July 2002
2008
April
Summer Issue
AWANA NEWS
from THE Middle East & N. Africa
II TIMOTHY 2:15 Approved Workmen are not ashamed.
S
ummer has come quickly this year. This is actually
a much delayed edition of our Spring Newsletter. Due to a
stay in the hospital in St. Louis with pneumonia (for Peggy)
and a prolonged trip to the Middle East and Africa (for
Chris) our Spring Newsletter has become our Summer
Newsletter. The Lord has been good and we are well and
at home now. Looking forward to another blessed Awana
season ahead. Hard to believe school starts here the second
week in August and Awana conferences begin shortly after
that.
MINISTRY NEWS
Sudan
The Lord provided the visa Chris needed to visit Sudan.
He found Nageeb and Inshirah well and continuing to
minister, but they are so busy and restricted they are unable
to do the Awana ministry any longer. They are no longer
allowed to go to the refugee areas where most of the
Awana clubs are. They helped Chris to find someone to be
the new coordinator for Sudan and will help train Jalpan to
take their place. Jalpan was the commander at a refugee
club SD007 an SIM church. He is a teaching assistant at the
Upper Nile University.
Pray that he can get his
training to be a coordinator
soon as he is very anxious to
get old clubs running again
and to start new clubs.
Also pray for Pastor Peter
the commander of SD007
who is being considered
for the coordinator for the
South of Sudan.
A Vision Team from the US headed up by Steve Schenk,
missionary for Ohio, are in Egypt at the time I write this.
They hope to assist in the running of camps and exciting
team members to the needs and potential of the ministry in
Egypt. The Lord protected Alber recently when a balcony
fell and crushed his car while he was at the printers. The
car was totaled, so please pray for this material need as
well as the spiritual and physical stamina it will take for
Alber and Akram to do the ministry this summer.
Holy Land
One of the vision team to Egypt members Cynthia is
continuing her visit to the ME by going to Palestine
afterwards to take a one month crash course in Arabic. She
is interested in being the coordinator (part time) for
Palestine and Jordan.
Chris is looking forward to visiting Jordan & Palestine in
September and may even be able to meet with Cynthia in
Jordan on her way home.
Little progress has been made in finding a local worker
Egypt
Jalpan
for this blessed but sometimes unstable county.
Alber and his family are well and busy ministering to the Gus one of our candidates has become the associate pastor
clubs in Egypt. This is the busiest time of the year for him of his church in Amman and no longer has time to be an
and co-worker Akram. Clubs camps as well as conferences Awana coordinator, but his wife Fairouz (who was a
run in the summer. When
Palestinian Awana leader) will help when she visits her
Chris visited them in May
family in Palestine. The Awana clubs in this area are doing
they had a 4-14 Conference
well.
with Frank Carmical &
Several clubs continue to operate and reach out to their
other organizations that
community. One club in Ramallah runs a small orphanage
work with children to stress
and those children come to Awana. Last we heard the
the importance of ministerAwana commander of the Gaza club had been waiting in
ing to children between the
Bethlehem for 5 months for her visa to re-enter Gaza, she is
ages of 4 & 14. Frank and
Jordanian, please pray for her family and church.
translator pastor Wageeh.->
Awana News from the Middle East
Page 2
Lebanon
We praise the Lord that of Lebanon finally has a president.
However conditions are still unstable as Hezbollah
continues to try to gain control. There are several clubs
running at this time and Milad the Awana worker there
continues to minister to those churches and clubs. We had
word this week that a friend (Danny) at the Beirut Baptist
church died of cancer, please pray for his family.
Jordan/Iraq
The Awana club for Iraqi refugee children starts up again
Sept 15th. A former Awana commander from the UAE is
now in Jordan and is the CE director for this church. We
praise the Lord that they have a good place to meet and that
they grew a lot last year.
Due to the war in Iraq and many changes in that country
none of the Awana clubs are active there right now. Please
pray with us that the insurgency will end and make it safe
for churches to start Awana again. In the mean time let’s
pray for His grace and protection of our military men and
women there.
UAE
Club in the UAE, like those in the US are off for the very
hot summer when anyone who can will fly away to places
cooler places do. Tony and Grace were on vacation during
July and look forward to another year of ministering to the
clubs in the UAE. They have plans for events for the clubs
in the cooler winter and spring months.
Spring Edition 2007
our home on the market for several months, and would like
to move closer to our children and grandchildren. But with
the poor housing market things are slow. We continue to
wait on the Lord’s timing.
Our home church is anticipating major changes as
developers plan to purchase the property with the
surrounding neighborhood. The plan is that the church
would move to a new building in the new high density
development with many opportunities to be a Godly
witness for him. Please pray for Grace Church.
Daughter Amy and her family now live on a small farm
south of Dallas. Their only change is that Amy will be
teaching 1st grade (a nice change from the 5th grade she has
taught the last three years) this next school year.
Christy and her family are doing well in St. Louis and
their teenager, daughter Olivia (14!) and the three younger
children keep their household very busy.
In the last year we’ve told you about additions to each
family being puppies – but now we are very happy to
announce a human addition - Our son Tim and his wife
Christine are expecting a baby next February. It’s been 5
years since our last grandbaby and we are trusting the Lord
for a healthy pregnancy and birth of our 7th grandchild.
Pakistan
Sajid, now the Awana coordinator for Pakistan has
registered several new clubs. He was able to join
Chris on his last trip to the UAE to see clubs in action
last June and now trains the leaders for new clubs.
They plan to print the Deer (for a 12 year old) book in Chris, Peggy, Donnie, Amy, Dakota, Paul, Tim & Christine
Urdu soon. Conditions in Pakistan continue to be
In these trying times of economic difficulty we are
difficult where there is political unrest and electricity
thankful for a great God who supplies our needs and the
only eight hours a day with temperatures over 115F.
many faithful partners in the ministry who He uses to
FAMILY NEWS
Our family is doing well. We thank the Lord for healing
Peggy’s lungs. In March she went on Spring Break with
the grandchildren and ended up in the hospital in St. Louis
with pneumonia. It took a little while to recuperate but she
is now back to normal. Chris had an extended trip to the
M.E. visiting Jordan, Sudan and Egypt and also spending
three and a half weeks in South Africa helping to train
missionaries there in ministry development (fund raising).
He is now planning his next trip to Palestine, Jordan, the
UAE and Pakistan.
School will start here August 11 and Peggy again will
substitute teach and we look forward to our local Awana
club starting up again. Peggy plans to work with the
Sparkies again unless our home sells soon. We have had
encourage and support us. We pray you are having a
blessed and restful summer enjoying God’s creation, His
protection and provision.
In His love and service,
May God richly bless you!
Your servants in the Middle East,
Chris & Peggy Toriz
Our email address is c.toriz@awana.org, send mail to 156
Eastlake Point, Kennesaw, GA 30144.
www.awana-mena.com
DVDs of Awana in Pakistan are available for a donation of
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