It is hard to believe that the end of this year, 2014, is upon us! As one frog said to another, "Time is sure fun when your having flies." Well, the year has flown by, and God has been so good to us to give us tremendous opportunities for service in His kingdom, for there is nothing more fulfilling. There are countless things to be thankful for this past year, along with many trials, but here are a few highlights of the year. The fact is, none of this would have happened if not for the prayers, encouragement, love, finances and support that come from Saints all across the world, and without the strengthening, providence and guidance that comes from our great God. Thank you all!
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Our family, one year ago! What a blessing to have such a great team! |
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We have been blessed to have many opportunities to travel, encourage and to be encouraged by others. Visiting the Kees in Banso in the North West of Cameroon in February was a great time! |
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Our gym ministry has really taken off this year... we now have about 70 men and women that come regularly and that join us for training and also for Bible devotions! |
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Brittney has been working with the Gym ladies every morning. We were also blessed to have Beth Ann, a former professional weightlifter, come and do some coaching and help out with our ministry. |
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A real highlight for me was to be able to immerse Abel into Christ in March. We had been studying together for many months and to be able to help him be buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life was a great joy! |
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We were tremendously encouraged to be able to host the Osebreh family in April. They came for a few weeks and were able to participate in our ministry and to enjoy the beauty of Cameroon with us. They are doing a great work in Ghana. |
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More visitors from Ghana. In July, we had the pleasure of hosting Mom and Dad Hostetter for a visit. They joined in our work here, and were an inspiration to all. |
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We were extremely excited in September to finally be able to launch Faith Builders Educational Ministry. Training up our children in the way of the Lord is a priority to us, and being to help other kids along the way, to include them in this educational and character-building journey is awesome! We are now done with our first 13 weeks! |
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Our first school field trip was to visit the zoo in Limbe. It was a great time! |
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We have been so encouraged by God's provision for Faith Builders Educational Ministry. Here, Hannah is amazing the Chief of Service for the Delegation of Basic Education, who came for an inspection. He said he had never seen anything like our school and wished we could do the same in his own village. |
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Academics matter, but the spiritual growth and character development of our kids is paramount. This is how we start each day, with our opening program and devotions from the word of God. |
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Brittney's folks' visit (see last blog post) was a great time... they were a huge help in many ways. |
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A highlight of a highlight- while Mom and Dad Thomas were visiting, our friend and helper, Kate, was immersed into Christ. She had been studying the Bible with Brittney each week for many months, and had also been watching us, to see if how we lived met up with what we said. What a wonderful new creature in Christ! |
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Our gym takes a lot of our time each day, but is a great opportunity to reach out and meet people and share with them from the word of God. Sometimes, we do not know what result this seed that we are sowing will reap, but here is one... |
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William! It was super encouraging, one day during gym, when William asked to talk to me. What did he want? He wanted to talk with me about immersion into Christ. He'd had many questions, and had been having some great Bible discussions with George (on the left) our helper and coworker from Ghana. That very night, we took him down to a nearby stream and washed away the old man of sin! This is especially exciting to us, as this year, the members of our team- George, Brittney and I, have all personally led someone to Christ through personal evangelism. PRAISE GOD! |
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Preach the Word! I write this now from Ghana, where we have come for a short visit, to reconnect with family and friends, to have some time of refreshing, and also, to share the word. I had a chance to preach at the family camp, sharing on our connection with Christ and one another from John 15:5.
It's really been a great year, and we are very excited for another year of service to God! We appreciate what everyone has done and for God getting us through various challenges and trials. God bless you all and a happy new year 2015!!!
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