Monday, December 24, 2012

Immanuel- God With Us


Isaiah 7:14  "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”

Matthew 1:20-23  But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

Immanuel!  God with us. Do we really understand the extent of that name?  The Creator came as a baby to His creation, to be the Savior and bring Salvation, to become the Sacrifice and save us from our sins and God’s wrath, to become our high priest and interceding on our behalf between us and the Father, to become our King, high and lifted up.  These are only a few roles that Jesus Christ took on. Immanuel, God with us. Humility is the first thing that comes to my mind.

 Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this attitude in your selves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (NASB)

Immanuel, God with us in the form of man, with humility, gentleness, love, patience, kindness and many more attributes. The fact that God the Son would come to earth is stunning. Why would God the Son want to take the form of man. It wasn’t that He was forced to, but He desired to take the form of a bond servant and to be made on the likeness of man.  As a man, He humbled himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This obedience and desire to come to mankind as a man, leave us at an incomprehensible thought. We know this in our minds and yet when we think about it we ask why. Why would He do this for us? He created everything and He had everything there was nothing in it for Him. Yet there is so much in it for Him. He created everything to bring Him glory. It shows us the characteristics of Himself. Because of His great and wonderful Sacrifice, we glorify Him and give Him praise and adoration.

Why would God the Son come as a Baby, when He knew He would suffer and die. We as men and women cannot understand this, because we in our selfishness want to get away from everything that will cause us pain. But Christ was not thinking about Himself. He was thinking about us. Why would He desire to do this? Love. Jesus Christ, Immanuel, loved us so much that He was willing to suffer and die an excruciating death in order that we might live. His death was not the end though, three days later He rose again from the dead. This Christmas season is not to just celebrate Christ’s birth, but to celebrate the incarnation of God the Son in human flesh. Unless He took on a body there would be no sacrifice and he could not die. So this Christmas season we should be remembering the reason the Son of God came as a man; to die on the cross for our sins and to rise again. Remember that when He took the body of man, He was both God and man. That by becoming a man was the only way he could pay for our sins and become that amazing sacrifice for us. It is never said to remember His birth in Scripture, but it does tell us to remember His death, because without Christ’s death there is no atonement for our sins. So this Christmas let us remember Christ’s death. For without it we would all be in sin and enemies of God. Praise the Lord that we are now reconciled and now sons and daughters of God and we can call God our Father. Without Jesus’ death, Jesus would just be another baby born to a woman. I am thankful that He was not just another baby, but that He is Immanuel.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

An Aspect of Our Savior's Love For Us


“I saw a very young man close to his bed between the range of 18 to 20 years, one of his eyeballs was no longer there, his head and face were swollen with some injuries on his shoulders, initially I thought he had an accident but it was not, he was flogged with the fulani's walking stick, mostly on the face and the head, so he lost one of his eyes as a result of that. I was wondering the offence he has committed, but the offence was strange to me, what he did was he wanted to get married and according to their custom, you will be flogged mercilessly and whoever can with stand the pain will eventually marry the girl. In his own case they about four of them that wanted to marry one girl and the girl really loves him, so they decided to flog him on his face and make him blind so that the girl will no longer be interested! how wicked, Is so sad that the girl is being forced to marry the last man standing after the flogging. The funny part is that he will still need to go through another flogging again if he is to marry again. His relative said, some people have died in the process of the flogging, that their own case is better that he only lost his eyes. I cannot stop thinking of this babaric way of getting married, I wish there is a way to stop this tradition.”- Ojima Edeh

I saw this post on facebook from my Nigerian friend, Ojima Edeh. She went to the hospital to visit one of the boys from the orphanage. As I thought about this young man that had lost his eye, I realized how much he loved that young lady. He would be beaten by her brothers in order to marry her. He was trying to redeem her and the price was being beaten and not crying out. Unfortunately for him, he was not able to redeem her.

 There is another instance where someone was redeeming his bride, by being beaten and dying.  That person was our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was beaten and killed in order to redeem His bride the church.  He was beaten and crucified by Romans, gentiles, brothers to us, the Bride of Christ. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” Isaiah 53:7   He did not open His mouth when He was oppressed and afflicted. Jesus loved us so much that He would desire to redeem us. He would desire to be beaten and be crucified in order to save us. Christ redeemed us. The anguish and pain He went through in order to save us and redeem us. Now we, as believers, are His bride. Wow, what an amazing Savior we have.

For us guys, who are single, would we be willing to be beaten in order to marry someone that we love? For those of you who are married do you love your wife enough that you would be beaten in order to marry the one that you have married?  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:25-27. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

Do we love our Savior enough to be beaten for Him? I think most of us would say yes, but when it really comes down to it would we really follow through with what we said or would we not want to go through that kind of pain? How great is your love for the Savior? This is something that we must think about.  There are so many believers around the world who are suffering for the sake of Christ. We need to pray for them and prepare ourselves for the day when we will be persecuted. We should be looking forward to that day and excited that we get an opportunity to be persecuted for our Savior. This desire comes when we love our Savior more then anything else. When we love Him as this young man loved his bride.

Have we left our first love like the church in Ephesus? (Revelation 2:4). Let us continue to pursue our Savior and not lose sight of Him. The way we do this is by spending time alone with Him. Not just doing service for Him, but actually spending time with Him.[1] If you love someone, you want to spend a lot of time with them. Do we really love our Savior like this? Do we desire to spend lots of time with Him? Do we desire to spend every spare moment we have with Him? Let us grow in Love for our Savior. The more we grow in love for our Savior, the more we will grow in love for our spouse or future spouse. Let us desire to spend more time with Him even in our hectic days.


1That is not to say that we never serve Him, but many times we serve Him but we do not spend time with Him. We are like Martha. We get caught up in serving our Lord and forget about spending time with Him.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Announcement: Helena Youth Retreat October 7,8,9, 2012

Hello everyone,
Here is a link to the brochure if you want to download it.
Hope to see you there.
https://sites.google.com/site/salvation2day/events
TJ

Our Response to Those Who Have Wronged Us


Many of us can think of instances where our brothers and sisters in Christ have wrong us in some way or another. I am sure that I have wronged someone.  There are people, believers and non-believers, that have treated us unfairly, unjustly and some have committed sin against us. (When I say committed sin against us, I mean stolen something from us, deceived us, treated us wrongly, etc.) So the question is how do we deal with this? What is the proper response in this situation? Christ is our example. He was wronged by many people. He was accused of doing things that He did not do. They made fun of Him. If we look at 1 Peter 2 we can see what Christ’s response was to them. 

1 Peter 2:18-24
1Pe 2:18  Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.
1Pe 2:19  For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.
1Pe 2:20  For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
1Pe 2:21  For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
1Pe 2:22  WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;
1Pe 2:23  and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
1Pe 2:24  and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

It is talking to servants here, but these things also apply to us. Verse 19  “if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” This finds favor before God.  First of all what is conscience toward God? It is listening to Him, knowing what He would have you do in a situation and standing by it even if it come to suffering unjustly. To do what is right even if you will suffer for it.

In verse 20  Peter asks a good question. If you sin and are harshly treated, disciplined you know you deserve it and endure it with patience.  When you do right you do not expect to be disciplined for it do you? No! Peter is saying patiently endure it. Patiently endure what people do to you and continue to do right. This finds favor in God’s sight.

Verse 21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ suffered for you leaving an example for you to follow in His steps. What purpose?  To patiently endure harsh treatment, suffering, mistreatment and to follow in Christ’s steps. When thinking about this the question that must be asked is, Was Christ ever mistreated, unjustly treated, or suffer? When we read the account of the time from right after the Lord’s supper until He died, we see many instances where He was mistreated. In fact, throughout His life Christ was mistreated and suffered persecution at the hand of the religious leaders, these so called” Men of God”, yet He did nothing wrong.  Yet even today there are people just as the Pharisees who go by the name “Christian”, so called” followers of Christ” and yet do they actually walk in His steps? Much suffering and persecution that we face comes from people who claim to be Christians, but who live lives with no regard for Christ nor do they desire to walk in His steps.

Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example to follow in His steps. Verses 22-24 tell us of Christ’s example.
1.       He committed no sin.
2.       No deceit was found in His mouth. He never deceived anyone.
3.       While being reviled(made fun of, insulted, taunted) He did not revile in return
4.       While suffering, He did not threaten them
5.       He entrusted Himself to the Father who judges righteously
6.       He bore our sin in His body on the Cross.

1.       He committed no sin. This is His example to us. We are to strive daily to live a life of righteousness before God. Many will say that is impossible. Yes it is. That is why I use the word “strive”. It is something we are always working towards, we are always moving towards. Also, it is to move towards righteousness before God, not before man. We should be seeking righteousness before God, because man’s understanding of righteousness is not righteousness at all. Let us daily strive to commit no sin, as Christ also committed no sin.
2.       No deceit was found in His mouth. He did not lie, ever. He did not do anything deceitful. Yet many people who call themselves “Christians” say it is ok to lie in certain situations or it is ok to deceive people in certain situations. Christ never did so. If we are following in His steps, no deceit should be found in our mouths either.
3.       While being reviled (made fun of, insulted, taunted) He did not revile in return. People made fun of Him, they insulted Him, and they taunted Him, when He was being flogged before His crucifixion and even when He was on the cross. Yet He did not insult them in return. Jesus said,” Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Matthew 5:11. We are not to insult those people in return. We are to pray for those who persecute us. Matthew 5:44
4.       While suffering He did not threaten them. He did not say He was going to make them pay for what they had done. We should be counting it all joy, when we face trials of many kinds. James 1:3-4. When we are suffering we should be thanking the Lord that He has allowed us this opportunity to face a trial of this kind, knowing the testing of our faith develops perseverance.
5.       He entrusted Himself to the Father who judges righteously. He gave all of these things that people had done to Him to the Father to judge righteously. It is not up to us to get people back for what they have done to us. We should also be entrusting ourselves to the Father and giving all of those things that have been done to wrong us to the Father. The sins that have been committed against us need to be given to the Father. If they are not then it causes us to sin also.
6.       He bore our sins in His body on the cross. He took all of our sins and the sins of those who have wronged us, to the cross with Him. So that we might die to sin and live to Righteousness. If Christ had not died on the cross, take our sins there with Him and rose again three days later, there would be no reason to follow in His steps. He died and bore our sins so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. We are to be living righteous lives and the way we do that is to follow in Christ’s steps.

Coming back to the original question of how we deal with people who have sinned against us and treated us wrongly. We deal with them as Christ dealt with them. He gave those things that were done to Him up to the Father, the righteous judge.  We also are to give them up to the righteous judge and let Him deal with it.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Update 7 August 11, 2012


Hello everyone,
I apologize for not updating any of you in the last four weeks. I have been busy and we had lost internet at the orphanage for two weeks due to a lightning storm. While I was in Ika I could not talk about what I was doing there. So now I will very briefly update you on what has happened in the last four weeks. I went to Ika and was there for two weeks. I spend some time with Spencer Dibble and his son-in-law Tom Wheeler and his grandson Benji Wheeler. We were working on a secret project for Tom’s wife, Lois. We were remodeling the kitchen and master bathroom. I also spent some time with Mr. Dibble and sat and talked with him for hours on end. We also took some time to fix Crystal’s sons bike. On the Sundays I was there, I was asked to speak.  One of the Sundays, I went to a conference. There was one woman who was there who was used to be a Muslim. She was afraid that her family would kill her if she became Christian. Finally, she snuck away to a church and talked to one of the elders. She left her family and went to another part of the country so she could not be found by her family. I had a great time there.

The next few weeks I went with Mepa Adejo on Evangelism. We went to a village just off the Dekina road a little ways. With it being Ramadan there were many Muslims who were not very happy, because they had no food in their stomachs since early morning. Many of them told us to go away, some said they would visit us, but never did.  Many of them young unmarried ladies, that want to marry a nice white man. Yeah that would be me, all of them asking how my wife was in Igala. 

Our evangelism group
The answer from me was either to ignore what they were saying or to answer no wife, which made them want to follow me around. Some even asked if I wanted a wife, others offered me a wife. Both of which I graciously, but bluntly refused. In the afternoons I had an interpreter, which I was very grateful for, who helped me to understand what the Bible study was about. I will upload a picture of our group sometime soon.

While I was with Mepa, I stayed at Mama Gross’ house, with her daughters Esther Nordman and Ruth Carlson, who were there cleaning out the house and taking their mothers things back to the US.  I had a really good time there in the time I spent there.

I have been working on a project of getting Igala words together to be put in dictionary form. It has been a long process and it will continue for a while as I continue to study the language in the US. I hope to also put tone markings on each of the words, in order to make it so I can understand it better and so that others who desire to learn the language can also.

I decided to return to Otutulu on Saturday evening after I went with Mepa. Normally, I would stay and speak at the chapel there, but this time Daniel Edeh and his family were in Anyigba for the giving away of Mama Grosses house to CMML Nigeria (a local denomination). So on Sunday, I went to Abejekolo to visit a small church there with Daniel Edeh. It was an excellent time fellowshipping with the believers there. We took about 8 of the kids from the orphanage with us, because the church is very small. I believe it was a great encouragement to them.

The week that followed I helped with work on the compound and did some other things, played with the kids and worked on my language study. In the evenings I would sit with some of the kids and talk and with my good friend, Freeman Edeh. This last week, I spent many of my evenings with the older Edeh kids, who are around my age. I helped them with office work and talked with them. Last Sunday, I stayed in Otutulu to speak. I was thankful for that opportunity.

I have some very exciting news. I was in Otutulu village doing a week of Bible stories on the life of Joshua with a projector. Every night we went there and told another part of the story of Joshua. One night after finishing the story, one Muslim boy asked me a question and I explained it to him. He continued to ask excellent questions. Finally, he said he wanted to change his mind to Christianity. As it was late he told me to come the next day to see him. I went the next afternoon; we talked for a while. I answered questions then he asked me about the trinity. I tried my best, but I don’t think it got through to him. Almost every day this week I have been to see him. He is definitely a believer. His greatest fear was to tell his mother and grandfather he was a Christian. He knows that they can kill him for that. He also fears his brothers, who are not in the village right now. He went to his grandfather on Wednesday and told him that he was a Christian. The grandfather simply told him, that he did not believe it. I pray that he might be in the church tomorrow, so that he can show his grandfather that he is serious about it.   I gave him an Igala Bible and an English Bible, so that he can understand the scriptures better. We can praise God for what he has done. I only wish I could stay and disciple him. I have given that job over to one young man who is eager to do it, because he is so happy that this boy, his friend has finally become a Christian. I myself cannot even say it was anything that I did, but it was fully the work of God, I praise Him for what He has done. As I came back from the village after the boy had told me that he was a Christian that he knew that Jesus died on the cross for his sins and that he wanted to follow after him, tears of joy rolled down my cheeks. Even if it was for this one boy who came to know Christ, it was well worth the time I spent here. Well worth my time. I would not trade coming here this summer for the most well-paying job. I only wish I did not have to leave.

I am back in Ika until Sunday, visiting Spencer Dibble and the Wheelers, once more with Shana, before I leave. I will be leaving on Wednesday at 11:15pm from Abuja.

I would appreciate your prayers, for my trip back. Please pray for the Muslim boy in the village. Also as I am coming back to the culture shock of America and I have many things that I have to get ready before going to school the next week.

Thank you for all of your prayers. I appreciate them very much.
Your brother in Christ,
T.J. Kerttula

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Is it ever right to lie?

Is it ever right to lie? This question has been asked of me a couple of times in the last few months. My simple answer is no. Many people disagree with me on this, but before you judge what I am saying, I hope that you will hear out the case that I present before you, with ample evidence from the Word of God.


There has been much debate about this question. I do not want to look at opinions. Instead, I want to look at what the Word of God says. Even though there is much debate there is a very simple answer to it. The Lord says in Exodus 20:16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  To bear false witness means to lie or to deceive or to be untruthful. You might say that your neighbor is the person that is living next to you or the people that you like and are friends with. When Jesus is asked the question “Who is my neighbor" in Luke 10 by a lawyer, He answers the question with the story of the Good Samaritan. I believe some background information on the Samaritans and the Jews is needed to fully understand who our neighbor is. They hated each other. The Samaritans were half breed Jews and that was the reason they were hated by the Jews. Because the Jews hated them they hated the Jews back. The Jews would even travel on the east side of the Jordan River along the part that boundaries Samaria so that they would not have to go through Samaria. That is how much they hated the Samaritans. So that is the background.


In Luke 10 we see this man was travelling along, he was ambushed and beaten by robbers in the heart of Judea, where the Jews were from. His own people and “men of God” would not even stop to help him, but a Samaritan, who was not even from that region, who was travelling in the heart of the region, stopped to help a man that he was supposed to hate and who was supposed to hate him. So as you can see it is not just the person next door who is our neighbor or all your friends. It is people in the next subdivision over, in the next zip code, in the next city or town, in the next county, in the next state, in the next country and all around the world. Everyone is our neighbor, those who are not friendly to us and those we love, those who hate us and those who love us. Therefore, we are not to lie to anyone no matter what.


God takes lying/ bearing false witness very seriously, so also should we. Proverbs 19:5” A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will not escape.” (NASB)  We think we can get away with lying, but we cannot. We either continue on telling more lies to cover up the truth, but the truth ends up coming out anyway or it immediately comes out. When we lie and it is found out it makes us look foolish. It says in 1 Peter 2:1 “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,…” It says to put aside ALL deceit, not just a part of deceit or just a small portion of it, but ALL of it.

In Psalm 34:13 it says, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” We are to keep our lips from speaking deceit.


If we pattern our lives after Christ, as we should be doing, then we will find the passage in 1 Peter 2:21-24 of an interest. It says “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”

Christ is the example for us to follow in His steps. He committed no sin nor was any deceit found in His mouth. Christ did not lie or deceive anyone ever. There was no need for Christ to deceive anyone, because He was entrusting Himself to the Father in all things. If we are to follow in Christ’s step’s that is a strong indication that we are to not lie or deceive anyone ever.


The question is do we entrust ourselves to Him who judges righteously? If we say we are entrusting ourselves to Him who judges righteously then there is no other answer to our first question, of is it ever right to lie. The only answer is no. Even if the result of us telling the truth is that we are sent to prison or we are martyred for Christ at least we will be entrusting ourselves to the Father. We will be letting, His will be done in our life and we will not be sinning against Him.


You might say, well what if you are taking Bibles into a country that is closed to Christians or hiding Christians in your house to keep them from getting caught? To even ask this question makes me wonder if you really are entrusting yourself to the Father. For you to lie and sin against God means that you do not trust Him to work everything out. Even in these instances it is not right to lie.


Rahab is an example that many people use, to say that it is alright to lie. Unfortunately, there is no way that anyone can say this to be fact, especially when the rest of the Bible speaks, bluntly against lying, bearing false witness and deceit. Let’s take a look into the passages used to justify this a little closer. James 2:25 “In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”  It is saying she did a good work, by receiving them and sending them out another way. James is not commending her for lying. Do you think that if she would have told the guards right where they were that the results would have been any different? I don’t think so. Even though we sin against God, God still uses us. Sometimes we put Bible characters into a light that makes then look perfect as if they never sinned or we say that because they did a specific sin then it is ok for us to do that also. The only one that was ever perfect was Jesus Christ and that is why He is our example. Rahab’s lie was not pleasing to God and by telling it, the guard’s shut the gate, but God knew all of this would happen, so He provided Rahab’s house to be on the wall, so the spies could get away. Hebrews 11:31 is another passage about Rahab, “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.” Rahab believed in the one true God and she can be commended for her faith. Think of all the other characters that are commended for their faith yet they also lied. Abraham (Genesis 20), Jacob (Genesis 27), and David (2 Samuel 11-12) are a few. So how can we even say that it is right to lie?


If we say that lying is right then every other sin is right to do at some point in time. There is, therefore, no moral standard and we have blurred the lines between right and wrong. There becomes no black and white, only grey. When this happens we are lying to ourselves about the absoluteness of what God commands us to do and by doing that we are not pleasing God. Do we trust God enough to keep His commands even when it could get us mocked, persecuted, thrown in prison, or even killed?  These are questions we must ask ourselves. I pray that Christians around the world will heed this and turn toward righteousness and truth, to cling to it and to not depart from it. If they depart from truth, then there is no Truth in them and they are not truly followers of Christ. Friends, please do not allow yourself to think that it is right to ever lie. You can see that God hates it and so also we should hate it.


Solomon was a very wise man. His words in Proverbs should be read and heeded. I will leave you with this passage.


"He who speaks the truth tells what is right,

But a false witness, deceit.

There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword,

But the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Truthful lips will be established forever,

But a lying tongue is only for a moment.

Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,

But counselors of peace have joy.

No harm befalls the righteous,

But the wicked are filled with trouble.

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,

But those who deal faithfully are His delight."

Proverbs 12:17-22


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Friday, July 6, 2012

Nigeria update July 6, 2012


Hello everyone,
There is not much to write about this week. There was a team from Texas here for ten days. On Sunday I went down to a small village down the road to visit the small church there. That was very good and interesting. There was a pregnant woman who asked for prayer for herself that she would not have another miscarriage and a few minutes after she said that she went into labor, right before I was to get up to speak. At first I didn’t know what was going on, but I quickly guessed. The Second fear that came into my mind was.” I hope they don’t ask me to deliver the baby.” For some reason white people must have medical expertise in everything when they are in Nigeria, I was relieved when they asked me to do nothing, but preach and the lady was taken, by motorcycle to her house.

Every night, I try to get the boys to bed, by at least 9:30. It has been a great time to get to know the boys and spend time with them. That is one of the things I enjoy thoroughly.
On the evening of July 4th we had an Independence day celebration, with a parade in the living room and Crystal playing her trombone and everyone else had noise makers. It was a lot of fun. We had hotdogs and hamburgers and French fries and Oreo pudding and we watched a video. We had a great time. Even some of the neighbor kids came over to help us celebrate. : )

Early this morning, I got Malaria. Don’t worry. I am not going to die. I am perfectly fine. I have been resting and getting stronger and taking my medicine. It has been really good to get some rest and not feeling guilty about it. The biggest thing is drinking water and keeping hydrated, which is harder, during rainy season, because it is cooler so I don’t drink as much water.

Tomorrow, I will be going to Ika Lord willing to visit Tom, Ben and Spen, the missionaries there. I am looking forward to my visit there.

Please pray for:
1.       The church I visited this last week. The name of the village escapes my mind, but the Lord knows.
2.       Pray for the boys that I would get the opportunity to share the gospel with all of them and wisdom in counseling them and disciplining them.
3.       Pray for me as I get over Malaria
4.       Pray for safe travel and a good time in Ika and that I will learn more of the language while I am there.

Once again thank you all for your prayers I appreciate them very much.

Your brother in Christ,
T.J. Kerttula