Dear Friends,
God is good...all the time! All the time...God is good! This is a typical Central/Eastern European greeting. We give it to you today. We also pray you had a victorious Easter!

Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Austria: Ralph returned from Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria at the end of February. What a trip! How wonderful it was for them to work with:

• The Schroeder's in their church planting ministry in Germany
• Our Polish connection - doing spiritual emphasis days, English classes, etc
• The Thiessen's in ther work with the Roma peoples (Gypsies) in Slovakia
• The wonderful people in Austria which whom we had worked in our years there as missionaries.
  

What a great team of guys the Lord put together for this trip. Everyone of them was used in their area of gifting.

South Africa and Zambia: That's Ralph's next trip. He will take two other men with him. One of the men, Jeff Shardelow, is a former mayor of a township in South Africa. He was responsible for bringing down Apartheid in his region. He is now a missionary to Canada. The other man is Chia's father, Barry Ashton, who lives in Abbotsford. They leave at the end of May for almost three weeks. Their mission starts in Zambia, at the future Village of Hope in Lusaka and then to the existing Village of Hope in Kitwe. The Village of Hope children have been mostly displaced by the HIV AIDS pandemic in Africa.

The team will then travel to South Africa where the itinerary includes involvement in the currently running MET (Missions Exposure Training) school in Pretoria. Then it's off to Durbin with these students (pastors and district superintendents from all over Africa) for:
1. Exposure:

a. to the largest Islamic proclamation centre in the world,
b. to a huge Hare Krishna as well as a Hindu Temple,
c. a visit to the Kwazisabantu Mission Station (the largest missions station in the world)

2. Ministry:

a. at Jivannadi, a mission to Hindus,
b. involvement with the Seamen Ministry (international sailors stranded at the pargets port city in all of Africa
c. involvement with "Gates of City" (intercessory prayer ministry)

Upcoming Ministry Trips: Thailand in August, Russia in September, Armenia in October.

Okanagan Language School: Thank you for praying for our Winter Korean English Kids Camp with 16 students. You might recall us writing that five of these students were from Buddhist homes. Praise the Lord! By the end of the camp four of these students gave their lives to Jesus. Each of these four students are still here, studying in three different schools, staying with Christian homestays and being tutored by two of our teachers. Last month we had a secular Japanese group of 18 come to us. There was a lot of spiritual warfare during this time. We don't know of any first time conversions as yet, but many of these lives were touched and seeds were planted. Thank you for your continuing prayers for them. We have just started our spring semester. One of our students is Taiwanese and is not a Christian. We look forward to influencing her life.

Family Update: We are so thankful for our family. We are blessed! Andy, Cheryl and Levi are doing great. Levi us walking. Andy took a team of 16 young people to Colima, Mexico over spring break. They did so well. Chia, Jeanie, Tys and Jazz are also seeing much fruit in their ministry. Jazzi is walking, too. Niki is enjoying Bible School, and has been invited to do a summer internship at Evangel Church in Kelowna. We are very excited about this. She is taking a break from working on cruise ships, but next year she'll continue to work relief on ships during her school breaks. Katie loves here ministry to the children in the orphanage she's working in at Colima, Mexico. She'll be home by the end of this month for four months while she works and does her "friend-raising" so that she can return as a missionary to Mexico.

Donation News: We now take donations by credit card (great news for those collecting Air Miles) - click here to download a donation form.


Much love,
-Ralph and Carrie