Missions

OK, so I will try not to ramble or switch topics too much since it has been almost a month since I last blogged. God is really working in our lives here in some great and anxiety-provoking ways.

As I have mentioned before, we are in the process of support raising to go over to Sierra Leone, West Africa to help start a hospital. While Jeneson and I have gone on several short-term medical mission trips, we have felt God leading us toward long-term missions. God has amazingly orchestrated connecting us to a great organization (Global Outreach Mission; www.missiongo.org) who is starting a hospital in the middle of Sierra Leone. We are excited to say that the first construction team will be going out the end of this year. They will be working on a small corner of the existing hospital building to make a clinic work area. Prayerfully, by the end of the year a well digger will also be on the ground in Sierra Leone!

One thing we have learned is patience (and God is still working on us also!). In the past it was relatively easy to support raise for our short-term trips. However, we have discovered that raising money for long-term missions is a totally different beast. God has been showing his sovereignty here also. Just when I am getting down and depressed about the pace of the support-raising, He gives me a glimmer of hope and confirmation that this IS what He has for our future. God could have us in Sierra Leone in the next week if that were His plan, however, He wants to make sure that we are prepared for our next adventure.

I am trying to learn to TOTALLY trust God for safety and provisions for our family as I know that is I will have to do that in Africa. If you have received a support letter and have some questions, please contact us. If you did not receive a letter and are interested in learn more, let me know and I will gladly get a letter in your hands. In the meanwhile, seeking and praying..........

180/182

180th out of 182 countries.
That is where Sierra Leone is situated on the United Nations Development Programme’s 2009 Human Development Report (http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/); Afghanistan and Niger are the only countries ranked lower than Sierra Leone. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network; they advocate for change and connect countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people better their lives. The Human Development Report comes out annually and is commonly viewed as listing the best and worst places to live. In fact, the most recent headline involving this report was that the US had dropped and is now ranked the 13th best country to live in.

I looked at this list with great interest as to where our future home country falls in the rankings. As most who read this blog know, Jeneson and I (and yes, the kids too) are currently support raising to go to Sierra Leone, Africa to help start a hospital. We are extremely excited about this newest chapter in our lives and have a great burden for the people of Africa in general and specifically Sierra Leone. So, life in Sierra Leone is rough, people are still struggling 7 years after the end of the civil war. The infrastructure of the country is still in shambles, jobs are scarce, clean water is hard to find, people are struggling to rebuild their lives, their homes and provide for their families. But, with Christ, there is hope.
Global Outreach Mission (www.missiongo.org) oversees over 50 churches and 14 Christian schools. Now, they are reaching out to help provide means for clean water and health care. Prayerfully, in the next month a well digger will be put on a container ship destined for Sierra Leone and in December the first work team will depart for Sierra Leone to start work on rebuilding the hospital. Lord willing, our personal goal is to be in Sierra Leone next fall, but that is dependent on our level of support raised. We recently mailed out support letters and prayer cards and are praying that God works in the hearts of those who received them. This is hard for us, we don’t like asking for money, but are convinced that this is what God has planned for us.

Please do us a favor? If you have received a letter and card, prayerfully consider supporting us. And, if you have not received one, but are interested in support the Lord’s work in Sierra Leone, contact us and we will gladly send one out. As always, if you have any questions about us or the work in Sierra Leone let us know and we will surely talk your ear off as we are passionate about this new endeavor.

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.'

Well here I am on a beautiful Sunday morning sitting at home with a sleeping baby and a sick toddler when I would much rather be in church. Oh, the perils of motherhood! The 4th was pretty uneventful for us, after a nice cookout at friends house we came home to put the kiddos to sleep. Josiah did not want to go to the fireworks and actually slept through most of the firework noise. However, when the finale woke him up he felt feverish. After 2 doses of Motrin throughout the night we decided to look in his throat this morning. Despite not complaining of any sore throat or neck pain or ear pain it appears that he has strep throat! I know I comment a lot on how active Josiah is, so it is really weird to see him just laying on the couch resting or sitting still and not talking through a 30 minute video(yes, I let him watch videos when he is sick).
Another thing I have noticed about him this past week is that although he is in the 'why' stage of development, he doesn't has why. This smarty does not ask why we ask him to do or not do something, instead he infers an answer and then phrases it in a question. For example, when I tell him not to throw blocks at Lydia he does not ask 'why', but instead says 'because it could hurt her?' What kind of kid does this!! I also counted a 14 word sentence the other day! Lydia is crawling fast as lightening and is on the verge of standing by herself. It is only a matter of time before I have two children to run after!

Adjustments

Many people have asked about how our trip went, so here is a quick snapshot. The trip as a whole was great, while we had our stressful times, overall a positive experience for Jeneson and I as a couple and for us as a family. Are we glad that we did it? Certainly!!! Would we do it again? Yes, but not for that length of time. It was a good length of time for the first trip because we felt that we really needed it to be that long so that we could transition from that 'guest here for a couple of weeks' mode to truly being a part of the whole family. The first 6 weeks were pretty rough and a couple of times one or both of us wanted to throw in the towel and come back home, airline penalties be dammed! We also learned that we both are stubborn and can persevere. I am praying that this experience will help us out in the future on the mission field.

We have been back at home for about 1 month now and are pretty much back to our normal level of craziness. The kids have adjusted better than we had anticipated and they are both back on a regular sleep schedule and sleeping through the night. Josiah now has a big boy bed (a twin bed) and Lydia is in the crib. They are still trying to work out all the kinks of the two of them sleeping in the same room, or should I say one trying to sleep while the other is protesting sleep. We are loving going for walks and to the park almost every day, although it would be nice if it wouldn't rain so much.

Jeneson was really blessed to be able to go back to his old job without any problems and started back on June 1st. I think he is glad to be working again and getting out of the house on a daily basis. I'm still staying at home with the kids and debating on going back to work. I would love to work, because I like what I do, want to keep up my skills and could use some time away from the house, but the logistics of childcare keep my feet dragging. Ideally, I would like to work in an urgent care or one of the clinics in Walgreens/CVS but trying to find child care for two kids on an irregular basis by someone whom I trust will be difficult. So, for the time being I am at home and working on mission stuff in my spare time.

The first week in June we travelled to Buffalo, NY to meet with the mission board who accepted us as missionary candidates. At this time everything is pointing us to Sierra Leone with the goal of being there in 1 to 1 1/2 years. Now for the not so fun part of support raising. The numbers that were discussed while we were in NY were daunting to say the least, but I know that God will provide for us whether it is $1 or a million dollars. The CIA factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/SL.html) gives a great, although depressing, snapshot of Sierra Leone. I will share more about SL and what Global Outreach Missions is doing there in future posts. Now onto other work while the kids are asleep.