Dear friends, family and partners,

A couple of years ago while praying and asking God for direction and discernment for the future of Shared Blessings, God showed us his heart through the prayer of Jabez.

1 Chronicles 4:10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted this request.

We started praying like Jabez prayed–for God to enlarge our territory and influence in Gambia, to keep His hand upon us and to protect us from harm and pain; He has granted our request. Some of you may have already heard that in March we had an unpleasant experience when our house was broken into and a lot of our things were stolen. God kept us from harm and pain! We were not home when it happened, so all we lost were material things that can be replaced. He protected us from being hurt and He provided the Grace Church team that was here at the time, to pray with us, talk to us and to help us find solutions about how to secure our house better in order to make it harder for those trying to break in again. We are so grateful for the wonderful support we received from our friends in a time of trial and what could have been a time of discouragement and setback.

We also experienced the blessing of the team coming to Gambia to work on a construction project in the village of Faala, a new location where God is enlarging our territory and influence. When the team arrived, we had the foundation of the building poured and ready. A contractor whom we worked with in the past from Lamin did the foundation. We had not made any connections in Faala up to that point, so when the team started working we hired masons and workers from the Faala area. The men who came to build a building did much more than that!

Along with the physical building, they built the foundation of a ministry by forming relationships very quickly with the local workers, giving the ministry an opportunity to grow and bless the village. I watched in amazement at how everyone on the team formed a close bond with a different person, and how they worked together, joking, laughing, and sharing their lives with them and teaching them how to do what they do in a more efficient way.

This team has done in 10 days what it would have taken us 2 months to do with only local workers! People from the village stopped by and asked how can this be possible and how many people are working on the project? They got to see first hand, the testimony of God’s protection and what can be done when people work together in unity.

On the men’s return home, we experienced again God’s faithfulness and protection of three of the men on the team at the airport in Brussels on March 22nd when the attack on the Brussels airport took place. God in His grace and love protected them from harm and physical pain. Thank you Lord.

After the team left, we had an extra week with team leader, Larry Bonife, who hired the workers from Faala to help with the building of the computer lab at the school. Larry continued to teach and work together with the Gambian team, and I believe they are all looking forward to seeing him back in Gambia. It was great to spend Easter together with our Bible Study group at the school and Larry shared an inspiring message.

A few days before Easter, we held a couple of leadership training classes with Dan Lucero and some other pastors he travelled with from the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea Bissau. We continued the leadership training with the group through the month of April, to review and solidify the teachings and to encourage the leaders to put it into practice. God is so good, we see His hand at work in our life and in the lives of people that we are partnering with in the work He has called each of us to do. We look forward with excitement and anticipation to see what He will accomplish in this nation through the work of the Holy Spirit that is empowering the believers. Thank you for your prayers and support! We cannot do anything without your continuous prayers!

In His Service,

Sol and Manuela Bah