Sowing with Gladness
Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to you in the name of Our Lord and Savior: JESUS!!!
First, I want to let you know that I (Salonique Adolphe) and my family are doing well. I just wish I were able to carve out some time to write you earlier than this. But this last month has been unusually stressful for me. At night I could not do much and on top of this I had to get ready for the next day's meetings. I have had twenty four major meetings in the last four weeks (Not counting the small ones), Over half of those meetings had to do with raising salaries of employees, teachers and others. The other ones were not less stressful because some of them were about people's relations to people, or present day challenges of our church here in Gonaives -- the problem of space (buildings) to put people, students in particular, in all our campuses. It takes GOD to continue to do this work for another day. Thankfully His bigness is beyond our reach, beyond our reason, and beyond our reality. He will do it.
In days like this, I remind myself of the Word of the Lord to Zerubbable through Zechariah:
So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. 7 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ” 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 10 “Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the LORD that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?” (NIV)
When the Israelite heard this, they might have had a good laugh because it was unlikely for this to happen. But God is God. He did it. So I strongly believe that God will continue to be with Living Water and will not let us be put to shame, because we are doing His work, for His glory and HIS alone.
I (Salonique) have to say that the impact is so wonderful. I believe that God will use His people to help us reach the monthly challenge of 40,000 USD to pay salaries of all our employees, which is about 200 people. Though a number of them do more than one job. Some of our ministers are teachers or part of school/clinic staff.
We had a very active Summer here. We were busy in sowing the good seed. We had about 400 kids in Summer Camp, thanks to First Christian Church of Mountain Grove where my brother and friend Justin DeVries is preaching. The leadership there has made it possible for us to have the best Summer Camp ever. We had over 40 helpers/teachers (Sponsors), about a dozen ladies at the cafeteria, a couple guys for safety issues and a team of seven people to lead the whole thing. So between kids, parents dropping and picking up kids, sponsors and cooks, the place was busy from 7 AM to 2 PM. The kids learned a lot. Some produced amazing art work made out of trash, bracelets, sandals, and other things. They had all kinds of classes taught to them. At the end we had a wonderful party for all of them. The amazing thing about the camp this year is that about 30% of the kids are not Living Water kids. Over 100 new children got to learn about Jesus during July and August. Some have been coming to church since.
The children, parents, and cafeteria staff enjoyed this program. Most of our sponsors were young people. They enjoyed it. We are all thankful to the Church at Mountain Grove for making it possible to have such a wonderful program.
On August 5th we celebrated the 6th anniversary of Living Water Christian Church at White Mountain. It was an exceptionally beautiful ceremony in a well kept church building with immaculate tiles. The church people were the ones who put their dimes and dollars together to execute this project. It was very encouraging to see. I was lost in watching the kids worshipping. That is wonderful sowing. Sowing done with gladness. Many of the young people who are making a difference now were 4, 5, or 6 years old when we started. They are growing up to make are marked difference in the community at large, the Christian community in particular.
An organization Sew to Sow sent some clothes for our people with brother Brian Sevits and team. We gave them away this Summer. The people enjoyed them very much. We sent some to several places. In all of them we never had not enough. But some did leave the place very happy. These acts of kindness that bring joy to the kids and parents are powerful gesture telling them Jesus is better. We won't stop sowing, knowing harvest is coming soon and harvest is here.
I am please to report to you that we have had another academic year of great success. This year 27 of our 28 kids passed the government exam and 9 of them with some of the highest marks.
We are very thankful to everyone who makes it possible for us to have a radio station on the air. It is working great!!! The people are very grateful to finally have a Christian Radio Station that sticks to the Word, Christian music and values. I have a two-hour program every Saturday 5 thru 7 entitled "Light on the New Testament." The people are very encouraging through their comments. I praise the Lord for giving me such a big audience to teach. May the Lord add big dividends to your account for those of you who partner with us in sowing with gladness.
Oh yes, it is very stressful, but looking at the result, it is worth it.
Please join us to change the future for hundreds of kids and thousands of young adults and adults for Christ. It helps to sow with gladness.
On a sad note, I have just learned that one of our top supporters has been called home. After years of battling with cancer, my brother, friend, encourager and supporter John Meyer has gone home. He is done with pain. He is done with earthly concerns, yet we are suffering from such a big loss. John and Helen have lavishly and generously supported Living Water from the very beginning. The school at Highland carries their names. So John's work will continue. Please be in prayer for Helen, his wife, and his two children, grand children and all those who are mourning such a big loss.
In the meantime, let us continue to sow with gladness.
In Him,
Salonique Adolphe and team
P.S. A big thank you to Anchorage Christian Church, Lttle Beaver Lake Christian camp, Kenai Christian Church, the McDaniel and Clarde families, Kiamichi Mountain Mission, Pleasant Ridge Christian Church and all of those who made my trip with my sons Tim and Ben in the States a success. Again thank you. May God bless you. WE miss you all.
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