I would like to introduce you to two ladies who have recently joined our household. One is Toussaint’s mother, who is well into her eighties. She grew up animist, married a village chief fetisher and had many children. Her husband left her when she came down with tuberculosis and was in the hospital for many months. After she recovered, she and most of her children moved into town to live with her sister, who was married to a pastor. The family joined his church, but after several years and bad experiences with some church members, they quit going to church. Around that time, Toussaint became an Adventist, and his mom went back to animism. But about a year ago she started attending a Catholic church. She likes the deacon who visits her regularly and picks her up to go to church on his little motorcycle. Also, the church provides a nice armchair for her during mass. I don’t think we will be able to take her to our church, since she won’t be able to sit through the three-hour-long program. But now that she lives with us and participates in our daily worships, we hope she will come to know her personal Savior in a new way and on a deeper level.

The other new member of our household is from the opposite end of the age scale, a young girl of 16 years. She used to live in a boarding house near the high school she was attending. There she met some Adventist students, joined a little church group and got baptized. Recently we learned that the boarding house is not as well managed and supervised as it used to be, and we decided to take her in and enroll her in a protestant college nearby. Her father has two wives and many children. Her mother is a heavy drinker, which is why she doesn’t live at home. Her father was happy to learn that we were willing to take her in, but when he brought her a few days ago he made it very clear what he expected from us. He wants his daughter to focus on her studies and finish at least the 10th grade. No roaming around, no boys, no idleness. He doesn’t even want her to come and visit him, since his house is at the other end of town. Seeing the lifestyle of most of the girls her age around us, we feel the weight of this responsibility, and we know that only God can help us. She is still a baby in her faith, and we pray that we can help her grow in her relationship with God so that she will be able to safely navigate the temptations and pitfalls of life as a young girl in this culture.

Will you please pray with us that our enlarging family will not only grow together but also grow spiritually and be a witness to others?

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