“He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit…” Titus 3:5

It was a busy summer and now it’s back to reality.  Both Celesta and I went to the States this summer to be with our parents.  I was in Santa Ynez with my parents and Celesta was in Magalia with her mom.  We did get to be       together for our 39^th anniversary when she and her mom came down to celebrate Ryan’s birthday with him.  Hard to imagine that we have been in Ireland now for over 30 years, but when  your kids are turning 35 years old you realize that you are not the same young couple who left California for     Europe so many years ago.  Adam came this time with Conor, so that my parents could meet him.  It was great to have four generations of Jameses all together at one time.

Ryan came up to be with us and it was nice to see the brothers together.  Ryan has lived in the States for over 15 years, so we don’t get many opportunities to all be together.

Two Different Worlds

Howdy from Texas! I am back in Friendswood (just south of Houston)! The Texas heat and the drought met me on the steps of the airport in July and have not yet gone away for the fall! Between the wildfires and the110 degree heat I am missing the eternal spring of Rwanda. Despite the weather it is good to be here!

Saying good-bye in Rwanda was bittersweet. My teachers didn’t want me to go and my friends made me promise to return. I was so blessed by their words and gifts! My friends and family in Texas met me with the same excitement!

Difficult Feelings

The hardest part of leaving the field was saying good-bye to our church people.  People that we met 3 ½ years ago had no hope, little love, and didn’t know the promises of our Savior. The Lord sent us to bring them to Him, to experience His freedom and to know His truth.  Each one of them is a precious spiritual child to us, and leaving them is very difficult for   everyone in our family. We are trusting that each one of them is in the Lord’s hands and that He will see to their growth. We pray for them to continue growing stronger and closer to Him.

Good-bye at the Pastors’ Alliance Meeting

Our family was able to say good-bye to our Alliance Pastors friends and eat together. We are blessed that the Lord revealed so much of his love through    pastors from other denominations who were a very important part of our ministry in Aguascalientes. We treasure in our hearts the many activities, prayer meetings, and opportunities to work together in reaching out to the city.

Summer is a bit of down time in Ireland.  The days are long and people like to take advantage of the occasional sunshine and be outside.  Most activities that meet weekly throughout the fall, winter, and spring come to a halt in summertime.  These few months are filled with coffee dates and catching up… and planning for the fall when everything starts up again.

Here are a few possibilities that I am trying to organize, nail down, start up, or otherwise make happen starting in September… Please be praying that these will come together and start strong:  the Parent and Toddler group, the ongoing book study in my home, ongoing Bible study with friends, two new Bible studies for two different groups that have expressed an interest in learning more about what the Bible says, and what God has to say to them through it.

I want to thank you for your prayers for my health.  After 5 ½ months without a voice, it returned to me over the course of a week.  I am glad to hear my own voice again!

With exciting possibilities for the fall, I’m looking forward to seeing what God will do in the lives of those around me (and my own life!) for His glory.  Pray that I will be diligent to discern and pursue what God has placed before me.

I am so grateful for each one of you.  In Irish it is “go raibh maith agat.”   Thank you.

The wind is blowing—which is normal at Rough Rock. It always seems to blow the rain away. During our Family Bible School Helen Desheenie commented, “God must be pleased with our Bible School because it smells like rain.” Well—we didn’t get the rain but I have no doubts that God was pleased with our Bible School.

Our theme was “Hometown Nazareth, Where Jesus Was a Kid.”  We did it a little differently than previous Bible Schools. In the past a team of workers from other churches came down with the whole program ready to go. This year we told the church if they wanted to do Bible School, they would have to do it themselves.

We were unable to do an entire week, so we did part of one June 29– July 1. Hopefully part two will happen in September.

The Early Church…

The first church was started by the disciple Peter. On the day of Pentecost people were together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were. The people saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Suddenly, all the people were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. When the people outside heard them they were amazed, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Some made fun of them and said, ”They had too much wine.’’

Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk as you suppose. It is only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel many years ago.”

We are involved in a project in the Gisenyi area (northwest Rwanda) that is facilitated by our language tutor,

Alphonse, the chaplain at the Kamembe Friends school. Alphonse’s family lives in the village of Mutura and he is a leader in the Friends church there. Members of the church have formed a savings group and they have several projects begun to train villagers to improve their living conditions. One of these projects is a sewing co-op for women. Matt helped edit the grant proposal Alphonse sent to an American Friends organization called Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR). If this grant is approved the group will purchase ten sewing machines and train the women to use them to run a self-sustaining cooperative business.

After purchasing a sewing machine in Kigali we met up with Alphonse and proceeded north and then west toward Gisenyi. By the time we reached our destination it was almost 4 p.m. and we wanted to find our hotel before sunset at 6 p.m. Everything we did in Mutura was time-pressured – an antithesis in this event-oriented culture.

Our Kids in the USA

Our kids have done very well adjusting to life here in America.  They have excelled in school.  Aren has felt eighth grade has been too easy.  This says a lot about the quality education they received in Rwanda through our home-school coop.  We are really grateful to the teachers who have invested in them both in Rwanda and here in Newberg, Oregon this year.  Gwen has made a lot of progress in overcoming her dyslexia and is becoming an avid reader.

Special highlights for them this year have been:

• Making new friends (all four kids).
• Swimming with cousins at Kaneeta.
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream!!!
• Twin Rocks Friends Camp (church retreat, Samuel School, Jr. High Jamboree - Aren).
• Catching my first fish (Alandra).

It has been a busy few months since our last prayer letter.  We finished the Upward Program in Ballymun, an inner city area of Dublin, and saw over 90 people attend the awards ceremony.  The gospel was shared, but what was more exciting was to see the response of over 30 people who indicated they wanted to know more about what it means to be a Christian.  A Bible study has now been started in the community and we are trusting the Lord that many will come to know Him, and that eventually a church might be started in this area.   The person who runs this program came to Ireland to do sports ministry.  He didn’t know about Upward at the time, but since I not only knew and had seen it in action when I was at Rose Drive Friends, I encouraged him to find out more about it.  Now years later it brings me real joy to see how my small part has not only helped him, but has also enabled others to share Christ through sports.

We had an organizational meeting where we discussed four elders who would be appointed to administer the work and continue the ongoing, home Bible studies until they become a regular worshiping group. Lydia and I met with the four, namely John and Lois Ocol (our daughter and son- in-law), and Shirley and Andres Lumiqued (siblings).  They would compose the core group. I would call them 'Lingkod Iglesia' (elders). Tentatively, we would call the new group Grande Prairie Friends Christian Fellowship.  This name accommodates other nationalities who might be interested in joining the group later.