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Ask, Seek, Knock...
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Luke 11:10
When everything in life is going great, I can often, and way too quickly, forget my constant need for prayer. I sometimes begin to think that I’ve got this. All it takes is one circumstance in life to change and throw me off, and I am quickly reminded of how much I need God in every moment of every day. As our family walks through my fourth month of post-concussion syndrome after a serious fall I took impacting every area of my life, less client work for Eric at a time when finances are tight, upcoming life/work changes for both of our boys, planning summer teams to Gabon, and Eric traveling to Pakistan in a couple of days, we have found ourselves in constant need of surrender and prayer to our Lord.
"Prayer is abandoning my reliance on me and running toward the rest that can be found only when I rely on the power of God. Prayer abandons independence. Prayer forsakes any thought that you can make it on your own. Prayer affirms dependency…Prayer tells you that you are not at the center. Prayer calls you to abandon your plans for the wiser plans of God" - Paul David Tripp.
As we see this need constantly in our own lives as a family, we also see it with everything related to E4. We rely on the power of prayer and ask that you would join us in prayer specifically for the following:
- Build stronger relationships with our partners in Pakistan and ensure safety for Eric’s travel from March 7-17th
- Finalize our plans for one or two small teams to Gabon in late July/early August to work with both Pastor Hermann and the family stabilization team, as well as Pastor Jacob and the national church.
- Provide funds needed for our program commitments this year in Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Pakistan. We still have a long way to go.
- Pray for the legal work at PK27, the medical campus in Gabon
- Bring us strong, Jesus-following board members - we are incredibly thankful for our board and how dedicated they are. We serve as one team leading E4 together, and are currently meeting for a couple hours twice a month to direct the ministry under God’s guidance for 2025. We are still looking for a couple more people to join us.
PROGRAM UPDATES
Pakistan Livestock Program update
Our livestock program developed from an asset-based community assessment that determined what was important to the community. In the last quarter of 2024, we distributed 30 goats to people hand-selected by Messiah Ministries, and then 50 more were distributed in early January. While goats were distributed to men and women, many more went to women to contribute to their family’s household income or food supply through goat milk. Many women have shared that participating in the program promoted gender equality, respect, and decision-making in their households and families.
Some goats already have kids, which will be distributed to other community members to continue the program. We love seeing the program continue and the joy on the faces of those in the community who get to care for baby goats!
Assessment of All Programs in Pakistan with Messiah Ministries
We assessed all programs that we have done in Pakistan since we started working there in 2022. These include mosquito net distributions, two six-month sewing training programs, support for a persecuted Christian village that had their homes burned to the ground, a career guidance workshop for young adults, and the livestock program discussed above. Since we did an Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) assessment before most of these programs, it allowed our team to then follow up with an assessment of where our programs are today. Overall, we are seeing strong results in these programs that came out of the community. We will share a more detailed breakdown of this on our website soon.
Family Stabilization Christmas Evangelism Program
Our partners in family stabilization (MINE) held a Christmas event where they shared the Gospel Message and presented awareness seminars on “Violence Against Children” to educate them on what child abuse is and when to seek help. They also had games and presents for the children there. There were over 160 people, mainly children, and the MINE staff brought about 20 volunteers to run the event. By the end of the day-long event, 67 children accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior! We are praying for funds needed for programs they have planned in March and the medical and educational programs our teams will be involved with this summer.
Gabon Medical Campus
We have had a difficult few years moving the medical campus at PK27 forward. Since we purchased the land here over 14 years ago, it has become a very sought-after area to develop as Libreville expands outward. The church had to go through an in-depth legal process to prove that the land was theirs, and they have done that. However, government officials and some others have taken parcels of the land for themselves. They have hired a lawyer, someone we know and trust in Gabon, to continue fighting for their land. They are now working on court orders to press criminal charges against government companies working on part of the land and regain control of it. We are praying that at the same time they do this, they can continue work on fencing the entire property. Then, move forward again on the medical campus. We have put this entirely in God’s hands and continue to pray for the church’s ability to move forward.
Gabon Sewing Center update
The Bureau National decided at their annual church meetings over the summer to hire a new Gabonese director for the sewing center. We have been waiting on the church to determine how they wanted to move the center forward. We are thankful that they are guiding the direction of the center and look forward to working together with future teams.
DRC and Nebobongo Hospital
We continue each month with our support of the debt repayment and malnutrition programs at Nebobongo Hospital, and we still need more funding each month to meet our goals there. Both programs are saving lives physically and spiritually every month. One of the struggles we currently have in the malnutrition program is that families will sometimes use the food for their malnourished child for other family members (usually children) who are also in need of food. When that happens, the children in the program don’t progress as well as they should. One of the ways the doctors and nurses at Nebobongo Hospital are trying to help with this is by adding nutritional juice each week for the children to drink during the program. We continue to pray that we can raise more funds to supplement the needs of this program.
There is horrible news coming out of the Congo in many distant regions, but fortunately, the hospital is far removed from this. We pray that continues to be the case.
We are very grateful for all of you who give to our programs and support E4 Project. We could not do this without you. Please feel free to contact us if you want to know more about any specific program or the overall ministry.
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