Thanks to you, the KNEED has been met.....

Thanks to those of you who prayed about my knee situation. It is improving and I was given the green light to make the trip to Philly this Thursday. I'm still on crutches because I still can't put weight on it, but the swelling is way down and the pain has really lessened. It'll be a bit of a challenge with getting around on crutches and possibly having to teach from a wheel chair, but I can do it and I'm blessed at the opportunity. Mike, a young guy from our church is making the trip with me and he'll be a great help.

Things are still percolating regarding the fence. We met with 7 of the Burmese, (Chin people) who are eager to get started with farming the land. We are now waiting for the response of the other group of Rotary clubs. Of the 30,000.00 we need, 11,000.00 has been committed. We are still believing that we'll be able to build the wall by mid-June.

Next week will be the conclusion of the English as a Second Language classes that we've been doing at the church. We've been having them every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon, and it has gone well. The ministry is led by Pastor Issam and we have a few of our people, along with 5 volunteers from other churches. The 20 or so refugees that regularly attend are primarily from Iraq, some of them who are Christians and 7 or 8 who are Muslims. We also have a couple of older gentlemen from Bhutan and a woman from Mexico, and have seen a couple of Korean ladies attend fairly regularly. Some solid relationships are being built and God's love in practical action is being displayed to all of those that attend. We'll break for the summer, starting up again in late September, (when it will still be over 100 degrees every day, but less than the 110 degree and above normal temperatures here in Phoenix in July and August.)

Finally, in the next few weeks, we'll be nailing down how best to house teams from various
churches around the country that want to come to help us by way of our new ministry: Phoenix 10/40 Interface. Once we've solidified the plan, I'll let you know the details of how this will work. It may be that your church might be interested in a little different "spin" on what we believe is a unique short term missions trip.