bananas are growing!

Hello everyone,

This Andrea Johnson, Tom and Andrea’s friend. I called them last week and got a good update from them. They are still waiting on some final paperwork and other things to get their shipment. The Gambia is a very corrupt country so if you are not willing to pay bribes you have to wait a long time to get what you want. They said they are doing well back in Bansang and that they have half the plantation planted with bananas, so that is keeping them both busy. They have two dogs now that are going to serve as watchdogs on the land. Andrea told me that they are very healthy for the most part but we could pray for their health to stay that way. She also told me about the spiritual warfare that is going on there. There are people that are “falling down” and it is getting worse and worse, please pray for the stronghold of evil in this town would be broken and people would find the comfort they need in God. They are praying a lot and feeling led to help start a program in west Africa like Gospel for Asia (www.gfa.org) to help support the local Christians to go out in their country to their people and tell them about the hope and life they have in Christ. Please pray that God would make this clear to them and lead them in the right steps to bring this opportunity to the people of The Gambia and West Africa.

tower

here is the water tower that me and a mason built for a plantation in the kombo area it took the two of us about three weeks and cost about 1500 USD. It has a holding capacity of about 2000-2500 liters. I have installed two out of the 4 taps it will supply and soon i plan to install the well pump. Its a lot of work but once it is all complete it will help provide some income for a ministry called house of wisdom that outreaches to muslims and helps muslim converts learn how to live with their new faith and outreach to their friends and family. House of wisdom has one church in gambia and a affiliate church in Guinea, each church is composed of 95-100 nationals from muslim backgrounds. That is extremely uncommon in west africa for those of you that dont know. Most Churches have christians from nigeria, ghana, the west, or people who were born in a christian home. The muslims who comprise of 95% of west africas population have still been unreached despite years and years of effort by missions and churches. Yet with house of wisdom they are effectively evangelizing and seeing people come to the Lord. However they have no constant support and are a grassroots ministry struggling to do more ministry and outreach. So feel our current mission work in gambia and west africa will be to help empower their ministry by any means we can. Please pray for them and us to do mighty exploits for the kingdom that will never end! Hallelujah shouts and cheers from all people....

hello everyone we are still in the kombos the shipment has arrived we are now waiting for the duty wavier to be approved feel free to call or email us we miss you all

Ok God, Where is the boat?

Hello everyone,
Tom and I are still here in the city, our boat with the shipment has
yet to arrive still now, this is The Gambia and nothing goes at
planned really, it's just something we had to learn the hard way. We
were told it would come on the 20th of April and here we are in the
middle of May and still waiting. Tom has been working on a plantation
for a national Pastor to help him raise money for his ministry. He is
off working most days. We are really looking forward to getting back
to Bansang and to our own plantation. We had our first rain shower of
the season yesterday, this is the rain that the locals claim is a
warning to the farmers to get their fields ready for the season. We
won't have another rain for like a month, just enough time to get
planting. This is why Tom and I need to get back home, to plant our
own garden. But we have realized that God has a perfect plan and His
time is the best time. We hope all is well at home and we are
constantly in prayer for you all. Thank you for all of your prayers
and support.
In His service
Tom and Andrea

hey everyone so first the ship was to come april 22, then it was delayed till may 5th now they are telling me may 10th So we will see. meanwhile we are still waiting here in Kombos. please tell us what is happening in all your lives we really want to know.

update

hello everyone we are here life has been hard but we praise God for sustainign us,presently we have 300 holes dug for the banana trees and we want to plant within two weeks if possible. Right now im in the city are awiting our crate to try to clear it at the ports. We have been working with Pastor Modou Camara and helping develop his own garden to empower his mininstry. We had a chance to see Pastor Lamin from Guinea last week and we are looking forward to partnering with him in the future in ministry. God seems to really be leading us to working with those two people and their congregations. We are praying and ask you also to pray with us, about starting to send national missionairys out into Gambia, there are presently a few weel equipped Gambians that are ready and many more that are awaiting training but willing to be sent. The plantations we are starting will help sponsor these missionairys, but andrea and i are also praying about starting something along the lines of a Gospel for Asia type thing, were we create pampletes of the missionairy and then maybe a video (we want you cassie and andrea to come here) which we can then use back in the states to raise funds. But we are only praying about that now and still trying to focus on what we already have to do here. We love all you and pray for you. Please pray that God strengthens our relationship here, as satan seems to attack that aspect of our lives. Also please pray God guides and gives us disernment to know his voice.

later

tom and andrea

Pictures

Hello everyone My name is Andrea Johnson and I am great friends with Tom and Andrea. My husband Brian and I have been to the Gambia many times and we were just there with Tom and Andrea this last Dec/Jan. We are going to help Tom and Andrea update there blog when they can't get to internet. Here is a slide show of pictures from our last trip to the Gambia.