Prayer Letter for October

Dear friends,

We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fada Gospel Church
Back in the 1980s ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All) encouraged its larger Hausa-speaking local churches to start churches which would use English for worship. The church we attend here, Fada Gospel Church, was one of those which started 25 years ago. The congregation held special meetings in August this year to mark the occasion and there was even a birthday cake at the service. To also mark the occasion, the church embarked on a building project. All the Sunday School children had been meeting in one room and it was decided it would be better to build some classrooms for them so they could be taught according to age groups. Thank the Lord with us that the church has grown steadily since its beginning and the main building is full every Sunday morning.

Ebola virus
You may have seen in the news that the Ebola virus has surfaced in West Africa. There were a few cases here in Nigeria but we thank the Lord it seems to have been contained. It is still possible people from other parts of West Africa could enter the country and spread the virus so pray that does not happen. We need to keep on praying for countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in which the virus is still spreading in an unprecedented way.

Meetings
As usual, we have several meetings we plan to attend in the next few months. I will just list them here and ask you to please pray they all go well. Thanks.

· I am chairing the Graduation Planning Committee and we will meet a few more times before the graduation itself on 22nd November (D.V.).
· I am the secretary of the Appointments, Promotions, and Disciplinary Committee and we need to meet in the middle of October.
· The Seminary's Board of Governors’ meeting is on 30th October and I attend that as the recording secretary.
· Debbie is the secretary of the ACTS (African Christian TextbookS) Board which should meet on 26th November.
· Both of us are on the Area Council which is slated to meet again on 28th November.

Former students
Last year we mentioned in a prayer letter that two of our students were married and they now been blessed with a son. One of the practices of believers here is to take their children to the church for dedication. This is not a baptism but a local practice based on the story in Mark 10:13-16 in which people brought their children to our Lord for His blessing. We attended the dedication service and are happy for Daniel, Hajara and their son David. Hajara has already graduated from the Seminary and Daniel should graduate next year. Pray for this family as they look to our Lord for guidance concerning the next step in their service for Him.

Teaching and preaching
The August-December semester is going well and we are enjoying teaching courses we have taught before. Marking, however, is another matter. Pray that we will be able to keep up with that process and cover the material we need to communicate in the classrooms. We would also appreciate your prayer for some other preaching and teaching engagements. I have been asked to preach on Sunday morning services on 12th and 26th October and to give a talk to the students of the pastoral department on 14th October. Debbie has been asked to lead devotions in the single ladies’ dorm on 20th October.

Home assignment
It will soon be time for our next home assignment. We plan to fly back the UK in time for Christmas and hope to take various meetings in the UK from January through to June 2015. It is going to be a busy time for Debbie since she has a major module to work on in the same period. Right now she is trying to get a 5,000 word essay written but the module next year will be the proposal for her thesis and the proposal has to be around 9,000 words.

My Mum will be 90 years old at the end of November (D.V.). She is still living at home and has carers come in each day to help her with some tasks. My brother Robert and his wife Frances help her in many ways also. We look forward to seeing these and other members of our families soon.

We also look forward to renewing fellowship with many others who read this letter.

Thanks for your prayerful support.

In Christ,

David and Debbie