Missionary Reflections: 36 Years of Service in Africa

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Jeff Dimrest, your missionary to South Africa and how many.

This is the first time you've seen me.

I hope I'm not scaring anybody.

This church, Middletown Baptist Church, has supported me and my family for over 35 years on the African continent.

Come.

Come February of this next year will be 36 years in Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and now in the last 21 in South Africa.

And the Lord is blessing.

Some great things are happening.

I need to give you a couple of updates of things that have happened just since.

Since I made this video.

And God's doing some wonderful things.

If I can find my right piece of paper here, let me do my advertisement first.

If you didn't get one, there are prayer cards on my back table here on the right.

As you go out, please take a second and look at the display.

Get a prayer card.

They're free tonight, so get one tonight.

Matter of fact, I'm going to make you a special deal.

Two for the price of one.

All right?

So put one on your refrigerator.

Put one in your Bible.

I need prayer.

Amen.

So the Lord's blessed our ministry.

Some things have happened.

We started out in Uganda, in Kenya, back in 1990.

Our goal was to go in Uganda.

I can't find my notes here, so I'm going to have to wing it.

We may get out earlier than you think tonight.

Let me say that's okay.

Amen.

So we started out in Kenya, working into Uganda because Uganda was just opening up.

There was a man there by the name of IDI Amin before we got there, who brutally destroyed the country, killed hundreds of thousands of people, ran out all the Christians or anybody who had education.

If you stayed around, he'd throw you in jail and have you put to death.

Well, the country in 1986 was taken over by a fellow by the name of Mr. Yowiri Museveni.

And he.

He was from Uganda.

He took the country back over and started developing.

And that's the same time that God started working in our heart about going.

So in 1990, we went to Kenya.

We worked with some missionaries there, some veteran missionaries, and started making trips into Uganda to start the paperwork.

In 1992, the end of 92, 93, we moved into Uganda.

We turned the church over to a national past pastor in Kenya.

And for the next 13 years we spent in Uganda, where we were able to start four different churches.

The Luzira Independent Baptist Church was in Kampala, the capital.

And.

And we had a Bible institute there.

We trained men.

Men would come from villages.

It's.

It's not uncommon for a man to come to the major city, get a job, find work and live there all year and only go back and see his family once for about two or three weeks in the year.

And of course, that's not good for families, for husband, wife relationships.

A lot of different things.

So a lot of our guys who were coming, they had work, they were working their farms, their land.

And we would have them come in for a week each month.

They'd come in Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, Monday evening we'd start classes and teach a block section, section through Friday morning and train them.

And out of that church, we helped start three other churches in Uganda.

And those churches, I've been to all three of those churches.

The fourth one I haven't gotten back to yet.

My son is there, Seth.

He and his family are missionaries there.

Of course, our kids were raised in Uganda, so that's home for him.

And so brother Vincent at Luzer is still going strong.

Matter of fact, this last year at Christmas, the Rongoro Independent Baptist Church invited me to come back for their 25th anniversary.

And that was exciting to me that see a church continue on like that.

They have men, their training, and have gone out and started Bible studies in some of the villages.

And some of the other missionaries who have started churches, those pastors are all working together.

And so the Lord's blessing, the ministry there in Uganda, it's going on.

And my son is able to kind of see and see how things are going with some of those other churches.

In 2005, the Lord led us to South Africa.

Now, my wife had some health problems and she was born with scoliosis.

You know what scoliosis is?

Curvature of the spine.

And after they did surgery on her, before we went to Uganda, they did surgery and she was an inch and a half taller, so I had to adjust my lips, if you know what I mean.

Kids kissing her on the, on the chin now, but.

But with that scoliosis came arthritis over the years, and she had several other.

She was.

She became diabetic.

Uganda was a hard life.

Even though we were young and our kids were young, it was an adventure, but it got to the place where the doctors.

We made several trips to South Africa for medical things.

And the doctor said that you folks need to be at a place where there's a hospital at the next exit, not the next country.

So we thought, we thought when we got old, like brother Jeff over here, I know he's a good guy because his name's Jeff.

Amen.

That, that's my name too, by the way.

Just so he's good looking too, isn't he?

Most Jeffs are good looking.

I don't know.

Anyway, got to do something.

This crowd's dead tonight, you know.

All right, there we go.

Now you're alive.

So he said you need.

And in South Africa, it's a very modern country.

I tell people that if you come to South Africa and visit me and I want to invite you to come.

And you were, you didn't realize that you were riding on the other side of the road with the steering wheel on the other side of the car and you didn't hear them speaking in Zulu or their British English.

You would think you were in America.

Because we have great hospitals, we have good roads, we have malls, we have Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King.

About two years ago, they brought in Krispy Kreme doughnut.

You can tell, can't you?

South Africa is a very modern country, the most modern country on the African continent.

But at the same time, you can just go to certain areas and realize that you're still in Africa.

So we, we.

In 2005, we moved down there.

We started working with this church we are at now.

I'm at now Lighthouse Baptist Church.

They were about ready to close.

They hadn't had anybody to help pastor or missionary for two years.

And they ask, and, and they asked me to come and help them.

Now when we were getting ready to leave Uganda and it was hard to leave, it wasn't hard to leave because we didn't have electricity all the time and we didn't always have running water or hot water.

It wasn't hard to leave those things.

It was hard to leave the people.

It was very difficult.

But we knew it was time.

And those churches, matter of fact, the men of the church, when I told them what we were doing and that we needed to move and, and I always tell the church, I'm not here forever.

One day you're going to have a national pastor and I'm going to move on another place and start another church.

And they said, pastor Jeff, we're ready now.

We can go on.

And that's exactly what you want to hear?

So we moved to South Africa.

We were going to Durban, to an area called.

Well, we didn't know where.

We knew Durban was the major city.

There's about 4 million people in Durban.

It's on the Indian Ocean.

We have the.

We have the largest Indian population outside of India living in Durban.

And so we have quite a large group of people we can work with.

We have in South Africa, we have, I think, 13 different recognized languages.

Nine of those are tribal languages.

They speak English because of the British.

They speak Afrikaans because of the Dutch.

German.

We have Portuguese there.

English is the main language.

That's the trade language.

That's what the government uses.

So when you come and visit, you'll have no trouble getting along.

Amen.

And so we are working with some folks.

Our church, it was in a.

In a white area.

It was an all white church.

When I first went, let me just tell you how God works.

Would it be all right if I take this jacket off?

Preachers watching tonight over my microphone?

So let me just tell you, how can you hear me?

So we started praying about going to South Africa where God wanted us, and we knew God wanted us in the Durban area.

Now, we had always worked with black Africans, all right?

That's what we were comfortable with.

Well, I wrote a friend and he said, and.

And this is kind of in the.

In the realm of finding God's will.

I wrote a friend, a missionary friend down there, and asked him, I said, what's it like living in South Africa?

You know, what's rent, you know, what about groceries?

My wife wants to know if she can get her hair done, you know, all those important things.

So he wrote me back and filled all that information out for me and even sent me a map where the mall was and where you could get things done.

And he said to me, you know, there's a.

And he put it this way, a white South African church, because, you know, South Africa had a big racial problem called apartheid.

And he said, why don't you think about coming and helping them?

I said, okay.

I said, in my mind, okay, I'll think about it.

Okay, I thought about it.

That's how quick it went through my mind, because I was comfortable working with the group of people I was working.

So I wrote another missionary and I asked him all the same questions.

And he sent me back all the information.

He said, hey, there's a church here that for two years they've not had anybody to help them.

No pastor or missionary.

He said, why don't you pray about Coming and helping them, now that's a little more serious.

So I said, I said, okay, I'll pray about it.

I said, lord, as you want me to go, I'll go that.

Amen, you know, just that quick because I thought I knew what God wanted.

And then I, I thought, well, you know, maybe if the Lord would have somebody else contact me, that I would take this serious.

Well, you ever, you ever think you got one up on God?

You know, is it.

I didn't know anybody else down that area, South Africa, so there was nobody who could contact me.

What I didn't realize was these guys had been talking with the guys in the church.

And one of the men in church sent me an email the very next day that I prayed that I said that he said, would you consider coming and helping us?

And so I kind of flew through my fleece out there and got answered.

So we, we.

We moved to Durban.

And like I said, it's right on the Indian Ocean.

We're about 30 minutes from the Indian Ocean.

And we'd never been there until we moved there.

We shipped our stuff from Uganda down and we started working with the Lighthouse Baptist Church.

At that time, it was called Village Bible Church.

But we.

They changed the name because they were getting con people were getting confused about the Hillcrest Baptist Church.

I said, well, we got to put Baptist back in the name because I'm a Baptist.

And by the way, we.

If we get out there and knock doors and hand out some tracts, they'll know we're here.

They'll know we're different.

So over the last several years we've been with this church, it's changed.

The congregation has completely changed.

Today we have white South Africans coming.

We have Afrikaners, those who speak the Dutch, German who come, and English.

We have Zulu who come.

That's the main tribe there we're working with.

We have people from Malawi come.

We have a group called Coloreds.

The Coloreds are a complete distinct racial group.

Their own ethnicity, their own culture, their own food.

They speak Afrikaans.

They're a light brown people and have been in South Africa for many, many years.

Some of those come.

So we have a mixed church.

Before, it was just white.

Not that they wouldn't let them come, but they just didn't invite them.

So God has done a work.

And you know what?

The love of Christ changes people's hearts.

When we have the right kind of love for the Lord Jesus Christ, God will use that to change hearts.

So some things that are happening at our church, we have, we have the Recovery Ministry.

We have a program on Friday nights for addictions, bad habits and destructive behavior.

Now, it's just us here tonight, so I want to ask this question.

Anybody here have any addictions, bad habits or destructive behavior?

Okay.

Three of us are telling the truth.

The rest of you, a bunch of liars.

No, we all have something we can work on, don't we?

And what our program really is, is a discipleship program to teach people how to become more like Jesus Christ, how to build a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And that's what we need if we're going to be the right kind of Christian.

We need to learn how to love and grow and learn as Jesus would have us learn.

And if we, as we do that, he becomes in more control of our life than we do.

Now we have.

We've been having about 20 men and ladies come, some of them from off the street, some of them from other churches.

I have three other missionaries, a pastor, national pastor, who helped me on Friday nights.

And while I'm away, they're carrying on.

But just before I left, the folks where we've been renting office building where we have our church, and we have another room for Sunday school, and there's other offices in this same place that are down the hall and locked up.

And.

And about a month before I was ready to come back in July, June, July, they let me know that we needed to quit having our recovery program at the church.

They were concerned that these guys are going to start stealing from the other offices.

Well, first of all, we've been meeting and doing this for about seven years now, and they've not stolen anything.

And then I thought, well, lock your offices.

You know what?

Common sense.

Lock the office.

But they said we couldn't have it there, and they were asking us to move it.

They were asking us to move.

So I got the official letter and I very nicely, I replied back and I said, thank you for allowing us to be here for all these years.

I kind of emphasized, all these years and we will be out in 30 days.

So we started looking.

We could not find anything in our price range.

Now, our church now, right now, they pay their own rent.

The church tithes and offerings, pay their own rent and electricity and utilities.

And we're able to support two missionaries, and we also are able to save a little in the bank account, but we couldn't find anything.

Either it was too big and too much money, or it was too small, not enough space for us to rent.

So we just didn't know what we're going to do.

So they sent me an email after I sent my.

They said well I tell you what, we will give you three months that you can stay and find a place.

Well, that didn't help me because in 30 days I'm leaving, coming back to the state.

But at the final part of the letters they said but if you, if you find a place to put your recovery ministry and they still want it out, you can stay there for the church.

So you know, you kind of put in a quandary in a delirium.

You don't know what to do.

You trust in God.

You're looking well.

We have a ministry on Wednesday.

Our Bible study on Wednesday night is out at a different property at one of our members houses.

Brother Andy, he has his house, he has a big factory on that property.

I've built a house below it.

And you saw a picture of the print shop.

We built the print shop on that property.

So I suggested to the men that we move even though it's further away from town.

We moved the Bible study to the print shop.

I mean the recovery program.

So we told our guys on the streets this is where we're going to be.

We'll pick you up here at this time and we'll bring you back here at this spot when we're done.

And so we've lost some few guys but we're meeting out in the print shop now on Friday night.

Every, every Saturday morning I get pictures from the guys who are running it of who's come and how many come and what's happened and who's been preaching and doing the different things in the recovery program.

And a couple of our guys from the streets are coming.

Matter of fact, just before I left, when we started, we, we were coming out, they were coming out to the property there about 7 o' clock on, on Friday night.

And I pull up the gate about 5 o' clock where we live every, everything most places are behind walls and fences because of security.

And we have a big metal gate.

And I pull up to the gate and, and I see this fellow by the name of Sia Bonga.

See a bonga in Zulu means thank you.

So we call him Sia for short.

I pull up and it's been raining all day long.

And he stand there and he's soaked, drink, soaking wet, drenched.

And I said see you.

What are you doing?

He said well I walked from town because I didn't want to be late tonight for the RU program.

He walked about an hour and a half in the rain to get there that night.

Almost every picture they send me on Saturday morning.

See ya.

Is coming on Friday nights to the recovery program and doing his challenges, doing the homework.

And I tell you what, God's starting to bless some of these guys.

There's another guy by the name of Nick who comes, have several church members and others who come.

And so God's blessing, that ministry.

And I tell you that because when you pray and you give so we can go, I believe it's fruit that abounds to your account.

The Bible says you have a part in people getting saved in Africa today.

So we have the print shop there.

We've shipped 14 containers of literature and Bibles and New Testaments and John and Romans and tracts in these last 35 years in 12 different languages.

Those 12 different languages have gotten into 14 different African countries.

When I was in Uganda, we sent scriptures to Tanzania and Kenya and the Congo and I think Rwanda, South Africa, where they've gone into Malawi and Botswana and Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Scripture, and then languages in our country.

We've been able to get some tracks in some of those languages, but we.

We need to print there.

And I've been part of.

Are you folks familiar with Bearing Precious Seed, the.

The churches that print Bibles and send them around the world?

Anyway, there.

There's a church in Ohio bearing Precious Seed in Milford, Ohio.

They have a.

They have a press that's as long as you're building, and it almost as long as this building, and it takes six big rolls of paper.

I think it can print a whole new Testament in one run.

They've been doing this for years.

And we were part of that ministry before we went to Africa.

And I've always had a desire to print on the field.

So a couple several years ago, we were able to get by a printing press there.

But the timing has never been right.

We've got the print shop, we've got the printing press, we've got the cutters, staplers, folders.

Got everything we need to start.

But I can't spend all my time printing if I'm helping a church.

So we've been praying and.

And back in September, I was in my home church in Carthage, Missouri.

Does anybody know where Carthage is?

You know where St. Louis is?

It's nowhere near St. Louis.

It's clear down in the other corner by Oklahoma and Kansas and Arkansas, down by Joplin, past Springfield.

Anyway, that's my home church, my sending church.

And as I was finishing up giving my presentation that night, my pastor got up and said, hey, Brother Dave.

Brother Dave was sitting in toward the back.

He said, aren't you a printer?

He said, yes, I am.

He said, if I'd raised the money for you to go help Brother Jeff, would you go?

He said, I sure would.

Now, Brother Dave and I had talked about this before the last time I was back, but he's had to have some surgeries and recovery time and all of that.

Brother Dave used to own his own printing business.

He knows all about the presses and the equipment that we have.

As I was talking to him by my table at the end of the service, another man came up.

His name was Brother Dance.

Brother Dance, I didn't know too well he's joined since I was there last, but I'd met him once or twice.

And to find out Brother Dance is a retired printer and he knows the equipment that I have.

You know what?

I've got two men coming next year to help get these presses and equipment up and running.

And, Lord willing, start training a man so we can start printing there in South Africa.

You say, Brother Jeff, what are you going to print?

Well, we have nine different tribal languages.

Zulu, Ndebele, osa, Tsonga, Swana, and several others that they have nothing or very little of the Word of God in their languages.

And missionaries and national pastors there have been writing or translating tracts, and they've been printing them on their desktop printer or they've been taking them to the.

The copy place and making copies, and that gets very expensive.

And so these men have done that.

And so I'm in contact with them.

And I said, get it ready and get it sent to me so we can start formatting, so we can start printing the Word of God in South Africa to give to those pastors and national pastors and missionaries so they can have at least something to hand to their people.

I tell you that again, and I tell you that you've had a part in that.

As you pray and you give so we can.

So I can go.

So your missionaries can go.

The gospel gets out around the world.

That's fruit that abounds to your account.

Here's another thing.

We.

We have two other ministries we're running out of the church.

We have a.

We call it a helps ministry and a friendship ministry.

Our friendship ministry is just basically a feeding program.

We have a lot of unemployment, a lot of people living on the streets.

And our ladies started this.

They wanted to start this.

So they.

On Friday, they'll come to my house because I've got a big veranda porch, and we Have a big stove outside, and they use these big old pots like.

I mean, seriously like this.

They start cooking in.

And we'll cook anywhere.

Enough food for about 200 people.

And on Saturday morning, we go out and we take that food that they've cooked and they, of course, they reheat it and it's a hot meal.

And we are able to go out on the street, on the.

In.

In on the beachfront, into shelters and start handing out those scripture had.

I'm allergic to somebody in here.

I think it's you, brother.

And.

But the thing about it is we have opportunity to give them the gospel.

This last month, just in.

I think it was the end of October, They.

They're continuing on while I'm not there.

They.

They handed out 150 parcels of food.

They were able to go to a shelter.

But before they got the food, everybody gathered into the main hall.

And one of our men was able to preach to them and give them the gospel.

And each one got a.

Either a New Testament or a John and Romans and gospel tract to read.

I don't know if anybody got saved or not, but they heard the gospel.

And we go out on the street corner.

We can preach with a megaphone.

It's no problem.

So we have that friendship ministry.

Then we have our helps ministry on.

On Wednesday night, our Bible study.

They come to the property.

There again, where my friend brother Andy is.

You know, you all have different gifts.

God.

The Bible says God gives us gifts to use for him.

Who sings in here?

Okay, I'm not.

I'm not talking about carrying a tune in a bucket.

Okay?

You can sing.

Who can cook.

I'm sure there's a whole bunch of ladies that can who are handymen.

You can work with wood or electric or metal.

You know, God gives us all kinds of.

How many are.

Sunday school teacher.

Amen.

You see, God gives all kinds of gifts.

Brother Andy, in our church, besides being very smart, he's one of these guys.

I explained my friend brother Andy as.

He's one of these guys that if he can't fix it or he can't make it, you don't need it.

I mean, he can fix anything and he can make anything.

He has one of these minds.

Yeah, I learned a whole bunch of rules and formulas in school.

You have to ask him something, and you can see his brain.

He just starts clicking off.

It's just clicking off, click.

He loves to cook and he loves to hoe.

On Wednesday night, we fix a meal for about 30 people in our church.

They Come to his house.

He's got a big outside porch there.

And a lot of these folks are struggling.

They're in our church or they're in other churches.

Some of them are divorced or going through divorce.

They're struggling.

They have no support system.

They have nobody to talk to.

They have nobody to lean upon.

And so we have started this helps ministry, helping them to be able to learn how to handle the situation they're going through, teaching them how to give it over to God and to trust God, learn how to pray about it.

So we are meeting at this property on Wednesdays and on Friday nights our services are there.

And the Lord's blessing that we've had several folks come and join the church because of that.

So I told you we had to move the.

The recovery program.

So on Sunday, we only meet in this rented building and we only use it on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours.

So I've been talking to our men and we're trying to figure out if we can just move the church out to the print shop.

Now we're going to have to have some ladies touch to help us make it look like a church and not a warehouse.

But we have.

We have.

A piece of land has become available right next to the place place we meet now.

There's four acres that have become available.

In town, we looked at land for a third of an acre.

It's anywhere from 250 to $350,000.

To me, that's not a good use of money.

And, and right next to where we're at, we're looking at.

And we're praying God and supply to.

To supply $50,000 to buy these four acres.

That'll buy the four acres.

That'll do the paperwork.

That'll.

If there are any.

Any liens against it or people squatting on it or take claim to it, that will take.

Get it.

Get them off the property and we can build a proper security fence around it.

So we are.

Thank you, brother.

Where'd you get that water?

You know these Mexican pastors, you got to be careful.

Yeah.

It's coming from Africa.

I drink everything.

Anything.

You know, I. I'm.

I'm surprised he didn't bring me Pepsi.

It's on the back of his shirt there.

So we're praying that God would supply the funds to purchase these four acres and with.

With the church.

If.

And here's my thinking now, if you think I'm thinking wrong, please let me know.

Because the Bible said in the multitude of counselors, they're Satan if we can move the church out there and we can.

And the folks come anyway.

And we run a.

We run a taxi or we run a.

We have a bus route, but we use plastic.

Plastic.

We use public transport to get them there.

Now our public transport are 16 passenger vans.

Toyota van.

They run around the city in town and picking up people like ants.

Scurrying everywhere in and out.

They run through the red lights.

We call them robots.

They there, they don't stop.

They're always honking their horn.

They're a menace.

But that's how people get around.

So we have a guy who we've used and every Sunday morning he goes to a certain area and picks up a.

A taxi load of people for us.

Brings them to church and after church he comes back and picks them up and takes them home.

I don't have to worry about a vehicle.

I don't have to worry about mechanic.

I don't have to worry about insurance.

I have to worry about liability.

Do I have to worry about being out on the road early before church and after church?

And he just got to bring them about five miles further than what he normally does.

So to me it looks like a good situation for us.

So would you pray God give us wisdom about this piece of land.

I think we've had about $7500 already promised toward that.

Had another 1500.

Guy sent me a message today on the way here.

Sent me a message.

We're going to give something to help toward it.

So you know what I'm asking?

I'm asking that you would pray that God would provide.

Now, I don't think anybody in here has $50,000 in their wallet or purse tonight.

If you do, you better call the preacher.

He'll want to talk to you right away.

Amen.

But I have a God who owns the cattle on A Thousand Hill.

He can do it.

I've seen him do great things.

Matter of fact, he said he can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Now, I tell you what.

I. I see this piece of land.

I see us building a building on it.

If.

If we are able to pay our rent right now, all that money could go to a building.

If we're meeting in the print shop.

We do not have a good translation of the word of God in Zulu.

We don't have anything to give our people.

There is a translation out there, but it's not a good one at all.

I'm praying that God would.

And I'm asking you to pray that God would help that God would put together a translation team for the Zulu.

I can see a translation station on this property.

I can see a school on this.

I can see, I can think some great things.

God said he's able to do even more.

We have people in that area.

There's no church around there for them to go to of any kind.

And one of our men have been up reaching and, and the, the young people and the kids and teaching them off and on up in that area.

It's called Gologoshlo.

They need the gospel.

They need a church too.

So our people are already coming out their way.

So that's just some things that's happening.

And it's happening because Middletown Baptist Church prays for their missionary and you give to mission and when you do that, you're obeying God's command and taking the gospel around the world.

And I just want to say thank you for that.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayers and giving.

And I want to invite you to come.

I built this house on this property and I've got an extra bedroom.

You can come and spend a couple of weeks or three.

And I, I'd take you so many places and I, I'd treat you so many different ways and I'd feed you so many different things.

You'd have to like one of them.

Amen.

Amen.

So that's what's happening in Africa in, in 2021, the Lord called my wife home from Africa.

We were, we were there and we were still in COVID protocol.

There was a lot of things happening and her ankles were swelling and would not go down.

So, you know, the first thing you think of is either heart or kidneys.

So my good doctor friend said, let's put her in the hospital and get some testing done.

Let me tell you about this doctor.

He's a Christian.

He's been our doctor for many years.

Almost every Friday or Saturday morning at 7 o', clock, I'm in his office and we have a Bible study and prayer and he kind of unloads on me some things that are happening and going on.

And we just have a good time over coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts.

Amen.

But it's amazing that this doctor he wants to get to, matter of fact, he asked me to come.

And so it's a real blessing to have that type of doctor.

Matter of fact, just about three weeks before I came back, I was in the hospital with influenza and they had to put me in isolation.

On that Friday morning, my doctor went down to the where we get coffee and donuts.

And he brought them to me in the hospital in my room.

Now, what kind of doctor does that?

They don't.

You see, he has the love of God.

He.

He's a great man.

Anyway, I meet with him every week, and I praise the Lord for that guy.

He went through all of this with me, with my wife.

They couldn't find anything wrong.

They couldn't find anything wrong with the swelling.

There's no infections, nothing.

She was in there a week.

The beginning of that second week, she started to become a little distant.

It was hard to talk to her, to keep her attention.

And.

And it was co.

It was.

We still had high COVID protocol.

I couldn't even go to the hospital.

So I would talk to her on the phone, and I couldn't get a hold of her on the phone.

She let the phone die.

I couldn't keep her attention.

And.

She.

She didn't want to eat.

And then the next thing they told me that was she had pneumonia.

And shortly after that, they put her into icu.

And they called me that Tuesday morning, said, you better come in.

She's failing.

And so I went in that morning and spent some time with her, spent the whole day with her.

Some of you've been through this.

You wonder.

And, you know, at that time, I didn't question God.

I pretty much accepted the fact what was happening, but I didn't know why or the reason.

And I called my kids and they all got to say their goodbyes and told her I got up in her face and I was moving her hair and told her I love her.

She opened her eyes and looked at me for about three seconds.

The only time she was conscious when I was there.

Spent a couple of more hours with her, and then she walked into the presence of the Lord.

Can you imagine what that's going to be like?

Absent from the body, present with the Lord, just like that.

And the doctors, they could not.

They have no idea what took her life.

It wasn't covet.

One doctor said this to me.

She said, we just think that probably her body was tired and wore out, and life on the mission field with health conditions is not.

But I'm thankful today that I have a risen savior.

And one day she's going to rise from that grave, and one day I'm going to see her in heaven.

And you know what?

God's giving me the grace to go on.

Has it been easy?

No.

It's kind of like somebody's cut my left arm off.

I've had one Thing I can't do in church, I can't deal with the women.

Can't handle them.

No, I don't mean it that way.

I can't minister to them very well without a wife and the children.

That's been difficult for Sunday school.

But God has given two ladies in our church now who are helping with the Sunday school, helping planning things for the ladies.

We have some missionary ladies who help.

Sometimes my daughter comes and visits or my daughter in law from Uganda comes down to visit and they will have a ladies meeting.

And these ladies, for example, we have a couple there, an evangelist couple.

They've been taking over the services for me while I've been gone overseeing the church and doing the ministries.

And they're expecting their first baby.

And one of the ladies said, pastor Jeff, would it be all right if we have a baby shower for her?

Man, that's the fantastic.

That wasn't my idea.

That was their idea.

And folks, that's the kind of people we need in church ready to jump in and help and carry the load so we can get the gospel.

So God has answered a lot of prayers.

I'm anxious to get back.

I go back December 28th and I'm staying till after Christmas.

I'm giving my kids one more chance to get me a nice Christmas present.

Amen.

But we're all going to be together at Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful for that.

But I'm ready to get back going, get the printing ministry started.

We're pursuing this land.

That's some things you can think about.

Let me leave you a verse tonight.

The Bible says, but my God shall supply all your what need.

He didn't say he'd supply all of our want.

But he also said, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, he said, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways.

Man, I got some big ideas for Africa.

I got some big ideas for our church.

I got some big ideas for the printing and they're big.

That's.

It's.

I can't do it.

Only God can.

But God can do more in your life and in my life as we yield ourselves to him.

And that's all I want to be.

I want to be a yielded servant of Jesus Christ.

And if we'll do that, we'll see the blessings of God blow and it happens again.

Because of churches like Pray and Give, I get, I get several times a year I get notes and letters from this church.

You all correspond with your Missionaries there.

You, I, I know several on the wall back here.

There's nothing like getting a little email or an, or a card in the mail from the usa some church that we're praying for you.

That's a blessing to us.

Some of the sometimes when missionaries go through trials, we've had, we've had several things happen on the field.

We've been robbed at gunpoint for two and a half hours.

Our kids have had malaria.

Several things have happened and come back to the States and somebody recounts that story and they said, you know what?

God woke me up in the middle of night to pray for you.

God wakes you up in the middle of the night.

You say, God, who am I supposed to be praying for?

It might be one of your missionaries who are going through a trial.

So I want to thank you.

You're going to get out early tonight, is that okay?

Five minutes.

Whole five minutes.

But I want to thank you for allowing me to be your missionary.

30, at least 35 years.

We started deputation in, in 87, so I think 88 or 89 we were here and you all took us on and, and I see what God's done here and I'm excited for you.

I've just thanked past for you tonight.

Being faithful to the Lord in this place.

Let's pray.

Lord, I want to thank you again, Lord, for your love to us and for what you're doing through Middletown Baptist Church and Lord, in this community and around the world, Lord, you told us to go to all the world, but you told us how to do it.

If we, if you didn't call us or send us personally, we can give and we can pray.

So Lord, I thank you for this church.

I pray you bless, Lord, a lot of events happening between now and the end of the year.

I pray you bless those.

I pray people would come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

You, you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at.

Josh Massaro, middletownbaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.