Category: Update

Dear Friends,

God has shown great favor on my wife Sheryl and me by granting us a healthy granddaughter – our first!

Elanor entered the world on October 29, 2024 at 8lbs, 11 oz and 20.5 inches. There were some complications in delivery and baby Elanor had to be in NICU for 3 days to address a potential lung infection. But by God’s grace, she now appears to be problem free. Continue to pray for our daughter, Micah, as she had dangerously high blood pressure and had to go back to the hospital for treatment and observation. Pray for strength for Zach, our son-in-law, as he tends to his wife and new daughter. Sheryl has been in Pennsylvania with them for the past three weeks, and I’ll be flying up there tomorrow for two weeks.

The 24-25 school year is off to a good start, and enrollment is up at several of our schools. In the DR Congo, our Bukavu school has been struggling for the past few years, with a total headcount of 10-12 students. This year, enrollment is up to 18, so that’s definitely progress. The city of Bukavu has so many more unreached deaf people, so it’s sad to see that so few parents are bothering to send their kids in for formal education and access to the Gospel.

In Baraka, enrollment is up to 89, praise God! We’re thrilled with the tremendous response from the community and the outlying villages. Shukuru, our director, would love to open a second school on the south end of town. We’ll see how the Lord leads in that regard. Meanwhile, this excellent growth does bring secondary problems.

We’re in desperate need of more classroom space, and thankful that the community has stepped up to help with construction costs of building new classrooms. We’re also in desperate need of school furniture. We had a European NGO that was going to donate some furniture, but that didn’t materialize as we had hoped. Consequently, while many of our students are thrilled to come to school, they lack desks and chairs. Pray that these needs will also be met.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted.

Tim Foster

Dear Friends,

Director Yves Beosso reports that they had a very good annual leadership training seminar in N’Djamena, Chad. The attendees came from six different provinces in Chad, and the topic was “Mobilizing the Church”. It’s so encouraging seeing them using their new multi-purpose building! We are very grateful to you for helping sponsor the event and the construction of their new buildings over these past few years. Without your faithful support, we would not be able to continue quality discipleship like this.

We’re already seeing excellent fruit as a direct result of our Congo Bible Camp in August. I’ve received several photos from various pastors and evangelists who have taken our material back to their home churches and taught their congregations the material they’ve learned from our teaching. Several of the evangelists are traveling evangelists, and they cover several churches across a wide region. It’s exciting to see them continuing in the things they have learned.

We have an opportunity to help further the education of some deaf candidates in Nigeria. The Andrew Jackson Foster Scholarship Memorial Fund (unrelated to Christian Mission for the Deaf) has identified new candidates for seminary training. Pray with us as we work together to iron out the logistics of getting the candidates to ECWA seminary, and arranging for interpreters.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted.

Tim Foster
Director

Dear Friends,

Our annual Congo Bible Camp was absolutely fantastic!

This year we met at a facility called the Maranatha Center, just south of Bukavu. Since the facility was a bit outside of the main city, the pricing was better, and the attendees certainly enjoyed the better accommodations. The teaching material included James 1, an in-depth primer on the Gospel, and several classes aimed at personal discipleship. For several years now the camp attendees have asked to have a certificate for participation. Instead, we gave an exam on the material we taught that week, and gave certificates to those who passed. The anticipation of an exam resulted in improved attention and and focus from the campers, so that’s definitely a win-win. One of my highlights of the week was seeing the Q&A sessions following the lectures on true repentance, trials and testing. The week ended with about 70% of the campers passing the 2-hr exams, Most of them were excited to get copies of the PowerPoint lectures so they could go back to their home churches and teach the content they had learned. Their enthusiasm for the exam, certificate, and PowerPoint files has given me some ideas about how to go about better equipping them to serve in their local churches. Pray that they will continue to study and learn.

We’ve finally been able to get funds more-or-less reliably to Nigeria. The larger institutions (Western Union, Money Gram, Xe, etc) have been remarkably unreliable, whereas some of the smaller P2P funding companies such as Tap Tap Send have been reliable, cheap and quick ..so far. As a result, I’ve been able to get some long overdue funds to our center in Nigeria. Pray that future fund transfers will be smooth and timely.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted!

Tim Foster
Director
Christian Mission for the Deaf

We continue to run into issues with sending funds to Nigeria. Any method we use is hit or miss, with most efforts being a miss. The failed attempts tie up our funds for about a week while waiting for funds to be returned. In the meantime, our staff there have to curtail their budgets while waiting for the funds to arrive. Thankfully, the majority of their funding comes from local tuition fees and not foreign support, so the situation is not dire. But it is aggravating nonetheless. Please pray for a permanent resolution to this challenge.

In Chad, Director Yves is coming along well with the final touches on the construction of their multi-purpose building. The building is already being put to good use, and we’re all looking forward to its completion in the next few months. Pray with us that it all goes well as we near completion.

In the DR Congo, there are a number of young men in our sphere of influence who have stepped out on their own and started schools and churches for the deaf. Their ambitions are high, and their progress is slow, so I’m always encouraged any time I get a report from them. Last week, Temo Mwinda sent me several photos of his school’s graduation ceremony in Minova, a small town on the NW shore of Lake Kivu. He and his friend, Mika, started the school a few years ago and now have 60 deaf students enrolled. However, due to civil unrest over the past few months, about 20 of their students have had to delay classes.

We pray that they will continue to find grace and strength as their numbers increase and their church grows.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted!

Tim Foster
Director
Christian Mission for the Deaf

Dear friends,

Plans are well underway for our Congo Bible Camp to be held in Panzi, just south of Bukavu in the eastern province of the DR Congo. The name of the ministry where we’ll meet is called the Maranatha Center. This is a new location for us, and we’re grateful to Mariam Toto for her help in finding this facility and arranging for us to be there. The facility certainly looks promising, so I’m excited to see how it all works out.

As far as topics go, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the book of James at our Congo Bible Camp. I expect we’ll get through the first two chapters, and do the remaining chapters at next year’s camp. The campers will be expected to take an exam at the end of the week. The evening evangelist classes will include an excursus on the inner workings of the Gospel, with a concentration on penal substitution, personal sin, original sin, and imputed sin. Yves (our director in Chad) and I will be handling those lectures. Nanza, our director in Bukavu, will be teaching a session on Child Evangelism, and Pililo, our Kivu regional director, will be giving a lecture on personal sanctification. I’m really looking forward to seeing it all come together! Won’t you pray with us that God will use our efforts mightily for His glory and His Name’s sake?

Now that school is out in Chad, we’d like to finish off the construction on our 2-story multi-purpose building. Director Yves informs me that we’ve kind of hit a lull in finances, so things have slowed down. Some of the slack has been taken up by a gentleman named Clement Abonyi. He’s a graduate from our school in Nigeria, and now lives in the USA. He has a foundation called the Afri-Deaf foundation, and he’s been doing good work with fundraising for both his alma mater in Nigeria, as well as our school in N’Djamena, Chad. Pray that we’ll be able to get the last of the work done in these summer months.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted!

Tim Foster
Director

Plans are still in process for our August Congo Bible Camp. We had some prospects of using a facility in the town of Musaze, in Rwanda. The cost would have been lower than what we spend in the DR Congo, and the facilities would have been nicer. Unfortunately, due to the civil unrest between Rwanda and the Congo, transportation costs are exorbitantly high, and we would be better off to meet in the Congo after all. Pray with us that we’ll be able to use that facility in the future, because it really looks like a good facility.

We’re happy to report that Phase 2 of our construction project in Uvira (DR Congo) is still making progress, albeit slowly. I’m not sure we’ll be able to meet our September target for completion. Pray with us that we’ll be able to stay on schedule.

The church elders in Chad are finalizing plans for their annual Easter camp for the deaf. Pray that they’ll have good attendance and participation, that lives will be touched by the Gospel.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted!

Tim Foster
Director
Christian Mission for the Deaf

Dear Friends,

It’s been a slow month with not too much new going on.

Our construction projects in N’Djamena (Chad) and Uvira (DR Congo) are still moving along. Thankfully, the new multi-purpose building in N’Djamena is nearly finished. The plaster on the walls is mostly complete, and then the painting begins. In Uvira, we’ve started Phase 2 of construction (walls).

We’re beginning our plans for our summer Congo Bible Camp. My preference would be to meet in Goma (DR Congo), but there’s been some civil unrest there, and some people are fleeing the city. We might have an opportunity to meet in Rwanda, the country next door. Life there is much more tranquil, generally speaking, but at this time, it’s not clear if the facility in question can support the number of people we would like to bring. Pray for wisdom as we continue to evaluate options.

Also, we’ll begin a new curriculum in the book of James, and target the teaching at the pastors and evangelists across the ~25 deaf churches in the region that we serve. Currently, we plan to start a study in the book of James, and equip the pastors and evangelists with tools for understanding the book and preaching faithfully from it.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted.

Tim Foster
Director
Christian Mission for the Deaf

Dear Friends,

In Uvira (DR Congo), our new school is nearing completion of phase 2. It’s exciting to see this project coming along as we work towards our target completion of the 1^st floor by September 2024. Pray with us that we won’t hit any delays.

Meanwhile, in Chad, Director Yves reports that our multi-story building is nearing completion. As soon as the walls are plastered and painted and the electrical work finished out, it will be completed! We’re excited to see this 2-year project so close to completion.

On a sad note, two beloved brothers in Christ passed away last month, Koulayo Daniel and Philémon Kilda David. Both men were very active among the deaf in Chad and they will be missed. Keep their families in prayer as they mourn the loss of these faithful brothers.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted.

Tim Foster
Director
Christian Mission for the Deaf

Dear Friends,

Praise the Lord with us: After much effort, we were finally able to get funds to our two seminary students at the ECWA Theological Seminary in Igbaja, Nigeria. Due to policy changes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, we’ve had a particularly difficult time sending funds to our various contacts in Nigeria over these past few months.  Now that the funds have been delivered, the seminary students have been able to reimburse their interpreter (who has been working for almost 2 months now without pay), and get caught up on tuition fees. Pray with us that our next few transactions will proceed unimpeded as we press forward to complete the school year.

In Chad, Director Yves reports that he witnessed a motorcycle accident while running errands in town. The police mistakenly assumed he was involved in the accident and compounded his motorcycle. They kept it for almost 15 days while investigating the matter, and gave conflicting reasons as to why they couldn’t release it sooner. Thankfully, the situation was eventually resolved, but not without requiring a $24 fee to release his motorcycle, and, to make matters worse, they lost the key. It’s been a huge inconvenience to have his motorcycle out of commission for almost 2 weeks, but we’re glad it’s now behind us.

In the Congo, the city of Baraka experienced massive flooding on Nov 18^th. Our school, faculty and staff survived without incident, but ten of our students lost their homes. Keep them in their prayers while they rebuild.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted!

Tim Foster
Director

Dear Friends,

We’re happy to report that Phase 1 of our school construction project in Uvira, DR Congo is complete, and Phase 2 is underway. Due to funding issues, we’re going to have to scale back the project for a while and only build the first floor for now. Then as funds permit, we’ll begin the 2^nd story of construction. I’m looking forward to being able to visit the campus when it’s completed and enjoy the beautiful view of Lake Tanganyika.

We continue to have challenges in sending funds to our staff in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria no longer permits international funds to be received and issued in local currency. This is true not only of the USA, but of African countries as well. The downside is that most fund sending agencies (Western Union, Money Gram, etc) are set to issue funds in Nigerian currency. A such, our transactions take about a week to process, only to be refunded. To add to the frustration, support representatives at both Western Union and Money Gram did not know why our transactions were being refunded, and Nigerian agents gave our staff members quite the run around. It’s no fun getting sent on wild goose chases in attempts to resolve the problem. After some digging around on multiple financial sites, I was able to pinpoint that the problem was the CBN’s policy change regarding international funds – but a reliable solution remains elusive. In the past week, I’ve had a smaller transactions go through in a somewhat unconventional way. Pray that we’ll be able to find a reliable method that doesn’t include exorbitant costs from our USA bank.

In N’Djamena, Chad, we’re putting the finishing touches on our multi-purpose building. All that’s left now are the wall treatments, doors and windows, water and wastewater facilities, and paint. Due to an unreliable electric grid, we had hoped to have the building powered by solar panels. The initial estimates we received was well above our budget, so we’re seeking alternative solutions.

Indeed, your prayers are coveted!

Tim Foster
Director
Christian Mission for the Deaf