Hello everyone and it is that time once again to give a report on what the Hall family has been up to.
The girls: They are busy with school in two languages (Danish and English) and taking care of pets, 5 rabbits have just joined the dogs, guinea pigs and parrot. We also just cut off Rachel’s cast today from her broken ankle. Naomi enjoys going to her little preschool, has learnt a few songs in Bemba.
Jette: She is busy with home school, (a full time job) also a hosting ladies bible study most Thursdays mornings and also hosting the missionary bible study some Thursday evenings, as well as hosting after-church tea for about 40 kids and adult on most Sundays. Our house is an open house.
Lyle: He has been busy with different things in the last four months, two clinics have been built, and loads of medical equipment has been distributed to different medical facilities. Several more churches have been planted so this requires follow-up and discipleship to the new churches. As an average, TTN (To The Nations – whom we work with) plants about 20 churches a year so discipleship is continuous.
Alex (one of our local TTN staff) is the local hospital Chaplain, he has influence on about one thousand patients a month and I go for hospital prayer visits with our team from time to time.
The heart of TTN: has always been evangelism and evangelism comes in different forms. In the last months TTN has lead two city crusades; also we put up our big tent and hosted the world cup football matches. We showed the matches on a big screen and preached during half time. At the end of it all, just over 400 had responded and were followed up and also directed to different churches.
Zimbabwe: I was in Zimbabwe for a week with James (another local TTN guy)teaching 34 coaches on different principles of how to reach the youth through sports. Teaching about HIV/AIDS is always a part of these seminars because it all too real for the youth here as well as the adults. So we spend a bit of time on this subject and try to take out the taboo of it all. It is my heart to see the churches start talking about this subject but it is all taboo so most will not touch it.
Conference: We spent the past week in the local OM mission conference, then I went to another conference and did some preaching and teaching for three days. It is amazing how many African brothers and sisters can fit in a small church, around 400 is what I counted. I slept in my tent but it was so very cold for me, the temperature these last weeks have been about 6C (40F) at night. Not fun at three o’clock in the morning. We are in the Southern Hemisphere so it is our winter time here.
Story: In the last few months I was blessed to see God work a miracle in a lady who was cursed by her father, she was unable to walk for over 12 years, after breaking the curse in Jesus name she now walks. The story on our blog, www.lylejettehall.blogspot.org worth a read if you didn’t get the email about her.
YWAM: I spent a few weeks teaching classes on spiritual warfare in the DTS in Lusaka.
Australia: I spent the month of July by invitation in Australia to meet the TTN board, also was invited to speak at about 12 different church functions. We also loaded three more containers full of medical equipment. Two containers come to Zambia and one will be shipped to Tanzania. This makes 12 containers in all being shipped out of Australia full of medical equipment. This has opened so many doors for all kinds of ministry for us. There is a hospital there that is moving locations next year and they have offered to give us all their equipment, this is about 120 containers full. All the logistics in this is huge but it is being looked into. Operation Lift is the organization in Australia responsible for loading and shipping and TTN is then the partner here on the receiving end, we unload and make sure equipment goes to its location, a big job. I did spend half a day on a boat in the big blue sea and caught a nice 10lb fish.
Some not so good news: Three different churches have dropped their support to us due to church politics (missionaries are generally the first to go) so this is making things a bit of a challenge, so I am taking on some building jobs here to help make ends meet for us.
For those of you who have supported us over the years; a continuous big thanks from us. For those of you that are still praying about our financial support, pray about becoming the answer to that prayer. Do get in touch with us or check out our blog to get information on the support info. If you need tax receipts, they are available.. As a whole it is more expensive to live in Zambia than the US, just to give you an idea.
Pray with us: We often encounter spiritual warfare issues here as you may imagine, so thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Here is something to think about, Believe it or not:
During one of our past crusades a witch was flying over the meeting place on her broom stick for several nights in a row and the team did not see many miracles etc, so as a team they all gathered together after a night meeting and while they were praying guess who fell out of the sky with her broom. She came crashing down in front of the team. She looked up, screamed, and then ran off into the night. The victory was the Lord’s, and the very next night hundreds of people encountered God and miracles were present. This does not happen every time we go out, but it is not all that uncommon either. So this is why your prayers are appreciated.
Come for a visit: As I have said many times before, if there is anyone or a church team that would like to come out for a missions trip please let us know, you are most welcome, as you can see there is a lot going on.
A look ahead:
September: I will be in Tanzania with a team going into the Rufiji Delta and then on to Masai Land where I have been several times before. TTN is looking to open up these for ministry.
In October, up to Nsumbu at Lake Tanganyika to build another clinic for about two weeks.
In November we go on a very remote river area called Kafue for research and also to visit churches that were planted there several years ago.
This is all for now, the Lord bless you all and remember to drop us a line.
A quote from Mother Teresa that has helped me over the years, “God has not called us to be successful, rather, he has called us to be faithful.”
