"Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob" (Psalm 84.8).
1. Please pray with us for our IICS/CSI colleagues in Nigeria. Infrastructure remains a real problem for many as they teach in the universities and teachers' colleges. We have heard much about lack of adequate internet provision lately, but provision of water, electricity, and petrol/gasoline is not at all dependable.
2. We ask your prayers also for our doctoral students, Dennis, Cosmos, and Chikas, working with Adrian; and Dauda, Kate, and Rebecca, with Wendy. They face many challenges for their research in terms of the availability of internet, water and electricity—all things we take for granted in North America. Pray that they will persevere and make significant progress on their theses by January, when we hope to reconnect with them on a more personal basis.
3. The next few weeks promise to busy for us, as we visit a number of church communities in southern Ontario. Please pray for wisdom for us as we seek to communicate the challenges and opportunities of God's work in Africa tody. Pray also for safety in travel. We are grateful for safe travel this past summer as we flew to Florida for dental care in July, and then attended the CSI/IICS Vision Conference in Kansas City. It was great to celebrate the 20th anniversary of IICS, to be inspired by our speakers, and meet with colleagues working in many varied locations around the world. Thank God with us for the expansion of the ministry of IICS in recent years.
4. Thank God with us for the new course in New Testament Greek for Bible translators that started in Jos in September. Over the last months colleagues Rob Lillo and Rudy Wiebe have been busy revising the introductory New Testament Greek text used in Nigeria, adapting it for this course; and Wendy has been working on final revisions of her own Advanced New Testament textbook. We are grateful that the course is going ahead. Just a week before it was to start we heard from the director that some unpleasant developments at the school necessitated postponement. We encouraged him in prayer, and he decided to go ahead after all. Please pray for strength Robert Lilllo of the Federal College of Education in Gindiri, who taught the first section of the course, and also for Rudy Wiebe, who joined Rob at the end of September. Pray also for the students, for good health and stamina to absorb such large doses of Greek grammar in a very short time. Pray that they may persevere and finish the course. Pray with us that their newly acquired language tools may be a real blessing to them in their translation efforts. Please pray with us that whatever obstacles there were can be removed, and that the devices of the evil one may be undone; we believe this course will be a very helpful tool for Bible translators.
5. Please pray for our Nigeria colleague Layne Turner, who recently had surgery in the USA. Pray for complete recovery, and for the granting of his visa to return to Nigeria, so that he may be able to take part in the Nigeria Bible Translators course in NT Greek. Pray also for the Gibsons, IICS colleagues who recently transferred from the Ukraine (they were already our colleagues there when we were working in Moscow) to work at a central university in Uganda. They had hoped to teach at the University in Juba, in the southern Sudan, but there have been some obstacles. Katrina Korb, our University of Jos and IICS colleague, also hoped to transfer to Juba, so we ask your prayers that the obstacles at the Sudanese university may also be removed.
6. At this time we ask your prayers for our Africa team leader, Danny McCain and his family as they mourn the recent passing of his elderly father; he and Mary were able to attend the funeral. Pray especially for grace and comfort for his mother at this time. It is a difficult time, also because of the hurricanes which have hit Louisiana where she lives.
7. We are grateful for your prayers for wisdom and clarity for us with respect to plans for teaching in the St. Augustine University of Tanzania to help them as they start a Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. We hope to travel to Tanzania early next year to join them for the second semester. Please pray with us as we prepare for this new academic ministry.
8. We would also like to ask your prayers for our family, especially our children; all three of them face some challenges at the moment. We would ask for special prayer for our youngest, Pauline, who lives near Boston, and has experienced some difficulties in this, her third pregnancy. Please pray with us for a safe delivery as close as possible to the due date (in a little over a month). Pray also for our son David, who has just started a program in community development at Sheridan College in Brampton. And pray for our eldest, Sharon, who is transitioning to new work with needy students in an after-school tutoring program connected with St. Silouan’s Orthodox Church in downtown Toronto.
P.S. Please check out Adrian's new blog called 'ask a theologian' at http://helleman.blogspot.com.
4. Pray also for the initiatives in fostering dialogue in our department between Christian and Muslim colleagues. Pray in that regard especially for the colleagues with whom we have worked closely.
5. We would ask your prayers for us as we prepare to make the transition to Tanzania. Pray for safety in all the traveling that lies ahead. Pray that we may be able to adjust quickly, and that we may be given wisdom in assessing the needs, in providing help and advice. Pray also for our family as we will be separated again for some time, and for a safe delivery for our daughter Pauline, who is expecting their third child in November. And pray for our son David, who has just started a program in community development at Sheridan College in Brampton, and our eldest, Sharon, who just started teaching in an after-school tutoring program in downtown Toronto, in addition to her other jobs.
