35 Kindle Fires arrived at African Christian University in Zambia. Praise the Lord there was no damage to the Kindle Fires during shipment.

We are taking a new approach to managing these Kindles. Because we did not have the list of students who are attending ACU we could not setup the Kindles before shipment. This leaves this responsibility to the registrar Leya Gordic and office manager Prashant Thakkar. I had a Skype session on Thursday instructing them how to setup the Kindles. The students start classes on Monday January 16th. Pray that all goes well in setting up the Kindles.

This is a new year and a chance again to see the Lord at work. I saw how the Lord’s timing is perfect.

We had a request for 35 Kindles to be sent to African Christian University in Zambia. This is a new university and they are enrolling their second group of students. They expect to enroll 35 new students this year. We provided Kindles to their first group of students and committed to provide them for this class. We we told on January 3rd that the Kindles needed to be delivered by the people who are going to Zambia by January 6th. So the Kindles were shipped  to them. Because I wanted to make sure that the Kindles arrived in time I had them delivered on the 5th. Little did I know that the travel schedule had changed and the group going to Zambia had to leave on the 5th. Our shipment arrived at 12:30 pm. This was perfect timing because the group was leaving soon for the airport to start their trip. The 35 Kindles are on their way to Zambia to bless another class as ACU.

Praise the Lord for His timing!

It is one week to Christmas and our thoughts are on giving. We especially enjoy giving to our loved ones. There is so much joy in giving. At this time we celebrate God giving His Son to be the atonement for our sins. We rejoice in this because without Christ none of us could be children of God. During this Christmas season as well as the whole year we should be proclaiming the Good News.

Many churches in our country are blessed with pastors who faithfully proclaim the Gospel. These men faithfully study the Word of God so they can be approved workman. The purpose of StudyToBeApproved is to provide resources to pastors in impoverished countries so they can better study the Word of God. In these countries there are so few resources and the infrastructure to support the resources. Electricity, which we take for granted, is not available in the rural areas of these countries. So this next year we are going to be delivering Kindles along with solar power charges to these countries. Below is a picture of what we will be sending. A Kindle can be recharged in 4 hours using the solar power charger.

We have a request to send 70 Kindles to the remote regions of Zambia. Could you provide a gift of $100 to help us send Kindles to Zambia. Each Kindle will be such a blessing to the pastors. Help them in shepherding their flocks.

God has given us so much so we can give to others.

We are being asked to send Kindles to those in the remotest of places. How would you like to travel on roads such as this?

Or go to this church?

These are our brothers and sisters in the Lord. They need solid Biblical teaching like we have.

We are working with missionaries, Bible colleges and universities to train up pastors that are willing to serve in such remote locations. We need to provide for them so they can feed their flock.

Consider how you can help. We have immediate need for $14,000 to provide Kindles for people serving in the remote areas of Zambia and Ethiopia. Can you help provide for this need?

As you may know, Cyber Monday has come and gone. This is a time when many merchants offer online specials. It is a great opportunity to grab a bargain, especially with the holiday season coming up. Some merchants offer discounts off specific items, whereas others offer a standard percentage of all items. Amazon offered the Kindle Fires for a 33% discount which is a great saving. Those who missed out on the discount can visit sites like Raise all year round to see if there are any other interesting and exciting discounts. Getting one or two at this price is good but we need many more for the ministry. When checking out you can purchase a max of 10 Kindles at the special price or so it seems. One of our supporters discovered that you can checkout more then 10. You can aa max of 40 per account if you order 10 of each color. So we were able to order 40 at the 33% discount. Our supporters also ordered the Kindles at this discount and are donating them to us. A total of 63 have been purchased at this discounted price. A good start for next year.

This was an extra expense we were not expecting in November but we could not pass up the savings. I had a phone conversation with a lady who has requested Kindles for pastors in Zambia. We have provided Kindles to Africa Christian University and Covenant Bible College in Zambia. The additional Kindles are needed for pastors in rural areas. They have requested 70 Kindles for next year, In our conversation she mentioned $1400 has been raised for this project. This will cover the cost of these first 40 Kindles. Thank the Lord for His manifest blessings!

Here is an excerpt from Jacob Lee’s (RAU in Uganda) latest email:

Tobious and his faithful band of brothers have now been equipped with Kindle Fires (that are loaded with the Jesus Film in several languages including Ma’di) as well as solar panel chargers which Kevin brought out for us and were also provided through the generosity of STBA (Study To Be Approved) which is the vision and passion of Delmar Hager.  These men have wasted no time in going home to home to show the Jesus Film (a depiction of the book of Luke) and to interact one on one with each family they meet.  Just today, Tobious posted on Jacob’s Facebook wall that each of the men who have received Kindles have been at work, doing the desired work of sharing this film with those over whom they have been given responsibility.  Their only complaint is that the screen is too small for many people to watch at one time.  We are trying to encourage smaller audiences so that it becomes easier to do one-on-one discipleship.

Here is the post by Tobious:

Please pray that the Lord will bring many into the Kingdom in this unreached people group.

We recently sent 50 Kindle Fires to Uganda. The Kindle Fires have software for reading books and also can play movies. Because these Kindles are going to the mountains of Uganda we supplied solar panels to change the Kindles.  This allows church planters to be able to use their Kindles at all times because they do not have to go back to a city to recharge the Kindles. The solar units will recharge a Kindle in 2 hours. This gives a great opportunity to show the Jesus Film to unreached people in the rural areas.

Please pray for men who are planting church in the Metu mountains. Pray the the Kindles will be an very effective tool in spreading the Gospel.

I went with a team from High Pointe Baptist Church on a mission trip to Ethiopia and Uganda. We went to teach pastors and teachers from each country.

I decided to try out the Kindle Fire in Uganda. This is Amazon’s Android tablet that costs only $50. This is a major savings over the PaperWhite at $119. The disadvantage of a Kindle Fire is its durability and the battery discharge time. But the advantage is it can run apps, have all the books and show movies. We provide 4 language versions of the Jesus film on each Kindle Fire.

These movies have proven to be invaluable.   A former Muslim Imam took the Kindle Fire with the Jesus film home to his family who are not believers. They watched the movie three times that night. (This is a 2 hour movie starting with creation, fall and prophecy of Jesus. After this it transitions to the original Jesus film. This film is in their native language.) His wife now wants to meet with Jacob to discuss Christ. She had previously been wary of Americans and Christianity. I believe the Lord will use these Kindle Fires to reach one Muslim family at a time. It is so exciting!! The latest report is he and other believers have shown the “Jesus” video many times via their Kindles. Praise the Lord for how the Kindle Fires are being used.

Here is an excerpt from my latest correspondence with Diana Paul the registrar at ACU.

We went ahead and gave out the kindles last week and I have never seen such an excited bunch of people. One girl was so excited that she had access to a dictionary!!! Another commented how he now has a bible of his own!!! I couldn’t believe it. I sent a picture, but it really doesn’t capture the gratitude and appreciation that I experienced! May God continue to bless you as you bring joy and education to others.

Our goal is to equip Christian leaders in third world countries. African Christian University is a newly accredited university in the country of Zambia. Their first year students have arrived this month. We have been working closely with their registrar Diana Paul to configure the Kindle HDs that StudyToBeApproved donated to them.

We will be providing electronic books for these Kindles to use in the classroom. Each student receives a Kindle for their personal use to help them in their studies. Diana made a comment that internet access is readily available but the students do not have access to computers to connect to the internet. These students will now have computers to work with.