Dear family and friends,

About 2 weeks ago, we were camping in the bush as we hosted a build team from Hannibal, Missouri. Every night we stayed up late around the campfire, singing and praying, enjoying wonderful worship and fellowship. On one of these typical evenings, we finally forced ourselves to head to our tents. I lingered a bit, talking with one of the men, and by the time I reached our tent, my girls were already in bed. With haste, I prepared for bed and slipped into my sleeping bag. As my feet reached the bottom of the bag, I felt something cold and rubbery against my leg. Some primal instinct in me knew immediately what it was. I went from lying down in my sleeping bag to standing in the middle of the tent in the blink of an eye. Cautiously, I shined a light into my bag, praying that I would not see the black body of a cobra. With great relief, I saw the brown body of a harmless striped sand snake. I shouted something about a snake in my bag, giving everyone a shock and then a good laugh, and released the intruder back into the bush. You see, our tent zipper was messing up, leaving just a small opening at the bottom. I should've known better. Had that snake been of a different species, my one moment of carelessness could have been disastrous.

Now for the serious application of that funny story. What I experienced in the physical world that night has been happening for a year in the spiritual realm. For a year, we have carelessly left little openings in our lives and ministry, thinking them harmless. For a year, we have brushed against serpent after serpent, unaware of the danger, and only now are we beginning to feel their venom.

Over the past year, we have developed a strong friendship with a man named Enoch in our church in Livingstone. Enoch is Lozi, and has a passionate interest in our mission work. In April, he actually accompanied us to the village for two weeks, and stayed an additional week by himself. He was quickly accepted and confided in by many of the Lozi men that we associate with, especially the crew helping us with the camp structure. Last night, Enoch gave us a full report on what he learned during his 3 weeks in "our" village. It was not a pleasant report.

From a human perspective, our work in the village is a disaster. Our work crew is absolutely certain that we are cheating them, the village has labeled us 'rude' and 'unhelpful' and many are suspicious that we have not truly come to do 'God's work.' Menacing reports have even reached us that the Royal Council is now suspicious of us. They are the ones who must give final approval for our land, based on the recommendation of an unhappy, suspicious village. Everything looks dark and ominous. Satan has stirred up a swarm of suspicion and mistrust, and sadly, we have provided him ample ammunition to use against us.

Imagine this: picture a Lozi culture where anger is the unpardonable sin. You can use witchcraft to curse your neighbor, that's expected. You can commit adultery, that's accepted. But a public display of anger is a shocking sin. Now, into that culture, drop an impatient, goal-driven American missionary, and surround him with people that discuss every petty issue to death, constantly ask for free handouts, and continually quarrel with each other. Simultaneously, that missionary is experiencing inner anguish over seperation from his home, family and friends, church, and all the comforts of American life. What do you think will happen?

Yes, the flesh will break out in ugly displays of anger, and the very people we are trying to reach with the Gospel are given cause to question our Christianity. Our testimony has been damaged, by our own sinful behavior and the malicious lies spread by the enemy. Much of the village's hostility is undeserved, and our best efforts to help the people have been twisted and used against us in ways we could never have imagined.

Despair is a strong temptation now, though we pray for the strength to not dishonor our Lord with unbelief. I'll be gut-honest - a part of us wishes that the Royal Council would refuse to give us land, the village would reject us, and we could just go back to comfy America and blame those wicked people for our defeat. But we know that God will not let us off that easy. He brought us here to bless us, to do us good, and to conform us to the image of His Beloved Son, even if it kills us.

No, we are confident that God will laugh at the raging of little Lozi chiefs. He will turn their wicked hearts to give us the land. Meanwhile, He will continue to humble us in the dust. The village will see the power of Christ to change us into happy, loving, patient, compassionate, peaceful missionaries; and someday, ...someday we will see the power of Christ transform that village into peaceful, happy worshipers of the Lord Jesus.

Enoch keeps telling us that his discoveries are a good thing. That snake in my sleeping bag was a merciful warning from God. Now we are all much more vigilant about checking zippers and sleeping bags. Enoch's stay in the village was also a merciful warning from God. Now we know that the snake is there. Now we are no longer ignorant of the devil's schemes, and we can resist him more effectively. With Enoch's guidance, we will take practical steps to undo the damage of the past year, however painful and difficult and humiliating those steps may be. But we also know that the real fight is always to believe our God, and the real war is waged in prayer. Satan is relentless in the fight. The good news is that he would not be so desperate in opposing us if our work were not a threat. Brothers and sisters, fellow soldiers, will you fight with us?

How can you pray?
1. Pray against the schemes of the evil one, and cry to the Lord to go forth into battle and scatter His enemies.

2. Pray for a rapid miracle in us. We must go back out to the village in 1 week. We cannot go back with painted-on smiles and fake niceness. They are not stupid and will see through that in a second. I don't want to see them or be around them. I don't like those irritating depraved sinners. I mentioned in my last update that we are experiencing more peace and joy, but that is more in situations, and not so much with people. If God does not produce in us supernatural love and compassion for the Lozi, quickly, our work will go from bad to worse. John Newton once said that when a Christian is impatient and unkind with lost sinners, it is like Bartimeus, after he was healed, hitting blind men because they could not see. Pray that Christ will unclench our fists, and extend them in love to serve depraved sinners.

3. Lest we be man-centered in this mess, pray for a deep work of repentance in us. Our worst sin is not our damaged testimony or unkindness to men. No, we have failed to fulfill our most basic and supreme purpose in life - to worship our Creator by reflecting the image of a holy and merciful God. Pray that all our work will flow from a life of worship.

4. Pray for supernatural wisdom and perseverance to navigate the minefield of cultural differences.

Kept by grace alone,
Sean