Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
“Porque somos hechura de Dios, creados en Cristo Jesús para buenas obras, las cuales Dios dispuso de antemano a fin de que las pongamos en práctica.”
The first term has come to an end. The students will be taking December off to be with family over the Holidays. We have been very busy.
One of my favorite parts of the past term was dorm coverage on Monday nights at Tembo dorm. Every Monday night Esther or I go up to be with RVA’s youngest guys who are away from their family. The boys call us Uncle Ben and Aunt Esther. It is a huge privilege. There are just a few guys who are about Ian’s age and a little older. Ian and Josiah often go with me to be with their dorm brothers. We help with homework, go over memory versus, play guitar and sing worship songs, and we always end with eating popcorn and reading a book about safari adventures. We love seeing them around campus and we even got to help some of them a little with their Pinewood Derby cars.
The dorm boys and our boys have what they call “big brothers”. These are older guys from high school who become big brothers to the younger Titchies (that is what the young kids are called here at school). It is so neat to see the older students invest in the lives of younger kids and demonstrate Christ likeness towards them. The boys really look up to their big brothers and they really enjoyed making pinewood derby cars and entering them in the school race.
Another, very special work that God has prepared for me (Ben) to do is mentor a senior named Livingston. Here at RVA we encourage students to have a mentor. The mentor encourages the student in his walk with the Lord and shares from personal experiences in life. The staff can sign up to be a mentor but it is the student who has to ask the staff member to be their mentor. I was so honored when Livingston said he thought I was “a good man for the job.” I was invited to Livingston’s dorm to share about my own experiences leaving home and moving on my own to a different country. It was a really great time. I talked about how God brought me on a journey. I used to worry about what I was going to do with my life. Now I ask the question, “God what do you want to do in and through me?”.
Esther has had many opportunities to use her gifts of hospitality. We have been able to have a number of students over to our house for dinner. I can tell she really makes the students feel at home and they love her good home cooking. These are great times because the dinner table often leads to conversations about our lord Jesus and personal things the students are working through. There are a lot of good laughs shared and interesting conversations. We also have had some kids from the community over to eat our mzungu food and play our mzungu games. They very much enjoy the time and I am sure they think we are a little crazy which is probably true.
The first term teaching Spanish was wonderful. I am learning to integrate biblical worldview into Spanish class. The students’ prior experiences that they bring to the classroom are so diverse. They have an appreciation for language learning and understand the importance of language in building relationships and sharing the gospel message.
Isn’t it amazing that God has prepared all of these wonderful works for us to do? We love serving our Lord because we know it means life and life abundantly as people come to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus (John 10:10). We are deeply moved that God has given us this task and that you share in it with us. I tell my students that it is not true that you can’t bring anything with you when you die, you can bring all the good works that God prepared for us and lay them at His feet in adoration. How awesome will it be to say thank you Jesus for letting me be a part of your great story.
Please Pray:
- Please pray for the Tembo dorm boys. Every time I am with them they ask me to pray that they won’t be home sick. They love being here at RVA but they do miss mom and dad as you can imagine. They are really great guys and RVA is the safest place for them to be and grow.
- Please pray for Livingston. He is preparing for a huge transition from living in Africa to going to college in the states. Pray that he would ask the question God what is that you have for me to do for your glory.
- Please pray for safety on our campus and gods protection and for safety in travels as the roads can be dangerous.
- Please pray for me (Ben) as a teacher that I will be an example of Christ likeness to my students.
- Please pray for our Son Elijah David Berry. May he declare the Word of the Lord, and be like God’s servant David rebuilding a temple of praise. We praise God for a perfect delivery here in Africa and for all the people that were here just at the right time.
- Please pray for us as we have our first term break. Please pray that God would show us what he wants us to do outside of RVA School.
- We visited Joel from House of Hope briefly and now that we can drive we will be able to visit the orphanage when we have a vehicle available. Please pray for House of Hope orphanage. The store that Joel runs to support the orphanage has been robbed 4 times in recent months.
- Continue to pray for unreached people groups throughout the continent of Africa.
We thank you for your prayer and your support!!!