Brandon and Kindra York have joined up with the team from Neosho Baptist Church. The combined team is now en route to Senegal, West Africa. Please pray that the team would have safety while traveling, make all their connecting flights and that they would find favor with authorities as they move through customs.

Please check back often for updates...

Word of the Gospel has pierced the darkness and brought the light of Christ to the Manjako people.

The Gambia Team Returns

WE ARE BACK PRAISE THE LORD!

The Gambia team returned as scheduled this morning.  They arrived at the St. Louis Airport at approximately 11:00am on Sunday October 21st.

An amazing work has started in The Gambia.  It began in April and the October Team has seen the work rise to levels that exceeded their expectations before going.  Here are some of the highlights of their trip.

Over 500 people in 4 villages viewed the Jesus Film.  In addition to that, the Gospel was shared to over 200 people in either personal or group evangelistic presentations.

There were dozens of decisions made by people to embrace Christ.

3 of the 4 villages expressed a deep desire to start a Manjako church in their village.

We know of at least 1 Muslim young person that received Christ.  There may have been more, but in that type of culture there is a great risk for those who are moving toward Christianity.  Please pray for the Muslims and those who have watched the Jesus Film and have a desire to follow Him.

Pray that the decisions made by those who prayed to receive Christ will flourish and grow by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.

Pray for Joy Baptist Church as they continue the work of showing the Jesus Film to other neighboring villages and for their follow-up and discipleship to those who prayed to receive Christ.

We plan on having a report for the Church either on Sunday night November 4th or 11th.  Look for the announcement of this report in this Sunday's Bulletin.

The Unplanned Road to Dakar

This is our team on the day we left for our return.  The day did not go as planned.  After 9 days where most of them lasted 14 to 16 hours with ministry to the villages, we were finally going to take our last day in the Gambia to see the sights and do some shopping

Part 2 of “The Road to Dakar”

The first road block would be the ferry.  In April, the team waited three hours before the opportunity to cross came.  If this kind of wait were to happen today, our journey would be over before it got started and we would certainly miss the flight.

When we pulled up to the street where they stage the vehicles to get on the ferry, Ousman got out to get our ticket and quickly returned.  The ferry was at the dock and there were no cars waiting to get on, only pedestrians and a few trucks!  He started the van and pulled right on to the ferry.  10 minutes later, we were pulling away from the dock.  The miracle was not a lack of cars waiting to get on the ferry.  The miracle was that on this day and time when we needed a quick entry on to the ferry, God provided what we needed at the very time we needed it.   Strike one Satan!

Our next challenge was the border crossing.  At least we had the advantage of crossing before dark.  But we were still faced with the reality of encountering an official that is. . .well let’s just say that when they see “rich” Americans, if you don’t “offer” them incentives, they can find minor problems with the paperwork of the car, the driver, the way the van is packed, any number of things that can add up to a delay.  We were delayed going to the village at Dassalami to show the Jesus Film for over 30 minutes because a checkpoint guard did not like that we had a generator and sound equipment inside the van.  For over 30 minutes the driver was delayed until he could get a hold of his boss to talk to the guard so they could “work things out”.  Any such delay here would once again hurt our chances for making the flight.

When we arrived at the border, we went about our business.  We got a little concerned when the immigration officer said, where are you from?  Bro. Dave said America, and he said, oh I like America.  What do you have for me?  We said, we come to give you a smile, to which Penny added, because the people of The Gambia are so friendly and welcoming.  He said, only a smile?  I could really use a cell phone.  We don’t know if he was joking or not.  But it’s these types of conversations that can lead to one of those long delays.  But God put him in a good humor and he stamped all our passports and sent us on our way.  Praise God!  We had cleared our next biggest hurdle and we had passed the border crossings.  Strike two Satan!!

Now all we had to do was cross some of the worst roads we have ever seen.  Bro David had a GPS that records speed and distance.  From the ferry to a coastal road is approximately 60 miles.  The average speed over that span of road is 15 – 20 MPH.  There are thousands of holes, bumps, dips and other hazards just waiting to puncture a tire shake rooftop luggage loose, or break a weak suspension or engine part loose and leave us stranded on the road.  It took us just under 6 hours to travel from the ferry to the good coastal road.  Six hours of torturous shaking and shifting.  But we made it!  Strike three Satan!!!

We made it to Dakar airport.  After we navigated through Dakar traffic, stood in line at the ticket counter and immigration, made it through the security screening, we had 1 hour before our flight boarded.  A process that started at 11:00am in the Air Senegal office was completed at approximately 1:00am the next morning.  Without the grace and Providential care of God there is no way we would have made the flight.