Joyful All Ye Nations Rise

Killing a Goat: (essentials for the skimmers)

• Enjoy our December 2011 video.
  
• All four of us are healthy and enjoying Christmas together.
• Wrestling (corey's ministry) has been low in attendance.
• English and Computer classes (Racheal's ministry) is off to a great start.
• African Thanksgiving was a great way to connect with our neighbors and share with them why we were thankful to God. Today we are hosting an African Christmas get together. Please pray!
  

Sharing It with Your Neighbors: (details for the readers)

Dear fellow rejoicers,

As this year comes to a close, we reflect on our first year completed in our new West African home (and also Zambia, and England, and North Carolina, and Senegal, and anywhere else we visited since December 15, 2010).

We want to thank all of you who support us through encouragement, prayers, and finances, without any of which we would not be here. Particularly, we wish to thank those of you who are giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. This annual offering represents 50% of our organization's budget. Let me be clear that from our point of view, we would not be here without your giving; but from God's point of view, by giving to missions you're not enabling Him to accomplish anything. To put it bluntly, if you're unable or unwilling to help, He'll find someone who is able or who is willing. However, He has invited you to partner with the Body of Christ, the Church, in reaching the nations. Thank you for answering that invitation to fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you for partnering with us.

Many of the prospective wrestlers never showed up. A few months ago they appeared excited, but neglected to strain themselves during the fasting month of Ramadan. Nowadays they are in no short supply of other excuses. I have a core group of guys from 10 years-old to 30 years-old who come often. Most of the "all talk, no walk" crowd hang out under a baobab tree daily. It's where i first met the faithful few. The tree is impressively huge. At some point in time there seems to have been i fire that hollowed out the tree. You could probably fit a small car inside the cavity, though the opening is overhead and requires you to climb down into it. Last week i decided to go in to see what it looked like from inside. I started to climb up and by the time i got to the mouth of the cavity about 20-30 people had run over. They shouted, "What are you doing?!"
"Going inside the tree," i replied calmly.
"No! You must not!"
"Why? It's just a tree."
"There's something in there. Get down right now!" (The word they used for "something" implies a demonic presence.)
Let me pause here and say we live in a part of the world that the Enemy manifests itself very differently than in the USA. To entertain the idea that a living thing like this tree is demon possessed is not ignorant of the scientific and natural world. It's just a realization that the stuff that happened in the Bible still happens today.
"No. I want to see the inside of the tree."
"Aren't you afraid of the demon?" (Now they used the word "demon" no longer simply implying.)
"No. I believe in Jesus. He will protect me."
From inside the tree i could hear the people talking amongst themselves. "Who's in there?" "Is he okay?" "Has the giant [demonic] cobra come to get him yet?" I didn't see anything but a beautiful inside of a tree. A few minutes later when i came out the silent look on everyone's face said, "How on earth are you still alive. No one comes out of that tree alive." I told them that Jesus protected me. I told them that demons are afraid of Him. That asked if i was afraid. I simply told them that i placed all my fear in God, and i didn't have anymore fear left to put in other things like demons. I'm very excited to see how this will affect my relationship with the people. More importantly, i'm looking forward to seeing how this will affect their relationship with their Maker.

Racheal has started teaching English classes and Computer classes to nationals at "The Wisdom House." That is a facility that is maintained by our organizations. Classes like these allow her to build relationships with her twelve students. Please pray for those relationships. She recently found some ESL literature (textbooks, etc.) to hold classes in four levels of English. Racheal's first Level I class finished this week. Levels I and II will being January 17. Please pray for divine appointments with the students.

Please pray for church volunteer groups that are preparing to come to work with the Usus people. Pray that more volunteer team would be touched to come here also and join us in the work God is doing in this people.

Merry Christmas from West Africa!
'til the whole world hears,
corey reid pendergrass