Who is Praying for Fallou?

We hope all is well as you prepare for celebrating our Savior’s birth. While we don’t have cold weather here, we still seem to have the “Christmas spirit.” There are Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, caroling, and gift exchanges going on.

We are also preparing for the arrival of Caleb. We have found a bassinet for him, but it needed a new cover – since the old one was pink. Caleb probably wouldn’t mind, but his father does! So, finally I (Crystal) braved the very busy fabric market to find fabric. My friend Helene went with me. We searched and searched, and finally came across just the right one – in blue. Then we had to find the tailor. Well, he had not shown up at his shop, yet, so we just sat down on a curb in the shade to wait. We were deep in the market and there were no other white people around. That didn’t seem too strange to me, but we sure received second glances when people rounded the corner and saw a white person sitting there! Helene and I had several good laughs.

The ones who were the most fun to watch were the children. They would just stare. I would greet them, make faces at them, or wave. After greeting one little brother and sister who lived right across the street, they decided they were brave enough to come over and shake my hand. Every time the little boy came out of his house after that, he came over and shook my hand. His name is Fallou. We decided that he must be less than two years old. Finally, he came over and just sat down beside me and leaned over on me. I patted him and talked to him. He was very content, even though his family kept coming to try to drag him away. I assured them that he wasn’t bothering me.

While we were talking I noticed the gris-gris (gree-gree) on his wrist. This is an amulet that parents put on their children to protect them from evil spirits. My heart broke. I thought, “I pray for my own children every day, but who is praying for this precious little boy?” Needless to say, I spent the rest of the time praying that Fallou will be able to know the salvation that God sent to us through His Son!

There are so many children like Fallou. Will you please spend some time praying for them this Christmas? There are not enough Christians here to reach everyone. Please pray for a powerful moving of God’s Spirit to draw people to Himself to be saved!

We thank you for your prayers!! We pray that each of you has a wonderful Christmas filled with awe of all that God has done for us!

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

We hope you are well and enjoying your preparations for Christmas. Here in Dakar, it doesn’t feel too much like Christmas because it is about 90 degrees each day. However, we are seeing quite a few Christmas trees around. Today, we were driving downtown and we even saw a guy trying to sell a decorated tree as he walked along with the other vendors on the street! It made us laugh at first, but then we realized that we live in the midst of 2 million people with only a very few having any idea of what Christmas is all about. The picture they have gotten is a worldly and materialistic view. There is no spiritual or deeper meaning for many of them at all.

We are seeking to make known our Savior to these people. We have written about many of our neighbors, helpers, workers, friends, and acquaintances like Ibrahima who is very open to hearing the stories of the Bible. These are the ones with whom we have a chance to make a difference. Please pray that we will have many opportunities to share Christ during the “Christ”mas season. We hope that each of you will have divine appointments as well.

We want to thank you for your support through your prayers and finances as well. Many of you give faithfully to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program. You are directly supporting our work and the work of over 5000 missionaries throughout the world. It is so exciting to see God changing lives!

However, there is still much work to be done and many places where we have very few or no missionaries. We would like to encourage you to continue to give during this Lottie Moon giving season. We know you have been stretched as many of you have given to the tsunami and hurricane relief efforts. We do pray that you will still be able to give so that we and our colleagues can carry on in the international work to which God has called us.

We do thank you and appreciate each one of you!! We pray that your Christmas season is blessed.

In Christ,
Chad, Crystal, Chase, and Caleb Reynolds serving in Dakar, Senegal

The angel said unto them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11