NTM

Several days ago we received news that one of our neighbors had died and left behind a 4 month old, baby boy. We learned that the father had received several offers to buy his child when the mother died; even a doctor in the hospital offered cash – $4. Without any relatives to care for the child and a young father without the resources to care for his son, we offered to care for Len until he is old enough to eat a regular Kui diet and be returned to his father.

Prior to taking responsibility for Len we exhausted all other options including offering to pay for formula, etc. We are extremely excited and Kim is thoroughly enjoying having such a small child in our life. Obviously the rest of the kids are ecstatic and love doting on their baby ‘brother’.

We covet your prayers and appreciate the emails and encouragement from home.

The Lord has provided abundantly and we have been able to work steadily and are near completion of the first phase of construction. The first phase included the garage and maintenance shed, the fence and water tower, the bathrooms and septic and the day clinic. Thanks so much for praying and for sharing generously and sacrificially your financial resources so that the Kui can receive adequate medical care in the very near future.

Last year’s harvest was extremely poor due to late rains and flooding and as a result the Kui are currently facing famine-like conditions. Several months ago we realized that this condition might happen and we purchased 4 ton of rice but that has not been enough to meet the needs of the people. This week we purchased an additonal 4 tons and we might need to buy more to see them through this bleak time.

Please pray for the Lord’s blessing on this year’s harvest and pray too, that God will provide so we can help to meet the needs of those in the bleakest of conditions.

Last year’s harvest was terrible which means that this year’s rainy season brings famine-like conditions. Please pray that the Lord will bless the Kui with a bountiful harvest of rice this year.

We’ve tried any number of various options for internet from the abysmally slow cell phone to the more modern, yet very expensive, satellite modem. Well, just this past week we were able to have a new satellite dish installed which provides unlimited internet service at broadband speeds. We are thrilled and want you to know that we’ve updated our NTM web presence and will be keeping you and others more informed on a regular basis. Check us out at: www.ntm.org/ralph_lewis

Please pray for Kim and I as we continue to progress in learning the Kui language. The language has many similarities to the Khmer (Cambodia’s national language) language but that posses a number of problems to include trying to remember if there is a specific Kui word or not. We are able to converse on a basic level but we really need the Lord’s empowerment to take our language fluency to the next level. It is our desire to begin teaching chronological gospel lessons towards the end of this year, 2007.