Author name: Lois Gillespie

We are an offering…

Lord, use our voices. Lord, use our hands.
Lord, use our lives; they are Yours.
We are an offering; We are an offering.
(2006 CCLI. All rights reserved.)

This is our prayer and the desire for our ministry. As you pray for us this month, please pray that God will use our voices, our hands, and our lives in Training the Next Generaton.

We’re enjoying cooler, rainy weather – for a few more weeks. Praise God!

Bob loves his classes this year; I think he always does since he loves to teach. He’s teaching 7/8 Science; 9/10 Advanced 20th Century History; and 11/12 Government. No matter what Bob teaches (science, history, or Bible), his goal is to impart a Biblical worldview. Please pray that his students will all learn to think through things for themselves in a Biblical framework.

Three other technicians have left the field for home assignment, so a lot more technical needs are coming my way.  However, I’m praising God for a short term co-worker who has technical skills. He works in our mission office part of the time, then comes out to Sahel to help however he can. What a blessing!

Sahel Academy needs teachers. We are all overloaded right now. Specifically, we urgently need one math teacher ((better yet, two) for the second semester starting in January. Another elementary teacher would also allow us to split some of the elementary grades. A principal would help with the workload for all of us as we’re each trying to cover some of those responsibilities. Please pray that God would provide these teachers NOW! (OK – in His time.) For next year, we need either a history or a science teacher. We’ll also need a math teacher (if the one above doesn’t stay) and two elementary teachers. Please pray for God’s people for these positions.

Over the past few years, Sahel Academy has begun to accept students from non-mission and/or non-Christian homes. We see this as an extension of the evangelistic outreach of the missionary community. Since what we teach and communicate here at Sahel is life-changing, we want to share it with others. Please pray for the students and their families who come to us not knowing the Lord. Pray that God’s message of salvation will be clearly imparted to them through what they hear from us and see in our lives here at Sahel.

Northern Niger is experiencing political problems; Agadez is under military command. All missionaries and embassy people have officially left, although a few remain behind without their agency support. Please pray for the peace and stability of Niger; pray that missionaries would soon be able to return to Agadez.

Continue to pray for Boubacar, that the seed that has been planted will fester and germinate within his heart.

We’re praising God this month for 31 years of marriage. What a journey this has been!

Surprise in Casablanca

Did you hear that? We just took a deep breathe. We returned to Niger last Sunday and literally hit the ground running. In fact, it was only yesterday that I was able to unpack; some things are still not put away yet.

Thank you for praying for our trip. Not only was it relatively smooth, but we enjoyed a special surprise. At the airport in Casablanca, I heard someone call my name, and was warmly greeted by friends of ours from Cote d’Ivoire who are now in Casablanca. We were able to spend some time with them and exchange personal ministry updates. What a blessing! We came away very thankful for being able to share the gospel openly here in Niger.

As we arrived home, we were greeted by Boubacar who has been watching our house this summer. As we noticed before, he is very interested in us and everything about us. We’re not really sure how truly interested he is in our Savior. Continue to pray that Bob will have opportunities and find ways to continue his witness to Boubacar.

My busyness has included fixing things that quit working sometime this summer, both at Sahel Academy and a few in the wider mission community. Bob has been busy helping to remove all the clutter from the hallways that accumulated as closets and storerooms were cleaned out this summer. Of course, we’ve both been busy with lesson plans for our classes which will start in just 2 days, August. 14th.

The staff at Sahel Academy is somewhat depleted this year. We are starting without a principal (one may be coming in January), and our math teacher leaves at the end of December. Please pray that God will send His laborers here to Sahel. Might that be you?

During last year’s closing assembly, an 8th-grade girl shared about her fears and how she deals with them. Those fears involved her mother’s loosing battle with cancer. As we begin this year, her mother has taken the ultimate field trip; she has gone on ahead to heaven and is with our Father. Because this mother was on the school board and even taught for a time at Sahel, we will celebrate her life in our opening assembly. Please pray for this girl and her father and 2 younger brothers during this time.

As we sit here on our first full Sunday after returning to Niger, we want to mention one more time how blessed we have been by the time we spent with many of you this summer. Although we weren’t able to talk to all of you, even our phone meetings were a blessing. You have encouraged us by your interest in the ministry God has given us and in your prayers not only for this ministry, but for us personally as well.

Time of Refreshment

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty,”  Rev. 1:8

How awe-inspiring to know that the God Who is not only in our todays, but in our yesterdays and tomorrows as well, is also the ‘Almighty’. 

I am writing this update from the back porch deck of my father’s home in beautiful West Virginia. One of the things most refreshing to us during our summer visit has been all the ‘green’; another is the pleasurable driving, especially amidst all this beautiful greenery.

While we have been busy, we’ve been especially refreshed by lots of time with family and friends in the past weeks. This weekend, we will head south where I will attend classes in Tennesee while Bob heads to Florida to visit his parents and one of our supporting churches. We will then have a few days with family in Ohio before returning to Niger and a new school year at Sahel Academy.

Here’s how you can prayer for us this month:

Travel. We’re not the only ones traveling in the next month. Many of our co-workers are traveling as well. The Totmans return to Niger in July; the Goldes arrive in Niger for a one-year ministry, the Marines and Gillespies (us) return to Niger in August.

Staff needs at Sahel Academy. We do have specific needs which you can view on our website. If you think that God is directing you our way, we want you!  

Please visit www.sahelacademy.com so that you can get a picture of the ministry at Sahel Academy. Through your gifts and prayers, you are a part of this ministry. 

Many thanks to those of you who helped to make this trip possible. We will feel better equipped in the ministry God has called us to because of time spent in training and with many of you.