SUMMER INTERNS WANTED!!!

Jody & Sarah will be hosting summer interns for the Songhai team this year. If you are interested, please read the following "ad" from them ....

Sure, it’s only December, but we are already looking ahead to next summer. This past summer we had 5 college students who came and served as missionaries to the Songhai people. And it was such a great experience all around that we want to do it again!

They were a great encouragement to us and they were able to plant and water many gospel seeds. They also grew in their faith and learned more about how God may be calling them to be involved in missions in the future.

We are looking for college age students or young adults who have a passion and desire to share the gospel with those who have never heard. You will come and serve from May 13 - June 24, 2014 (6 weeks). You will be partnered up with another summer missionary and work together to meet people and share the gospel with many people.

This will not be an easy 6 weeks. You will be in an unfamiliar culture, you won’t be able to communicate very well, you’ll experience HEAT as you never have before, and you will see great poverty and lostness. And above all those things you will be on the front lines of a great spiritual battle. The Songhai people are in darkness and they have been for a long time. More people are needed to come and share the LIGHT with them. Only Jesus can bring change to these people and give them hope and salvation. Would you join us in this great task?

If you want to know more, please contact Jody & Sarah (or leave a comment on this blog) and they’d love to share more about this opportunity with you!

What Do the Foxes Say? (December 2013)

NLTS

This month we want to share about a ministry that is run by the Songhai team. It is called NLTS, which stands for Niamey Leadership Training School. Basically, it is an oral Bible school. Every few months, a group of believers are invited to come for 3 days for a concentrated time of Bible teaching and training. They are also able to fellowship with believers from other villages, which is especially beneficial for those who are the ONLY believer in their village.

Different topics are taught each session. The next course will take place this week (Dec. 2-4) and Jody will be teaching the synoptic gospels. Pray for Jody as he opens up God’s Word to these men. We expect 15-20 men to participate.

The school has existed for only 1 1/2 years, so in a way it is still a work in progress and adjustments are being made to make it better and more effective with each session.

One major challenge is difference in learning styles. Nigeriens do not learn in the same way as Americans. They are oral learners and most of the men we work with have not learned to read or write. So, when teaching we have to keep that in mind. They can’t open up the Bible and follow along and they can’t take notes of the teachings to refer to in the future. Everything taught has to be taught in a way that makes sense to them and also in a way that can be remembered so that they can teach others.

Pray for NLTS and our team as we seek to teach and train Songhai believers to grow in their faith and to take that message to other Songhai people.

PRAYER POINTS

·       Praise the Lord for giving us health and protection this past month.

·       Pray for the ‘motorcycle man’ who has recently confessed Christ. Pray that he will have the time and desire to be discipled.

·       Pray for the many gospel seeds which have been planted in Boubon. Pray that we may continue to water them and that God would give growth.

·       Pray for Jody as he teaches at NLTS Dec. 2-4.

·       Pray that we will have many summer missionaries come and serve alongside of us.

·       Praise the Lord for keeping us safe and healthy last month! We are also grateful we were able to have a ‘staycation’ in Niamey and go swimming a lot and also we were able to participate in field day again.

OUR LITTLE GIRLS

• C - pray that my bad dreams will go away

• J - pray that I will learn to read better so that I can get my new Bible

• L - pray for my boo-boo on my knee and pray that I can learn more Zarma

*If you'd like to receive the Foxes newsletter via email, please sign up on their blog.

Weekly Prayer Focus: Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

For those of you who are not involved with a Southern Baptist Church, you may not know what the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is all about. You can go here to read up on it but, basically, this offering is what enables us (& almost 5000 other missionaries) to be on the field doing what God has called us to do & sharing the love of Christ with some of the most unreached peoples on the planet. For us, it's living in Niger & ministering to the Songhai.

Every year, Southern Baptist Churches give to this offering & we are so thankful for their gifts!! This year, we are PLEADING with you to give above & beyond. There are hundreds of people just like us who would love to go to the nations & fulfill God's calling on their lives but simply can't because there aren't enough funds to send them. And without funds, the IMB can't send people nor can provide us, who are already on the field, with the resources to most effectively do our job.

Please pray for the offering this year. Pray for Southern Baptist Churches to give above & beyond. Pray for there to be enough funds to not only provide for the missionaries already on the field but also for the hundreds who are waiting to be sent.

Thank you for giving.

If you'd like to give now, you can do so by going here.

Volunteer Testimony: LHBC (October 2013)

Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”  If there ever was a verse that sums up a trip this is the one.  In October, a two-man team from Living Hope was able to go down new roads and into new villages that we have not gone to in the past.  As we went from village to village we could clearly see that God had prepared and ordained our way.  The plans we had made as we were preparing for the trip were being rewritten.  God led us along the roads that he had prepared rather than the ones we had planned to take.  It is greatly encouraging to feel God’s guiding hand and to see His clear directions as He led us from one hungry soul to another.  The Word says in John 10:27, ”My Sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

 We witnessed the excitement upon the faces of desert dwellers who for the first time in their lives tasted the living water.  We saw a man born again in a birthing room as he heard the name of Jesus for the first time and was born again.  We heard stories of missionaries who came over 20 years ago and who sowed seeds of the gospel that were finally ready for harvest.   One man who heard the gospel 20 years before we came was finally ready to believe.  On this trip we saw eight men come to faith in Christ.  One can only wonder and be amazed by how many others may one day believe as a result of the preaching of the gospel through this trip and the many other trips that have happened and will happen through those who are faithful to send, to pray, and to go.  

We concluded the week with a time of discipleship.  We had the privilege of baptizing a new brother in Christ and the following day being able to begin discipling him along with others in the faith as we taught him truth from God’s word.  Jesus says in Matthew 9:36-37 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;  therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’.”

As I personally reflect on this trip, I am at awe that God orchestrated my return to West Africa for a second time and I am thankful for the privilege of being a small part of God’s work among the Songhai as he draws more people to himself for his glory.  I was encouraged to experience and see how the gospel brings forth light into darkness.  As I sit and ponder the wonder of this trip and the miracles of seeing men come to faith and baptizing a brother in Christ, I eagerly await the day when I get to worship and fellowship with my Songhai brothers and sisters before God’s throne.

- Jason G, Living Hope Baptist Church

 

Weekly Prayer Focus: UUPG

UUPG? Anyone know what that stands for? If you guessed Unengaged, Unreached People Groups, you are right!

Unengaged, Unreached People Groups are groups of people that have no Christian witness reaching them or working them (hence the "Unengaged") & have less than 2% Christians among them (hence the "Unreached"). The Songhai are considered a UPG meaning that they are still Unreached because of the low numbers of believers but they are not considered Unengaged because we are here working among them. Got all that?

So what does a UUPG have to do with the Songhai team? Well, our leadership team has asked every people group team to consider reaching a UUPG in their area while also reaching their UPG. We have the Gospel. We (for the most part) will have a bridge language. We have the calling to take the Gospel to the nations so that every tribe & tongue can hear the Good News. This does not mean that we will forsake our calling to the Songhai. It simply means that as we go, we will intentionally seek not only the Songhai but also any UUPGs in our work area that need the Gospel as well.

What's the first step? Research! We need to find out what UUPGs are in the areas we are already working in or have plans to work in in the near future. We need to know what language they speak & if we have a bridge language with them. We need to find if there are any resources in their language that are already available. Etc, etc.

The next step is to seek them out & take the Gospel to them. Would you please pray for our team as week seek to make this endeavor a part of our strategy for next year? Pray for us as we do the research  & that God would lead us to a specific UUPG. Pray that our hearts would be burdened for these people. And we pray that as this comes to fruition, that many of you would also be burdened to take the Gospel to this UUPG.

Weekly Prayer Focus: Road to Wanzerbe

 

If you remember from the last newsletter, we told y'all about finally accessing the Road to Wanzerbe with the Living Hope team last month. While we weren't able to access the entire road as planned, we were able to get into villages that weren't on our original plan. But God is sovereign above all & He knew exactly where our team needed to be & who needed to hear. Because, as He has shown us over & over again, His sheep hear His voice. He knew exactly who needed to hear His voice that week & He led the team right to them.

So now there are villages on this road that have Light after centuries of darkness. But, for a couple of these villages, there is only one "Light bearer." Imagine, if you will, being the ONLY follower of Christ in your entire town ... not just your family or your school or your workplace but your ENTIRE town. That's heavy & hard to imagine for those of us who grew up in a Christian home or in church. 

As you try to imagine what it's like for these men that made that bold choice to follow Christ alone, pray for them. Pray for their hearts to remain firm in their faith, for them to remain steadfast in times of persecution & for their light to shine so brightly that others come to faith because of their witness. Pray for God to speak directly to them through His Word & to their hearts, to fill them with His knowledge & wisdom & to grow them in their faith.

Pray for our team who cannot easily access these new believers due to security & distance. Pray for God to raise up more national partners that would be willing to go to these village & invest 3 months of their lives into discipling these new believers.

What Do the Foxes Say? (November 2013)

Here's the latest newsletter from the Fox family ... 

Happy Harvest!

At this time of year we have a few decorations we put up around our house. One of those is a sign we hang on our door that says “Happy Harvest” with a picture of a scarecrow. As I passed by the sign the other day I thought about the phrase ‘happy harvest’. Yes indeed, the harvest time can be a happy time of the year.

Although I have relatives who farm, I did not grow up in a farming community so harvest time didn’t mean much to me. However, the main occupation of the Songhai people is farming. The weather and land are definitely not ideal for farming, but they plant the crops that can handle it - mainly millet. If they‘ve experienced a good rainy season, then the harvest is definitely a happy time of the year. However, this year the harvest was not bountiful. There was a short rainy season and some sort of parasitic plant attack. One of our friends collected 1/9 of what he did

last year. Not a happy harvest.

As I think of this in spiritual terms I am reminded that Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2) There is great joy to bring in a big harvest and Jesus says there is a harvest of souls waiting to be reaped. But there have to be laborers. Some plant, some water, but God gives the growth (I Cor. 3:6). Seeds have to be watered often to bring about growth. We had rains in Niger this year, but not enough to bring much growth. The same is true with evangelism and missions. Many many seeds have been planted by past missionaries, ourselves, and countless volunteers. Yet we must plant more seeds and continue to water and water and water them until a plentiful harvest is brought in. And we must reap with humility because ‘neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.‘ (1 Cor. 3:7)

So please join us as we...

• pray for more laborers

• pray for a bountiful spiritual harvest

• Give God ALL the glory for it! -Sarah Fox

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

As fall comes to a close & the holidays approach, we would be remiss not to say a HUGE "THANK YOU" to all of you who give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. (If you are not Southern Baptist or don't know what this offering is, you can read more about it here. OR if you need some great resources to use in your church this year, click on that link as well.) Basically, this offering is what allows us to be here. Because you give, we have a house to live in, a vehicle to access & engage the Songhai people, medical care for our family, funds to distribute the Word to the believers in their language, resources & means to train & send out national partners & the list goes on. Your gifts not only benefit us but also the 5000 other missionaries that work with the IMB. We ask that, this year, you give above & beyond. We are so blessed to be here, doing what we love & fulfilling God's call on our lives but there are at least 1000 others like us waiting to go ... & right now, there are not enough funds to send them all. Please give so that others may go & millions may hear of Christ.

Prayer Points

• Praise the Lord for making it through the first 8 weeks of homeschooling! Our girls have been doing great!

• Praise the Lord for a new group of men in a nearby village who Jody has shared the gospel with and who want to hear more. Pray for their salvation.

• Pray for H*, a girl in our village who is in serious need of a difficult eye surgery. Pray for the salvation of this family (the father is a Muslim leader).

• Continue to pray for Jody as he finishes up a seminary class this month.

• Pray for blessings upon our marriage and the strength to continue to grow in this area.

• Pray that God may establish a strong leader in Boubon to lead and shepherd the believers here.

Our Little Girls

• We praise God for how these girls have adjusted to this culture and are developing a passion and love for the Songhai people.

• Pray for C because she has fears at night time.

• Pray for J to continue to grow in her reading ability and not get frustrated so easily.

• Pray for L to learn her letters.

P.S. Our girls love receiving and sending e-mails to other kids, so if your kids want to write we’d love to hear from them!