Pettenger Happenings

When we first arrived in Lesotho in 1993, we spent several weekends driving around to see the work and churches. I remember going through a town called Roma. As the name suggests,
there is a very strong Catholic presence there. Roma is located about 25 miles from the capitol city of Maseru. Roma is also the home of the National University of Lesotho. I asked if there were any Assembly of God churches in Roma. I was told that no church had been started there due to the strong Catholic presence. I was told that we had many students from our churches.
In 1995, we tried to get a local church in Maseru to start an outreach in Roma. This effort failed because of a lack of interest and vision. After that, every time I drove through Roma (which was many times) I prayed that one day God would open that door.
Let's fast forward to 2005. The leader of our church here and myself were invited to meet with some students at Roma to discuss the possibility of doing some kind of ministry there. We wanted to start a church but the students had other things in mind so once again our efforts failed. Early in 2006, the students came back to us and requested we come to Roma, to the National University and start a campus church.
For the past 14 months, we have been meeting every Sunday morning on campus in a classroom for church. For the first six months we averaged 29 in attendance. This past month we have averaged 50 in attendance. Last Sunday, May 6th, Pat ministered to the students (see the picture above) and we ended with a communion service. It took some time but God finally opened the door for us and we are taking advantage of it.
It is our desire to find land and build a student center/church. We will be returning to the States for 2008 for deputation and to raise funds for the University Church.

PRAYER REQUESTS FOR ROMA. PRAY THAT....
1. We will find land to purchase before we leave in December.
2. We find a person to take over when we leave.
3. The university will continue to allow us the use of the classroom. Rumor has it that they want to deny access to all church organizations.
4. We will find funding for the land and for the building.