December 6, 2007

Dear supporting Friends,

We are so very thankful for everyone’s prayers, as we have felt the perseverance of Christ pulling us along, helping us to walk by faith and not by sight. May this Christmas season be one where you are powerfully aware of His faithfulness and His mercy.

Walt and I were surprised recently to be invited to the home of Sam Brock, the chargé d’affaires for the American Embassy, for a Thanksgiving feast. Sam and his wife Odille wanted to present an American Thanksgiving to the Canadian ambassador, the British ambassador, and the Norwegian honorary consul, and to welcome the new American ambassador, William Garvelink, and his wife Linda. Walt was invited to give the blessing for the dinner, and we were asked to help sing a couple of hymns that are traditional for Americans, accompanied by Sam on the piano. It was a humbling and lovely experience, because we are not often with diplomats. Even the servants in the home were happy to see the people all bow their heads as Walt prayed (they said they peeked!). One of them, who spoke his dialect, said he hadn’t seen that happen in an embassy home for 26 years. Walt continues to find people who are from the Kasai and know Tshiluba, so he can speak with them. They are overjoyed to find him to be “one of them.”

We seem to be always learning the truth of Isaiah 43:10: “You are my witnesses…and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He.” Our two children here in the American school (Theo, 15, and Sarah, 14) are constantly with non-Christian kids, and as we pray for them and for our witness on the school campus, we see “through a glass darkly,” that our daily work has more to do with being faithful, and abiding in Him, than it has to do with our accomplishments. Sharing my faith in Christ with our next-door neighbor, a Muslim, is a joy, but only God can do the “business” of saving.

Walt is planning to return to his teaching post at the seminary after Christmas, and I hope to work in the Presbyterian women’s community center. Through an interpreter I could teach some Bible.

Walt continues to pastor the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa, and he teaches Sunday school before the church service. We continue to ask that you pray for the unity and fellowship of this body to increase, so that, as diverse as we are, we can truly be members of one another. Our choir is a great asset, and they sing everything from the Hallelujah Chorus to traditional African songs about Jesus. We really love those choir members. Sarah sings in the choir, as Evangeline did last year.

Evangeline is in her freshman year at Gordon College in Massachusetts, near my mother as well as an uncle and aunt. She’s very happy and doing well, for which we are very grateful. Colleen is a junior at Erskine College, in South Carolina, majoring in psychology. Jim is in flight training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Christiana is coming to live with us for six months at Christmas because her husband has filed for divorce. Please pray for him and for her. Elisabeth and Mat are expecting their second child in February and are preparing to go into church planting in England in early 2009. They still live in West Chicago. Walter lives in Brooklyn, New York, and continues to manage a large development project. We are very grateful for all that God has done in their lives—His covenant promises hold true! He reigns!

Know our love for you and our prayers for His best for you this Christmas,

from Val, and all the Shepards

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 313