Weekly Prayer Focus: Gomer Williams

Please read the following newsletter from Gomer Williams, serving in Accra ...

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers and support.  It has been a few weeks since I came to you with praise and request for the mission here.  A lot has been happening and God is so awesome and I thank Him for the opportunity to be just a small part of what He is doing here.

QBNDRZ!! XT MKF RBWYL!!  What if you looked at a sign and that is what you could make out?  Would you know what it means? Maybe it says "Welcome, Be Our Guest", or maybe it says "Danger!! Do Not Enter!", how would you know?  What if you could not read?  What if you went to grocery store and no one there spoke a language you understood?  What if you lived a thousand miles from home and couldn't write a letter to your family or friends?  What if you were told God loved some people but not all people, how will you know what the Bible truly says about God's love if you could not read the Bible for yourself? 

Reading, writing and speaking English is a desire many of the Songhai here have and we are endeavoring to help them learn.  We are trying to partner with local churches and individuals to develop some English classes for the Songhai and their communities.  So far it is going well. We have one school in Nima that is being run by Trinity Baptist Church and they are doing a great job teaching and reaching out to the community.  They are having an average of about 20 to 23 people come three evenings each week to learn. 

We are partnering with a few men in the onion market to develop a little school there to teach English to the people who live and work there.  They have just started teaching this week and so far the only problems are too many people wanting to learn and the light isn't working yet so the room gets too dark.  A man named Y* is running the school there.  He is a Songhai man who we have partnered with to help get everything they need to be able to provide a quality education for the people in the market area.  We have rented a room, put in benches and a light fixture, bought educational books and pens and paper and hung the new black board the guys made from a piece of plywood we bought and painted black.  It has been a good experience to go through this with them.  We have made this to be their school, and they are proud of it.

Now lets pray that through these educational opportunities that a few things happen.
 

1.  Pray that as more want to learn, more churches will be open to teaching and creating schools.  It is through these partnerships we want to develop friendships that help foster an understanding of Christianity among the Islamic Songhai.  Most West African Muslims have never been exposed to true Christianity and view it as a religion of gluttony and perversion.  There is a lot of false religion here claiming to be Christianity.  We want the schools to help foster better relationships that will lead to positive discussion about the True God and His Son Jesus and the Gospel.
 

2.  Pray for the people who are teaching the classes, that God will work through them and that they will have many opportunities to share Jesus as a result of these classes.
 

3.  Pray that as the learners progress they will explore the Word of God for themselves and come to know the Truth.  God's word is powerful and as the people learn to read it is our desire they will use this new knowledge to seek God's word, which has the power to save.
 

4.  Pray for the funding of these schools.  We are trying to help anyway we can to get this going.  Most of the people we are helping simply do not have any money to spare or else they would already be involved in one of the many Adult education programs run by other NGOs which charge a fee to attend.  We are dedicated to providing free education to people who will make the commitment to learn.  We are giving each teacher a stipend for travel, we are buying books, paper, pencils, pens, and other learning aids.  We have bought benches, light fixtures, chalk boards and we even rented a room in the Onion market itself so the Songhai who live there would not have to travel out of their area at night to attend class.
 

5.  Pray as we seek God's wisdom and timing when it comes to branching out into new areas.  We are even praying about a better partnership with the schools back in Niger in the home villages of the Songhai.  Many of these schools have only oral learning due to the lack of funds to buy basic educational material, desk, chalk boards or books.  We want to pray about how we can help them.
 

6.  Pray about partnerships, churches from the States that can come and be a part of helping develop and grow these schools and encourage the local churches that are involved. 
 

7.  Most of all, pray that this is all done to the honor and glory of God. That through this, no man is glorified, but that God is exalted and His Son Jesus will be accepted by many as their Savior.  For what good is it if they gain education but not eternity!
 

       Thank you for your prayers, your support and your love.
       In His Service,
       Gomer