We hope each of you are well. We thank the Lord for His faithfulness in our lives and for providing so many of you to support us in prayer. Instead of one story or topic in this newsletter, we need to share about several issues where we need your prayers.
First, we want to thank you for praying for believers who are being persecuted. Our housekeeper’s family has been allowed to stay in their apartment. The other family is being forced to leave. The landlord even told our friends to try to find some other believers to fill the soon to be empty apartment. This is a huge victory! We praise the Lord for His faithfulness. Please continue to pray for their influence on their neighbors.
God’s spirit is moving. We have been hearing of many open doors for our colleagues sharing the Good News. One of our guards was baptized in the ocean last week. It was a joyous occasion! Pray that he will grow in his faith and study with other believers.
We are having opportunities to be Christ’s influence as well. We had the Dione family over for dinner last weekend. We were able to talk about how important it is to know God’s Word – not just repeat prayers. We talked about how to bring up our children in the Lord. Pray that He will be glorified in their family. They are very influential in our neighborhood.
Chad continues to attend the university where he is surrounded by nonbelievers. Please pray that he will have opportunities to share the Good News with them.
Finally, please be praying for a beautiful young lady named Isatou. She is the wife of our main guard. She is not a believer. She follows another major world religion. We have been praying for her for a while now. Crystal has specifically been praying for a time to talk with her. We always feed any helpers who are around at mealtimes. So this includes the guard every evening. Well, the other day, we had fish for dinner. Crystal fried it in cornmeal, you know, the good southern way. The guard loved it!! He said, “You have to teach my wife how to make this.” They have a restaurant, so they are always interested in good food. Soon, Isatou will be coming to our house to learn how to fry fish in cornmeal! Please pray that we will be able to have a spiritual conversation. Pray that her heart would be open and ready to hear the Good News. Pray that Crystal will be able to speak French and Wolof well enough to communicate.
Thank you for all of your prayers. We really need you to continue lifting us up. The people here are so spiritually oppressed. As we bring the Light, the enemy comes against us spiritually. Some days and nights are challenging to say the least. However, we realize that sharing the Good News IS our reason for being here. Please pray that we will have many opportunities.
