On
the 4th day of October, my family returned to Nigeria [with all our luggage! pictured] to begin our 10th year of
service in West Africa. Our furlough consisted of over 60 meetings in a
six-month span of traveling. One of the high points before departing was my
thrill of baptizing our 3rd child, Brian Michael, at our sending church.
As soon as we came back, I only had
one Sunday at Truth Baptist Church before setting out to fulfill a couple of
promises made before our trip to the U.S. On October 12th, the honor was given me to
preach the 10th anniversary of Lighthouse Independent Bible Baptist Church in
Ibadan; the following Sunday saw my whole family at Independent Baptist Church
in Port Harcourt [pictured]
for the start of their first-ever Missions and Leadership
Conference. This was to be a regional version of the pastors' conference that
we have conducted in Abuja over the past 6 years, but, due to an emergency
cancellation from the other scheduled guest preacher, Missionary David Maskey
gave me the singular privilege of teaching leadership for three mornings and
speaking on missions each evening after preaching both services on Sunday.
Several national pastors attended, and there was a great percentage of the
members who were faithful to the whole meeting. As we were rejoicing over the
results of the conference on the last day, late that night we had to admit
Joseph and Victoria into a hospital near the Maskey home. Our two oldest
suffered with a bacterial infection from food poisoning for almost four full
days until Joseph was discharged on Saturday, with Victoria following on
Sunday. The missionary family and their members were so gracious to us, as we
had to delay our flight back to Abuja, and, thanks to some extremely kind
friends, we had no hospital bills.
Just one week before departing
Nigeria in mid-March, I made the decision to sell our SUV that had served our
family for almost eight years. One of the goals we had before resuming our work
in October was to be able to purchase vehicles for both our family and the
seminary (which now numbers 25 students).
We were able to save enough funds for a 15-passenger van [pictured] that we would
like to donate to our Bible college, but right now my family needs to use it
until we can accumulate about $22,000 to also buy a quality 8-seater van that
can safely carry the family and be adequate for my frequent travels. Would you consider donating towards this need?
Please pray that God will lead to the best automobile for the money we are able
to raise.
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