Greetings from Stephenville Texas! 

Yes, I wrote Stephenville, Texas! We arrived at midnight February 15 at the Dallas airport and were picked up by our daughter Anna and our two beautiful granddaughters, Keira and Clara. After a stop at IHop we made it to Stephenville and were greeted by our youngest grandchild Rylan and a bit later by Kenny. Oh what joy to see them again! Because our trip is only two weeks (travel included) we will miss seeing the rest of our immediate family. 

On a sad note, while in flight here, we received word that my brother John, who is a little over a year younger than me, had died. He had been fighting throat cancer. I am glad he is a believer and we had some time on our last visit with him on the Iowa “farm” where I grew up together with him. At that visit, he shared even though he could barely speak how the Lord had been very near to him. We prayed together  with the hope and assurance we would see each other in heaven. I have many precious memories with him. The most difficult part for Carol and me living on the Uganda/South Sudan border is being a long way away from our children, their spouses, 9 grandchildren, immediate family and our dear, dear friends. At this time no service has been planned for John. Lord willing, when we are back in the summer, we can be part of memorial remembrance.

So why are we in Texas for this short time? Last summer, by God’s providence, I got in contact with the lead pastor, Scott Frerking, of Hill Country Fellowship Burnet Texas. Back in the late 70’s his family ministered to both Carol and me in the early days of being saved. Such a wonderful, Christ loving family!  Scott was 8 or 9 then. Scott invited us to come on a Sunday to Burnet and preach during our last trip to the States. The church graciously and warmly received us. Since then they have brought us on board as one of their missionaries they pray for and support.  Hill Country Fellowship is a very mission minded church! They invited us to their 4th Annual missions conference and that is why we are back for a short spell. Please pray that many hearts are moved away from just living the “American Dream” and becoming zealous for reaching the nations that do not have the gospel of grace. 

I am happy to report, since Carol’s last newsletter just a few weeks ago, that I received a report from the northern part of Darfur. Darfur is a state in the Republic of (North) Sudan. This is a post I just put up on my Facebook page:

“I just saw one of the most thrilling videos in my whole life….and I am 67. I am sorry to say I cannot post it. It was a video of new believers from the northern Darfur state in the Republic of (North) Sudan being baptized! If you do not know about Darfur please investigate. It is one of the most unreached areas in the world. We have the joy and honor of working with believers from there. Recently, they have received 50 plus boxes containing Arabic Study Bibles and biblically sound Christian books in Arabic. We still have left in one of our containers one tipper lorry load more to head there and other parts of Sudan to Christian leaders….2 Timothy 2:2. Also through the ministry of Study to Be Approved, we have been able to send Kindle Fires loaded with Arabic Christian resources given to us for church leaders in the Republic of (North) Sudan.

I have just received a message that one of those doing the baptisms is facing threats from community leaders. Please please pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ there!

Many thanks to all who pray and support Reaching Africa’s Unreached (RAU)! Please continue to pray and consider supporting RAU financially. ( https://reachingafricasunreached.org/donations/ )”
On another note, our dear long time friend and Aringa coworker, Onduga Charles, wrote that in March they are having the launching of nine Old Testament books that have been just translated and are being put into print. Charles is a lead member on the translation team of 20. The team has asked me to be the “Guest of Honor“. What a privilege and joy! In 2014, Carol and I, along with some friends, were at the launching of the first New Testament in print for the Aringa. A life long memory!! The Aringa are in the category of an unreached people group according to the Joshua Project. Jesus is building his church among the Aringa!
Please take a quick look again at our last blog post/newsletter to find other prayer requests. Thank you and God bless you abundantly. Carol and I as well the RAU team greatly appreciate you!

In His loving and sovereign grip,

Jacob and Carol Lee

PayPal Link for donations: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WAR99DL4JFWXQ

Donations are tax deductible

Checks may be written to RAU and sent to our secretary Beth and she will deposit them into RAU’s account : Lifegate-RAU, 395 Lifegate Ln., Seguin, TX. 78155

Go to RAU’s Facebook page for up to date reports, pictures, musings, and exhortations: www.facebook.com/ReachingAfricasUnreached

RAU YouTube Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRmHafoBSemE7jS8kEHCG6Q/videos

RAU’s Mission and Vision Statements/Statement of Faith: https://reachingafricasunreached.org/about/

The greatest evil is having the gospel and not doing everything within our power to get it to those who do not have it!

Sowing seeds of love and kindness should not be separated from preaching the gospel of sovereign grace but completely intertwined with it!

When at least 35% of the world; “the unoccupied fields”, have no access to the gospel, we (believers) must all do all we can to reach them. We who are saved owe the gospel to every lost person, most especially the 2.4 billion who will not hear unless someone breaks into their “unoccupied field” with no thought of their own life!

Sowing seeds of love and kindness should not be separated from preaching the gospel of sovereign grace but completely intertwined with it!

I am sure that none of us will say when in heaven that we prayed too much, we sacrificed too much, proclaimed the gospel too much, and were too passionate to get the gospel to those who have little to no access to this gospel of grace. Let us together press on to make it our  ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named!

Our goal in our gospel witness is to take our eyes off the “risk” and place them on the cause for the risk. When God compels us like this he often will not tell us the risks…after all there are no risks for the all-knowing, all-powerful God. So let us be AMBITIOUS (Romans 15:20) to see that ALL are reached with the gospel of grace (Romans 1:16) in ALL places…there are no closed doors to the gospel, just some which are more difficult to go through!

Jacob Lee