| | Dear Friends,
Greetings from Minneapolis. After a very busy two months we are back in Minneapolis. Our trip down South was filled with visits to friends and reports to supporting churches. We traveled over 7,300 miles and were able to minister in seven of our supporting churches, visit a number of other churches, and see four families who have adopted kids we fostered.
One personal highlight of our trip was five days off for a wonderful family vacation in Orlando. John-Mark, Melodie and Nathan arrived from their various locations, making the time together extra special because the whole family was together. Nancy's father and stepmother arranged a timeshare for us in Kissimmee, a couple from our supporting church there (Disney employees) treated us to six park hopper tickets for Disney (yes, we did all four parks in one day!), and the time together was just wonderful. It really was a dream vacation which we saw as God's special gift to us since we were not able to take any vacations during our last term in Liberia
Thank you so much for all the prayers for Ellie. Ellie was one of our foster children in Liberia. In the last two months we have sent out several requests for prayer as this three-year-old Liberian girl went through several surgeries and spent several days hovering between life and death. Tuberculosis of the spine had caused life-threatening damage to her spinal column (and other complications). An amazing team of specialists at the Children's Hospital in Charleston, SC (MUSC) did all within their power to correct. God worked many miracles on her behalf, and we are thrilled to report that Ellie is now back home with her adoptive family (after five weeks in the hospital!). She is doing great, although she is still in the halo and brace. Because of the weight of this apparatus, a specially fitted wheel chair allows her to move about. Her full recovery will take months, so please continue to pray for her.
While traveling we presented the need for operations for two Liberian women to remove goiters (enlarged thyroid gland) from their necks. While a goiter looks unsightly, the more serious problem is the way it can cause pressure on the trachea. We praise God that this need has been supplied and these women will soon be able to have the operations they need.
As we have traveled we have asked people to pray for the unreached people within Liberia. There are a number of areas which have had very limited opportunity to hear the gospel. We believe the trained Liberian pastors and church leaders have the ability, with God's help, to reach their own people with the good news of the gospel. Please pray that God would lead us as we attempt to reach out to those areas after we get back to Liberia.
One of those areas is a predominantly Muslim county in northwest Liberia, Lofa County. We praise God that He is using our son John-Mark to reach the people in that area. While it is usually difficult to reach Muslims with the Gospel, John-Mark is finding that because war displaced them from their communities (and even with their return their community is not as tight as it used to be) they are now much more willing to listen and consider something new. (See http://www.Xanga.com/coraplayer for his reports.)
The society as a whole is a verbal society; most information is passed either formally or informally through word of mouth. Since so much of our population in the US is educated (and therefore highly influenced by the written word), it is hard for most Americans to even fathom what this means to a country. The bottom line is that Liberians need to be dedicated to winning their own people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and teaching them. No passing out of books or other written information is going to do the job. Like their counterparts in the book of Acts, Christian leaders acting as evangelists need to live among people teaching by word of mouth and presenting by lifestyle what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
We just finished a mission conference in our home church, Oak Grove, in Minneapolis, and are leaving on Saturday for a conference at the Kettle Moraine Baptist Church in Whitewater, WI. Nancy is flying to Florida for a speaking engagement on May 3 at Faith Baptist Church in Palm Bay. From there she is traveling to visit her sister in Tennessee. They are both looking forward to that a lot!
God has provided a nice little apartment for us in a distant western suburb of Minneapolis. It has the feel of a retreat center. Cows are munching away within fifty yards of our windows. We are using our time to get caught up on the myriad of office type projects our busyness in Liberia did not allow us to finish. It is a wonderful treat to be able to concentrate on these things.
Please pray for the following requests:
1. Ellie's safe and quick recovery from her surgeries.
2. Continuing safety as we travel;
3. Our financial needs which we much take care of before we return to Liberia: about $9,000 for our car, $4,500 for return tickets, and around $5,000 to buy and ship needed items in a container to Liberia;
4. Our children who are not with us: John-Mark in Liberia, Melodie in Lafayette, IN and Nathan in college;
5. Continued spiritual growth of our pastors and churches in Liberia;
6. The needs of Jake Memorial Baptist College in Monrovia;
We thank God for you. May He richly bless you in all things.
In His service,
Mark, Nancy, Heidi and Jared Sheppard
serving with:
Baptist Mid-Missions
Box 308011
Cleveland, OH 44130
http://www.bmm.org
|
| | Posted 4/19/2008 5:16 AM - 171 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent1
|
