Hughes News #83

"Tie your shoes and pray for the Hughes"

Dear Friends, 

 

We’ve just finished two weeks of Vacation Bible School.  As in years past, the first week was with kids in David’s neighborhood and the second in Soroca at our rental.  We were pleased to have a variety of kids join us- returnees and newbies, 5 year olds to 13 year olds, churched and unchurched, boys and girls.  The Lord gave us good weather both weeks and very minor behavior problems.  Our lessons focused on Moses’ life up to the crossing of the Red Sea.  Covering the Passover lamb for the Thursday lesson provided a natural segway into sharing the Gospel.  During our second week, one girl asked to talk more with Sarah about salvation.  The Sunday following the week in Soroca, we invited parents and grandparents to a special review/awards program – something new for us.  The time went well and I’m sure we’ll consider doing it again in the future.  As you know, VBS takes a decent amount of preparation and lots of energy to keep up with the kids, but we enjoyed the weeks so much.  Our prayer is that the lessons they heard, songs they sang, verses they memorized and Bibles they took home with them would all be used to draw these little ones to our Savior.

Zastinca

Soroca

We take a break from teaching English classes in the summer.  Back in April we had a special lesson in which we focused on the topic of Easter.  We had done something similar in the past with Christmas, but this was our first time with Easter.  Viola was especially pleased how it went with her ladies.  In the spring we did something new for our Thursday night service.  Instead of simply teaching a lesson, I prepared worksheets for different ages and together we studied the book of Esther.  We played sacred instrumental music and each person read and studied on his own.  We’ve finished that now, but we may use that format for another study in the future.

 

Our house project is actually looking like a house!  Since we last wrote we sorted bundles of metal then began assembling.  We finished that in the middle of June and in the past month a crew has put all of those different wall panels, floor joists, spacers and roof trusses together into a unified structure.  We are currently digging trenches for water and sewer lines and the next steps will be the roof and getting plywood on the walls.

  

Assembly of first panel

Our house as it currently stands

We have two specific people we’d like you to be praying for.  “O” is an older lady who comes faithfully to our Thursday evening study.  She seems to have a desire for spiritual things, but we are not sure if she yet understands salvation.  “P” just turned 90 last week.  He attends our service in the village and very much wants to be baptized and join our group there.  We have some questions regarding his understanding of the Gospel and need God’s wisdom to know how to proceed with him.  We would also appreciate your prayers for a yearly planning meeting we have with our coworkers in a few weeks.  We want to be led by the Lord as we make adjustments to current ministries and plans for the upcoming twelve months.  Thank you for your involvement in our ministry!

In His service,

Jacob and Viola Hughes 

 

For Prayer:

1. Two older people in our ministry, P and O. 

2. Yearly planning meeting with our coworkers in August

3. Decisions regarding our house and further progress to be made

 

For Praise:

1. Two great weeks of VBS

2. Encouraging progress within the ministries our team is involved in

3. Our house structure is now standing