What Do the Foxes Say? March 2014

BABY STEPS

I remember many important milestones in my children’s lives. Their first smile, first time sitting up, then crawling (army style for C*), first time eating baby food, and then of course their first steps. It’s so exciting to watch a baby grow and learn these things in front of your eyes. And I’ve tried my best to record these events in a baby book and by taking pictures.

The same is true spiritually. When someone first becomes a believer they are an infant in the faith. But the goal is not for them to stay that way. We want them to grow into a healthy and strong believer.  I also know this doesn’t happen overnight.  We have to be patient and gracious with new believers. We can’t expect them to know everything and do everything right all of the time -­‐ just like we don’t expect our children to be walking and talking in their first week of life!

I’d like to share with you some milestones of the people we work with. These may seem small to you, but they are steps in the right direction.  

This past week S* (a baptized believer) prayed out loud in front of a group for the first time! She’s been meeting with me for well over a year and I’ve asked her to pray several times. She’s always laughed and said no, I don’t know how to. Even when it was just the two of us, she would not be willing. But this week we were meeting with her and two other women and Sakina agreed to pray. I was very excited at her reaching this milestone!

Another exciting event was when Jody was playing Luke 2 on the proclaimer, M* (a 9 yr. old girl, sister of A*) was quoting the words right before they would play. Even though we’ve focused a lot of time teaching her parents and brother, she has been listening and learning! Pray for her salvation.

About a month ago S* and I* came to our church meeting. They are not believers, but at the end they wanted to pray for God to protect Jody while he was in Senegal. This seems like baby steps as God is opening their hearts to want to understand Christianity. Pray for their salvation.

Lastly, a woman named H*, who is the mother-in-law of one of the believers, had been against our message and said we were not welcome in her compound. This week she showed up at our house and wanted me to teach her! Pray for her as well!

PRAYER POINTS

• Praise the Lord that we had our biggest church meeting. Many were unbelievers, but we are grateful for more people coming to hear.

• Pray for the Songhai team as we meet this month and learn more about community development opportunities for Niger.

• Pray that the Lord will open the hearts of three men named S*, I* and H*.• Pray that our believers will share their faith with others in our village.

• Pray for Jody because he is taking a seminary class this semester.

• Pray for Sarah balancing homeschool, family, and out of the home ministry.

• Pray for strength that we would finish our first term with health and diligence.

YOU DID WHAT???

Recently we have had to do things to prepare for our home assignment (coming up from July 2014 - Dec 2014). With all of those preparations our minds have been thinking about what the transition will be like coming to the states after living in Niger for 3 years. Our two youngest hardly remember anything about the U.S. and so it will be like a whole new world to them. So, I’ve compiled a list of things that our kids have done in Niger that are completely normal and ordinary for them. But...if they were to tell their family, friends, or teachers in America... the response may be “You did WHAT???”

1. Ate grasshoppers and called them a ‘snack’

2. Rode a donkey

3. Crossed the Niger River (with hippos) on a canoe

4. Slept outside under a mosquito net

5. Stayed up way past bedtime watching the Jesus film outside

6. Bought bread by ourselves using the Zarma language

7. Helped make pottery

8. Have visited 4 other African countries

9. Saw a cobra

10. Had to ride a boat and walk to get to church (took 45 min.)

11. Saw a scorpion in our bathtub

12. Had a cow market right outside our gate each week

13. Ziplined over the Zambezi River by Victoria Falls

14. Constantly saw people with babies on motorcycles

15. Tumbled down sand dunes

16. Ate rice and sauce using our hands

17. Haven’t worn shoes in three years (only flip flops or bare feet)

18. Learned a new language

19. Have a pet tortoise, goat, and cat

20. Peed on a squatty potty

21. Lived with an African family for three days

So we think our kids are pretty amazing...Let’s just hope they can learn to tie shoes and ride a bike before too long!!!

OUR LITTLE GIRLS

• Praise the Lord for a healthy month!

• Praise the Lord for a safe and fun vacation to Burkina Faso.

• Pray for perseverance in school.

• Pray for continued building of friendships and sharing the gospel with these friends.

february 2014 newsletter

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank y'all so much for praying for us this last month. We have had a GREAT month of finding new villages on our roads &, just this week, seeing a TON of fruit on the Road to Gaya through the faithful witness of a volunteer team from Bowling Green, Ky. We are in constant awe of all that God is doing among the Songhai & how He is continuing to call them out of darkness & into the Light. Thank you for praying for our team, our volunteers, our believers, our national partners & for the Songhai that have yet to hear of, know about or choose to follow Christ.

In "technical" news, our email has been a little wacky lately &, apparently, we've not been receiving emails here & there. If you have emailed us lately & have not heard back from us, please resend your email ... especially if it is in regards to Adopting a Road. All those who signed up should have already received their "quick start" guide & been receiving updates for things happening in the last 3 weeks on your respective roads. It's still not too late to sign up to Adopt a Road. We are VERY excited about having y'all partner with us on a deeper level & getting word to you about daily/weekly happenings on these roads. We would love to have 100 of you sign up to join us in this project!

that ALL may know HIM,

mark & parker <><

What Do the Foxes Say? (February 2014)

For the past year we have been encouraging our believers to meet together each week for worship and Bible study. For the most part they have done well and we have been

encouraged. At the end of January, Jody was not able to meet with the believers because he had a trip with our company to Senegal. However, Sarah and the girls were able to meet with 2 of our believers. Upon starting, 2 of Jody’s unbelieving friends also showed up for the meeting. They listened to Luke chapter 7 and Sarah and Solomon, one of our national believes, helped lead a discussion. The group came to the conclusion that Jesus was indeed God.

When it came time to close Sarah informed everybody that the meeting was done. But the two unbelievers insisted that they pray for Jody while he traveled. So right there these two unbelieving men prayed to the Lord for Jody.

Please keep these men in your prayers that the Lord would to do a mighty work in their lives.

Prayer Points

• Praise the Lord that the sickness Sarah and the girls faced this past month is over!

• Praise the Lord that 2 unbelievers came and met with our believers in our weekly meeting.

• Pray that the Lord will open the hearts of three men named Sam, Isaac and Henry.

• Pray that our believers will share their faith with others in our village.

• Pray for Jody because he is taking a seminary class this quarter.

• Pray for Sarah balancing homeschool, family, and out of the home ministry.

• Pray for strength that we would finish our first term with health and diligence.

Our Little Girls

• Our girls have been sick this past month, so pray that the Lord will give them health in the months to come.

• Pray for salvation as the oldest two understand the gospel and are contemplating this decision.

• Pray for perseverance in school.

• Pray that Jordan will continue to learn to read.

Weekly Prayer Focus: NLTS 6.1

We are in the midst of our 6th NLTS classes!! We are still so humbled & amazed that God has allowed us this opportunity to create an Oral Theological School for our national believers (who are predominately illiterate).

What we are even MORE amazed by is the fact that our believers & leaders have grown so large in number that we not only have 1 set of students in this course but 2 sets!! The class was getting so large at the last NLTS that the Songhai team had to decide to divide them in half. So while we would normally teach 4 classes over the course of a year, we now have to teach each class twice for a total of 8 classes. Praise the Lord for continuing to call these Songhai brothers out of darkness & into the Light & for raising up these men to be leaders in their villages & their homes!

Pray for the men this week as they study Personal Evangelism. Pray that they would retain all they learned & would increase in their desire to share their faith & their boldness to do so. Pray that they would also be able to adequately communicate all they've learned to their churches or outreach groups in their villages.

Adopt a Road

We'd like to issue a challenge to y'all for this year. We truly believe that 2014 is going to be another great year among the Songhai but it's going to be one that NEEDS to be rooted in prayer. R.A. Torrey said, "Prayer unlocks the storehouses of God's infinite grace & power." We are asking that at least 100 of you commit to praying with a more intentional focus for the Songhai this year & unlock the storehouses for the Songhai in 2014. As you know, we have 8 areas of focus (the 7 Roads plus Niamey, our HUB). We are asking that you "adopt" one of these roads & pray daily for it. You can see the image below for more info, if you are interested. If you'd like to join us in this challenge, you can simply email us with the name of the area you'd like to adopt.

January 2014 newsletter

Dear Prayer Partners,

2014 is here & we are so excited about all that God is going to do among the Songhai this year! Thank you so much for coming on board with us for another year of praying for the Songhai. We are so humbled & so grateful for your prayer support! Thank you also to all of you who gave to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. If you didn't have a chance to give yet, it's not too late.

If you'll notice in the newsletter, there are "bold" statements under each of the Roads. These are our Songhai team goals for 2014 for each of these roads. In the last newsletter, we listed all the things that God had done among the Songhai in 2013 & now we are asking you to pray for these goals to become a reality in 2014. You will also see some things that have happened over the last month & we are just amazed at all God is ALREADY doing this year!! We truly serve an amazing God who is able to do more than we can ask or imagine!

Thank you again for your commitment to pray for us, our team & the Songhai!
that ALL may know HIM,

Mark & Parker Phillips <><

Weekly Prayer Focus: Discipleship Training for Women

I had hoped to write this post to ask y'all to pray for the first-ever Discipleship Training for women that we were to conduct this weekend. However, we had to postpone it. The female believers among the Songhai are small in number & we had hoped & prayed that we would be able to provide them with an in-depth time of teaching & training, much like what Randy does with the men (but not quite as extensive as an NLTS). For some women, they are the only believers in their families & the only female believers in their villages. This time of training would allow them to not only grow in their knowledge of their faith, it would also allow them the opportunity to have fellowship with other like-minded Songhai women.

So, for now, the training is postponed until a further date. Women have so many responsibilities here from caring for the children, cooking for the entire family, & cleaning. They also have obligations within their communities to care for extended family members during the birth of a child or helping with the festivities involved in a wedding. All of these responsibilities (& more) is what kept most of the women from being able to commit to come to Niamey for a 36-hour period. There were a few who would've been able to attend but we decided to postpone it until the majority could attend together.

Please pray that the Lord would allow these women a "break" from their responsibilities just long enough for them to receive this training. Pray that we'd be able to do this first round of training soon as we'd like to provide this for them at least 3 more times over the year.

Pray that these women would grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures, their love for the Lord & their boldness to share with their families & friends the hope they've found in Christ. There are so many "obstacles" to overcome with women here about who they think they are vs the truth of who God has called them to be & how God view them. Pray that, more than anything, they know they are loved & adored by the One True God & He thinks they are so worthy!