The quarantine on Sierra Leone from the Ebola virus was finally lifted and a good friend, pastor/teacher Michael Turay was able to visit the United States. Michael was invited to teach at a town that is only 100 miles away from our home. It was so good to see him, and hand him six full size sets of construction drawings for a new training center and church that we worked on over the past year. Construction is slated to begin in November or December. Looks like, Lord willing, I will be heading to Sierra Leone in December. Following are some photos from our recent visit, and Michael's newsletter which is very worth reading if you have the time.
Greetings to you our wonderful partner!
We continue to pray that our Good Lord will continue to
bless and keep you. If you have been wandering about what has been going on
with us out here in Sierra Leone, well here are some highlights:
THE EBOLA CRISIS
The Ebola crisis, which started in March 2014, has shaped
our nation in various ways. Economically, we have to start rebuilding it again,
as we have lost a lot of investors, who fled because of fear of being infected
with the virus. This led to many loss of jobs, which in turn spiraled down to
the basic functions of our basic facilities like hospital etc., which in turn
has affected a lot of people and families, with household cost rising up
sharply, and trade became difficult. The major income generating arms of our
nation, which is the mining sector has been badly hit, and the ripple effect is
trickling down to the least person in our society. Our educational system has
gone backwards at least a year, and the students and teachers has a lot of
catching up to do, which is telling badly on the quality of tutoring the
students are getting, adding to the already existing chaos within the educational
system. With more than 13,000 people infected and almost 4,000 people dead as a
result of the outbreak, the good news is that we have come to the end of the
state of emergency, which was enacted by our government because of the Ebola
outbreak. This means that life is beginning to come back to normal for us, with
the exception of Sundays, when no one is allowed to sell in the market place,
but we are still allowed to go to church.
GRACE CENTER BIBLE CHURCH
Church continues to grow numerically. We saw a lot of people
come to our church at the height of the Ebola crisis. A good number of them continue
to attend, and we are grateful that even in the midst of the crisis so many
people came to believe in Christ as their Savior. We continue to have our
Wednesday services as well, and a lot more people have seen the need to come
and study God’s word on that day as well.
Our dream to build our church complex has never left our
hearts, as we continue to see the need to own our church building, not only
because it will help us accomplish our goals in evangelism and maturation in
our Spiritual life, but the dynamics in the village leadership and authority
has changed drastically with the death of the village head. He showed us great favor,
as to how he gave us the highest priority in using the community center for our
church services, and not everyone was happy for that, especially some of those
who want to take his place as village head. We have been working hard and have
now finished leveling half of the church property/land, as we get it ready to
start the first phase of the building project. Once we finish the first phase
it will be able to seat about 250 people. With this in place we will be able to
increase our time for bible study and do so much more, even with the DM2
training of our pastors. With the pastors residing where we train them, that
has proved effective in their training process/ program. We want to start the
construction this coming November 2015, and we need about $100,000 to make that
happen. Please be in prayer that our great God will provide this need for us.
OUTREACH TO THE LOST
During the Ebola crisis we saw the need to reach out to the
sick at the hospitals and people that uses public buses for transportation
every week. The result has been encouraging, propelling us to do it again and
again. Within a couple of months we have reached about 6,250 people with the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and over 80% of these made the decision to believe in
Christ as their Savior. Some of them continue to call us and ask for more
teaching from God’s word. God is good indeed!
As it is now with our responsibility to train the chaplaincy
of our armed forces in our nation, the authorities and I have agreed to conduct
a twice-yearly training program for them. It will now be taking place in the
months of March and October. All the chaplains from all over the country will
come for this training. What a platform to make the truth known to our peoples.
We would need about $2,500 for each training session, as that would cover cost
of training materials such as outlines, feeding and transportation etc. Please
be in prayer for this need as well. This coming October I will teach them on
the basics of Christianity, covering Salvation, God and the spiritual life. It
may amaze you to know that we continue to have a lot of theological problems in
our churches in Sierra Leone because majority of these people do not understand
these basic bible doctrines. So that’s what we will take them through. We have
seen the need to make the truth known to more people, and we are therefore
embarking on getting a better video camera, MP3 and DVD recorder and burner, a
very good printer and photo copier for our media outreach, especially for the
production of our own gospel tracts for evangelism. Please pray for us that God
will provide the $4,550 needed funds for this.
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| praying for those with Ebola |
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| sharing gospel on bus |
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| The Turay family |
FAMILY
My family continues to keep well. Nathan, now 6 years old is
the best student in his class in school. Donald, now 15 years old, is now
thinking of becoming an economist. Simone now 18 years old continues to wait in
faith, as she trusts God for financial provision for her to go to college. Georgiana
my dearest wife continues to be of great support to all I do, and I thank God
for her life. I continue to enjoy studying and teaching God’s word, with more
need for study to teach in church, the pastors and chaplains as well. We
continue to trust our God for another vehicle, as the one we have continues to
become a challenge for us. But in the midst of this all we give God thanks for
His unending faithfulness toward us. He continues to keep us safe and give us
the opportunity to serve among His people. We are ever grateful to Him for this
graceful privilege.
Thank you so much for never giving up on us, even in the
midst of these challenging times. Thank you so much for working with us among
our peoples through your helping hand to the ministry and for your continued
prayers to our God on our behalf. May our God continue to lavish His grace on
you now and always!
In Him and For His Glory,
Michael Turay
