As Harry and Echo, the boys and our team of national Emaswati, reach the bush on the African continent, here are some Luke Commission highlights from our continent:
- A 9-year-old boy planned his birthday party and sent out invitations, requesting that everyone bring a soccer ball for the kids in Eswatini, instead of a gift for him. He received 9 soccer balls, money for 6 more, and a gift certificate he plans to use for ball pumps.
- A young couple pledged $120 a month to The Luke Commission, even though money was tight and they have three small children. The next month the husband received a raise he had been promised four years ago.
- The daughter of a friend of a friend is an occupational therapist at a large urban psychological hospital. She suggested to her patients that they cut out terry-cloth diapers for new mothers in Eswatini. “I had no idea this project would touch the women’s hearts as it did. The harder they worked cutting and cutting, the more they wanted to know about The Luke Commission. They stopped thinking about themselves for awhile.”
- The elderly father of a Luke Commission prayer warrior could not sleep one night. His daughter had told him about the Liswati pastor who prayed 20 years for someone from afar to come help his people. When The Luke Commission team arrived for a clinic, the pastor saw God’s fulfillment of that long-standing request. In his last month of earthly life, this father asked, “Now who is going to pray for that black pastor?” He did one whole night.
- An 80-year-old lady was depressed because she did not think Jesus had anything special for her to do. She started washing hundreds of donated eyeglasses, one at a time without the help of a dishwasher. Her granddaughter told us, with tears in her eyes, that her grandma has renewed joy and purpose.
- A year ago, The Luke Commission was begging for eyeglasses. Now eyeglasses are being donated by the ones and tens and thousands. Even more encouraging, a system is in place to replenish the prescription eyeglass supply.
- Locating Bibles and New Testaments in SiSwati anywhere in the world always has been a challenge. Recently a man who just retired from a job in the Middle East and Africa offered to help The Luke Commission obtain a copyright and find ways to print SiSwati Bibles. Thank you, Jesus!
- Another man noted, “Through this dark time in our lives, it has been a blessing to be involved in The Luke Commission.”
- The last Sunday Harry and Echo and the boys were in the States, they attended the black church where they had been members before they moved to Idaho. By popular request, Harry sang and Echo played “Peace in the Midst of the Storm.” Wiping his eyes, the pastor declared: “When that white, bald-headed doctor sings that song, the Holy Spirit pours down and makes us forget all cultural barriers.”
May these glimpses of what Christ is doing in lives here spur us on to seek the salvation and healing of Emaswati there.
Appreciatively in Jesus,
Janet Tuinstra for The Luke Commission