Dear Beloved,
Greeting in Jesus name. I am always grateful to God when I reflect over your involvement in the assignment God handed us to reach the dark nations of the world. I pray the Lord will strengthen you to continue strong and together we will complete the Great Commission.
Sometimes last year, we were firmly persuaded to hold a retreat for our staff at the West Africa Region. We obeyed God, and the result was tremendous. The retreat impacted our staff and the field work tremendously.
Despite the success recorded, we did not intend to make it an annual event but some of the things happening around us in the past few months will require that we meet again. One of such things is the increasingly harsh economy. Some of our converts are reported to be starving. The missionaries themselves are not finding life easy. The inflation is on the high side. Financial support has dropped drastically. Yet the missionary goes to the same market. School fees of some of the Missionary Kids (MK) are not paid. This is in addition to few other distractions here and there that need to be addressed urgently. We will need to address some issues again to improve on staff performance and cut down attrition rate. In Matthew 15:32, we see Jesus being mindful of the things that can cause His followers to faint because of His compassion. His words: "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way."
We have therefore called for a retreat of all our staff from October 20th-23rd, 2016 in Jos. During the period, we will encourage ourselves to consider some practical shifts of paradigms like doing some little farming and using some of our dormant skills to raise some income where time permits. We will take the time to stress on enduring hardship. We will teach on the need to brace up for persecution seeing the recent upsurge in persecution on the field especially work among the Muslims.
We are writing this to urge you to join us kindly in praying first for journey mercy for all the staff. Secondly, for all the resource persons that will be ministering to us that God’s hand will be mighty on them. Thirdly, that God will provide the funds required for the program. Over seven hundred thousand nairas (N700,000) for both foodstuff and transport fare for the missionaries to and fro, honorarium/fare for resource persons. If God provides more than that, we would like to help missionaries struggling with the fees of their children and those requiring little capitals to open small-scale businesses like a barbing saloon and grinding machines in the village. As usual, we appeal that as God bless you, kindly contribute financially towards the successful hosting of the program. Where possible, we will appreciate if you can share the need with friend.
Thank you so much for being always there for us. May God reward your sacrifice.
His bondservant,
Andrew Abah
International Director
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