Dearest brethren,
We hope you had a great holiday season and are looking forward to a great year. Most of the month of December I was in Cameroon, Africa. The rest of the month was full of recovery time and Holiday time with family.
Cameroon Bible Institute of Wotutu graduated its first class of 17 preaching students. All of them worked extremely hard and sacrificed much for the sake of Christ. We are happy to see they are all going to preach full time in various congregations that they have worked with previously through campaigns.
The first week I was there I taught their final class, which was “Marriage and Family.” The students really seemed appreciative of the material. When classes finished up, we went to the annual lectureship about 1 ½ hours away. There were over 450 people who attended this lectureship. It was encouraging to be there. I was asked to speak on Sunday morning. It was an honor to share God’s word with so many. Once we got back to Wotutu we had a lot of work to get prepared for the upcoming graduation. They not only had the graduation, but they also introduced the 26 new students at the same ceremony (called a matriculation). There were over 1300 people in attendance for this great event. So many people contributed to make it a special day.
During graduation, I also made the announcement that I would be stepping down as the coordinator & David Ballard would be taking my place. David has a great reputation, familiarity & love of the people in Cameroon. We are excited about his decision to help this fine school continue making a difference for eternity.
My attention now turns toward the goal of planting a church in Phoenix among the Native American people there. Our goal is to move to Phoenix & begin the work in June. We are so thankful for the Morenci congregation for their support in helping me during this time of transition. They’ve been an encouragement to our family. They’ll be looking for a good solid preacher to come when we leave. If you know of anyone who would like a good solid work please let me know.
We currently have ¾ of our support raised for the upcoming work in Phoenix. We are still looking to finalized the rest of our support & get our goals & plans in clear workable steps. There is a lot of research to get done as we think about a church plant in a metro area with the Natives in mind. There are going to be challenges, but I believe many great rewards.
Thank you for your continued love & support of all our efforts in the kingdom to the glory of our God. We pray for you & look forward to the next time we meet.
Sending our love and prayers to you and the brethren.
Josh Austin