Once I was blind...

BUT NOW I CAN SEE..... 
  A NEW VISION FOR FUTURE MINISTRY 
EXPANDING INTO RWANDA

 

THE KEY TO MISSIONARY DEVOTION

"For His name's sake they went forth." John 3:7

Our Lord has told us how love to Him is to manifest itself. "Lovest thou Me?" "Feed My sheep"--identify yourself with My interests in other people, not, identify Me with your interests in other people. First Corinthians 13: 4-8 gives the character of this love, it is the love of God expressing itself. The test of my love for Jesus is the pratical one, all the rest is sentimental jargon.

---from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers 

Dear Friends of BESI / Radio Kahuzi,

Greetings to our Fellow Workers and Joint-heirs with Christ Jesus in His Ministry!

We arrived in the States with a dead computer and phone, but the Lord helped us get to the operating room before the now mandatory "21 day quarantine" for all travelers coming from certain countries where Ebola exists.

Later, we went to a dentist in Florida where they said they could not serve us for 21 days. Two men saw our passports and heard the word "EBOLA" and immediately got up and RAN out of the clinic!

After a long journey, we can share that the Lord used our eye problem to advance the future planning of BESI in Central Africa, and that the laser surgery was successful! Praise Him!
  
We arrived in Washington on the 8th; on the 9th we arrived at Dr. Nancy Thomas' office, and right away, she saw the secondary cataract had grown behind the lens. She explained it as trying to look through wax paper. It is called a "false cataract."

Rich went into surgery where she cut a cross and about ten minutes later, his vision was crystal clear in the right eye.  What a miracle!!  Dr. Thomas found that Richard's left eye was beginning to have the same problem. So, the next day, our dear friend, Wayne Van Andel drove us back for the second laser surgery. She found his retinas are perfectly well, which was of concern. The doctor in Bukavu said the reason for the blindness was that Richard's "rods and cones were dying"! 

After two nights at Best Western, Dulles Int. Airport and  three trips to Dr. Thomas, Pastor Cal, a BESI board member from Virginia, came to pick us up and took us back to their home in Stephens City where we shared our long-range vision for BESI's outreach in the African Great Lakes. 

We returned to Dr. Thomas for the last evaluation, then on to an  Evangelism Conference in Cumberland, MD, where we met  Pastor Jordan for the first time. We shared our short presentation during the conference and the next day they took everyone on a train ride through the beautiful fall, colored Cumberland mountains and did street evangelism distributing Gospel tracts.

Next, we went by car from Maryland to Grand Rapids with Pastor Cal and Judy Lowder to visit our dear friend, Jill, Wayne Schoonover's daughter.

Then we went on down to Elkhart with board members, Bill and Mary Bunch and Wayne Schoonover. The recently renamed HCJB

Engineering Center, now known as "Son Set Solutions"  agreed to work directly with us. HCJB Global has also been renamed "Reach Beyond." They have given "Son Set Solutions" autonomy, which allows for more flexibility in our technical relationship. We had dinner with senior technician, Mike Axman, our good friend, supporter, and tech support since 1992.

The next day Mary Bunch and Debbie Meier drove us to Chicago and Moody Church at the invitation of Dr. Erwin Lutzer for a meeting over lunch with Yvonne

Carlson, Directress of Moody Church Media; and Michael Pitts, Head of Operations and Media at Moody Broadcasting. They also indicated their interest in our future plans for the Great Lakes Region. We have been broadcasting Dr. Erwin Lutzer's "Running to Win" on Radio Kahuzi for the past six months.

Later, Mary Bunch and Debbie took us to Chicago to catch a plane to Florida. Before we left, we stopped off at Moody Bible Institute for a visit as Richard and I have never been there. What a surprise we had when Richard asked the secretary if there was a way to check the archives for a graduate alumni, Fred and Milley BAHLER. She found it right away and showed us a Moody Yearbook for 1945 and found my

Daddy's picture and my Mom's name, as they are both Moody alumni  of 1945! In the hall we found their names on a memorial list along with hundreds of other students!! What great  memories that brought back!

We flew into Tampa on Oct 15 and have been enjoying our own little house for R and R and preparing for our BESI board meeting, and a visit to Grace Bible Fellowship in Nokomis, FL; however, the non-stop activity has finally taken its toll and we are taking the "cure" for malaria and trying to remain still and quiet. This is hard to do when there is so much to do before our Lord's soon return.

We spent Sunday the 19th at Palma Sola Community Church in Bradenton, FL, which included a beautiful tribute to Pastor Richard Erickson for his years of dedicated ministry to the Lord.

We appreciate your prayers for renewed strength to complete our journey back to D R Congo and Rwanda, our new home by December 1. Amazing!

Keep Looking Up!
Richard and Kathy McDonald