Dear Friends, prayer and support partners,
The new Seminary year is now underway! As usual, there's no lack of things to do!!! We are thankful for the way this last month has gone, there is a good group of on-site students, and even more in the distance program. Very briefly, let me share with you some praise and prayer subjects that you can keep before the Lord throughout these coming weeks.
Praise for the weekend conference
As I mentioned in our last update, I was asked to give two talks on faith, hope and boldness in prayer on October 10. It was a stretch trying to get everything ready, especially with the Seminary year starting up at the same time, but things went well. Friday afternon I spoke before 30 or so pastors from different denominations, and Friday evening to approximately 200 people. There was good feedback from the talks and some encouraging contacts.
During the course of the weekend, Claire-Lise and I had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people, and had some very good, deep conversations with several of them (we went together, taking two students and leaving the boys with Claire-Lise's parents who were visiting at the time). One of these people actually wrote a letter afterwards saying how much the time spent together was a real encouragement to him and his wife. What a privilege to be used by God in spite of our weaknesses! Thank you for your prayers that this weekend would continue to bear fruit and strengthen those who attended it!
New invitation from a Catholic Seminary!
Some of you may remember from the last time I spoke in the States that I was invited 2-3 years ago to give a course in a Catholic Seminary in the area. I had gone with much fear and trembling, but with the conviction that I was simply to expound God's Word. It turned out to be a very positive experience. Well, here we go again! I will be speaking in the same Seminary this coming week (Wednesday, November 5), on the subject of "The Authority of Scripture and the New Testament Canon". I would especially covet your prayers for this meeting and this talk! The subject is a difficult one and, once again, I'm more than a little nervous! Please pray that the Lord would give me His boldness (Eph 6:18-19!), and especially that He would use this time to bring praise to Himself and glorify His Son, to whom all Scripture points!
Vision building evenings
We will be starting up, in November, our evening "studies" with students from the Seminary who want to participate. Last year, this was a big encouragement to us, and to the students as well. Once again, our desire is not just to give them just one more Bible study, but to focus on God's Word and ask ourselves: What does this change in my life, and in my ministry? Please pray that there would be a good response from the students, and that this would be a real time of renewed commitment by these students, throughout the Seminary year, to the vision and work of the Kingdom.
One last thing. You may have noticed the change in email addresses. For some reason we've been having huge problems with getting our messages through to people with Comcast or Bellsouth addresses. I'm opening a new account in hopes of getting around this. We'll see. (By the way, if you have one of these serveurs and have not been getting our updates as of late, you now know why!) You can still use our other adress, which will probably continue to be our main one. But the new one will get through to us as well.
Thank you again for your prayers and faithful support!
Many rich blessings in our All-Sufficient King!
Donald, Claire-Lise, Dimitri and Lucas
