Struggling with possessions

Today, we went to my brother Jim's house to sort through the last of our possessions. Do we own them, or do they own us? That is what we wondered. As most of it was dropped off at Goodwill this evening, we realized how much of a hold stuff can have on us. It does seem strange that most of our stuff fit in the trunk of our car. We will live OK without it.

Heavenly Father, thank You for meeting all our needs in Christ Jesus. Help us to focus on what we have in eternity, rather than here in this vapor of time we occupy.

Happy Easter!

Holy week is always one of our favorite times of the year. Jesus died and then rose from the dead! What power! As we pray for our Lebanese believers, in Abidjan and scattered around the world, it gives us great joy to know that their sins are forgiven. They put their faith in Christ alone for salvation. Jesus is worthy of our faith. As we look ahead, to our pastoral ministry in Tunisia, we are amazed. Thank you for going to North Africa with us through prayer!

Heavenly Father, we grieve with You the death of your only Son, because of our sin. Give us sensitive hearts to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus to be our holiness.

My life is full of joy

Today, Radwan and I went to his travel agent to purchase airline tickets for my family to an MK education conference in Niamey, Niger in January. One of the armed guards there ran up to us and greeted me very warmly. He thanked me profusely for giving him a Scripture booklet last month. He told us that his life is totally changed. His life is now full of joy, with Jesus in his heart. What a joy it was for us to hear his testimony!

Heavenly Father, continue to give Mike and Sue many opportunities to share the Word of God and love of Jesus with people in Abidjan. Guide this young man as he grows in his relationship with Jesus Christ.

Fuel went up 44% this week.

Overnight, the price of diesel fuel for our vehicle went from $4.93 to $7.10 a gallon in Cote d'Ivoire. Gas is now $7.19 a gallon. We're grateful that our vehicles get great mileage. How much do you pay for fuel?

We went to the grocery store today and stocked up. All food items will soon cost more, because of the increase in fuel costs. We're finding ourselves doing more of our visits by phone, to cut ministry expenses. We're as careful as we can be about making any purchases for our ministry that will influence the cost of our work here. Our Toyota gets much better mileage than our old Peugeot. We drive our tiny Suzuki Samurai or motorcycle when possible. Last year, we used our Farho Work gifts to purchase a laser printer. It dramatically reduced our printing costs compared to our inkjet printer.

We're grateful for your generous and sacrificial gifts to send us here to share the Good News in Abidjan. What ideas can you share, to help us lower our ministry expenses?

CCC 2008 team all home

John was the last member of the team to return to Omaha. He just called to let us know he made it safely. It was really an amazing 3 weeks for us to have the team for 2 weeks then John for 9 more days. We posted a lot of photos for you to see at the Team Blog and at our Farho Family Blog. Take a few minutes to enjoy them!

Heavenly Father, thank You for using the team from Christ Community Church to touch many lives at the Seminary, the Modeste Church and the Girls Orphanage. Thank You for the many who put their faith in Your Son Jesus at the orphanage and Jesus film showing. Help them to grow in love, faith and obedience to You.

Team Blog: http://www.christ-web.com/missions/farho/ccc2008/

Farho Family Blog: http://www.christ-web.com/missions/farho/family/

Tax time already?

Are your taxes filed? We're still working on ours. Aren't you glad we don't have tax forms for the Kingdom of God!? Many people in the the world believe they must pay taxes for God's kingdom. They believe that their good deeds must out-weigh their evil deeds. Unfortunately, that is a bookkeeping disaster. To make our good deeds greater than our evil deeds requires a lot of funny business in the books.

Heavenly Father, thank You for sending your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to pay our eternal taxes for us. Thank You that our spiritual taxes are paid in full, through the work Jesus did on the cross for us. Bless Mike and Sue as they expand Your Kingdom.

Where have you been, I missed you!

On my way home from visiting Lebanese today, several police pulled me over. When one came to my window I said, "Where have you been? I missed you! We're afraid to go out when you aren't here on the side of our roads."

He responded, "We're back now!" There were four of them, so I gave him four Scripture Gospel booklets titled How to Know God by WMPress with Scriptures about salvation in Jesus Christ.

Send us your questions advice, comments or prayer requests!

Gospel wasn't Good News for Fahed and Sami

"The Gospel is only Good News if it arrives on time." Carl F. H. Henry

Fahed and Sami are two Lebanese men who died last weekend. Fahed loved his family deeply. We had an appointment to pray with him Friday morning. I was sure in my heart he would open his arms to Jesus as Savior. His pancreatic cancer took his life just one hour before our visit. Sami was a new arrival to Abidjan. He was a computer geek/genius. But he couldn't find work. He wrote a bad check for several thousand dollars. He overdosed on pills, on his second day in prison.

Heavenly Father, use Mike and Sue to bring the Good News to many Lebanese in Abidjan. Comfort Fahed's ten children as they grieve the loss of their beloved father. Heal Hyame as she grieves the loss of her brother and recovers from the Malaria that hit her hard Saturday after Fahed's funeral.