Third Quarter 2020 Newsletter.

Beloved, receive our fraternal greetings in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

It is a great joy and privilege for my family and I to share with you the Lord’s blessings in our lives and ministry these past three months.

First of all I give thanks to God for my family who is doing well. The Lord has been a great help to us during this quarter when we have all been tested by illness. I also thank you for your prayerful support and for the financial support we received for the construction of the Hangar for the place of worship in Bigtogo. May the Lord bless you abundantly. By the grace of God the work has progressed well, but it is not finished yet.

My wife has restarted classes at the university for the fourth year in medicine and we are happy with the progress given the context of Covid-19. She has a very busy schedule because she combines the practical training with the courses. During the term the Lord allowed her to help two pregnant women in our neighborhood to give birth, because they had gone into labor at home and did not have a vehicle to take them to the maternity ward. The health center being far away, someone was urgently needed to help them give birth and my wife assisted them.  They gave birth in good health. Please pray for my wife because in addition to these courses and internships she is taking on her responsibilities as a mother by taking care of the children because we cannot afford to hire a nanny. She is also very involved with the Sunday school in Sakoula.

Our eldest son, Happiness, will resume classes at the kindergarten this October. This is a new challenge for him to adapt as he spent six months at home because of the Covid 19 and he needs an educational tablet which costs around 160 dollars. Think of him in your prayers.

We have had a hard time with the rainy season. The heavy rains have caused flooding. We have been affected. Our farm that allowed us to support the family financially was damaged. Our chicken coops and the fence fell down. We also lost poultry in this incident. We have to rebuild and we need to mobilize 2600 dollars for that. It’s difficult for the family right now.

For the ministry too we bless God because it has not been an easy time for us to travel. Bigtogo is not an easily accessible area during the rainy season. For our meetings we had to cross the water up to the hip several times while pulling our gears completely in the water. We even once gave up going there because of the strength of the water current to cross. But in everything we saw the hand of the Lord who protected us and who each time allowed his children to come together to praise and celebrate him. The construction of the shed has progressed a lot and we are planning to start holding our gatherings under this shed from November 1st, hoping that God will give us the financial means to improve our temple.

For this time of covid-19 the church needs financial assistance. Most of the members lack food and even the means to afford medical care in case of illness. Many of our children in the church are affected by the current situation with the loss of employment of their parents. We even have some with the beginning of the school year who will not return to school because the parents cannot afford the school kit and tuition fees. For the start of the school year seven children need help with their schooling. We are praying that the Lord will help us to enable them to go back to school.

 

Topics of prayers

 

1- Pray for my wife so that God may watch over her during the internship and assist her in her studies.

2- Praying for God to give us the financial means to buy an educational tablet for our son Happiness, $160.00 US

3- Pray that God will give us the means to rebuild our chicken coops that have fallen down and that we can pay for poultry to resume farm activities, $2600.00 US

4- Praying for the financial needs of church members, the challenge related to food, care, and the back-to-school season, $500.00 US

5- Pray for a spiritual and numerical growth of the church in Bigtogo and for our move to occupy our shed which will be accompanied by evangelization events.

6- Pray for the completion of the place of worship. $1000.00 US