BATTLES & BLESSINGS

This past month has been full of many challenges and spiritual battles as we live for the Truth here in this part of the world. These challenges have been mixed with many of the Lord's blessings, for which we are thankful for! As we share the news of the past month of ministry, you will see and hear about both "Battles & Blessings".

Little Gracie Joy has been such a blessing to our family. She is sooo smart, and has a sweet and fun personality. She loves to talk, laugh, and experience everything! She loves soft blankets and Cocomelon :) What a blessing she is to every member of our family! She has 3 moms and 3 dads as we all pitch in and help care for her during this busy season in our lives.

While bringing Gracie into our family has been such a blessing, the battle has been in the adoption process. We finished the 6 month fostering period on July 24th, and have still not received the document which allows us to enter the courts to finish the adoption process on the TZ side. Praying, waiting, patience building, reminding ourselves that the Lord has His timing, has been so hard. We finally heard the document is on the Commissioner's desk to be signed, so hopefully next week we can go pick it up. What a battle this has been!

The TZ side has been challenging enough, but we just recently met with a US lawyer who explained the path to US citizenship for Grace. She will need to be in our care "officially" for 2 years before we can file for citizenship. This means she cannot travel to the US for two years from when we have officially adopted her. The only hope of a family furlough is to be granted a tourist visa for Grace by the US Embassy. They say it's a 50-50 chance she will get it, so we ask you to be praying with us over this. This is quite the battle!

While this process is going on, and once we leaarned that we may not be able to leave for another 2 years, Jennifer and I felt led to send Isaac and Elaina back to NC to visit family, our home assembly, and even a youth conference! They will travel back on Oct 14 and return Nov 14. Isaac is a month away from his 18th birthday, and Elaina is 16, which allows them to travel w/o parents. They are so excited, and we are all excited for them.

We are so thankful to have Tori Hull with us until October 8. She has been such a help and a blessing in many ways. She has helped with caring for Grace, with school for the younger two, and also with her amazing cooking skills. We are excited to see how the Lord leads her in the near future!

Jennifer is continuing in her masters program in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (online). She is doing really well, and we are all proud of her hard work and good grades. She continues to work in the hospital occasionallyt as opportunity allows with everything else going on. Tori has also has enjoyed going with her. What an experience!

Now to Camp Nuru. This map above is a general layout of the approximately 3 acre property and building plan. We are currently working on closing in the property with a wall. In Africa, if you do not have a wall, you will have nothing at all. Goal #1 is to complete the wall. The neighbor on the left side brought an allegation to the town leaders against us, disputung the property line on his (left) side. At the hearing, the leaders sided with the Camp, and advised the neighbor to sell his plot to us. (We had offered to buy it multiple times, but he was asking 3x its value). They set the price which was very reasonable, we all agreed, and in the end we ended up with 800 sq meters of property (bottom left rectangle). It was a battle for sure, but it ended as a blessing!

We are getting a crash course in spiritual warfare as we navigate this project. Witchcraft done on the road in front of the Camp every few weeks, accusations, deceptive practices are some of the things we are dealing with on a regular basis. Battles and Blessings! We have been reading in Ezra and Nehemiah quite often these days.

One great blessing is having Justin Wallace out here to serve along with us through CMML, and also in building this camp. Here he is making a soccer net for the neighbor kids' soccer goal. Justin is learning Swahili most mornings, working out at the camp, and contributing out at the small village assembly in Kizenga.

We have been encouraged recently at the spiritual fruit we are seeing at the chapel in Kizenga. We have been having the Lord's Supper weekly, which is a new thing to many of them. We have been teaching on it, and have recently walked them through the meeting and have implemented it. The mid-week meeting has started up and there are a few coming each week. There are 2 young men who are ready to be baptized, and another young couple that are getting married in a few weeks! They recently went door to door with the Gospel and also showed Gospel films last Friday night to the neighbors. This is a lot of blessing and we praise the Lord for this spiritual fruit! After many battles and much prayer over a long time, we are seeing BLESSING! Pray for this little group to keep growing!

In the maktaba in Ujiji, we continue to help many every day with reading glasses. Each one also receives a Gideon New Testament and available tracts. There is a steady flow of people each day, not lots at a time, but one by one the Lord continues to sow His Word in the hearts of many. We are praying for their spiritual eyes to be opened!

The schools have been closed for 2 weeks, but will reopen next week and our ongoing Bible studies will resume. Gerald went without me 2 weeks ago, as I was with Isaac getting dental work. Thankful for Gerald's faithfulness to the work when I am there or not there!

The Emmaus work is continuing on here in town, in Ujiji at the maktaba, and in many villages along Lake Tanganyika. We praise the Lord for this amazing discipleship tool, Emmaus. We are continuing to see fruit, believers encouraged and built up, and many are receiving certificates of completion.

Below we have from right to left: Justin , Gerald, Philemon, and myself.

We thank the Lord for all He is doing in us and around us. We cling to Him for victory as we face many battles on every side. We praise Him for the many blessings He pours out on us, and for the battles He turns into blessings!

We thank each of you for "holding the rope" for us in prayer, as the greatest way to support us is through lifting us up in prayer to the Lord Jesus. We thank you for your generous support also as without it, we could not be here.

Thank you!

~ The Kinlaws

"The TRUTH sounds like HATE to those who HATE the TRUTH."

~ Charlie Kirk

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Please pray for the final document to be released soon to allow us to start the court process (2-3 month minimum)

• Please pray for the Lord to give us favor with the US Embassy when we apply for a tourist visa for Grace.

• Please pray for Isaac and Elaina as they travel to the US/North Carolina for a visit/break. We are praying for safety, and also for a refreshing time with family and friends.

• Please pray for Torie as she travels back to Colorado by herself (first time!)

• Please pray for Jennifer as she has a big exam next week.

• Please pray for the Kizenga Assembly, for continued spiritual growth.

• Please pray for CAMP NURU, for protection over issues from neighbors, over witchcraft, and any deception, that the Light would expose any and all deceit.

• Please pray for the maktaba and Emmaus ministry to continue to be greatly used by the Lord.

Critters we have found recently:

HEDGEHOG

COOL BIRD :)