praise the Lord

For the first time in 28 years YFC the gambia has its own compound. No more rent or bad buildings! God is good. We are re renovating the property and building a dormitory style structure on the base. We now have two trucks for ministry upcountry and in the city and the taxi has began bringing in money to help the ministry. We miss all you and want to hear from you

love tom and andrea

Jesus is good

Hello everyone sorry it has been so long since we updated our blog. We have been extremely busy last weekend we went upcountry and it was great despite being very sick. Praise the Lord we are healthy. We went to a place called bwiam to preach and do outreach. God did amazing things. We went to a compound where some Christians were staying to encourage them and pray for them. Just before we left we were asked to pray for a young girl named Adama. She would have convulsions and say that someone was trying to kill her and get her. So we all knew that it was a demonic attack. All ten of us started to pray and lay hands on her and soon she went into convulsions, after some strong prayer the demon left and she passed out. She then gave her life to Christ. The next day she came and meet us and we were able to explain the gospel more and what happened to her. She totally knew that she had been helped by the power of Jesus. AMEN! Another lady that same weekend gave her life to Christ and abandoned her traditional religion which lead her to similar dark experiences as Adama had. Please pray that these two new Christians will hold onto the faith and become strong pillars for Jesus and His Kingdom.
We are excited to announce that YFC is in the process of moving into their own office. I am very busy now because I will be in charge of renovation and new construction, along with my evangelism efforts with the ministry. I hope all are doing well. Be praying for Lisa Hayden and Austin who are coming to do the Lords work here in about two weeks. We love all of you.

Tom and Andrea

update

so everything is going fine here. We started the video club last week about 20 people showed up and we shower the Jesus film in Wolof, it was good but kinda of cold and a lot of people left before the film was over. Next time we will show it earlier. We now have a carpentry work shop but we are still waiting for some apprentices. I trust that they will come. We are praying for all of you. we will look at a truck today for YFC so pray that it is a good one. this last weekend we had some free time, i went to the bush and hunted monkeys but i had no success but it was fun to be out in Gods creation. The van got a bad flat tire two days ago but no one was injured and the van did not roll or crash. Andrea and i are still praying for God to lead us where he wants us, we really dont think we belong in the city. Love all you and we pray for all of you

love to all of you

tom and andrea

rite of passage ceremony

Well we thought we were going to a FGM ceremony locally known as a female circumcision ceremony, but that ceremony had already happened. The ceremony we went to was a rite of passage ceremony for the boys. it only comes every twenty years or so. Hence it is a very big deal for the community. It was interesting and there was lots of neat cultural displays but all in all we did not really like it. The ceremony is about a week long and if you want to be a "man" you have to go through it. If you dont go through it you are looked down upon. The first part of the ceremony is open to the public and there is lots of dancing singing, shooting of cannons, and magic displays. After that the boys run into the bush where they spend a week with the elders, and learn about manhood. It sound fine right? Well, it is also known among the boys and the elders that at least one boy will die in the bush, and it happens every time they have the ceremony. Someone does not come out. When they leave the bush all of the boys are covered so no one knows who died until later. We are not ethnocentric, we just don't like to see people dying, and young boys opening the doors of their souls to evil things.
Its quit sad really, which is exactly why we need to be praying for these people continually. Please keep them in your prayers.
Tom and Andrea

Headed up country

Hey all I just wanted to let you guys know that Tom and I and Yaya and Ambroise are headed up country to Sicon, where YFC has the land because there is a Female cimcumcision ceremony and festival. Not a very nice reason to go and party but it should be amazing witnessing opportunities. Please be praying for us this weekend that god will set up divine appointments and prepare the hearts of the people in the Sicon area for God's amazing love for them. This should be a great time, I'm totally excited about this trip and experiencing this angle of the culture here in the Gambia. I have no idea what to expect but it should be fun. We will be driving the YFC van up there because it will be so difficult to find public transport at this time. Apparently this ceremony is one of the really big ones, one that only happens every 20 years or so. It's gonna be huge. I will write on monday a full update as to how it went and what it was all about because I really don't know anything about this kind of thing. I'll let you guys know what's up with that. Peaceand love to you all
Andrea