{"id":32,"date":"2006-12-03T19:42:44","date_gmt":"2006-12-03T18:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greetings.gillespiesonline.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2019-04-30T17:51:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T21:51:34","slug":"the-greatest-story-ever-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Story Ever Told"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

We’ve been thrilled to hear from so many of you this past week as you’ve shared your Thanksgiving praises – from all parts of the world. God is indeed busy! Even though some of you are sharing from the midst of very tough circumstances, you are all sharing the same thing: God has been faithful. Your testimonies have blessed us.

What are we thanking God for this week? Our container has finally arrived from the states! This is your praise as well as ours, since so many of you have been praying for this very thing. On Thanksgiving Day, when we had planned an EBM Thanksgiving dinner, our container was finally released from customs. Fortunately, our director was able to put a heavy-duty lock on the door and leave it parked overnight on Sahel Academy property. Unloading, distribution (to 12 different families\/ministries) and unpacking started Friday morning.<\/span><\/p>

Please pray<\/em><\/strong> for Boubacar as we continue to meet together for Bible reading and story time. One Sunday night, I was later than usual in getting started. Boubacar came to the door and asked me if I was going to tell him a story. This Sunday night, we’ll be watching the Jesus film together. Boubacar has a thirst for knowledge. <\/span>Please pray<\/em><\/strong> that this thirst will lead him to the Source of Living Water.<\/span><\/p>

Much like in America, our school kids are finishing their semester coursework AND practicing for Christmas programs. Some are also planning for their Christmas banquet (for which Lois will help with the cooking), and some are getting excited about the holidays during which they will make visits back to their passport countries. Please pray<\/em><\/strong> for the safety of all who travel here and there during this holiday season. <\/span><\/p>

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…” – not true! And no, we won’t be ‘home’ for Christmas. Even so, Lois and I are looking forward to the Christmas break so that we can have more time to work on ‘settling in’ projects now that we have our ‘stuff’. While I’ll be fixing things around home (building cabinets for storage. sealing window frames to keep out bugs, etc.), Lois will be trying to solve power problems in the computer lab, building a new server, setting up the new computers that came in the container, and reformatting the older ones for placing in the classrooms. We may not have much of a break, but we are thankful for this time which allows to get some of these things done.<\/span><\/p>

Remember the church in Baneira where last month we had the privilege of helping to baptize 69 new believers? One of the 4 student outreaches planned for next semester includes a trip to Baneira where the students and staff will put a roof on a new church built with money generously given by some of you. Thank you for helping make this possible.<\/span><\/p>

In our next newsletter, we’ll give you more of the details about these student outreaches. Pastor Dave (Sahel’s youth pastor) is busy with all the planning that goes into taking students and staff on these trips where sometimes there are very limited facilities (if any) for cooking, showering, etc. Please pray<\/strong><\/em> for Pastor Dave and his outreach committee as they finalize these details. Also please pray that people in the 4 different villages will see God’s love through Sahel students and staff.<\/span><\/p>

Christmas season, along with Easter, gives EBM’s national elementary school the opportunity to proclaim the Greatest Story Ever Told in their own Christmas program. This year\u2019s program is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 21st. Most of the Muslim parents of the 500+ students will come to watch their children as they re-enact the story of the Greatest Gift ever given. Please pray<\/strong><\/em> that some of them will open their hearts to receive this Gift. <\/span><\/p>

Because you are so special to us, we truly do thank God upon every remembrance of you. We want to take this opportunity to wish you a very, very special holiday season.<\/span><\/p>

– Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year –<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been thrilled to hear from so many of you this past week as you’ve shared your Thanksgiving praises – from all parts of the world. God is indeed busy! Even though some of you are sharing from the midst of very tough circumstances, you are all sharing the same thing: God has been faithful. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-term-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1303,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobgillespie.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}