Weekly Prayer Focus: Hurst team1

So sorry about the lack of weekly postings in October. From our delay in Senegal to arriving back in Niger, we have been "out of touch" on the ole blog. Life just doesn't seem to slow down, does it? But now that we are finally settled back in at home, I hope to be back each week with a prayer request for y'all for the Songhai ... & maybe I can even manage a post or 2 on our poor neglected personal blog.

For this week though, please pray for a team from First Baptist Church Hurst, TX who will be here today (Tuesday). They will be spending a week on the Road to Mehanna doing evangelism, discipleship & a service project for the school. Amazingly enough, when asked what the school needed most, the administrator said, "a latrine."

The schools in Niger have many needs but a simple (or not so simple) hole in the ground is what they needed most. Without a "functioning" facility to have for when the children need to use the bathroom, many kids have to go all the way home or out to a secluded area & then many of them do not return back to school. With a latrine on site, the kids will no longer have an excuse to skip school! Wow! Who would have thought, right? I know I always used the "I need to go to the bathroom" excuse to get out of class for 5 minutes but never to skip school for the rest of the day! We appreciate that this administrator cares enough about the attendance & education of his students that he asked us to help him with a simple project like building a latrine.

I say "simple" but this project is actually far from it. Digging into the ground here past a few inches is not simple at all. It is quite difficult. And it is more than a hole in the ground; it will include walls all around. This will be very tiring work. So please pray for this team this week that they will remain energized & alert as they work all day in the sun & spend time with believers in the evenings of when they will be camping out. Pray that their minds would remain sharp as they disciple believers in this village that have had little chance to be discipled over the last year. Pray for their health to remain in tact & also for them to have restful nights when they camp outside.

Pray for the team's times of evangelism & that many would hear the Truth of the Word & be called to salvation. Pray for the veils to be lifted from their eyes & that many would step out of darkness & into the Light.

Please also pray for the believers in this village to grow in their faith this week, to be encouraged by the times they spend with the team & to grow in unity with each other. Pray that they would be bold as they walk side by side with this team & that they would share their faith without hesitation.

Pray that this project would not be a distraction or a hindrance to the Gospel. Many times, American Christians are only seen as what they can give or hand out. Pray that the village would not see this project as a "hand out" but as an extension of our faith in Christ ... because we love Jesus, we want to serve them. This is not a "hand out" but a "give back". We want to give back to the community because our faith compels us to love.