We are praising the Lord, here in Senegal.  We have been praying for several years for KC to have the courage to be baptized.  She shares a compound with her three brothers and their families.  They know that she is following Jesus, but she had been afraid to take the step of baptism because she was afraid of her family’s reaction.  Recently IS spent a few days with us doing some discipleship with Richard.  He spent some time talking with KC, and she shared that she was ready for this step.  It was a rainy late afternoon/early evening.  There was thunder and lightning in the background.  (I was a lifeguard back in the day, but I was not going to be the one to say “out of the water”!)  Yes, SD baptized KC.  Please pray for KC to keep her eyes on Christ.  Pray for her to have wisdom as she deals with her family situation.

We were also thrilled that an older man, YfS, from DjT professed Christ as his savior.  He was also talking with IS and told him that even if Christ didn’t heal him, he was suffering for some time with diabetes, he still wanted to follow Christ.  Several days later he died.  We do not know who in his family knew of his decision.  We hope that his family saw a difference in how he faced his death.  We pray that they saw that he had hope and peace. 

One issue that is often on our hearts is discipleship and pastorial training.  Some years ago Richard felt the Lord challenge him, if I give you MNK believers, are you ready to disciple them?  We have seen organizations send believers to other countries for seminaries and for pastorial training and the people, if they return, often come back with western ideas that act as stumbling blocks.  We are praying for a way to provide training to empower the believers, without taking them out of the region.  Please join us in this pray to help build the church, that is the body of Christ, in this area.

Thank you for rejoicing with us as well as lifting these requests in prayer.  Thank you for praying for our family and especially the Mandinka people.