January Newsletter
The clinic is closing, what does that mean for you all? What a great question received from so many of you. What a blessing to know people are thinking and praying for us, and our long-term goals as missionaries. Even though the clinic is closing by 2023, God is not closing the door on The Gambia to hear the gospel, just shifting its ministry focus. God has opened the door wide open for our literacy center to flourish, adding a new branch called CHE (Community Health Evangelism). ABWE is successfully running this program in Togo. Our medical missionaries will transition into supplying CHE throughout The Gambia to improve the health of entire communities through health education, community development, evangelism, and discipleship.
In our last newsletter, we asked for your help and are still requesting volunteers to help us with the transition of closing the clinic. God is hearing your prayers as He raised up a young family of three to come to help us serve. The Werners have been raising financial support and are willing to serve here in The Gambia as long as God provides the funding. They booked their flights and began to pack. Last week, God raised supporters to fund them for four additional months totaling nine months of support. We are so excited for their arrival at the beginning of February, then transitioning into village life with us. Keep praying for God to send us laborers to this field.
With our new teammates coming, we needed to prepare a place for them, but the house we have for them has been vacant for almost two years. As many know, when humans vacate, animals and insects move in, leaving the place filthy. Africa doesn't do anything small, so on top of animal excrement, it is the dry windy season, where dust falls like tree pollen and gets everywhere because your windows are almost always open. Michele was up for the cleaning and hospitality challenge but was struck with a severe cold putting her out of commission for two solid weeks. She prayed for God to heal her, but His plans were better as she went into week 3 of still feeling ill. He spoke to the heart of Heidi Johnson instead. She felt led by God to leave the guesthouse ministry and spend a few days in the village to help prepare the house. Michele was overwhelmed with joy as God answered her prayer above and beyond what she was praying for or about. What a wonderful God we serve.
Praise and Prayer Requests
~ Pray for the CRE direction in The Gambia.
~ Pray for our language studies.
~ Pray that even without words we show Christ
~Pray for laborers in the field here in The Gambia
~Pray for the arrival of the Werner Family
In Christ,
The Reeds
Patrick, Michele, Alyssa, Danielle, Luke
