news from Gomer: September 2011

Dear Friends,

I come to you today with some updates to some earlier prayer requests and some new requests for your intercessory prayer.  But first allow me to give a statement of apology for not keeping you better updated on the events and happenings here in the past month.  It has been incredible here the last few weeks.  We seem to go from one situation to the next without a break.  I have been blessed and have seen God at work and that has been worth the little of "hardship" I may think I experience.   God is great, faithful and Loving, praise Him!

First, How is Wyatt*?  Well, he is getting settled in again to life here in Accra.  We helped him build a new Kiosk and get some provisions so he can make a small business to provide for himself.  He is starting to gain some boldness back after seeing that God will provide and sustain him through all.  He is trying to learn how to be a Christian in an Islamic world and that is a tough situation to be in.  He still gets some scorn and ridicule, he gets old friends coming by to chastise him for forsaking the religion of Islam and some that won't come around at all.  He still needs our earnest prayers.  We want him to grow in his love of Jesus and to allow God to grow him into the Christian God wants him to be.  He sometimes has moments of fear and confusion but he is holding fast to Jesus, pray that God will continue to hold him close and that these feelings of fear and confusion will be lifted from him and replaced with love and boldness.

Please also Pray for Wyatt's friends and family, that they will see a change in Wyatt that could only come from a loving God and that they will seek to restore torn relationships with him. 

Pray for Michael*.  He is also going through a tough time as friends come to try to talk him out of what he knows is truth, which is Jesus as his Savior.  He is holding strong but he too is only human and times can get very tough for him as well.  He came to Mitch* and me just last week and was upset because some friends were coming around to insult him and he was not sure what to do in the situations it was putting him in.  We talked to him about loving our enemies as Jesus told us to do and as we talked you could see the eyes light up and he said he knew what he had to do.  He left saying he would just go to his friends and tell them to insult away, that he would love them and pray for them regardless.  Praise God for his desire to learn about Jesus.  Every time he gets in my truck he picks up the Bible I carry and starts to read, he will ask many questions due to his limited reading ability.  It is great to have discussion with him, he is a sweet spirit in Christ.  Continue to lift him up as we try to help him also get settled in to a new job.  He got injured a few months back and the job he had carrying the large onion bags was causing him to much pain and was starting to truly cripple him, so we have been trying to get him settled in the brokering business, so far it has been a little rocky but he is doing ok.

Pray as we (Mitch*, Michael* and I) prepare to go to Niger on the 3rd of October.  We are going to be flying up to Niamey and this is a huge prayer request as it is both expensive and also because it is both Mitch's and Michael's first ever flight!  I will be taking a few little baggies along just in case...  They are both looking forward to the flight, but more over we are all looking forward to reuniting with so many of the onion guys that have gone home to work the family farms.  We are wanting to spend a night in the village to be able to allow the ones who would like to, to come and visit to have a time of encouragement and bible stories and maybe listen to a cassette or two, but we are hitting a little snag there.  Seems we are not really big heroes in the village at this point, since some of the sons came back talking about Jesus and Christianity.  So be in prayer that God will lead us and give us great discernment and wisdom as we go. We also want to go visit with Wyatt's family, please lift this up in prayers.  We plan to spend as much time as we can finding family members of the guys still here in Accra to greet them and bring to them news of their sons.   We want this to be a time of strengthening relationships and sharing more of our loving God, His Son Jesus and the good news of the Gospel.

Pray for a couple of the guys that are wanting us to help them get to Niamey at the same time we are going.  They are trying to configure a way to go talk to a couple people there that are key figures in sharing Jesus with them.  I really want to help them go because these two are just bursting at the seems to ask a few key questions and are just that close to receiving Jesus as Savior.  Pray for these two because they are keeping a close eye on both Wyatt and Michael also, they are watching to see how God protects and provides for them.  Pray that I do the right thing in this, it is a lot of money and I must be a good Steward of God's money. So this is no small affair, especially after you couple it with the cost for Michael, Mitch and I to go.

Pray for us as we go also because Michael wants us to go with him when he tells his father of his decision to follow Jesus.   He is a little tentative about this but says he has to do it and that he believes his father will be happy for him, we will see.  I will be honest with you, I am and am not looking forward to this time.  I know the road to his father's house is long, but maybe that day it want be long enough, I just don't know.  I am praying that God will speak to his father's heart while we are there and he will believe.  Michael's mother died when he was a small boy of only three or four, so he wants us to also go to his Aunt's house to tell her, she is the one who mothered him as a small boy.  Pray for her.

We will be taking and some school supplies to the village where Wyatt and so many of these young guys are from.  First Baptist Weber City in Virginia and Harrison Ave. Baptist Church in Harrison, Ohio have graciously donated several big boxes of supplies to go to the school there.  We are praying that this will give us a great opportunity to share with them God's love.  We really look forward to seeing the looks in those little children's eyes when they see all these notebooks, pencils, paper, pens and so much more!  I really look forward to reading a letter written by First Baptist Weber City explaining why they did what they did.  Love, God's Love.  We hear from many here that kindness, compassion and love draw them to Jesus, not scholar, debate and endless programs of "our god is better than your god!"  All things without Love are but the noise of clanging cymbals.


Pray for all the onion guys still here in Accra.  Life is hard for them right now.  The market is no good, and the Accra city government has been really trying hard to end the street vending these young men are taking part in.  The government is very heavy handed and the guys are scared, but they have no where else to turn to make a living at this time.  They are not happy that they lose more money than they make now due to the government confiscating their onions two or three time each week leaving them broke and barely able to pay for the onions let alone buy their daily kenkey or banku.  Pray for us and them as we seek to help them find and/or create alternative jobs.  Pray that we will have wisdom in this matter and that we will only be of help.  Some of the guys are worried right now because last Tuesday I had left my camera with them and the government guys came and took it. When I asked about it they informed me I would have to bring one of the young guys to the office and exchange him for the camera, so I am looking for a new camera. 

Pray for the city government that they will have a change of heart as to how they seek to put a stop to the street vendors.  Ghana claims to be a Christian nation, pray that they will use Christian values as they create and enforce policy.  Pray for us and the onion guys as we seek to help get them off the streets.  Pray that as we walk through this, we will be a glaring reflection of God's amazing love to all who are involved.  Pray that God will use this opportunity to touch the hearts of the onion guys and the market elders.

Pray for Wyatt as he grows in the Lord.

Pray for Michael as he grows in the Lord and as he prepares to go tell his family of his new found faith in Jesus.

 Pray for us as we prepare to go visit in Niger.  Pray we will go prepared to share Jesus and that God will do great things through us as we go to minister.  Pray that we will use God's wisdom in knowing who to take and share this experience with.  Pray that all who do go will grow in God's love and that this will continue to build on the foundation needed to see the formation of a Christian congregation in these villages.

Pray that the school supplies will be used of God in a mighty way to share His love with the people of this village whom He loves very much.

Pray for the onion guys, the city government, Mitch and me as we seek to help resolve the situation here with the street vending.  Pray that God will give us wisdom, direction and knowledge in all this.  Pray that we will be able to get the onion guys off the streets and into safe productive jobs soon.

Pray for Mitch and his family.  Barbara is expecting!!!  Pray that this pregnancy will result in a beautiful little child born into a Christian family!!

Pray for me that I will have the knowledge, wisdom and courage to face and work through all God has for us to go through.  Pray that I will always and only seek to do the will of Him who sent me.  Praise God for He is able!

Praise God for His love and grace. Praise God for His Son Jesus and the Salvation He offers the whole world, onion guys and all!!

Thank you and God bless each of you.

      In His Service,
      Gomer