March 2014 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Ndola! As always, we would like to thank each of you for your prayers and for gifts which are sustaining us as we serve here in Zambia at the Theological College of Central Africa.

News from TCCA

It’s hard to put into words exactly what life is like for us here. I’ve thought about writing a “day in the life” blog because just about every day seems to be filled with so many unexpected twists and turns. Here are some of the recent highlights:

• My students are continuing to impress. For example, the students in my Hebrew class have been amazing. They asked for extra tutorials so we’ve been meeting for an extra two hours a week. They’ve already translated their first verse (Psalm 96:1), which was a thrill – both for them and for  me!
• I’ve also been involved with my students outside the classroom, meeting with a group to resolve a conflict, and counseling others with difficult personal situations.
• We recently hired a new Academic Administrative Assistant to work with me in my role as Academic Dean. This is a big answer to prayer!
• I’ve been working to improve the IT facilities at TCCA. While suffering from a cold last weekend I created the new TCCA website, www.tcca.ac.zm [now evangelicaluniversity.ac.zm]. Please take a look and let me know what you think! We’ve also switched ISPs, and we’re now working on getting wireless access throughout the campus. Once this is done we plan to create a new intranet to provide a platform for communicating with our students and facilitating our current classes as well as allowing us to consider e-learning and distance education options in the near future.

Family News

Kristina and the girls are also taking part in TCCA community life. For example, we recently hosted the single guys for an evening meal at our house. Sarah has been baking tasty treats for our weekly staff meetings. Kristina is auditing a course on  HIV/AIDS, which is taught by the pastor of our church who also happens to be a physician. Every Sunday afternoon the girls help out with the TCCA kids program. On top of this, the girls spend as much time as they can spare at a local orphanage, which is run by a TCCA graduate. If Katie was just a few years older I know she would adopt one of the babies herself!

Support Update

Although I am usually reluctant to share the details of our finances, we’ve had a few exceptional expenses recently that have left us with a rather large deficit which needs to be addressed:

• $2,000 in medical expenses, including glasses for Sarah and Katie, and a root canal/crown for me;
• $1,200 for wireless routers and an intranet server for TCCA;
• $700 for Kristina and Anna’s new passports, which also required a trip to Lusaka

These expenses are in addition to the prior $4,500 shortfall in our ministry account. We have seen God’s faithfulness in providing for all of our needs in the past. Please join us in praying that our current needs will also be met.

Prayer Requests

• John – Pray that John will have a real passion for God as he works and studies in a secular world.
• Home assignment – Pray that God will guide our plans as we prepare to return to Newfoundland in August for five months.

We would love to hear from you, so please send us an e-mail at timothychurchill@me.com and kristinachurchill@me.com!

Blessings in Christ,

 

Tim & Kristina Churchill