• I, Steve, am feeling much better after being diagnosed with stomach ulcers. We praise the Lord for His touch.
• We praise God for a wonderful ordination and licensing service on Saturday August 21st. This was the first time in the work here in South Africa that pastors have been licensed.

Please pray especially for Me Mapheko. After several weeks of being much better, she is quite sick again. She is suffering from terrible headaches. Please hold her up in prayer!

Russia has declared a state of emergency in Mari-El where Valera and Maude and their children live. They have had over 8 weeks of temperatures exceeding 100°F every day. They have no access to air conditioning, and all stores sold out of fans the first week of July. Wildfires are a serious problem. Please pray for the Motovilovs in this situation.

• 'Me Mapheko's health is gradually improving. She is not yet able to return to her job, but she is able to do light house work, go to church, etc. Praise the Lord for this! Please continue praying for her complete healing.
• Praise the Lord for a good one-day ladies' conference this past Saturday.
• Shelby Tollett was a tremendous blessing during the two months he was here. Thank the Lord for all the things that he got done in a short time!
• Volunteers from the church have almost finished building the last two walls around the conference center. Praise God!

• Pieter and Hester Marais have been in Zambia and Botswana on the Bible distribution trip since the beginning of June. For several weeks they have been struggling to transfer money between banks in Zambia and Namibia. Please pray for them and this situation!
• Mr. Howard, HIM's Africa Regional Director, is planning to visit the field the third week of August. Please pray for safety as he travels and wisdom from God as we hold meetings and discuss the work here.
• We will be traveling home to America for furlough and deputation on the 22nd of August. We have a very long list of things to do before we leave. Please help us pray for strength and wisdom to get everything done.
• Pray that God would revive us missionaries and the national leaders. We need a fresh touch!

We depend on your prayer support.  Thanks for being so faithful!

We just wanted to let you know that it appears that I, Steve, have a stomach ulcer. We've had a pretty rough week. I've had two basically sleepless nights with a lot of intense pain. We have been to the hospital in Bloem and they have run a number of tests all of which came back clear. The last test is scheduled for Monday the 26th. The specialist I saw is pretty sure that I have an ulcer but he will do an endoscopy on Monday to verify that. At the moment the only thing I can eat is yogurt, papaya, and bananas. We appreciate your prayers for us during this turbulent time.

Valera has made it home from the Christian summer camp! Thank you for your prayers! They had a nice time and many of the young people received help spiritually. We will be putting pictures and writing a blog about it soon. We'd appreciate your continued prayers for the skin problem on Valera's face. It got worse again while Valera was at the camp - maybe because he was in the sun a lot.

The mother of one of the boys who was at the camp was hit by a car and is in very bad shape. Please pray for this boy, his mother, and family. They didn't tell the boy right away, but wanted to wait until after the camp. They aren't sure if she is going to make it.

We'd also like you to pray especially for our meeting tomorrow evening. It will actually be your Sunday morning time, so maybe you can pray for us and our group while you are at church. Lily, who has been studying in the U.S. this past year, is coming to discuss some questions she has about Christianity at 9 a.m. EST. After that at 10 a.m. EST we will be discussing the fall of Adam and Eve with some of our students. Lily, Ann, and Tatiana (a philosophy teacher) were here on Thursday evening and we discussed it a little, but needed more time to continue the discussion. We'd appreciate your prayers that God will give us wisdom and that these students will be open to receive the gospel. We have been seeing God working in the lives of these women in drawing them to Him because you have been praying! Thank you so much! May God bless you!

We appreciate your prayers for our students and our ministry so much! We have another prayer request for you. Valera just left to spend 12 days as a counselor at a Christian summer camp on an island in the middle of the Volga River. They will have 80 children with not enough helpers. Please pray that God's presence will be with them and that the children will come to know God personally. Valera's face started breaking out again just a couple days ago and he is a little concerned about trying to take care of it in the summer camp where they sleep in tents and wash in the river. I will remain here with our children and continue with our English classes.

We also want to praise God that Galina went to church for the first time in her life on Sunday and really enjoyed it. Please continue to pray for her and her family. Her father's sister just died of a heart attack and her father also has heart problems. Her parents are not Christians. I have still been mentoring Galina and doing lessons with her over the internet and through Skype while she is in the U.S. She is really growing and now loves to read the Bible.

Please continue to pray for our students. We can see God working in their lives! I could do a whole newsletter about how God is speaking. Please continue to pray. Another girl, Lily, who wasn't one who was in our last newsletter has become very interested in learning about God as a result of attending a baptist college in the U.S. For a year. We have plans to get together soon to discuss some questions she has about Christianity. Please pray for her and for me as I meet with her.
 

• Join us in praising the Lord for the 10,000 Bibles that were distributed in the Southern Province of Zambia. Pieter and Hester Marais and the teams who are with them will likely finish distributing the remaining Bibles in the next week or so.
• The congregation at Ha Mokhachane is reporting a great revival. One of the pastors who visited recently described how people from all over came streaming to the church on Sunday. This is clearly the work of the Holy Spirit. The little portable tin church they are meeting in is much too small.

• Please pray for new converts in Lesotho. Many of them face persecution for their new-found faith. Last night we heard about a girl from the Ha Hlalele congregation who was kidnapped and forced to marry a man from the Roman Catholic Church. The purpose of this marriage is to persuade the girl to renounce her salvation and return to the Catholic Church. Since the girl is an orphan, there is no immediate family to assist her. A similar thing happened two weeks ago to the neighbor girl who lives behind us. Fortunately her mother is still alive and the evil plan did not succeed.
• Continue praying for the pastors in Lesotho and South Africa. Satan mounts incredible challenges against them, their marriages, families, and jobs to try to keep them from effective service in God's Kingdom. Especially pray for the Roma congregation in Lesotho which has no pastor at the moment.
• Stephanie and the congregation at Matukeng will be holding a VBS next week here at the clinic compound. Please pray that the lives of children will be touched with the Gospel. Also pray for 'Me Mantseke and the others who will be teaching the children.