Greetings from Luanshya! This is coming to you a day early this week because we are going to a conference for a couple of days.
Sherry and I do not always compare notes when we are preparing messages (mine for the church and hers for the youth), but this past week our lessons complimented each other in a very unusual way.
On Sunday morning I preached on setting a time for God and the fact that our prayer life needs to be a set time (an appointment) with God every day. So many people give God that fifteen second "bless the food prayerette" before the meal and think they have really spent time with God. I encouraged everyone in the chapel to consider their prayer time as important in their daily schedule as any other part of their day.
The next day Sherry talked to her young people about their responsibility to God in considering their daily lives as an offering to God. She explained that living the Christ-centered life was not something that was accidental but was intentional. In the same way that these young people have been encouraged to set an appointment with God for prayer on Sunday morning, Sherry pointed them towards the understanding that they needed to set appointments with God concerning every aspect of their life. She stressed the point of Ecclesiastes 3:13 that work is the gift of God and all the benefits are a result of faithfulness and blessing. Both messages brought out the fact that our relationship with God is something that requires planning and commitment.
Monday morning we received a visit from a young man we had helped several years ago. He had been in the church service Sunday morning for the first time in years and realised that he had made a lot of really bad decisions in the course of his life-beginning with broken communication with God. He had listened to his friends and to unbelieving members of his family and thought that he had all the answers. What he did not realise is that his newfound "counsellors" really didn't know the questions. As he sat in the office, his face was downcast and his shoulders stooped as he apologised for his attitude towards us and his actions towards God. Please pray for J. as he continues to sort out his life. It is always humbling when a prodigal comes home.
The children at the Lighthouse Children's Home are on school break for another week or so. They are busy working on the garden and enjoying their time outdoors. Colin will be spending a few days with them, later this week, in order to maintain a personal relationship with each one. They enjoy having him around and he enjoys being "big brother" to the young ones.
Finally, we do have one very special prayer request this week. Sherry's car "broke". There was apparently an oil leak that we did not catch in time. The mechanic has taken the engine apart and is trying to find all the spare parts to put it back together. Hopefully it will be back in action later this week. Please pray that we can get this situation sorted out.
We appreciate your prayers on our behalf.
In His Service,
Patrick and Sherry
Dr. Patrick and
Sherry Coleman
Luanshya, Zambia Africa