NEWS  UPDATE

From The Gambia

August 2010

Newsletter from Pastor Chris & Sandra

Great is the love of God towards us here in The Gambia.

At times It has been hard but, for the souls of the people, it has been worth it.

Sometimes it has been discouraging, but the love of God has kept us on His side;

We continually learn to manage, to love more and to encourage ourselves in His unfailing love. 

Amen.

                              SERREKUNDA CHURCH

We (Sandra & Chris) pastor this church

We have a membership of one hundred and ten people.

As you may have experienced, in your own church, not all come to church all the time.

85% of the people are between the ages of 14 and 32.

We presently have 5 former Muslims, a lot of converted idol worshippers, one converted Jehovah witness and three converted atheists.

90% of the people is a healthy mixture of Gambians and Senegalese. The remaining 10% is also a mixture and consists of three Cameroonians, seven Sierra Leoneans and fourteen Nigerians, including myself, and a couple from Guinea Conakry with their three children. 

Originally we were operating two services on Sunday morning.

We did this because some of our people needed to travel on Sunday and clean their homes, etc. We have now changed this to one service until after the rains because the road to church is flooded during the rainy season.  

Here in the Serrekunda church, we also interpret the message into French for the benefit of the brethren from the Franco-phone countries i.e. Senegal, Cameroon, and Guinea Conakry.

Through your support, we have been able to repair the part of the church that was destroyed by a recent thunderstorm.

We would like to thank you for your support.

Alongside this report are some pictures for you to peruse.

                     The Church Structure                              More Blocks for Building

                                        

                                 BRUSUBI CHURCH

 

Sylvester and his wife Mary pastor this church

Here, we have a membership of forty six people. Twenty nine of these are very faithful. 98% percent of the people are Gambians and the remaining 2% consists of one Nigerian and one Ghanaian.

Brusubi church needs your prayers. The landlord’s wife gave her life to Christ. The landlord is not happy about this or happy with us.

We keep on praying for him and for his wife who has had severe trial of her faith.

We believe in the power of prayer. We ask you to continue to pray for Sylvester and Mary. They are good people.

We are praying that Sylvester will be able to move from his present home in Serrekunda to a place closer to the church. This would really help him to more effective in the ministry and the work he has been called to. The rental of rooms in Brusubi is more expensive than rooms in Serrekunda.    

                                       KARTONG VILLAGE

 

The fellowship in Kartong village is continuing to meet.

Bonua Jatta is in charge of this church. Bonua is a determined young man with a fervent love for the Master’s will. He is married to Marie Therese Jatta. (Marie interprets for Chris.) There are thirteen faithful disciples in this village out of eighteen people associated with the work but some do not always attend. This is the reason for us building a worship house in a place closer to the centre of the village. The present place of worship seems too far away for those who are weak. We have had thirteen faithful people who have continued to attend faithfully up to now. The others are full of joy about us building our new place of worship closer by.

                                                          Progress in Kartong

Praise God! because we have also been seeing people cross the big river into the Gambia  from Senegal to Kartong village to have fellowship.

We believe the new Kartong church will affect the villages across the river in Senegal. To God alone belongs all the glory.

We are thankful too for the van which the Preston City Mission gave us money to buy and use here in The Gambia.

Because of the van Bonua doesn’t need to stay overnight in the village. His meeting in the village used to be just once a week.  Now that we have the van he will be able to have meetings at least twice a week. This will surely help us to be more effective in our soul-winning mission. Amen.

                                          SANYAN VILLAGE

 

Sanyan village has built up to an on-going meeting already.

We are seeing people in this village who are even more spiritually hungry than the people in Kartong. This fellowship presently meets in an open space outside Mrs Mendy’s house. She is part of our meeting. She was so interested in the Bible class that she asked us to take part of her land to use as a fellowship place.

At present we have a steady gathering of twelve people who are always waiting for Ben. Ben Jammeh is the brother who goes twice weekly to Sanyang village for evangelism and Bible classes. The meeting is continuing to have a good response. Ben is a zealous and loving brother. Ben is married to Anna Mendy. They have only been married for six months. We are praying that we can have a rented house for Ben in Sanyan so that he can be closer to the people.

JABAN VILLAGE

Two members of our church, David Jatta and Anna Correa go to this village every Tuesday to have a bible class. The class has stopped temporarily as the people are busy farmers and usually leave for their farms early in the morning and don’t get back until late in the evening. They have actually asked David and Anna to wait a little until they have finished tilling their soil.

As you know that ‘He that winneth souls is wise’

I encouraged them to wait for a while and then go back.

                                     

                                       BRIKAMA 

Brother Bonua and another sister named Lewentin Mendy go to this city every Tuesday to have Bible classes. They meet in the living room of a house. The people in Brikama are now asking them to come and stay there for their sake. We know God will make a way soon for the preaching of the pure gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in this area.

 

Another sister named Bory Correa visits Farato village every Friday to talk to the tribal people, from her own tribe, who live there. She is not an educated woman but she has a passion to see the Manjagos in the village come to Christ. 

 

Offerings:   Our church does not have large offerings and we have avoided, up till now, putting any emphasis on our offerings because it has been suggested by some Catholic priests that other churches operate just to get money. We use some of our offerings to help the worshippers who travel a distance. We also help to take care of some of them who are in need. The conversions through our work are really genuine and it is not at all like what these priests have suggested.  We keep a record of our offerings in case they are questioned.

The average offering uplifted is between 100 and 200 dalasis

(i.e. between £2-25p and £4-50p).

I believe you may have experienced such similar accusations about money in churches and will understand why we are keeping records

 

In all these, we are more conquerors.

God continually prove His love for us.

 

Chris & Sandra

August 2010

Meeting in Sanyan