April prayer update

Dear friends,

We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.

Many thanks for your prayers as we finished the January to May semester. We thoroughly enjoyed teaching the courses we were allocated and the interaction with the students was very positive. What remains to be done now is the marking. As many of you know, we are back in the UK for a few weeks and I have brought marking with me to do. Debbie, however, will complete her marking after we return to Kagoro. We are also supervising some degree and master's students who are writing theses as part of their programmes of study. Some of them hope to graduate in November this year so the pressure is on to complete these theses on time. Please pray for Timothy Kafang who is filling in for me as registrar at the seminary this summer.

There are several reasons why we are back in the UK again this summer. Debbie is trying to complete one module of her doctoral studies and hopes to start another one which has to be finished by October. Access to materials whether in print or electronic media is easier here. Pray for her in this task. We also have some medical things to check while we are here and, of course, it is good to renew contact with family and friends.

Many of you have expressed concern for us in the light of recent violence in Nigeria. We are touched by your concern, thank you for your prayers and ask you to keep on praying for the situation there. Some events have made the mainstream news here in the UK and we hope this will encourage more people to pray about the insecurity in the country.

After we returned to Northern Ireland, two bombs were set off in Jos. Debbie is on the board of the SIM-run conference centre and guest house at Miango called 'MRH' and knew one of the people who was killed. Our SIM Director wrote the following about that lady:

“Sadly, we in SIM Nigeria lost one of our Nigerian staff, Mrs. Ngozi Christopher, who was the head of the housekeeping service at MRH. She, her 6 month old baby, and her sister were all killed in the blast. Her husband is a staff of Kent Academy. Please pray for this family. She has left behind two sons and a daughter.”

Apart from these terrorist attacks by members of Boko Haram, we have also seen inter-tribal violence close to where we live at Kagoro. This is not as well reported in the international media but is also a concern with many lives being lost. Please continue to pray along with us for peace and stability in the nation.

We thank the Lord for the provision of a car to use while we are here in N. Ireland and a place to stay in the Gilnahirk region of Belfast. Debbie's UK mobile number (07810203459) is back in use but my number stopped working so I have a new one: 07513583581. These will be valid until we return to Kagoro on 15th July (D.V.).

My home church, Coagh Baptist Church, is holding a gospel mission right now. The speaker is Pastor Victor Maxwell and the mission continues until Sunday evening. Pray that many will come to know Jesus as Lord through this mission effort (Rom. 1:16).

Thanks again for your partnership in the gospel.

In Christ,

David and Debbie