September, 2024
Dear Praying Friends of the IBPFM,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!
It has been a busy summer here at the Home Office. We have had a lot of letters come in, and go out. Hopefully, you have been receiving your mail from the mission. The post office is changing its operational format, and we felt it back in 2020, when the main Philadelphia branch went through the conversion. I understand that many of you across the South have seen your mail delayed as the main Atlanta hub of the USPS has been undergoing conversion. It will move on to other hubs across the country over the next several years, so if you experience trouble receiving your monthly Praise and Prayer, or your missionary letters, please contact me at the office (bleithmann@ibpfm.org), or call us at 610-279-0952. I will make sure another letter is sent out right away. If you are having trouble with your physical mail delivery, we can arrange for you to get it as an email. You’ll get it sooner, and won’t worry about it getting “lost in the mail”.
A number of people have asked about the SOME Teams. We did not take a team this year, because we are doing renovations on the team house in Isovya. We are putting new roofs on some of the buildings, and the Kenyan Electrical Authority has finally installed a power pole on the mission property, and we have hired an electrician to come in to wire the house. He’s been complaining about the number of breakers and outlets that I have requested. You see, the average Kenyan home will have one plain bulb in the ceiling, and 1-2 outlets on the walls. I keep explaining that we will be hosting foreigners, who are used to having access to an outlet for all their equipment. We really do need 20 outlets in a 20-bed dormitory room, and multiple lights in the larger rooms. We will also be installing a new chest freezer (badly needed) and a new refrigerator in the Team House. We are hoping to take a team next summer, or possibly in January of 2026. A church group of young professionals from Chile are interested in ministering in Kenya, and are currently working on raising funds for a trip.
I plan to go to Senegal in March with a ministry team from my home church. The church is sending a construction crew to help build a local church, and they need someone to do the cooking, so I was asked to go and help the missionary’s wife with all of the food preparation. That team will only be gone for 10 days.
On a personal note, I have had some changes in my life recently. On July 11, I noticed that the vision in my right eye was getting blurry while I watch tv in the evening. By the next morning, the blurry spot had turned gray, and obscured the center of my vision. The spot has continued to grow and cover most of my right eye, although I can still see some light and blobs of color around the edges. I immediately went to my eye doctor, and he sent me to a lot of specialists, and for many, many tests. They all assure me that I am in good health, but that I can’t see out of that eye. I have learned that I do NOT have a brain tumor, bleeding on the brain, blocked arteries in my neck or serious retinal issues. There is no damage to the optic nerves. I have not had a stroke. But they can’t tell me what has caused this. My primary physician told me, “This is your new normal. You’ll just have to get used to it.” I just keep thinking of the Apostle Paul, who had trouble with his eyes. I’m no apostle, but if Paul can serve the Lord with eye problems, then I figure I can too!
When you think of me, please pray that the Lord might return my sight. If not, that He will keep me safe, especially as I drive back and forth to the office. It’s still light out when I go home, but the time is soon approaching when it will be dark during both the morning and the evening commutes.
This summer, I felt a burden to reach the children in my neighborhood. In this day of “stranger danger”, they are not allowed to come into my home, so I meet with them under the tree in the front of my house and have been telling them Bible stories. For a time I had three girls, ages 5, 7, and 8, and occasionally two boys (ages 4 and 7) who would come to story time. They enjoy the Bible stories, but there are so many distractions outside. Other children run past and call out, the ice cream truck drives through the neighborhood, a neighbor fires up his lawnmower, and a host of other issues has been a challenge. Now that school has started, the children arrive home late (several of them are children of parents who coach teams); football and cheerleading practice also takes them away most nights. I have found that late Sunday afternoon is the best time to meet with them now. I think I will have to stop Bible Time when the weather turns cold, and will hope to start it again in the spring. Please pray for the little ones, that the Lord will use the Bible stories to capture their hearts, and that they will come to know Him.
Thank you all so much for praying for me! Some of you have called, texted and emailed to let me know that you are praying. I so appreciate it! May the Lord bless you all!
In His Service,
Bonnie Leithmann