Summer 2009 support letter

USA Box 2010, Buffalo, NY 14231-2010
(716) 688 - 5048
CANADA Box 1210, St. Catharines, ON L2R 7A7
(905) 684 – 1401
gom@globaloutreachmission.org
www.missiongo.org




Summer 2009

Dear Friends,

In 2006 God captured our hearts for Africa, but God had been working in both of our hearts since we were little. When he was a young boy, Jeneson read a book about the African missionary, Dr. David Livingstone and often dreamed of becoming a medical missionary just like him. Sandy envisioned helping others, but until she came to Christ in 2000, she was unsure of the direction to take. Our journey toward missions started in 2002 when we took our first mission trip as a couple to Honduras. Ever since that first trip we have felt God leading us toward a life of missionary work. We then started to prepare ourselves more professionally. Jeneson was already working as a Medical Technologist, but had the desire to work in medicine in more of a clinical role and God opened the doors for him to go back to school to become a Physician Assistant. While Jeneson was pursuing his degree, Sandy also returned to school to become a Family Nurse Practitioner.

Since 2002, we have gone on several other trips with a medical focus. Our first trip to Africa in 2006 was a medical mission trip sponsored by our local church to the small West African country of Benin. We were then blessed to go back to minister to the people of Benin in 2007 and again in 2008. Since those trips, God’s call on our lives has been stronger and has pointed us toward Africa. God is also leading us to focus more on the future and become long term missionaries. Through God’s orchestration we have partnered with Global Outreach Mission.

We now have the amazing opportunity to work as missionaries with Global Outreach Mission (GOM) in the West African country of Sierra Leone. God is at work in Sierra Leone. GOM has facilitated the start of 50 local churches and 14 Christian schools. Recently, God orchestrated the giving of some buildings and land by some local Muslim chiefs to GOM. Before the civil war in Sierra Leone, this property housed one of the premier hospitals outside of the capital, but war stripped the buildings of anything usable. The Site Plan for the hospital has been approved and GOM is beginning to raise funds and plan for work teams to begin rehabilitation. The vision is for the clinic portion of the hospital to be nearing completion in about one year, when we prayerfully hope to be in Sierra Leone.

We would like to share with you some facts about Sierra Leone:

 Despite the relatively low incidence of HIV/AIDS, Sierra Leone has the 4th highest death rate and the 2nd highest infant mortality rate in the world.

 The average life expectancy is 41 years.

Educating people on sanitation and infection control, providing health care and prenatal care has the potential to save many. Our goal is that while saving lives by providing health education and basic health care, we can also teach them how Christ can give them eternal life.

As we prepare for this next season of our lives, we are writing for your support. Most importantly we need prayer warriors. Please pray for:

1) Our spiritual, personal and professional preparation.

2) Start-up of the reconstruction on the Mokanji hospital and clinic.

3) Financial provision.

We need to raise funding for personal support, and for our initial outfitting and air tickets.

Would you please consider standing with us in prayer and financial support? Please use the enclosed prayer card to indicate your willingness to support us and mail it back to GOM. If you have any questions or want to know more about how God is leading us, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Blessed,
Jeneson and Sandy Abraham
Josiah and Lydia

God doesn't disappoint, people do.

We went to our former church in Batavia this past weekend and heard a wonderful sermon by Pastor Keith. That, coupled with some struggles that friends are going through have struck a cord with me. God is not the one that causes our disappointments, we either cause them or contribute to them ourselves or other people cause them or contribute to them.

What causes disappointments....unmet expectations. Sometimes our expectations are just too high. I experience this quite regularly when dealing with our son, I have to consistently remind myself that he is not even 3 years old yet and readjust my expectations of his behavior and attitude. Other times, people through their own failings and the work of the devil, fall far short of our realistic expectations.

So what's a person to do? We need to set realistic expectations and remember what is important to God. The airwaves abound with prosperity gospel teaching and while God promised a lot of things (both good and bad), He did NOT promise us an easy life of continual spiritual bliss. The struggles WILL come and God may not deliver us OUT of struggles and persecution, but He WILL give us strength and endurance in our times of need.

Remember, God doesn't disappoint, people do.

Holy Smokes! Has it been that long since the last blog...

I just adore it when my almost 3 year old roams around the condo singing an off key 'hallelujah for the cross' chorus. The memory of this kid astounds me which is why I love having some Scripture memory CD's playing in the van and in the house and it helps me with my Scripture memory too!. I desire to instill God's Word in him at an early age. I think it is starting to take hold. For some reason Josiah has a fear of thunder and lightening, I guess it is not unusual for kids to be scared of the lights and noise. But, when I put a God perspective on it, he seems to calm down. Yesterday when it started to rain heavily and storm while we at a friends house he started to freak out. After much talking with him by myself and others (thanks Jo Anna!!) he calmed down and then this morning when the rain woke him up, he wasn't crying and recalled that the rain was God's way of cleaning things and giving the plants and trees a drink. He also remembered that God will protect him. I pray that he always remember that.

Such a simple statement, but with profound implications that even I cannot grasp at times: That God will protect us and provide for us. As many of you know, we are embarking on a new season of our lives, that of missionary candidates. We have been accepted as missionary candidates to Sierra Leone, West Africa by Global Outreach Mission (www.missiongo.org) and are starting our support raising efforts. If you go to the website there is a great YouTube video about Maknoji hospital where Jeneson and I hope to be in a year or so. We are both excited and nervous about this new adventure. While it will be amazing to be there when the clinic and hospital open and be an integral part of getting it up and running, there is so much unknown about the future. We have never done this before, and will be the only ones on the field doing the work. While I know we will have plenty of prayer support, the task is still a bit daunting. The life expectancy is 42 years and the maternal/fetal death rates are abysmal. It seems like such a big task, but we must realize that we are not in this alone and cannot save the whole world (God is the only one who has that ability!). Thankfully, we have a God who cares and regardless of the circumstances, whether they be trial or tribulation, He is there for us, protecting us and providing for us.

We have also been seeking out a new local church to become our new church home. We went this past week to Pathway in Elmhurst and the message was on missional living (living a mission focused life, not just looking overseas, but across the street and office as well). The worship was great and included one of my favorite mission themed songs, as well as one I had not heard before. If you are interested, I found one them on YouTube and here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6k-knvCWUA God Of Justice (we must go) Tim Hughes

We are praying that the support letters and prayer cards go out by the end of August, so let us know if you want to be on our list and we can make sure you get one. Pray that God will 'fill us up and send us out.'