Here’s a picture of the center of the city, taken from the top of the mountain to the north. The tall building with the round ball on top is called the Grand Millenium. It was the site of our farewell dinner on our last night in country.

Dave Votaw, Supervisor, The RTI Project

9 June 2019

We’re on our way home now, and I thought I’d write one final post.

Our last week in country was a little tough because Sam has been sick. It’s been difficult to figure out what it is wrong, and we’ve had various diagnoses and some interesting encounters with the local medical personnel, but now he feels that the issue has been identified and he’s on the mend. We are especially grateful to the Kaufmans, a worker couple from Switzerland who are part of ICS and have been here for a few years, who were able to take Sam to a doctor that he was confident in.

Samson preached last Saturday’s sermon, and the week before Sam preached. Both sermons were from the book of Ephesians, and they did a terrific job. One of the women in ICS remarked to me that she could see continuous improvement in both of their preaching over the time they’ve been here.

ICS is an interesting mix of local people, who are mostly new Christians, and people from other countries, most of whom are here as full-time Christian workers. Considering their diversity they all work together pretty well. In addition to serving at ICS, many of the workers also meet regularly with groups of local people for Bible study and discipleship.

It’s hard for us to leave ICS; there is potential there and we would love to be able to stay and see the church grow numerically and spiritually.

Here’s Karen with Caleb and Lisa Fox, and their children Josephine and Samuel (on Caleb’s shoulders).

This view looks over to the back side of the mountain (towards Iran), a more agricultural area.

The road along the spine of the mountain was blocked by a herd of goats who seemed to have taken up permanent residence.

Up on the mountain we saw lots of these big cricket-like bugs who seem to enjoy the local plants.

I haven’t mentioned them on this site, because we haven’t been working at the Life Center (it was closed during Ramadan), but we have really enjoyed getting to know the two families who have made up the Life Center staff this year. Several other staff members are away temporarily, so right now the Foxes and the Hooblers are the two families that run the Life Center and are connected with our denomination.

Both of these couples are young; each of them has a 2-year-old and a baby, and the Hooblers have an older (but still preschool) daughter. It is a real challenge to be engaged in full-time ministry in this far-off country while trying to parent all those preschoolers! They are both wonderful couples and it has been a privilege to get to know them.

On our last full day in country Caleb and Lisa Fox drive us up on the mountain to see the views. With the increased temperatures the dust has made the air pretty hazy but we enjoyed what we saw. On the top of the mountain we encountered a flock of goats that was taking up the middle of the road, so we couldn’t go any further, but the views we had were excellent.

On our last night in country we went with Sam and Samson to a restaurant at the top of this building, called the Grand Milennium.

See the photo at the top of this column for a look at the outside of this building (this is the inside!).

Our farewell dinner with the Foxes and Hooblers was at this very nice restaurant called Dawa.

We had a couple of “farewell” dinners during the last week, and it was fun to be able to go out to a fancy restaurant and enjoy time together.

Please continue to pray for Sam and Samson as they complete the last two weeks of the ministry, and then face ministry qualification tests two days after they return home. Pray for ICS as Brad and Laura Trosen return from their four-month leave and resume full-time ministry here. And please continue to pray for Sam’s full recovery from his illness. We thank you all for your prayer support.

–Dave and Karen Votaw

Pastor Joseph

Lessons Learned

Taksi