It has been a busy last couple of months of ministry and celebrating with our son Jonathan who just graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University.  We were privileged to have Jonathan come and spend just 3 weeks with us in order to celebrate this mile stone in his life.  He is still looking for opportunities in his field of environmental justice but is hoping to get involved with some organization that is doing responsible agriculture that both protects our world and is a benefit to the people it serves.  We explored South Africa together from the history of the Apartheid in the city of Johannesburg, to petting lions at the game park, to the tip of Cape of Good Hope, and the beautiful city of Cape Town.  We went into caves, jumped out of an airplane sky diving, and spent some lazy days just watching videos and playing games together.  We even planted some flowers in our yard for the first time.  It was truly a blessing to be with our son and we will cherish those days for the rest of our lives.

Michelle has been busy working with new missionaries that have been assigned to the new fields.  We have a new missionary family, Errol and Rhonda Carrim who have come to serve at the Nazarene Theological College here in South Africa, we have Jacques Balibanga and his family that just moved to Cameroon to develop the work there, and new missionaries serving in creative access areas that also received training.  She has had help from Paul and Carrol Wheelock who have helped her in entering data and keeping up with all the details of serving missionaries across the continent.  We have also enjoyed engaging and being a part of the local ministry at Davidsonville Church of the Nazarene.

We had our first Urban Ministry Forum here in Pretoria, South Africa.  That is the capital city for South Africa and has a diverse mix of culture and people groups interacting in a big city.  We had more than 90 participants from around the continent gather for a weekend of discovery, discussion, and involvement as we tackled the challenging issues facing ministries in the urban centers of Africa.  The special speakers were great and we all learned so much from each other.  We hope it will only be the beginning as we begin a focus for the next few years on moving our church from presence to relevance in the cities of Africa.  Please see our link to the story about the event and details of all that happened that weekend.

The ministry of the Jesus Film ministry continues to expand.  The past two weeks I spent time in Lubumbashi and Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  There we met with more than 100 leaders excited to learn more about orality discipleship.  We taught them how to be good storytellers and to facilitate discussions about the biblical truths we find in the stories of the bible.  It was an excellent time with these leaders.  We continue to see the fruit of training lay leaders, women and youth how to share their faith through story telling.  This area of Goma was where nearly 20 years ago I flew the Nazarene Mission Aviation plane into as part of the relief effort after the Volcano had erupted.  It was great to see how the city has become more modern, how the church has grown, and how they are impacting their communities with the local schools in their churches.  To read more about the experience I had in Goma please click here to view what happened through my eyes.

Thanks again for your continued support of our ministry.  It is hard to believe that in just over two months we will be back in the USA for our home assignment time.  We look forward to spending time with family and friends and sharing more about what God is doing across Africa.  You will see our schedule posted on our website soon, and we are still open for several weeks where we might come and share at your church or district.  Let us know if your are interested and we will do our best to connect as we cross the USA sharing our stories.  Continue to pray for us and our family and our ministry.  See below our prayer requests which we encourage you to share with others.

 May God bless you and your family and thanks again for your support!

 Tim and Michelle Eby