Doug & Barb Petersen Newsletter (Spring 2025)

Let our God be magnified, Let all of those who love Thy salvation, say continually , “Let God be magnified.”

Ps. 70:4b

Dear Friends and Family,

We want you to know that you are loved and cherished by us. It is always with a smile on our faces as we start to write to you.

Fun Story: I am going to start with a true story that happened on our TMI property early one morning. One staffer, Robbie Edalgo, arrived at work and saw this scene play out. 

He stood in the parking lot and in the grassy plot across the small canal, he saw an alligator moving toward a Sandhill Crane. The crane stood still on its tall, long legs and appeared to stare down the alligator as it approached it.  (Robbie videoed the whole thing with drama in his voice, waiting to see who would win.) As the alligator got dangerously close, the crane made its move. He stretched his wings out to their full span. He looked huge. The gator stopped, backed around, raced to the canal and splashed in!  

I thought there has to be a lesson here. When we magnify our God and magnify His Name, spiritually we look very big! The enemy of our souls turns and flees in terror. 

The Mud Run: The ninth mud run just took place this past weekend. It was 2K and 5K. There were 632 runners who chose to take up this challenge. Why? I don’t really understand those who choose to do this but the good news is they raise money for the orphans and widows at the TMI overseas bases through their registrations.

Our dental hygienist has run for several years with her daughter. I just saw her and she told me her daughter and she were going to run again. She said her daughter is graduating the day before the run and was allowed to choose to do anything she wanted the next day. The next day was Saturday for the Mud Run. She said that is what she wanted to do. She said, “I am going to college and on to get a medical degree. This is my last chance to run. When I am done, I can have a cookout at home and celebrate my graduation.”  Well, I don’t understand getting head to toe in wet Boot Camp mud and calling that sort of dedication  “fun”.  But there were 632 people who agreed to do the same thing and many vulnerable people in faraway places will get the blessing. So we say, “Thank you, Jesus.”

Boot Camps: Yes, it seems we often talk about Boot Camps. That is because there are six, four in December and two in April. So we are getting reports in from Kabuta and Wangibasha. This story is from Kabuta. This area is about eight hours north of Ndola. It is situated along Lake Mweru—a very populated but underdeveloped area. We have Circuit Riders in the area. One of the teams at the Boot Camp was called the “Discipleship Team”. Evangelism is their project and they were trained in how to share with people at Boot Camp. We will let the report tell you the rest. The leader of the team wrote this report to Derick Cherundu, the Boot Camp Coordinator. It is unedited and English is this leader’s second language.

OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCE, SUCCESS STORIES 

Our success story is coming from the Disciples Team. The Disciples Team is doing their projects at Mukwakwa Circuit, the place where our Circuit Riders stay. On Saturday the team went to do evangelism. Before going into evangelism, the leaders of the team and some team members who had never in their lives opened their mouths to share the Gospel, were amazed when they reached the field and started sharing the Gospel. The team members did not know where to begin from and they were afraid because they have never stopped someone to share the Gospel. But when they reached the villages and they said they did not understand where the confidence and courage came from that enabled them to start sharing the Gospel. The leaders of the team are testifying that even the least person we thought could not share the Gospel was there courageously sharing the Gospel. The leaders report that when they came back from the field to their camp site, each one of them had a story to share how the Lord had used them in the way they never expected. The team members are testifying that they did not even know where words they were speaking were coming from. They said that if you ask me to say the very things I was saying in the field, I can’t even remember many things but people willingly accepted the Word we preached to them. The team testifies that as the team members were sharing the Gospel, they met one old man who after preaching to him and accepted Jesus, knelt down before the young people to thank them to say thank you for coming to my house and sharing the Word of God with me. He said there has never been any one who has visited me to share the Word of God with me. He also asked for the Bible so that he can start reading the Word of God. The leaders of the team have invited him to visit the team so that they can give him a Bible written in our local language. 

Doug’s Health:  You may remember that Doug was diagnosed with stage-four bone cancer about seven months ago. He has undergone treatment since then. His last oncologist visit was a huge “Praise the Lord”! The doctor told us that the cancer is 99.9% gone. He said the cancer is dead!. We are giving God all of the Glory. Doug came home from Zambia very sick. We didn’t have a clue what was wrong, he had no GP and we didn’t know where to start. The story is too long, we just know that without God’s leading to a doctor and a treatment that works, along with a lot of prayer and believing God’s Word (Is. 53:6), He has taken this sickness away and this burden is lifted. We believe this is a miracle.  

Thank you again to all of our prayer partners, supporters, and encouragers—you are the best.

Thank you for joining your hands with ours as we continue…

In His Harvest,

Doug and Barb Petersen

Mt. 6:33 and Gal. 2:20

Email:  dougbarb@teenmissions,net
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