God Blesses

November 11,
June through November is really rough in The Gambia. The rainy season started back in June. The temperatures are now, hot, the air is humid and the rains are decreasing. One of my missionary friends that live in Banjul commented in the prayer letter, "Praise God for no rain in three days!" It is true, the rains are decreasing. It remains hot and humid though. The crops are in the fields and the time for harvesting is coming. The last several years have not yielded a good crop. The cash crop is peanut; they also grow millet. Prior to harvest the food supply from last year has finished. The price of rice has sky rocketed. We used to pay about 300 Dalasi, it is now over 900 Dalasi for a sack of rice. Rice is usually served for lunch and dinner. Rice may also be used to make a poridge for breakfast. It is not uncommon to have friends coming to the door to ask for help with something for dinner. They have no money for anything and they didn't have lunch, breakfast or dinner yesterday.



In May, we had some guest from the home office of ABWE come for a spiritual retreat. One night, we were sitting under the night skies discussing our neighbors and their hardships: the lack of food, the increase in the cost of rice. Our guest offered to share this concern with his friends in Europe as well as in America. Since then we have been praying for God to provide the monies to purchase rice for the people in The Gambia.

God provided over $21,500 for the Gambia rice project. The village of Ndungu Kebbeh and our employees were teh first to receive the rice, each head of the family was given a full sack (5o kgs). Since we still had rice and money to purchase more, we went to nine (9) neighboring villages and gave each family provider in those villages a half sack of rice. Each bag of rice that was given was accompanied by a booklet in Wolof that shares the gospel story from Creation to Christ. Many reports have come from people who have read the booklet and even read it to others. Thousands of people have heard the gospel in the last few months. PRAISE GOD.