January Newsletter 2023

Where to start with how this month in ministry filled our cup? It was such a great encouragement to have a team specifically come to work with us and encourage us. In missionary housing management, we have many guests coming and going to where God is leading them to serve according to His purpose. What a great God we serve who saw that we were the ones in need! In only three short months, He raised financial support for the Smiths to come and bring their family of six here to encourage us. When God first led them to come here, many said, "What project are you going to help with?" They answered that God was leading them to go and encourage the Reeds, so they were being obedient.

There was not a lack of work to be done in the guesthouse ministry. We inherited years of hard work and dedication. People have said it is the nicest mission guesthouse they have ever stayed in. It is quite a standard to live up to. Unfortunately, as with any inheritance, you also have years of paperwork, property management, and sheds to organize and upgrade. It was not glamorous mission work, but it was wonderful to have many hands make light work. Patrick and Danny Smith installed a few voltage regulators, caulked roof leaks, and fixed the razor wire around the property. These two joined some missionaries with BIMI, who are building a community outreach center. Patrick also took him to Ndungu Kebbeh to help him better understand our partnership with the Omega Foundation and our literacy center.

We had explained the harvest field here in the Gambia to the Smiths before they arrived, but it was only through their personal experience with us—traveling the streets, attending the church partnership, and living in The Gambia—that they saw the abundance of work that needs to be done. We tried to fit a year and a half’s worth of knowledge into the short weeks they were here. We did this to help them shed the American lens of what a church should look like here for a lens more culturally appropriate to The Gambia. From gospel sharing to disciplining those who have come to the saving faith of Jesus Christ, they see that the laborers are few.

Praise and Prayer Requests

~Pray for theological training led by Patrick this coming month.

~Pray for the clinic transition to OMEGA Foundation

~Praise God for all the Christmas and personal wants sent by so many supporters. We can't thank you enough for sending a bit of America to The Gambia.

In Christ,

The Reeds

Patrick, Michele, Alyssa, Danielle, and Luke