African notes:

Bertha is now teaching a Bible study on college campus. She also spent on of her school vacations week teaching at Camp Good News. Linda is preparing to do her master’s degree in London. Cornelia is now 21! We miss our beautiful DAT young ladies and are so thankful to see them becoming all God has in store for them.

 

Mid year school break comes in July, when there is usually a break in the rain for a couple of weeks. This is an ideal time for VBS, Youth Camps, and church retreats.

Created and Transformed VBS in San Miguel, Costa Rica

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” Psalms 51:10. Gary and I helped do crafts, snacks, and lunch for the VBS. The children learned that to be transformed they had to repent of wrongdoing/thinking/saying and ask Jesus to be Lord of their life. VBS ended on a Sunday to entice non believing parents to come to worship and hear a clear presentation of the gospel.

Pic at VBS

Worthy Youth Camp in Alajuela

“To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God” Revelations 1:5b-6a. Thirty five youth from La Biblia Dice church paid for themselves and a non church attending friend to go to camp to learn that without them deserving it, God took them into account for His own glory. He made a way for them to become worthy in His sight. On our way to and from camp, we had to abandon the bus, because of a mud slide that took part of the road with it, and walk part of the way enjoying a gorgeous view of the Central Valley. While much fun was had, the constant message of free will and the priesthood of the believer were deeply set into their minds and hearts of each youth. Gary and I worked the kitchen from 4am to 9pm every day. Gary was our dishwasher (cold water only) for 80+ people, for three meals and three snacks per day. The parents were waiting in the sanctuary. After prize giving, a call to salvation, and a challenge to believing parents to encourage their youth’s spiritual life, we went home utterly exhausted, happy, and thankful to be part of God’s kingdom work.

Pic Youth Camp Gary walking around mud slide

God in Action Rehab Center

The ministry of health told God in Action they would be closing them down on July 15^th if the floors in the pantry, kitchen and dining rooms were not tiled. God led A.T. Scott’s class at The Church at Brookhills to raise necessary funding. Gary oversaw the project. Ricardo, one of the young men is a master tile setter, directed the tile laying and others helped to finish this beautiful floor. It’s the highest quality material we could find so it will last them. The hardware store gave us a 50% discount, making it the same price as regular tile, and free transportation. God is good! It thrills me (Elizabeth) to see such great work being done so close to where I grew up in San Isidro de Coronado. As a child we met in the pastor’s home for worship. Now there are churches and ministry entities with a presence in the community sharing the Gospel in tangible ways to lead people to Christ.

Pic of Tile finished

God is busy in Costa Rica! We have so much more to share with you. We are in Alabama the last week of July and beginning of August. If you would like to meet with us, please call us 205-370-6071 Gary and 205-441-3899.

June 2017

Pic June orchid

Serving full time to prevent, restore, and re establish sexually exploited people with the love of Jesus Christ is not for the faint of heart. It has proven more taxing than we imagined, but God is faithful to strengthen us day by day. We continue to affirm and guide the DAT young ladies, and to encourage our African pastors whom we deeply miss after almost 20 years of relationship and fellowship. Now more than ever we rely on God’s Word and his promises.

101,000 Gideon New Testaments were distributed in schools, universities, jails, and police academy centers. For a week, we left the house at 5am and arrived home between 8-9pm. Two nights we were too tired to bother with dinner. Gary hauled boxes of New Testaments. Elizabeth translated, shared the gospel, and prayed with many of those receiving the New Testaments. It was exhausting and exhilarating. Praise, God!

Pic of New Testaments

Matt Wilkins came to see what we were doing and help with the roof project. Widow’s Might from Liberty Baptist Church sent us Scofield Spanish study Bibles. These are prize possessions for believers here, because they are so difficult to obtain. There are plenty of regular Bibles at the Bible Society, but in depth study Bibles are few. A good study Bible is a huge blessing and growth tool. His church, the Church at Chelsea Westover, funded the project and others pitched in too. There was more than enough to replace the roof and the gutters too! Thank you so much! Pastor Jose Antonio Solis and his wife, Odette, are happy to be sleeping dry now. They had planned on saving up a little each month and replacing the roof as a Christmas present to the family. Pastor Solis serves in a neighborhood of many illegal and minimum wage earners. The church in Paso Ancho has about 70 members. The minimum wage in Costa Rica for a non skilled/educated worker is currently $750/month. The church pays the pastor $385/month, which is generous given the circumstances. Odette said it was such a relief to not have to run every time it rains to get pails and buckets all over the house. She didn’t realize how much stress the leaky roof was creating. Jose Antonio is grateful for the roof, but emotionally even more so. He said it was the first time in his ministry, of over 40 years, that someone has done something for his family personally. The joy your generosity brought to this family is significant.

Pic of roof

While Matt was here, he and Gary helped with labor intensive landscape project at a women’s development center, while Elizabeth helped with a sewing class. They literally moved heavy rocks from the upstairs garden to the side of the building down the hill to prepare for a preschool playground. Matt visited the rehab center, God in Action, and was impressed with the commitment of Keith Britton, 74 years old, to take care of these guys and disciple them. He enjoyed getting to visit pastor Jose Antonio Solis’ church and the feeding program. He loved our church, La Biblia Dice and took part in the prayer ministry and served at the missions fund raising marathon with over 1000 participants, including physically challenged people. Matt also visited three orphanages. We spent one full day taking care of babies of teenage moms. At one of the others he made plans to come back and help organize the laundry after seeing overwhelming piles of it. He finally said, “There’s enough to do here to keep me busy for a lifetime.” Yes, there certainly is! Matt plans to come back in September and bring others with him.

Pic of Matt

The ministry of health told God in Action they would be closing them down on July 15^th if they haven’t installed tiles floors in the kitchen and dining room. God led A.T. Scott’s class at The Church at Brookhills to raise money for them. Gary is project managing. We’re so excited to get this done! It thrills me to see such great work being done so close to where I grew up in San Isidro de Coronado. As a child we met in the pastor’s home for worship. Now there are churches and ministry entities with a presence in the community. God has blessed!

Pic of God in Action wood stove

If you would like to fund or serve in person with projects, please do so! No visas or immunizations needed. It’s a quick, easy journey with good weather most of the time. We’ll do a quick visa trip home late July and meet our new grandchild too. Let us know if you would like to meet with us.

Thank you for your faithful prayer and financial support! God bless you and keep you well or as the Ticos say: May God bless and accompany you!

Your Servants in Christ,

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph. D.

There are now two active volcanoes, Poas and Turriabla, spewing out ashes and rocks just 18 miles north of us. Thankfully we don’t live in the path of either one. Although some days we do get a bit of ashes and it becomes quite difficult for me (Elizabeth) to breathe. When we are home for a week in May, I’ll get some extra medicine. There are some spectacular scenes posted on line.

Easter is the biggest holiday of the year here. The official holiday is Maundy Thursday through Sunday, but most people take the whole week off so it makes for 10 days off. The Catholic churches have live out door theater plays with nice costumes living out the trial and crucifixion of Christ. This requires building props and holding rehearsals from Palm Sunday through Wednesday. Many streets are closed to allow the theater and processions (parades) to take place. No expense is spared! Holy Week starts with the remembrance of the ceremonial entry of Jesus into the Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The story is in acted by the Catholic parishes as Jesus enters the Jerusalem on a donkey and the people hail him by waving branches of palm trees.

On Maundy Thursday, they act out the Jesus pronouncing his coming pain and death. There is a walk of silence to church where the last supper headed by Jesus is played out.

Good Friday is the earnest and most intricate day of the Holy Week. It marks the arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus. Everyone from the community makes way for the historic procession. The route is laid out and 14 posts are marked where a paragraph from the story is read out loud. It has characters of cross carrying Jesus, court, the Roman soldiers, his followers and the thieves. The crucifixion brings along sorrow which ends the day’s march and is organized at a place where the maximum number of people can gather.

Holy Saturday is the day Jesus rests in grave and Judas Night is celebrated. It’s an event that can bring about commotion and fear among the people. People play pranks and take things from homes to burn down in front of the church. Easter Sunday is the end of Lent, so Holy Saturday is an all out preparing for a feast day.

Gary enjoyed seeing the daily activity throughout the week. Resurrection Sunday is a family affair where people come together and have good food, like Thanksgiving in the US. Gary was so disappointed that Resurrection Sunday wasn’t publicly celebrated that it literally depressed him. He fasted and prayed Easter night for people to understand Easter is not about Christ dying, but His resurrection conquering death.

Casa Libertad (Freedom House)

During Holy Week, Gary and I took the rescued young ladies to serve others. This was their first service experience. Thursday we baked and iced two big cakes. They enjoyed baking the cakes, even though Elizabeth integrated using fractions and multiplication and cleaning up after ourselves to the experience.

The next day after making and packing lunches and figuring out how to transport the cakes, we took the group and Marse, a Mexican missionary serving as chef for Casa Libertad, to a private Christian children’s home, Casa de Pan. It is a home where a Christian couple has legal permanent guardianship of 46 children currently. They don’t turn any child away as long as they have space for them. Several children have various health issues. Luis has autism and loves Gary. This time Luis had Gary take the lids off a couple dozen down spout collection points on the property and clean them out. When Gary found and took out leaves, trash, & spiders, Luis would jump up and down for joy celebrating the victory.

Marse and Elizabeth spent most of their time on the playground with little boys and girls excited to have adults playing with them. The Casa Libertad young ladies were afraid of Luis and the handicapped children, so they retreated to the laundry to help fold clothes. It was a growing experience for the rescued young ladies to see others have problems and be forced to find a way to help them. They were sorely disappointed they didn’t get to even taste the cakes, because we had to leave for Good Friday service at our church. A pleasant surprise of coffee and pastries was served afterwards. At the end of the fellowship time, the pastor told them to each load up a plate of sweets to take with them. They were beyond excited!

Praise, God, another young lady was rescued this month. Their pictures and stories can only be shared in private. When we are in the US, we’ll be glad to do so in closed settings.

La Sala

The donations of clothing brings in new and younger women off the streets to La Sala in the downtown red light district. Each item is sold for less than 20 cents USD allowing the women to have pride of purchase and ownership. The sale fosters informal conversation and sharing among themselves and the ministry team members. Much of what we hear hurts! Snippets from April: One lady had just given birth three days earlier and was back at work because she needs to buy diapers. She had only one left in her purse. One pregnant lady had not eaten all week. One lady said she would NEVER set foot inside one of our meetings. One person was turned away at the door, because we thought she was a man. She started cursing and pounding on the window as she showed her ID proving she was a woman, before walking away. Realizing a mistake was made, we had to chase her down, apologize profusely and get her to come in and eat breakfast with us. Ministry is not for the proud or faint of heart!

The theme for the month at La Sala was clean heart, clean hands from Psalm 24:4. This led to mani pedis. The pedicures revealed more problems and made a best friend for me (Elizabeth). We’ll call her Maria. She comes every time the door opens. She is a very short woman and enters the gatherimngs hollering out and demanding to be taken care of first. Maria is an older lady (my age) and obviously not thinking right. She always wears closed shoes with socks, even though the shoes are tight. The day of the mani/pedis, she came in her usual loud way. I asked Maria to wash her hands and pick out a nail color. She dipped her hands in water and shook them off and harshly told me to use any color. Her hands were dirty with caked in dirt around the cuticles and under the nails. I told her we needed to get them cleaner so the polish would stick. Maria alternated screaming and fake crying saying it hurt her to wash her hands. Each time I immediately stopped washing her hands and asked if the water was the wrong temperature, if she had cuts on her hands, what could possibly be causing the pain? Slowly Maria allowed me to gently wash her hands with nice smelling soap and even let me brush her fingernails. She chose a reddish color. Then she had me put white dots on some nails and white strikes on others. I told her my granddaughters liked to mix their color and designs up too. I asked her if she had time for me to do her toe nails. She was enjoying the coffee and cookies, and answered yes. When I saw her feet, I understood why she’s always frowning and angry. She’s in pain! Her big toe nails where at least an inch long curved to the side and black with fungus down to the cuticle. The other toe nails were long too and some grew vertically towards the top of her shoes. I cut them down and painted them as best I could and asked if she would consider a different pair of shoes. She said she liked her shoes (pink ballet shoes with white socks). During the mani pedi her voice and tone became more pleasant. When she left, she gave me a nice kiss on the cheek. The next time she came, Maria entered quietly, looked toward me and said: “I just want to talk to her.” Maria and I are now best friends. We’re encouraging her to go to the podiatrist and consider new socks and a new pair of shoes.

If you would like to fund or serve in person with projects, please do so! No visas or immunizations needed. It’s a quick, easy journey with good weather most of the time.

Thank you for your faithful prayer and financial support! God bless you and keep you well or as the Ticos say: May God bless you and accompany you!

Your Servants in Christ,

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph. D.

March 2017

The Lord is so good that the first church in the Central Valley we visited, just one mile from our house, called: The Bible Says, we felt right at home. Gary is teaching a mid week English Bible study at our home. Right after music and before preaching every Sunday is a mission’s emphasis. The church sends out missionaries locally and around the world. Pastor Fernando includes the command to go in every sermon and includes a call to salvation and to missions at the end of nearly every service. The church is bursting at the seams with little educational space. The youth meet under a shelter without walls. The plan is to buy the lot next door and expand. None of this will be done at the expense or by cutting back on missions. We love it!

 

Elizabeth tutors rescued young ladies at Freedom House four days a week. Privacy is of utmost importance to protect these young ladies. There are currently four teens and one that is pregnant. All of them are under 17 years old and the one with the most education is working on seventh grade studies. One of them shows evidence of her recent faith in Christ. The others are going through the motions. Names are confidential, but please pray for Freedom House young ladies. Pray they will choose to trust Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour to see them through the rest of their live. Pray for us (Elizabeth and other local ministry workers) as we deepen our relationships with them that the teens will see Christ in us reaching out and drawing them to Himself. Please pray for a 14 and a 16 year old that so far refuse to be rescued. Pray they will make the hard choice to go through the process to get off the streets and to safety.

On Thursday mornings after serving a free breakfast of “gallo pinto” (mix of black beans, white rice, and a special sauce), eggs, bread, and coffee to the street ladies there is a private sell just for them. The clothes and shoes sent in January are sold at 20 cents per piece. It is fun to see the ladies talking and laughing, leaving to bring other co-workers to take advantage of the opportunity. This sale draws in the younger ladies and teens. Oh, yes, many of the street ladies are in their 40 and 50’s. Tuesday afternoon’s coffee and cookies are served along with a program and/or activities: art, music, mani/pedi, educational workshops, Christian movies and others as supplies and volunteers are available.

Other activities at La Sala are a monthly spa day and Spanish Christian message movie day. Please collect supplies for these activities, so we can bring them. We will travel back to the US every three months to comply with visa regulations.

The building used for these activities is La Sala in the middle of the red district down town San Jose. It needs several projects to be funded: inside painting, replace broken windows with plexiglass, flooring in bathroom, kitchen countertops and shelves, upstairs closets, and under staircase storage among others. The kitchen, closets, and storage spaces need kitting out and organizing with labelled supply containers for the various activities.

Several orphanages need construction projects as well. House of Hope needs much more back hoe work done. Gary is currently doing one day a week. They need a road cut in, a soccer field levelled out, a tilapia pond carved out in the creek, and other projects. Gary could use a on the ground helper.

The other orphanages By Provision is helping need repairs and replacements: doors, windows, roof (zinc replaced or repaired and painted). All the orphanages need love and hugs providers! Adults are needed to rock, hold, and play with the children. This is a great family mission’s opportunity!

Sharing the gospel is easy since people are so friendly and willing to take time to chat. Josue, a new Christian friend, that we met while buying bricks stays in constant contact with Elizabeth. He’s a Nicaraguan that is working here in Costa Rica and misses home. Josue is a couple of hours away from us, but loves using his smart phone to communicate. Josue sends questions and videos. Elizabeth answers questions and encourages him to find local believers living where he is working for Bible study and fellowship.

 

If you would like to fund and or help with projects, please do so! No visas or immunizations needed. It’s a quick, easy journey with good weather most of the time.

Thank you for your faithful prayer and financial support! God bless you and keep you well or as the Ticos say: May God bless you and accompany you!

Your Servants in Christ,

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph. D.

DECEMBER 2016 

Jesus, God the Son, came to earth in human form to love us beyond our comprehension. Serving Him fulltime in Africa for the past 17 years was a great joy we hoped to continue for years to come. Our hearts were torn in two knowing we would not be sharing life on a daily basis with the DAT young ladies on a regular basis. Sadness could have overcome us at leaving Namibia and starting a whole new ministry elsewhere. “...but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (Gen. 50:20 NKJV).

From the Kalahari desert of Africa where the sand dunes literally meet the ocean God took us to the rain forest in tropical Costa Rica. Our visit to Costa Rica last month, God revealed how He wants us to help with sexually exploited ministry. It is a tough assignment to pray, share the gospel, and disciple the sexually exploited as they choose to surrender to God and become positive contributing members of society. We met with different ministries dedicated to various aspects of prevention, rescue, support, training, and moral job creation and placement. Your encouragement and prayer prepared us for what lies ahead in this new place and purpose.

Clearly God loves each one of us individually and wants a relationship with us. Christ was born, died, and rose for each one of us; the Holy Spirit indwells each of us that call upon Christ’s name; and heaven awaits the one who puts their faith and trust in Christ. May He use us through your support to “save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh’ (Jude 23, HCSB).

Pray with us as we establish a legal way to live and carry out ministry in Costa Rica. The plan is to move to Costa Rica in January for three months at a time, with short out of country breaks, to maintain legal status until we can get some kind of residency. We will be working alongside other ministries filling in essential gaps (translating, construction work, team transportation, Bible study, counselling and more). Our primary needs going into 2017 are: 1) establishing a residence, 2) obtaining a vehicle (2013 or newer pickup for import), and 3) finding the right lawyer to guide the residency process. Our gratitude to God for continuing to use us for His glory through your prayer and financial support fills us with awe and wonder.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D.

 

NOVEMBER 2016

Thank you for praying for us about beginning a new phase of ministry in Costa Rica! There was a hurricane for the first time in 176 years, and God gave travelling mercies, logistics and transportation. God revealed how He wants us to help with sexually exploited ministry. Your encouragement and prayer prepared us for what lies ahead in this new place, and purpose. The Lord strengthened us and gave us direction in where and how to continue serving others to His glory.

Human trafficking and sexual exploitation is an unfamiliar and dark place. It’s heartbreaking that children as young as 9 years old are involved. The average age is 13 and most are female. In Costa Rica pregnant young women or men are preferred, because it’s eliminates the possibility of child support demands being place against the perpetrators. The thought is hard enough to grasp as you read this. God’s grace and power were evident as we witnessed to a 32 week pregnant young lady in a brothel with tears in her eyes too scared to leave, a partner of a lesbian couple with 7 children born of prostitution, a young man that had been kidnapped earlier this year and held captive for over three months back on the streets again, and others.

Happily in that week two young ladies chose to be rescued and brought to the safe house. They are cared for by a full time psychologist, social worker, chef, and guardian. These are fully certified and licensed workers that love the Lord with all their heart and work as though for the Lord. The rescued receive medical attention and so much love they hardly can take it in. They are here for two weeks to two months depending on their situation before being moved to the next step in their journey toward health and healing with the collaboration of other ministries.

One this week was a pregnant 13 years old. To say that her roller coaster emotions are a challenge would understate the complexity of the situation. It will be a while before we figure out the words to share that express our thoughts and feelings about this new directive from the Lord. Clearly God loves each one of us; Christ was born, died, and rose for each one of us; the Holy Spirit indwells each of us that call upon Christ’s name; and heaven awaits the one who puts their faith and trust in Christ.

Jude 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. (HCSB)

Pray with us as we establish a legal way to live and carry out ministry in Costa Rica. Hopefully we can go full time next month. Our gratitude to God for continuing to use us for His glory through your support fills us with awe and wonder.

OCTOBER 2016

All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4:15

October 7^th donors and volunteers gathered around us at our home to enjoy fellowship, hear about the year, and encourage us. Spending time with supporters, telling the stories of how God moved in our lives, begging for prayers on behalf of DAT members, pastors, churches, and individuals in Namibia and Angola is our joy. If we haven’t seen you yet, just call 205-441-3899 (Elizabeth) or Gary (205-370-6071). Here and in Africa we have the most uplifting and sweetest friends that love Jesus.

The Discipling African Teens finished High School exit exams for 10th and 12th graders under great duress due to teacher's strike in October. When the teachers went on strike, the DAT young ladies felt the world had come to a stop. They first sent emails, texts, and posted on Facebook to Elizabeth about how scared they were of not getting the chance to even finish taking the exit exams. I wasn't be there to give them a hug, talk, or pray with them. Andre and Nadine, the volunteers taking care of them, are nice but they were a new relationship where trust was not built up yet. Your prayers comforted and encouraged them. I, Elizabeth, can't begin to express how much I appreciate your prayers on their behalf. This week their celebrating no more wearing school uniforms and packing up to go on with young adulthood. Bertha, Indileni, Ester, Nadia expect to to to university next year. Olivia will take a year of Namcol to improve her GPA before applying to university the following year. Florence has had all the schooling she can stomach for now. She is looking for a job or coming up with a business idea. Aina wants to go to Windhoek for a computer program. Please pray for each of them as they make decisions about their futures. One opportunity they have is to work part time or full time for Child Evangelism Fellowship. They are primed and up to the task, but fear they won't ever make a good living. Pray they will follow God's direction and plan for their lives.

Anton Theron, a strong believer, is drilling boreholes, 1 free one for every 10 sold, to minister to those who need water and share the gospel with them. The people in Tsintsabis, Oerwood, and Combat are very happy that Moses and Joseph continue repairing the wells we drilled over the years. Please pray with us that they will all continue spreading the Good News as they drill new wells and maintain old ones.

Pst. David Warren, Seymour Baptist Church, TX and his team did a pastor's training in Outapi the last weekend in October. Pastor Peter Aebeb said: "We had a time of being refreshed and seeing the bigger picture of understanding the Bibles. Thank yo for connecting me!" Pray for Pst. David as he hopes to continue doing pastor conferences. These are a great teaching and encouragement for the local pastors. Pray for Elizabeth to be able to organize and handle logistics from here.

If you ever wonder about our nation’s future, rest assured God is in control and moving in the lives of our future leaders. The proof was in a visit Ms. Galbraith’s 2^nd grade class at Greystone Elementary. These children are concerned with and care for the world. After we shared about Africa, read African stories, and dressed up with African cloth they told us thank you and hugged us. Some even asked for a second hug. Their thank you notes included: “Thank you for the fabric, the water, the story, the flag of Namibia and the card and pictures. Thank you for talking to the people about Jesus.” “Thank you for telling us stories and being the kindest most sweet person ever.” “Thank you for coming to share what you do. It is so nice that you help other people, like digging wells, missionary work. Thank you for the story, fabric, flag, card with pictures. We will remember this day forever. It is so cool that you live in Africa. Living without water is hard to live, but since you help them that makes me happy.” One card was written in an Asian language we don’t read. That didn’t keep him from participating or writing a thank you note. The teacher told us they are still talking about it weeks later. They are inspired to do good and show God’s love.

Costa Rica, Nov 28-Dec 3, vision trip with Seeds of Hope (for females) and Root of Jesse (for males) in Esterillos and El Puente school in Quepos. Pray for simple things like traveling mercies, logistics and transportation. Also pray for God to reveal how He wants us to help with ministry through education and serving those trapped in human trafficking. It’s heartbreaking that children as young as 9 years old are involved. The average age is 13 and most, but not all, are female. Perhaps this last month of encouragement was to re establish us after a hard year or perhaps it was to prepare us for what lies ahead. Pray we will be strong and wise in the Lord to continue serving others to His glory.

Thanksgiving is upon us. “I (Gary and Elizabeth) thank God every time I remember you (supporters and those we serve)” (Phillipians 1:3)! May God continue showering you with all heavenly riches and blessings as we strive together to live closer to Jesus and serve others in His name daily.

Elizabeth and Gary Wilkins, Ph.D.

In Oerwood, Oshikoto region, wells were sponsored by South Shelby Baptist and Lori and Kevin Wills. The South Shelby Baptist well is in a rocky area where there was no other access to water. The Lori Wills site the community had lost the majority of their livestock (25 head of cattle) and all their crops. This year they weren’t able to plant at all. Now they will go ahead and plant to start the seedlings hoping the rain will come early in December to grow their crops.

Pic Gary drinking water from borehole (updates)

New church building in Okahandja is quite a story. Years ago someone donated money for a church at the prison outside of Tsumeb. A year after getting approvals to build, the warden suddenly said the budget for the building would have to be 10 times the amount donated. That led to getting land, drilling a well, and building a nice roof structure for a church in Tsintsabis that had been meeting under a tree. A tar road through Tsintsabis and the local government representative said the church could no longer meet in the building because it was too close to the new road, half a kilometer away. So one drunken weekend men from a church in Windhoek helped us take the building down piece by piece and move it to Okahandja. A new church start there was meeting in an big old tent where we used to have pastor training. The beams and roofing lay on the ground for two years while building permits were obtained. Finally this year the property is fenced, the temporary guard house is built, the foundations poured and the roof is up! The people are so excited to see their new building, especially since the wind has torn their tent to shreds. Praise, God, for his provision and plan. Also the tent in the background is the same one we used for our first pastor training in Tsumeb 12 years ago. It's been serving as the church meeting place for the past few years.

Pic of new church building

September is full of DAT birthdays. DAT birthdays are treasured. For most it’s here they get their first cake in their honor. The pride is palpable. Past DAT home members call on their birthdays to get their “greetings” and many times post pictures on Facebook of the cakes they enjoyed while here. DAT birthdays are a team event from choosing the cake, gathering the ingredients, adapting the recipe to the found ingredients, making the batter from scratch using nothing but a wooden spoon and mixing bowl, making the frosting, deciding how to decorate the cake, writing cards for the birthday person, setting a beautiful table, group prayer, personal wishes verbalized from each DAT member, and the birthday person giving her dreams and goals for the upcoming year. This month Salinde chose a cherry cordial cheese cake. Olivia wanted a repeat of the apple cake from last year. Indileni had a banana cake. Nadia’s cake is in the freezer so they can celebrate her November birthday at the end of October, when all but Salinde finish the school year.

Pic of birthday cake

Pray for the DAT young ladies as they take external exit exams from mid September 15^th through the end of October. Pray for Nadine and Andre as they care for the DAT young ladies these final months of High School.

Home Affairs finally approved and stamped Gary’s work permit. Elizabeth’s work wasn’t deemed necessary to Namibia. Despite the fact that there is no similar in country program, free or paid for, for teenage young ladies. God answers prayers, sometimes in ways we don’t quite understand. This is a heart wrenching time. We knew the day would come, but were hoping for a few more full time years here. As it is we can come back for three months per calendar year.

Please continue praying with us as we wrap full time ministry up here and seek how to continue while not living in country full time. We are planning the yearly pastor conference for 2017 in Rundu, north east Namibia. We aren’t ready to give up on full time missions yet. It’s hard to explain how much we depend on you spiritually, not just financially. God answers prayers and leads us in many ways: intercessory prayers, seeing where God is at work and joining it, advice from other believers, open and closed doors. We will be taking a vision trip to Costa Rica in November to consider ministry human trafficking and education.

Please come celebrate 17 years of By Provision serving full time in Africa at the Wilkins' on Friday October 7th starting at 5:00pm.We'll have barbeque and the fixins from 5pm until 8pm.

5855 Hwy 51

Wilsonville, AL 35186

205-678-5024 off.

205-370-6071 Gary

205-441-3899 Elizabeth

It’s a joy to spend time with you while we were in the US. If you can’t make it on October 7^th, please let us know when we can meet with you. Contact us via cell phone: Gary 205-370-6071 Elizabeth 205-441-3899 or email: ewilkins@byprovision.org

May God bless you as you walk ever closer with Him each day.

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D.

 

August 2016

Pray for Namibia as we face the rest of the drought year. Thankfully a good rainy season has been predicted for next year, but that doesn’t help right now. The rain is four months out. One of the new good wells this month stands out. It is in a new area of service, Combat, and the desperation of the people is palpable. Combat was an abandoned mine area until just last year. The people that had stayed behind after the first mine closed had relied on a government well that had a windmill. Having no jobs and all entities, except for the primary school, close down after the mines closed the people are exclusively dependant on agriculture (small animals and crops).

The Combat borehole and the windmill broke down a few years ago. As long as there was enough rain and they moved around they were able to survive. Then the terrifying drought came over the last two years and took all they had. They came to us late in the year to request a well, lest the all die. We were reluctant to tackle a new area so late in the year, not having drilled in the area before and not having an established relationship with the headman. After an assessment trip, Gary felt compelled to at least try. God was good to us and them. He provided a good well! When it came to pumping water out there was a “fight” between the children and Paulus, the one legged man in the picture below, as to how the hand pump would be set up and who would get to pump first. He won, threw his crutches on the ground, and started pumping!

Pastor Andreas Kativa, also missionary to Angola, has returned to Tsumeb to build the church in Namsoub back up. It had over a hundred members when he left 5 years ago, and is now down to a handful. Pray for Andreas and his wife as they reestablish the church on their own. Their sons were a great help to them, but are now adults with jobs in other cities and one is in South Africa.

This month was Joseph’s birthday. He was so proud to tie up his big cake box on the back of the bicycle and take it home to his family. Bertha’s birthday was also this month. She feels a bit cheated because it falls at the end of the second term of school, just before a two week break. This year she decided to wait for everyone to be home on the 30^th to celebrate. She chose a chocolate cake with coconut filling shaped like a Bible. Olivia and Indileni made flags with Bible verses on them to decorate the cake. The birthdays of 12^th graders are particularly hard to deal with, especially those in August and September, as we know it is also a goodbye. We don’t get to see them much afterwards. It’s similar to sending your kids off to college across country without the means to get them home for Christmas break. “Not nice!” as they say here.

After two years, Yasmine finally got a job at Mr. Price, a retail shop, in Okahandja. Her mother also got a job and moved several hours away. She is now living on her own, after putting down deposits for rent, buying uniforms, and starting housekeeping for herself, thanks to the financial assistance from volunteers to get on her feet these first couple of months. She is so thankful. Please pray she will also find a good church home. She has struggled to fit in at the churches she’s visited in Okahandja. Pray God will send godly believers into her life, especially now that she’s alone.

The DAT young ladies started their final semester and take exit exams from September 15^th through the end of October. Andre and Nadine will be taking care of them through the end of the year. Nadine is a teacher in the private school here in Tsumeb and her husband works in the mine. The young ladies are a bit nervous. This is the first time they will not be cared from by Americans. Nadia even asked for a hard copy printed letter certified with a police stamp to make sure they would be taken care of till the end of school. Perhaps we failed in that they trust American Christians more than local believers. Then again, only one local person ever volunteered to help with DAT. This will be a good learning experience for them as they trust each other more. Instead of solely rely on the goodness of foreign believers. After all we all serve the same Lord.

Pray for Namibians to turn to Jesus and follow Him.

May God bless you as you walk ever closer with Him each day.

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D.

June and July 2016

The past three months took us by surprise, but God sent help. Late June Gary had emergency eye surgery and Elizabeth had a four hour dental procedure. Just afterwards Dr. Steytler said Gary couldn’t afford to wait any longer for his rotary cuff surgery. Early July Denise and Roddy George arrived to stay for a month and took care of the DAT young ladies while Gary had his surgery in Windhoek. They also did Sunday School and Sunday evening worship. Since we couldn’t drill, Roddy found all kinds of things to repair around the house. He was also Gary’s chauffeur since he couldn’t drive. Roddy did some hunting and got us wort hog for the first time this year. We were all grateful and are still enjoying the meat. We celebrated Denise’s birthday with a 5 layer “mountain” cake. Denise and Roddy spent most of their time with the DAT young ladies having nightly devotions, special events each weekend: going to Lake Oshikoto, having a BBQs, pancakes with peaches and custard night, taking pictures for prom, helping with weekday afternoon Good News Clubs, buying prom shoes, and grocery shopping. Denise found out how difficult it can be to just get bread. One week it took five different shopping trips to three grocery stores, before we finally found enough bread. Life simply takes a lot of time and effort to get the basics covered. The DAT made the George’s a plaque to take home. The Georges gave each young lady a new phone and/or a laptop. These have become necessities after high school for college and/or just to be able to give future employers a number they can call to offer a job. When the Georges got home, within a couple of days, Denise printed out photos for each DAT young lady, both casual and formal, and sent them to us with the next volunteers: Melba Parham and Hayley Arnold.

May God bless you as you walk ever closer with Him each day.

Drilling is much more comfortable now that we are in late Fall, mid-eighties during the day and low 60's at night. This is Gary favorite time of the year. God blessed By Provision with an international Rotary grant. It couldn't have come at a better time! God constantly surprises us in the ways He supplies all we need for His work. The people we serve have no idea and probably couldn't grasp how much money is needed to drill. If they did, they would be in even more awe about receiving wells.

Moses' (drill assistant) birthday was on Mother’s Day. The night before he called to make sure Elizabeth didn't forget his special day. The workers get a cake just like the DAT young ladies do. Also that night, we got our three minute Mother's Day rain. Every year for the past 16 years we've gotten a couple of minutes rain, just enough to be able to smell wet dust in the air. On Mother's Day itself, Elizabeth started the day off with best wishes from one of our pastors at 7am. Various pastors and DAT present and past members called throughout the day.

Moses' grandfather died in early May. Moses was blessed to be an adult and still have a grandfather, none the less it is painful. His grandfather was a pastor. Pray for Moses and his family. They lose several family members every year. Praise, God, his baby is doing fine. Moses finds joy daily in small things and accepts whatever God allows. He is an example to us. If you were here and saw the little place he and about 20 family members live in with no water or electricity, you would see his hope is truly only in God.

We can't wait for Sunday School to resume on June 4th. It's been very quiet at our house with the DAT young ladies and all the school children gone on school holiday for the month. Every week in May has a holiday. There are a total of six days off with three in the first week of May. Most businesses closed for the whole week, some closed for the entire month. The stores that are open have a skeleton crew. It was especially quiet, since this is mainly a student town and schools are on break the whole month. This is also the month that tourism picks up as we are less than an hour from the nicest game park in Africa. As May progresses daily life becomes more difficult, everything from obtaining food at the grocery stores to getting bank transactions done.

Some families don't have transport money for their children to come home. They hang around with their friends, play soccer, walk around town, and sleep wherever they can while waiting for the school hostels to reopen. When they get hungry they stand around outside the grocery stores or fast food places in hopes of something to eat. Gary had many opportunities to feed the hungry this month. They know he's a softie that will buy them sweet bread and coke, whereas Elizabeth gives them peanuts, tuna fish, boiled eggs-some kind of protein.

Bertha, Nadia, and Indileni agreed to give up a week of their holiday to teach 5 day clubs in Swakopmund braving the cold nights. It was to be Indileni's first time to teach 5 days straight, but she had to help with a family funeral and was unable to go. We've made sure as many DAT members as possible have this opportunity. With responsibility comes privilege. Nadia enjoyed being at the sea.

 

There were just over a hundred children that came to the 5 Day Club with 50 children making decisions to be Christ followers. Local CEF staff and church volunteers will follow up with the children. Starting in mid-June weekly Good News Clubs will begin again. Just like in the US events like the 5 Day Club, VBS, and camps serve both as evangelistic outreaches and discipleship tools. The ones who learn the most of course are the teachers and volunteers as they study to prepare and then teach.

 

Bertha took advantage to meet with scientists in Swakopmund that she befriended last year at the Youth Environmental Summit in hopes of getting some help obtaining a scholarship. She has the maturity to realize she needs to cease the blessings God is putting in her life. She stayed with us the first week of break to learn to keyboard. The internet program gave her a lot of feedback making it easy to gauge her progress. She came back on the 21st, ten days early to get a head start on a school project. Aina came back on the 22. The others trickled in after that for school starting on May 31st.

Public speaking, teaching groups, and traveling to new areas are some of the experiences we want all DAT members to have. Several of them mentioned how helpful it was to the to be pushed to speak in public, take part in weekly meetings, learn how to present their thoughts, plan and negotiate during weekly DAT meetings. Now if we could only figure out how teach them to give directions beyond "somewhere on the other side."

Past DAT members are doing well. Maria will graduate for college this year. Rally passed her TOEFL exam and got her student visa approved to study in US at a community college. Yasmine is taking a tourism course next month in Windhoek. Rosa and Helena continue at university. Linda is a youth leader in a Windhoek church heading up service events. This month they did a car wash-a novel idea here and it worked great!

Gary did some hunting to restock our freezers that were empty. Elizabeth, Moses, and Joseph did all the processing. With all the funerals this month, we needed more meat than normal. The DAT young ladies will be happy to see at least one freezer full of meat. They love it when Gary hunts, but it is a lot of work to process and Elizabeth doesn't like them to stay up late on a school night.

Roddy and Denise George will be coming mid-June for a month. The DAT young ladies are excited to have them visit again. Pray for Denise especially as she is recovering from a surgery and going on previous mission trip to South Dakota, before coming to Namibia.

Please continue to pray for our work permits! Home Affairs still hasn't answered. As of May 31st we are here illegally. In the past it wasn't a big problem, as long as your application was submitted. However, just last month two Zambian missionaries were jailed for overstaying their visa. Pray God will soften the hearts of the officials and move them to allow the Zambian missionaries to return and approve and stamp our work permits. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. There is no way for us to explain how much we depend on you. God answers prayers! Pray for Namibia as we face the rest of the drought year. Pray for Namibians to turn to Jesus and trust Him and Him alone.

May God bless you as you walk ever closer with Him each day.

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D.

No pain, no gain has been the motto this month. The local leader and volunteers at the drill site didn’t show up. Gary, Joseph and Moses decided to go ahead with the drill, since they had driven all the way out into the bush. The soil formation was breaking off and falling back onto the top of the hammer. This requires a lot of extra work, entailing more cleaning out that Gary is able to do with the hydraulics and the air compressor. It also requires beating the drill steel to help free up the debris that is falling from the top onto the drill hammer. Joseph and Moses got too tired in the hot sun. All three carried on working until the hammer got stuck. Gary decided they had to get the hammer out and pull all the drill steel out of the hole. Hot, tired, and frustrated about the hammer the guys made a mistake. They tried losing one of the 100lb piece wrench before the drill steel quit turning. The C wrench went flying through the air bouncing off of Moses’ upper thigh, knocking him to the ground, and then hit Joseph in the chest. There was no blood. They were screeching in pain. Gary told Moses to drop his pants. Moses said no way. Gary insisted and saw no blood. Regardless Gary was frightened they might have internal injuries, since they were still screaming and crying in pain. Gary loaded them up and took off for the hour and a half journey to the hospital. First Gary took them to the private hospital emergency entrance where they were told there was no doctor on call. Then Gary took them to the public hospital where Elizabeth and Aina met them. Aina stayed with them at the hospital. After hours of checking them out and not finding any broken bones or internal damage, they were released and told to take a 10 day rest. Elizabeth sent food, water, Easter chocolates, and Tylenol pm to help them sleep through the night. Gary picked them up and took them home.

Just a few days after Joseph and Moses were hurt; they decided to come back to work early. They wanted Elizabeth to “check” them and were concerned about having abandoned the drill rig in the bush with the drill hammer still in the hole. Armed with extra pain medicine and two temporary workers, they set out. As they left the edge of town, Joseph said: There is Elizabeth’s bike! It had been stolen the month before. Gary was driving and did a U-turn. Upon seeing himself chased by a pickup truck, the guy on the bike put it over a pad locked fence. Gary slammed on the breaks and all four 20 something year old workers jumped out to chase the old guy (mid 50s) with the stolen bike. The two part time workers, Titus and William, led the race to retrieve the bike. Joseph forgot about his pain trying to keep up with them. Moses hobbled along last a fast as he could. Upon seeing his demise, the old guy threw the bike down. Ever so happy the guys retrieved the bike. Wish we had a picture of this! When they got home, the DAT young ladies hugged and thanked them for getting the bike back, because Elizabeth had taken over one of their bikes. The handle grips had been replaced and the seat torn, but Elizabeth was thrilled to have her old bike back.

The Etosha 12^th graders have been “blocked” from school all month so they can study for exams. They just go to school when they have an exam. Nadia and Olivia are jealous, because their school didn’t blocked them. Florence and Salinde have school as normal even though they too have exams. Each day Bertha, Indileni, and Ester are spread out over the compound studying hard. Their favorite spots are the lapa, the front veranda sitting area, the kitchen, and the outside dining nook. It’s “winter time” now, so they look like old grandmas in fleece pjs all day wrapped up in bathrobes while they study.

The last week of April and all next month is holiday. Everybody finished on April 22. We celebrated the end of term with an elegant sit down supper with donated fine china. Bertha and Nadia stayed with us the first week of holiday break, while Bertha dedicated herself to learning keyboarding. Nadia, Indileni, and Bertha will be doing a CEF 5 day club at the beach in Swakopmund. Elizabeth packed sleeping bags and other needed items for them. Aina is going to help her grandfather and Aunt on the farm. Florence will go to her mother’s farm to help with the harvest. Salinde, Olivia, and Ester will be with relatives in different towns. It will be very quiet around here the few weeks without the DAT young ladies and Sunday School children.

The rain is “finished” as they say here in Africa. The water holes never filled up this year. It’s now a two year drought. We haven’t reached the critical stage yet. Overall the average person lost 50% of their wealth (cows, goats, sheep) last year and expect to lose at least 25% more this year, despite selling off animals and the government stepping in with emergency assistance. These facts make providing safe drinking water even more essential than ever. With less money on hand (animals to sell), nutrition goes down and the people are weaker, most susceptible to water borne diseases. On Saturdays our old pickups stay busy helping with funerals. Linea’s (“Big Pony” DAT graduate) mother died and her husband abandoned her and their child. Joseph’s grandfather also died this month. He is grateful to have enjoyed his grandfather.

Please continue to pray for our work permits. The current ones expire at the end of May. We are pleading for two more years in Namibia. Please pray for return volunteers who are making plans to come in June and July: Roddy and Denise George from Alamaba and Melba Parham and her granddaughter Hailey from TX. It will be Hailey's first time to Africa. The DAT young ladies are excited to meet her in person, since they only know her through Facebook.

After 16 years on the field, it’s amazing that God keeps giving us new experiences and teaching us. Seymour Baptist Church, TX came from March 4-13^th. They ministered in Tsumeb and Outapi. Bill and Luke were first time volunteers to Africa. Luke is By Provision’s youngest volunteer ever, 10 years old. Luke attended Francis Galton Primary School with Dominicus, helped Elizabeth prepare snacks and drinks for the pastor training breaks and did toilet checks to make sure they were flushed properly and not stopped up. Luke ate lots of chicken schnitzel (chicken fried chicken without the gravy) and strawberry milk shakes. The Sunday School children were proud to have an American attend their school! It was quite stretching for Luke. Two classes were taught in Africaans and the teacher made an effort to translate for him. School starts at 7am and finishes at 12:50pm with only one 15 minute break. Luke said he didn’t have time to eat his snack.

Luke’s father, pastor David Warren, and Sid Winn led the pastor training in Tsumeb. The topic was “Leading a Gospel Focused Church.” The 15 pastors developed a clear purpose for their local church, a mission statement, and determined its activities. The pastors were encouraged in their fight for the faith. They reviewed 30 core traits of a disciple. One of the most difficult homework assignments was identifying the local church’s basic beliefs and principles on which to build the body of Christ. In a power and fear based society the idea of leading and empowering others to fulfil the church’s vision was a difficult to receive. The church’s stewardship was not shied away from either. The pastors were asked to plan budgets according to the church’s vision and purpose. Finally David led them in an overview of a healthy church. Their brains were tired and their hearts touched and motivated to continue the ministry.

Pic David teaching

One of the lighter moments of pastor training was attending to physical needs. Reading glasses or various strengths and/or sunglasses were given to all. Many of them didn’t know about reading glasses and were amazed how helpful they are. Sunglasses are viewed as a luxury, but they are actually needed to protect their sight from the Namibian sun. Upon seeing there were over a 100 pairs “left over” the pastors took them to their deacons and other church members that were having trouble reading their Bibles. This was the last of the reading and sunglasses we had.

Pic Glasses for pastors

The Seymour group was at Sunday School two Sundays. Sid helped David with the pastor training and also preached the evening service on John 15. Sorry, I didn’t get good pictures of him. Here’s one of Sid with the Sunday School kids.

Pic SS Sid

Before part of the Seymour group went to Outapi, they greeted the DAT young ladies. The DAT prayed for them and the ministry they would do in the north. We sent them along with dozens of hymnals, Bible story books, church bulletins that we use to make cards and invitations, and some Easter decorations.

Pic Praying with DAT

When they came back to Tsumeb, Beverly and Jo spent a whole day with the DAT young ladies. They cleaned, cooked, shopped, had Bible study, and gave them gifts. The plan was to go swimming, but the day turned out to be too cold. The Seymour group also brought gifts for Gary (pain medicine and soft shorts) that were very much appreciated!!!

Pic Gifts for DAT

Pastor Chanda Wonder also did a training in Oshikuku, northern Namibia, during the same week. He’s was more upscale at a hotel and had quite a few attending. He had to abandon the work here in Tsumeb, when we lost the building. He is doing fine and developing the church in Oshikuku.

Pic Chanda Wonder Training

Easter CEF outreach in Tsintsabis

The week between Palm Sunday and Easter was school break. It’s so sad when the kids are gone! The whole town is empty. Tsumeb is a school town, overflowing during school time, empty otherwise. The DAT young ladies seem to be the only ones that hang around. Florence left a few days late. Olivia came back after three days. Salinde left a day late and came home a day early. Bertha and Nadia stayed with us the whole time. For Easter we decided to help CEF with an outreach to Tsintsabis. The DAT young ladies helped serve lunch to 147 people and clean up afterwards, taught the memory verse, led the review game, helped with the songs, played soccer with the children, and gave out candy at the end. It was hot and weary, but they enjoyed it very much.

Pic Easter in Tsintsabis

None of the DAT young ladies had been to Tsintsabis, so they were excited to go to a new place and observe a new culture. Olivia and Bertha were also keen to see a borehole and help Gary put install a pump handle. Bertha had all kinds of questions: Did they share the water? How did we keep it clean?

Pic Olivia and Bertha installing pump handle and

Pic coming to get water

Not far from where the CEF event was taking place is another one of our boreholes. I looked up and saw some guys vying for their turn at the pump. Two people had come with donkeys and another couple came in a car. In the end, the people in the car gave some tobacco to the donkey guys so they could get their containers filled first. The donkey stood there sort of bewildered about the process. I finally decided to go take a picture of the process, but the couple in the car were embarrassed and quickly closed the hatch of their car.

Pic Donkey vs Car fetching water

Gary’s is making good progress recovering from the knee replacements. He finished physical therapy and is now doing biokenetics. He was told he could ride a real bike on the road in town after Easter. He’s done all the little projects he was willing to do around the house. He is stir crazy. He’s not a little projects and details guy. He likes big, dirty, sweaty, and bloody projects. He got up and went drilling, instead of cycling. It didn’t help that during the school break people came to visit, including the Tsintsabis headman, asking when he’s getting back to work.

March was a wonderful month. We got 50% of the total yearly rainfall. Most crops have survived, but sadly the water catchments are still dry. Volunteers came to help and encourage us. A Christ centered Easter focused on serving and evangelising is great! Thank you for your faithful support and prayers!

Please start praying for our work permits that expire at the end of May. We turned in all the paperwork in mid January. We are asking God to touch the hearts of those approving and stamping our passports to give us two more years.

God bless each of you,

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D.

Gary drilled incessantly before double knee replacement surgery and rode his bike faithfully to build up his muscles. He is ahead of schedule in physical therapy. God is blessing his desire to be drilling again as soon as possible.

This time of recovery requires rest from heavy labour, as we keep working in other areas of ministry. Rest is a relative term. On the way to Windhoek we took some pictures of a typical rest area along the nicest biggest highway of Namibia. Big trees are a treasure. Nice rest areas have a shade tree, a cement picnic table, and a drum for trash. If you carry “tickets to the game” as Gary calls toilet paper on road trips, you can get behind the vehicle.

Gary is now aware of how many people come to the gate all day long every day asking for boreholes and many others things. Some have come to see the wonder of “knee replacement,” and a few have prayed over him. Angolan and Namibian pastors have stayed in touch and fervently prayed for Gary. Pst Lazarus from Omuthiya fasted and prayed three weeks for the surgery and recovery. Then he sent a text to Elizabeth saying it was her turn! Two weeks after surgery Gary decided it was time to get back to work, at least repairing boreholes and doing site assessments for new ones.

People are desperate for water. We had two short rains this month, enough to turn the grass green. The two year drought is taking a toll. Cattle are dying of starvation affecting the livelihood of families. Thankfully all of our boreholes still have water. It’s blessing from God! Those who have a borehole are still enjoying abundant safe water, despite the long line and the heavy haul home.

Several previous DAT young ladies have been in contact with us. Rachel has a new job as School Support Officer for a primary school in Australia. Maria Aukongo just has one more year of Environmental Health Services at University of Namibia. Linda Shipomba is enjoying church life. Rally loves working for the pharmacy in Otjiwarongo. Tenth and twelfth graders have never been allowed to repeat a grade. Now with “free education” that started this year for high school, everyone is promoted to the next grade whether they are ready or not. A few of them know this is not in their best interest. The current 12^th graders (Nadia, Bertha, Ndilineni, Olivia, and Ester) are anxious about life. Most are being tutored ($40/mo if you would like to help them) aiming for the highest scores possible. Life celebrations are welcomed with joy. DAT celebrated Mickey’s birthday with cake, cards, prayers, and listening to Mickey share her dreams and goals for this year.

Losing the church building and moving it to our house has not impacted Sunday School or church attendance. Praise, God, there is shade for Sunday School and worship! A generous donation came in after sharing the need last month for a grace shelter. Being at home more this month allowed Gary to oversee the construction of the lapa (thick grass roof). The DAT young ladies are thrilled because it is also making their rooms cooler and giving them a much more comfortable place to study. Children continue to invite others and new ones get saved nearly every week. There are more teenagers this year. Chantel moved to Tsumeb this year to attend 11^th and 12^th grade. North of Tsumeb many communities only have a Junior High School (8^th, 9^th, & 10^th grades). Within two weeks of coming to Sunday School Chantel asked Jesus Christ to be her Saviour and Lord.

Seymour, TX First Baptist Church is coming the first two weeks of March. Pastor David Warren and Sid Winn will lead a week long training for pastors. Beverly Kinnibrugh and Jo will host a Bible study and fun day for the DAT young ladies. Luke Warren, 11 years old, will attend school with Dominicus here in Tsumeb. Pray for safety of travel and activities with other churches and pastors they will be doing here in Namibia.

Pray for recovery so Gary can get back to drilling. People using hand dug well with contaminated water desperately need a borehole with a hand pump to ensure safe water for their families.

God blesses the drilling, but nothing short of repentance and trusting in Jesus as Lord will suffice: “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” 2 Chronicles 7:14. Pray for more Namibians to come to Christ!

Thank you for your faithful support and prayers! God bless you,

Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D.

Pic DAT School

Please pray for the DAT young ladies to study in earnest. Starting this year Namibia has “free school” for all 12 grades. The DAT members spent the first week of school trying to locate text books and/or making copies of existing text books. The better teachers left the public system. Now public school students aren’t allowed to fail. Young “failures” (as they are called here) will be promoted regardless of scores and older ones will not be allowed back in school. The expectation is that students from first grade on appreciate the opportunity and money spent on them by the government. If they don’t, they should give space to those that do. Pray for all the school children in Namibia to live up to the expectation put upon them.

The church building was taken away from us. Thankfully Kip and Sue, US volunteers, removed everything before they left in early December and stored it at a church’s member’s house that is under construction. Missionaries have been using the church building for 35 years. We tried to buy it from the owners about four years ago which reminded them of their abandoned building. In mid December a pastor from that denomination simply took up residency in the Tsumeb church building. We gave away all the preschool furniture, puzzles, books to a Christian preschool in shanty town here in Tsumeb. Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) took the keyboard, projector, vacuum cleaner, and 20 chairs. The sound system will be given to Pst. Anton or Pst. Hiliwa. They both just finished a new building after 10 years of worshiping in a mud and stick construction building. It will be whichever has the necessary power to use it. We kept Bibles, chairs, movable metal black board, and the pulpit.

Now we're meeting in our house for worship service and holding the Sunday School in the back yard. There were over 30 kids that showed up the very first Sunday without any communication about where the Sunday School had moved to! They don’t fit inside the house, so we are meeting in the yard. The Sunday School children made 100 invitations and then walked in the mid day upper 90s heat to hand out the invitations in the neighbourhood to make sure everyone knows where Sunday School meets now. It's been over 100 nearly every day in January and there is very little shade. We need to make some kind of shelter for the Sunday School and we could use it for worship too!

Pic of Sunday School

Namibia is a desert land. There is no such thing as free shade. There isn’t a big tree that hasn’t been claimed by someone. These trees are referred to as a “palaces.” Our property doesn’t have a tree, just a few bushes. The only solution is to build a grace covering/shelter to get out of the sun and hopefully rain. It will cost about $5,000. May God lead someone to donate this shelter.

Gary went to the doctor for a second opinion after the orthopaedic surgeon in the US told him he needed both knees replaced and his shoulder worked on. He's been falling quite often and is hurting himself more. Hopefully both knees will be replaced at the same time on Feb. 4th.. Please pray for favour with the insurance company and for Gary not to hurt himself any further. He's been repairing wells, getting road permits for the vehicles, and drilling as much as possible to get holes in the ground done before the surgery. The workers can pour the pads and set the pumps.

January 27th Elizabeth was praying Gary wouldn't get hurt while drilling. Normally Elizabeth only prays for a successful borehole and people to see God's love in action. In the past 15 years, he’s only been hurt once while drilling. When Gary got home he said the last piece of drill steel came unscrewed at the top and bottom at the same time. This has never happened to Gary before. Gary sits on the rig and controls the rotation of the drill steel. The workers stand on the ground and use c-wrenches to finish taking it off. There was no way for them to catch the 80 pound 6 foot long piece of drill steel above their head. It fell straight towards Gary's head and he wasn’t wearing a hard hat in the 100 degree heat. Gary saw the steel coming and was able to lift his bad arm just enough to deflect it from hitting his head.

Pic Gary drilling

Maria Shafa decided she wanted to learn how to do some digital marketing. Elizabeth helped her set up her Facebook page and learn how to load pictures. Hopefully the student will be better at marketing than the teacher! Elizabeth also designed business cards and flyers for her. It has been a joy to see Maria go from sleeping in the toilet at the lodge where she worked to having her own business. It’s taken years, but Maria has prospered financially as her soul has grown in faith.

Pic Maria

Our new Namibian work permits we submitted mid January to an agency that will handle the rest of the process. It is nearly 50 pages of paperwork including By Provision registration, deed, social security registration, yearly financial audits (2014 & 2015), yearly reports including human resource development plan and replacement strategies, board minutes, police clearances for each of us, proof of social security payment for every employ in the last 2 years, 2 page application form, motivation letter, letter from local headman requesting we be allowed to continue, letter from water specialist validating our work, etc. The Home Affairs Ministry has not accepted applications yet this year. They “need to get organized and sorted before they sit.” Please pray for speed and favour for approval of 2 year work permits to be granted before the current permits end May 30th.

Trudie needs more adult volunteers to help with CEF. She relies heavily on the DAT young ladies, 5 of which are 12th graders. The challenge with 12th graders is their final exams start in September and their school year ends in October. Trudie needs new volunteers to take their place no later than August, so they can learn what needs to be done. DAT won't be taking replacements for these 5 members until next January when the school year starts, because we don’t have a place to house them until then. Please pray that God will call more local adults to volunteer with CEF in Tsumeb.

Pic DAT family

Praise, God, the church and Sunday School continue, the Tsintsabis headman has approved 8 new well sites, the DAT young ladies are wonderful, Gary is ready to go through with the needed surgeries, it rained once mid January and there are actually a couple of inches of water in catchments that have been dry for the last 2 years. We are thankful for friends who pray for us and for the many people who are still waiting for clean, safe, accessible water and the Living Water. God bless you!