June 11th, 2002

As you have been praying, people are getting ready for a special project this summer. There have been new challenges today about the location for the project. With the recent rise in persecution and intense questioning quite a few people who were once very friendly to efforts like the summer project are now backing away. Please pray and ask others to pray that God will take care of these problems and a place will be provided. The man who has the power to give an okay for the project site was out of town this past week. He spent the weeek "in the lions' den" so to speak. When he returns he will have listened for a whole week to talk about Tigrinian people who are straying from traditional beliefs and adopting a "foreign religion" and how this will hurt the culture and the existing traditional church. Pray that God will not allow him to become prejudiced against the summer project, but instead will lead him to embrace the project and give it his full support. Remember that 95% of the people are in the hand of the traditional church. If access to them becomes even more limited than before, many Tigrai people may not have opportunity to hear the truth.