Author name: Lois Gillespie

The water holes are full! What’s to stop me from being baptized?

We waited an extra week to send our monthly update so that we could write about an awesome Sunday and provide some pictures of the same. We knew this would be an exciting and meaningful day, but it was much more than we expected.

This past Sunday, we again visited the church in Baniera to participate in a special Sunday of baptism, communion and church fellowship. This is the church who in spite of being without a pastor for 4 years, has started 4 sister churches. They are zealous for the true God as was shown by the 69 believers who followed the Lord in believer’s baptism (in a water hole shared with goats and cattle).

This was followed by singing, a message from God’s Word and communion, with people looking through the windows since not everyone would fit inside this small church. Area churches joined in this special day of celebration, bringing their choirs and singing songs written especially for this occasion. This part of the service was held outside as there was absolutely no room in this small church inside to move around. These believers are anxiously awaiting their new building which will be built soon with funds provided by some of you.

What an exciting testimony to this country who is now observing Ramadan. In spite of temperatures around 110 and often adverse medical conditions, they are fasting (some not even swallowing their own saliva), fearful of the consequences if they don’t. Please pray that we will recognize the opportunities that God provides for us to witness to His grace and mercy.

This gracious God is continuing to meet our needs. We praise Him because of a new church in Ohio who has joined our financial support team, bringing us closer to our goal of full support. You have been an encouragement to us as we stepped out in faith in coming to the field before our support was completely raised so that we could be here for the start of school. As the new year is bringing some changes in our support level, we’re thankful for each one of you who continues to pray for our support needs as well as other requests we send your way.

Once again, thank you for your ministry to us and to the Lord.

God is answering your prayers.

As we look over the list of things we have asked you to pray for in the last month, we are full of praise at how God has answered those prayers. Specifically:

– we safely arrived in Niamey on June 30th. Because our trip took 4 days instead of 2, we enjoyed spending time with friends in Dakar along the way.

– we found a house and are busily cleaning, painting, installing screens and fans, fixing plumbing, putting in kitchen cupboards, etc. Our goal is to be living in the house before school starts on Aug. 14th.

– we flew to Bamako, Mali, and drove our car back here to Niamey within mishap. That’s almost 1000 miles, 150 of which were through the desert. Sometimes the road disappeared and we were very thankful for our GPS. Other times it was all too clear – like when we got stuck in the sand. We’re thankful for the ‘desert dwellers’ who appeared out of nowhere to help dig us out.  carWe’re now making our way through a different obstacle course – all the paperwork to make our car legal here in Niger.

Thank you for praying us through these things.

Don Carson, retired missionary who has returned to Mali to oversee the EBM guesthouse for a year, shared this in his recent newsletter: “Many of our present missionaries were MK’s (missionary kids) when we were out here in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Now, they are the career missionaries.” Once again, we were reminded of the importance of this ministry to MK’s. We are indeed Training the Next Generation of career missionaries.

Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry.

The Gift Goes On

Yesterday we experienced the work of God through former missionaries first-hand as we worshipped in Baneira about an hour and a half from Niamey in a small village church that was started by a local man. He had been saved under the ministry of missionaries sent out from the states. This church has since started several other churches in the area. These people have only had the Bible in their language for about a year. Missionary Tim Wright imparted the Word yesterday, working through Genesis, teaching these villagers of how God created all things. This is news to them, and they seemed eager to receive it. On most Sundays there are over 200 people crowded in and around a building meant for only about 75. What a blessing to see their hunger for God’s Word.

BaneiraRoad Rainy season has arrived. Most of the unpaved roads (which is a good portion of them) are a quagmire if not a pond at times. This is only the beginning, though. The season can last into September, and most hope it does.

We signed a rental agreement last week and are in the process of making repairs before we move in. While the work is being done on our house, we are taking the time to go get our car. We fly to Bamako tonight and hope to drive back here to Niamey some time this week. All depends on what needs done to our car to make it road-worthy, and how long it takes to get the paperwork done. We have a missionary friend in Bamako who has started the paperwork process for us. While there, we will be spending some time with former co-workers from ICA – a special treat. As far as we can determine, we hope to be traveling back here on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. For most of the trip, we will be traversing paved roads. We appreciate your prayers for that trip. We know that God has been answering your prayers; we sense His direction in decisions we are making.