsh conditions.
Currently the missionaries there spend most of their time and energy just
trying to live. The homes are in need of constant maintenance. The Guesthouse
SIM has in Mangochi needs managing. Administrative issues need to be handled.
Vehicles need maintaining. Etc. There is no Home Depot, there is no Auto Zone,
there is no skilled labor. They need someone there to help take care of these
things. There would be opportunities to build relationships with local people
as you train people to help in these matters or get to know those in market who
may have some building supplies and things like that. It is a very spiritually
dark place and a very challenging place to live and serve. The missionaries
that live there say they need someone passionate about maintenance and they are
correct. There is where our answer from God came. Velda and I are not passionate
about maintenance. We did not feel this was the position God had for us. We
thank God that He answered our prayers and gave us a clear vision of that.
We definitely saw God’s hand at work in our lives and
discovered a lot while we were on our trip. We got to see first-hand what it is
like to live and serve in Africa. On our short term trips we have taken,
everything was task oriented and scheduled. We had seen very little of the day
to day challenges and struggles of just living in Africa. We got a real sense
of what that is like. We got to see how SIM operates on the field and the
support they have for one another. We got to meet some incredible missionaries
whose great faith has inspired us to be more faithful. We learned a lot about
ourselves and how God can use us in ways we had not considered before. We hope
we were an encouragement to the missionaries and the Malawian brothers and
sisters in Christ. We also got to experience traveling by bus in Africa. (That
is a story of God’s grace for another time)
Please pray that God will send the right person to help the
missionaries in Mangochi. The missionary couple who are retiring after 21 years
in Mangochi have seen 117 missionaries from various missions and denominations
come and go. The missionary definitely needs to be called to that place to
serve there. Thanks to the work of that couple, the Bible has now been
translated into the Yao language and will soon be printed. Finally the Yao will
be able to hear God speak in their heart language. Praise God! Pray that His
word will go forth with power and many Yao will come to know Him.
Pray for Velda and I as we continue to seek the place God
has for us and explore new and exciting opportunities to serve.
May God richly bless you and thanks for partnering with us
as we serve together to fulfill the Great Commission.
Paul and Velda Rikel
