Dear Luke Commission Friends,

Container in Xenia, Ohio

Activities and prayers mount as Harry and Echo and the boys prepare to return to Swaziland.

We thank each of you who is working feverishly to meet deadlines. Here are a few of the developments for which we are grateful:

God is miraculously filling the 40-foot shipping container set down in Xenia, Ohio, just a few weeks ago. The Ohio Luke Commission crew is cleaning and categorizing thousands of prescriptions eyeglasses to put on that container, which is the size of a semi-truck trailer. The eyeglasses have come in from everywhere, especially North Carolina and Illinois.

Team loading medical supplies from KMCN

Also loaded on the container are medical supplies and equipment (thanks to Kettering Medical Center Network, Ohio), a printer for HIV handouts, paper, pharmacy supplies, medicine cups, clothes, Scripture booklets and tracts, reading glasses, eyeglass cases, blankets, shoes, handmade wraps and diapers, sports equipment, patient triage cards, and more boxes donated by you with love to the Swazi people. We are awaiting English Bibles to send this container on its way.

Excitement as next container prepares to leave USA

Two donors and longtime supporters, who for years have nurtured Harry and Echo's desire to be full-time missionaries, offered The Luke Commission matching funds in 2008 up to $40,000. Thank you, Jesus!

The first Luke Commission magazine, technically called a gift catalog, is on its way to you! We hope it's a publication you'll want to keep and refer to often. Our goal is to explain The Luke Commission ministry in photos and words, so you understand more fully how God is moving in Southern Africa and how He is allowing the TLC's "compassionate medicine" to be on the front lines.

This ministry has become full-time for the VanderWals. The magnitude and intensity of the medical clinics in Swaziland require Harry and Echo to spend some time every year in North America. They cannot accomplish much in Africa if the ground work is not laid and executed here.

As The Luke Commission expands, we value your involvement more and more.

Echo and boys at container shipyard in Seattle

"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it." Psalm 127:1.

As we watch God construct His house in Swaziland and beyond, places like Mozambique and South Africa, let us become His carpenters. Let's pick up our hammer or chisel and, with the Holy Spirit as our guide, labor for the health and souls of those Jesus holds dear.

Anticipating the harvest,
Janet Tuinstra for The Luke Commission