Greetings friends and brethren, we hope that you are all well and haven’t been affected by the thunderstorms, hail, and tornadic weather we have heard about on the news. Everything in our neck of the world is moving along at a rapid pace and I am glad to send out a glimpse of the work that is taking place.
CAMPAIGNS
Campaigns have been going on for the past month and will continue through the end of June. We have had brethren from Alabama, Oklahoma and Indiana join us this year. Currently, six brethren from Elk City, OK are conducting a campaign in Usa River (pronounced “oosah”). On Sunday we said goodbye to our good friends from Hoover, AL. With nineteen folks in their group they were able to get a great deal accomplished in assisting the congregation at Elkorea get more firmly on her feet. You might recall that last year the brethren from Hoover helped establish the congregation in Elkorea. This year’s efforts were met with great enthusiasm by the local brethren. The seed was sown, brethren were edified and many were added to the kingdom. Our longtime companions to the work here, the Gary Box family, and several others from the Cottondale congregation, conducted a campaign in Njiro Chini (Pronounced injeerō cheeny). In my next report I’ll give a little more detail concerning these campaigns.
We enjoyed having the Dwight Burton family, from Evansville, IN, with us this year to assist the Kwa Mrombo congregation in their campaign. The Burton’s were great fun and hard workers. Along with the brethren from Kwa Mrombo they conducted 12 classes with 33 in attendance each day. They visited seven members who have gone back into the world, passed out several bibles, over 1500 bible tracts, signed up 15 people for correspondence courses and passed out 24 Searching for Truth books. One of the encouraging events at Kwa Mrombo was the youth day. The day was a great success with 76 young people gathering for a day of singing, teaching and fellowship. Another exciting thing happened during the Kwa Mrombo campaign as well. If you have never visited here you wouldn’t know it but there are mosques on almost every corner and every mosque has, at least, one very large speaker to blast out their propaganda. The Kwa Mrombo building is located roughly fifty yards from a mosque and the local Imam decided to fire up the speaker and give the community a sound warning. Charles Heberth, the local preacher, reported the following concerning the announcement about the Kwa Mrombo congregation:
“Do not listen to them, do not listen to them. They are well organized people, they know what they are doing! They are well organized and they come even to the houses of Muslims who are living in this area. Please be aware with them for they have shaken the faith of some of us! Their efforts are well organized and they do this yearly with few members following behind every week...!”
Sometimes it is very easy for us as Christians to start to complain and not knowing that we are working for God. It is easy also for us to stop working thinking that God is not in control. The above announcement was made by the Imam at the Mosque near the Kwa Mrombo Church of Christ on Friday the 30th May 2014. This shows that though we may not see what we are doing the Lord and other people see and we should not be discouraged with whatever surrounds us but rather we should press on working for the Lord....
UPCOMING FURLOUGH
Our furlough is rapidly approaching. We would like to be able to sit down and visit with as many of you good brethren as possible and discuss the work and the good that you have been and are supporting. If you would like to do so let us know and we’ll see if we are going to be in your part of the country at the right time.
Furloughs are a necessary part of the work of a missionary and a number of things are accomplished when they are planned properly and regularly. First, it provides some time to regroup and recoup. The foreign field takes a toll on a missionary in ways that are not describable, like other professions, unless you have actually experienced being one. The bottom line is you need a bit of a break in order to recharge and get ready for your return. Second, furlough is a time to visit supporters and report about the work. This time together is invaluable as we get to show more pictures, answer in depth questions, actually speak face-to-face with many good brethren and, most importantly, say thank you. Third, it provides us the opportunity to, hopefully, gather new supporters to close the substantial gap in our support deficit. If you are a congregation that currently supports us and would like us to come and report, we would love the opportunity, just drop us an email. If you know of a person or congregation that might be interested in talking to us while we are on furlough, again, drop us an email, we would be thrilled to visit with them.
Speaking of our upcoming furlough, we are in great need of the funds for our tickets. Our tickets are $4900 and to date we have $200 that has been given toward this amount. If you are able to help we would be most grateful. Our new sponsor’s mailing address is located below. Please earmark your contribution for: Hochdorf Travel Fund.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
We thank the Almighty for the diligent work of the local brethren, all the campaigners, the missionary team and YOU! There is so much good being done for the kingdom that our reports can’t do it justice. On behalf of Anita and me, we say thank you for your continued support, prayers and encouragement.
Until next time, take care and God bless.
In Christ,
Sean Hochdorf
New Sponsor Information: Please make checks payable to BVBID and mail to:
BVBID
c/o Hochdorf Mission Fund
2707 S. Lamar St.
Denver, CO 80227