April Prayer and Newsletter

April 12, 2008

Dear Ministry Partners,

Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We continue to be blessed by many people in support of our ministry to Namibia. God certainly confirms our calling each month as we review our donor reports. Every month there is a new monthly supporter. We want to thank each of you for supporting our family. As of March, we are at 70% of our one time goal of $67K, and we are at 50% of our monthly support needs! Praise the Lord!!!
One new blessing to our family is that of Brian’s full time job situation. We have been praying for God to show us when and how to start visiting local churches in order to share our vision and future ministry. Starting this month his manager will allow him to have a half a day off each week to take time to visit local churches. This is a huge opportunity and a blessing. So please be praying for God to open the hearts and ears of the church leaders that Brian begins to visit this month. Pray specifically that they will be open to hearing about our plans, and that they would consider supporting our family in missions.
In the town that we will be working in, there have been a couple other missionaries that have been working in the local schools and they have also been helping with the church needs. We found out last month that their missions’ agency (African Inland Mission) will be reorganizing their efforts in Africa. With this reorganization, they will be pulling their missionaries out of Namibia and relocating them to other areas in Africa.
This means a couple of things for the church in Grootfontein, and for our ministry. The AIM missionaries will be leaving the country as of December 2008. That will leave the church without any missionary workers until we arrive. So our prayer is that if it is God’s will, we will secure 100% of our monthly support needs in the next five to six months in order to move to Africa shortly after the AIM missionaries move out.
For the last few months we have been working on getting items ready for our visas. As of today we will finally be able to submit these and our passports to Namibia for their review and approval. Kristen and the kids will be applying for general stay visas, but Brian will be applying for a work visa. As we have stated in the past, it can take as much as six months or more to get the applications approved. Our prayer is that we are getting them in soon enough so that they are ready by the time our support needs are raised.
We covet your prayers daily and can feel them every day. Your prayers mean so much to us. Just to know that God has called out people to fervently remember our family in their daily prayers means so much to us. Please continue to pray for our support raising efforts. We have truly been blessed. We are patient and half way there. So as Brian starts to visit churches and as more people learn of our mission efforts, pray that God will draw new financial supporters to our team. Also pray for our visas as they are now nearing the approval stage, that God will work through the people of Namibia that will be directly involved in approving these for us. Lastly, continue to pray for the Church in Grootfontein as they prepare for a group of missionaries to leave, and for us to arrive.
May you feel the presence of the Lord upon you daily.

The Bradsher Family!