Richard & Fran Schooler

Dear praying friends,

 

Luke 10:23-24   And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:  For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

 

The Lord used this passage of Scripture one morning during my devotions to help me to realize how truly blessed we are as missionaries to have the privilege of seeing so many precious souls come to Christ.  Life isn’t all rosy here – but the “benefits” are terrific!

 

Friend Month was a real encouragement to us.  Our folks really worked hard at bringing people to the services. We had a combined total of 333 visitors during the month and were blessed to see 44 receive Christ as their Savior.

 

Since our last prayer letter the Lord has blessed our various ministries with 155 people who have been saved.  Rich baptized 5 in New Haven on Dec. 14^th and the Uwani church will be baptizing several of its new converts at the first of the year since people are already leaving for their villages to celebrate Christmas.

 

Our Patch the Pirate Clubs performed the Christmas Musical Klinkenschnell the Christmas Bell and they did an outstanding job.  We’d never taken on anything like that before and at times wondered if we’d gotten in over our heads – but the Lord carried us through.  The Uwani church invited the folks from the Cheshire Home for the Disabled to the performance.  We normally take a Christmas party to them each year but wanted to do something different this year.  It took a bit of work to get them transported to the church but was well worth the effort!  They loved the musical and Praise the Lord 4 young ladies came forward and asked to be saved.  It was a thrill for Fran and her Patch Club kids to see how God used their ministry to bring these ladies to Christ.  It was a twofold blessing for the entire church to be able to honor these fine folks as their guests and to give them a Christmas party, gifts and food to make their holidays brighter.  The Cheshire Home residents always look forward to our coming and they are always the highlight of our Christmas festivities. The New Haven church also took a party and gifts of food and clothing to the Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre.  It’s been such a joy for us to teach our people to put others first at Christmas.  It’s definitely not the “norm” in this culture.

 

Dec. 6^th, was a busy day for us.  We had two burials and a wedding.  Rich stayed in Enugu and performed the wedding while Pastor Paul went to Ohafia about 4 hours from Enugu to perform the burial of one of our member’s father.  Ibe Kalu wanted his kinsmen to see what his church represented and a bus load of our members were there to help him. His father and  townspeople were “traditional” or animist. After Pastor Paul preached the burial service in Igbo 25 people came forward asking Christ to forgive them of their sins and to be saved.  Our folks didn’t get back to Enugu until 9 that night but were fulfilled with knowing that that village would never be quite the same again. 

 

Please pray for all these many new converts.  It’s one thing to be saved it’s -  another to follow the Lord in leaving what is “familiar” and getting into a Bible Believing Bible Preaching Baptist church where they can be discipled.

 

1 Cor. 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Yours for Nigerian Souls,

Rich & Fran Schooler
E-mail: drsschooler@yahoo.com

Web Editor - Missy Sanders
Updated 30 July 2006