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Thank you for your faithful and persistent prayers for our family and our transition to Rwanda. This past Sunday (June 28, 2009) marked the end of our first six months in Rwanda! Wow, time has flown by. Our logistic transition actually began last November. So, for the past eight months we've been packing, traveling, waiting, chasing paperwork, unpacking, repairing, fixing, settling and most of all, learning. The Lord gave us strength through it all in answer to your many prayers. Thank you! We are now settled and our transition to our new life and ministry in Rwanda is COMPLETE!

Even though our "transition" is complete, we are still adjusting and the past six months have been very emotional at times. Integrating into a new culture can put a family under a lot of pressure! These past six months we've had three emotional dynamics challenging us: Transition Shock, Culture Shock and Spiritual Resistance. I explained each of these in more detail on our blog (please read, it will give you much more insight into the challenges we are facing here).

All three factors combined together put us through quite an interesting time these past six months. It’s not just one thing, it’s all three working together that makes life interesting! However, in everything the Lord continues to give us wisdom, strength and encouragement in answer to your prayers.

Thank you! The Lord is listening and answering!

Murphy, Christine, Stephen and Matthew

We put together a slide show with photos spanning the last six months. See it on our website @ http://rwandaharvest.com/media.php. Also, if you click on any of the photos below you'll be directed to the slide show. Enjoy:)

Container Cleared!!! - So many prayers were offered up on behalf of our transition and specifically the shipping and release of our container! We are excited to report that our container was cleared without taxes and we have all of our household belongings in our new home in Kigali. It was quite a saga, let me tell you. Find out more details of the "container clearing" on our blog.

Language Study - Obviously this is an ongoing prayer need, but not without answers along the way. Everyday we are making progress and feeling more comfortable and "brave" in Kinyarwanda. This past Sunday, (our six month mark in Rwanda) I gave my first lesson in Kinyarwanda to a small church here in Kigali (pictured left). It was almost ten minutes long. The lesson was from James 5:16-18 - The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. The talk was well received and one man commented (in French) that it was "deep". It was definitely a boost for me and my confidence in the language. Thank you Jesus!

ATN Permanent Registration - For over 18 months we have been praying and many people worked diligently to process the paperwork to establish Africa Transformation Network as a legal, government recognized and viable NGO in Rwanda. Many prayers have gone up to the Lord concerning ATN's registration and we so happy to announce that this past April FULL, LEGAL and PERMANENT registration was given to ATN by the Rwandan government. This means that the paper-chase is over and we can move on with the ministries that God has called us here to do. Namely, serving and empowering the Rwandan people! Thank you Jesus!

Rwandan Work Permits - With Permanent Registration in hand we were then able to apply for Rwandan Work Permits. All four us now have offical permission to live and work in Rwanda. This is a HUGE answered prayer and one that we are very excited about. This, of course, had to have a little drama. Read more on our blog.

Join us as we give praise to our Father for listening and answering our prayers! He is so faithful!

You can find more photos and family news on our blog @ http://audienceofone.cc.

You can read more about our ministry on our web site @ Rwanda Harvest.

The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the Spirit and keeps right with God is a threat to the evil one. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer. No wonder the evil one tries to keep our minds fuzzy in active work till we cannot think in prayer. O. Chambers

Language Study: This summer, while school is out, the boys are taking Kinyarwanda lessons everyday and they're doing pretty good! Just yesterday Matthew corrected me on something! The little rascal:) There's another term that gives me trouble, but Stephen has it down pat! In all, we're having fun as we learn to communicate more and more.

Even though we are making progress, we still have a LONG way to go to reach fluency. Please continue to pray that the Lord would give us diligence, perseverance, boldness and confidence.

New Teammates Arriving: In just under six weeks a new family will join us in Rwanda: Brian and Kristin Robinson (and four kids)! They've sold their house, packed up their belongings, shipped their container, purchased their tickets and are saying their "see you laters" (We don't say goodbye when we leave :) ). Join us in prayer asking the Lord to bless their families transition to Rwanda as He has ours.

Church Planting Movements Conference: This August Mission Resource Network and Africa Transformation Network will host a Church Planting Movements Conference here in Kigali. Church planters from half a dozen countries (including Togo, yeah!) will attend to sharpen their skills in reaching their lost nations for Christ. Pray that God will provide everything that these traveling evangelists and missionaries (like Timothy and his fiance pictured left) need to participate in this awesome conference! Pray that the Lord would anoint the conference with His Powerful Hand so that a new and mighty revival will come out of our being together! Pray each day (Aug. 17-21) during the conference for hearts and minds to be challenged and changed! .

Revival: God continues to move our hearts to passionately pray for seven million new disciples. That's right, 7,000,000! Seven saved souls for every victim. Our hearts' cry is that the Spirit would move so powerfully and change so many that when people think of Rwanda, they will no longer remember it's history. But rather, the REVIVAL. Come Lord Jesus! Let us march forward on our knees crying out to the Lord to impact this nation so abundantly, so powerfully that millions will come to Christ!

Murphy and Christine Crowson
B.P. 6548
Kigali, Rwanda

Tel. #: 011-250-078-377-4623

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