Great Lakes District | The Christian Missionary Alliance

“Last week and this week are filled with Christmas celebrations. We celebrated Christmas as a campus on the 2nd of December, and on the 5th is a celebration of area youth. On the 8th we celebrate with dorm students (Lora will be sharing), and on the 9th we celebrate with the Sophomore class (we both will be sharing). Pray for the many students who do not get to go home for Christmas, that we may have an opportunity to minister to them. Pray that even the Christmas decorations that are surprisingly up in the malls and stores will draw others to know the true Light of the world.”

Click here to read the rest of “Brakeing” News!

A Church in Our Community?

Please join us in prayer as we seek God’s direction about planting a new church in our area of the city. This church would have two primary purposes: 1. Train STT Jaffray students in principles of leadership and shepherding, and 2. Spread the Light in an area of darkness with one of the primary focuses of the church being “Fishing.”…

To read the rest of “Brakeing” News…. Click Here!

Dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings again! We are excited to share some big news with you this month! God is good, and we hope that you will be encouraged as you read about the ways that He has been at work here.

First, after seeing several places, and much combing through newspapers and online advertisements, we found a place to live in [city name removed]! It was not an easy process as apartments in the smaller cities tend to range from small to very small, and people with houses usually sell them rather than put them up for rent. So we feel very blessed to come by this one!

Here is a photo to show you the house where we’ll move on November 15. We will be living on the second floor; the first floor is a bakery that the owner/landlord is not currently using. The people here tend to live in smaller spaces than Americans typically do, so the house is actually pretty small, but they also enjoy spending time outside, so there’s a big terrace (on the left), and a pretty back yard, complete with traditional brick grill! As we are renting it from a baker and his family, it contains an extra treat — an oven in the back for baking homemade bread! As God leads you, please pray for the baker and his family; his daughter attended a Christian camping program this summer and the other members have sensed God’s presence and direction in their lives as well.

Second, the Lord provided all the funds and we now have a car!! Last week, we finalized the purchase of a four year-old Opel Zafira, a reliable mini-van with a foldable back row of seats, giving it a seating capacity of seven, as necessary. We are very thankful for those who gave and prayed for this; we hope it will see many years of productive service for the CMA’s mission here!

In this time prior to our moving, we have been busy not only with finding a place to live, buying a vehicle, packing and preparing for the move and ministry in [city name removed], and homeschooling, but Rob has also been driving to the town of [name removed] to meet with the handful of believers and seekers there. In an earlier email, we told you about the young hitchhikers; since then, we have seen one of them again and given him a New Testament. Please pray that God would continue His work in them!

“He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, NKJV)

Praises!

• We are very thankful for God’s direction in leading us to work with the [people ground removed] in [city name removed]. It is important to praise God that He has such faithful and diligent workers in such a needy place.
• We praise God for His provision of a house to rent a house in [city name removed] and a light-used mini-van for our use!
• We are thankful for the two young hitchhikers who made decisions to follow Christ, and for E, a seeker in {city name removed] who is coming closer to God.

Please Pray

• The children have expressed some sadness and uncertainty about leaving [city name removed]. Please pray for God’s shepherding touch on them and all of us as we change our day-to-day routines and tasks, build new ministry connections, and adjust to a new town.
• Please pray for spiritual revival in [country named removed], and also for its well-being. Pray for the young Christians and churches of Eastern  [country named removed], that they would stand strong and multiply.

Praise God with us for…

• Dr Jean, Jackie, Cecile and Grace Yaradouno. We are thrilled to have them join the team at Hope Medical Center.
• Dr Guilavogui and Kadiatou. They are an answer to prayer.
• The Albright family that just returned back to Guinea. Stephen is the HMC Administrative Director and Lori is the Short-term Teams coordinator and manager of the Hope guest house.
• The continued relative calm here in Guinea amidst the unrest on the part of the population toward the new government.

Be sure not to miss the rest of the update from the Westlakes in Guinea! Click here to read it!

Dear Folks:

When you start getting emails asking if we are still alive, then you know that you are overdue for a catch-up email! It has been a pretty wild (and exciting) ride in the last months since we arrived back in June..

—One major endeavor has been the need to finish putting the final touches” on the new maternity buildings.  This need for these has been urgently felt by our staff during the rush of surgeries that they have done in these last months.  In the last four months we have broken our record for surgeries twice.  And in this month we have had a week where there were 20 surgeries.  This gets pretty intense when you only have one operating room.

—We unloaded and dealt with three 40 foot container loads of material in a matter of two months. We are grateful to the Lord for their safe arrival!

—We worked with the local mayors office on our road (they gave equipment and men, we paid for gas and oil) which required quite a bit of time.  Then after they finished we have been hauling broken brick and dirt out by the trailer load to finish the remaining holes.  It is so much better!

—Nursing has been pushed to the limit as we were anticipating the return of one of our key nurses and we recently found out that they would not be returning.  A second key nurse is in France for some language study and another is just finishing up her Bambara language study so you can imagine that nursing sometimes feels like a rubber band stretched to the limit.  We still would ask you to pray for more Malian nurses to help fill up the ranks!!

—In October, the administration faced with the need to deal with next years’ budget.  We praise the Lord for more funds coming in to help with the expenses.  We are also so grateful to many of you who help keep us going in this time of growth!

—Oh yes I almost forget on one Saturday that we needed to test and interview over 50 candidates who had applied for a Missionary/Nursing scholarship.  Following a year of Bible school and getting a three year nursing degree, they will work with CPAM out in the clinics and the new outstations that are being built in the “Baco” area (between the rivers).  There were over two hundred who applied and we interviewed the most qualified of those.  There were only thirteen who  received this scholarship.

—KIDS on the MOVE: Marilyn has spent time helping organize the hospital stock room.  She has been moving non-medical stuff out and into some new storage areas.  Finding some of those treasures in the warehouse allowed us to organize a give away for our Malian staff to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the hospital!  It was a lot of fun!!  Recently Marilyn has shifted focus to clean up mode as we begin to prepare some of the new rooms in the Maternity area for use.  She is working with some visiting women…AND a kids crew!   It is kind of cute to see her with some of the kids who are long term patients here as they help her.  They actually work quite well and their pay?  Usually a Dum dum sucker or Blow pop!  They are so happy and they bestow the usual blessing given when receiving a gift, “May God put much more in its place.”  We have been blessed to have different people come and help with the building and Craig has been bossing one small Malian crew that has been working on some small outbuildings

So how can you pray?

Craig is spending much time each day wearing his construction hat (straw cowboy type). Very little time can be spent in the office.  He needs wisdom and energy to meet all of the demands of the day.

Doug, our maintenance man/builder, is being stretched as well as he and Craig work on the hospital and he also tries to keep the guest house up and running and at least do the urgent work at some 15 different missionary houses. Some days they tag team as one of them at least needs to be able to keep the different hospital projects moving forward. They both need wisdom and strength.

The missionary team needing your prayers!  We just lost a kid whose kidneys stopped working because of severe malaria.  For two weeks Brett and Jason were keeping him alive by doing kidney dialysis in the abdomen (no machine) since no other place in the entire country would do dialysis on a child.  It is hard for them to pour themselves into someone like this and then lose him.  One thing is sure, that family saw the level of love that was poured out on their child in the name of Jesus.  We need God’s enabling and strength each day!

Marilyn juggles keeping the home going, developing  relationships with neighbors, studying language, doing some translation and spending 2-3 days a week helping at the hospital.  Pray for a sense of balance and the right priorities!

There are some special projects that are being developed right now,  we are raising funds for a $90,000 solar project that would make us mostly independent during the day time hours.  If this is of interest to you feel free to write for more info. The nursing school has been put on hold for at least a few more months but we hope to see some initial plans put together to start training our nurses aids to be able to function on the level of an auxiliary nurse.  Please pray for Jake who will be working on this plan and of course Jessica who is carrying the huge weight of being the director of nursing.

Thank you for your giving to the CMA Great Commission Fund.  The Alliance continues to depend on those sacrificial gifts that many of you make each month.  Thank you so much!  If you are not currently part of a CMA church but would like to have a part in supporting what God is doing in Koutiala Mali then we would invite you to consider supporting us by giving to the GCF in our name.  Your support is then personalized and applies to our expenses as CMA missionaries.  It is possible to do this online, by phone or by mail. If you are interested in doing this you can contact the Great Lakes District for more information by clicking here!

So if you have made it this far you now have an idea why we are so late with this update.  We count on your forgiveness as well as your continued prayers!   Let us know how we can pray for you as well!

God bless you!

In Him,

Craig and Marilyn Hanscome

This past weekend Andy had the privilege to travel about 7 hours north of Makassar to an area called Mamasa. There Andy along with two other professors from Jaffray taught for about 8 hours on Saturday to around 25 people (11 of them are evangelists, and 2 are pastors). These followers of Christ eagerly sat on hardwood floors for all that time, taking notes, sharing burdens, and asking penetrating and practical questions. Andy was very thankful for this opportunity to minister in the country….

To read the rest of Brakeing” News, click here!

Prayer Requests

• A small group of Taiwanese believers and seekers is meeting weekly at the mission office—A-Hong, Pauline, Wendy, Sam, A-Jen, sometimes Lisa, a mainland spouse, Bill, a high schooler, and us. These few weeks Rachel is telling chronological Old Testament overview stories while Mark Edwards is in the U.S. for a short tour.

• A-Hong, a local car repairman, was baptized at the beginning of the month. His wife, nephews, and small group members heard his testimony of God’s grace and then Mark baptized him in friend’s pool. He is our first here in Sihhu!

• A-Jen, a widow, buried her father-in-law at the beginning of September. She is now on her own and is concerned with raising her teenage daughters. She is retelling the weekly Bible stories.

To read the rest of the update from the Kramers, click here!

Also, be sure to read The Village Neighborhood (written by Rachel Kramer), which gives a great picture into the Kramer’s life in Taiwan!

Here is the latest from the Rowe Family. Enjoy!

Dear Friends & Family,

Summer has somehow flown by, and we find ourselves already 4 days into the kid’s new school year at Hinkson Christian Academy here in Moscow. Philip, who will turn 16 in a month, has just begun 11th grade. The countdown is on, as our oldest now only has two years left with us before graduating. William (13) is now in 8th grade, and Jessica (11) is in 6th. When we arrived in Russia 11 years ago, Philip was in Kindergarten, William was 2 and Jessica was a mere 5 months old. My, how time flies! We trust that these months have gone well for you, and that you have found time this summer to be renewed and refreshed in the Lord.

To read the rest of Volstad Ventures, click here!

As we seek to push back the darkness in Makassar, I would like to share with you several streaks of light that are beginning to make an impact. 1. English Camp: We enjoyed a wonderful ministry for three weeks on the campus of STT Jaffray teaching English to 30-40 students. Some of the students were STT Jaffray students but many were from outside the campus. One majority religion student commented, “I didn’t know Christians could be so welcoming before I came here.” He attended the camp all three weeks and made important connections with our BIOLA team students. There were quite a few other seekers and we are praying that this is the beginning of significant relationships. Many students are requesting a camp next summer.

To read the rest of “Brakeing” News… Click Here!