God Sustains
The following update is from one of our Senegal Mission team members, Micah Stickler, who was part of the team who came back after the first week, along with two others. The other seven members of the team is staying the rest of this week and will be back this weekend.
Over this last week the EBC Senegal team has been serving missionary families from all over West Africa as they held a regional conference (something they only do once every three years). In order to allow all the adults to participate we took care of the kids from ages 1-14 and held essentially a VBS program for the kids from elementary age and up. The kids and their families traveled from all over West Africa to attend and they themselves came from many different nations – we had kids from all over including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Denmark and Germany.
It was truly an amazing week and if I summarize what I was taught over the last week I’d say it is how “God sustains.” He sustained us through 15+ hours of travel. He sustained us with energy and joy for the kids every day even though we all were pretty jet lagged. He sustained us even when most of us got sick and when we had a health scare and one in our group had to go to the hospital – and while I am truly grateful to God for all the ways He sustained us this last week I am more amazed and thankful for the ways He sustains these missionary kids and their families. They face challenges and realities that so few can relate to and yet God sustains them. In the middle of new and challenging languages, raising their kids, the challenges of their ministries, health considerations, and isolation – God sustains.
As the rest of the team is in its final days in Senegal please continue to pray for them as many haven’t been feeling well and continue to pray that the team’s time with the McMartins would be positive and encouraging. Pray that God would continue to bless the time and work that will still happen over the next few days, for safe travel home and smooth readjustment to home.
Thank you for your prayers and support to get us all there in the first place. It is a blessing to go and see what God is doing in the lives and ministries of our missionaries!
Micah Stickler, Senegal Team Member
The following prayer request and short update is from our team leader, Beth Duvall who will be back this weekend.
We were able to spend a great week working with the missionary kids at the Ethnos 360 conference. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and we got great feedback from the parents. It was so fun getting to know the kids and spend time with them. There was an illness that went through the conference, and we were not immune. Thank you for your prayers for health and safety. We have all started to feel much better. This week we are getting to see what life is like for Joel and Andi in Senegal. We have gotten to attend church, gone out to a village to see what it’s like there, and we will get to paint murals in the church and spend time with the Haitian missionaries. It’s been wonderful to get to connect with the McMartins and hear the stories of their ministry here. We ask for your continued prayers for health, and safety as we travel home on Friday and Saturday.
Beth Duvall, Senegal Team Leader
