To our Dear family, friends and partners in the work of the Lord,

I have been spending a lot of time in the Nursery classrooms, helping the teachers and having fun with the kids. What’s not to love about 3 to 5 year old kids? One day, the nursery staff was having a meeting and I found myself in Nursery 1 all by myself with 30 kids! Now imagine trying to reason with 30 kids who are 3-4 years old! I tried telling them a story, I tried reading to them and showing them pictures in the storybook… not much success there! One little boy in particular was constantly talking so I thought I would put him in time-out in the corner. Well, that didn’t go very well either. The rest of the kids thought we were playing a game and the next thing I knew, half the class had their hands up on the wall giggling. Needless to say, I had to send them all back to their chair and try something else. I started asking them questions about who created the trees and the water and the fish and all the things around us, and they all shouted, “God”. And “Who is God?” I asked, and they responded, “He is our Father and our King!” My heart swelled with joy, to hear these little children already knowing about God, and how much He loves them. When they got tired of the questions and games, I asked them to pick a song to sing, and to my already “proud Mama” heart, one little girl (she was the leader among them) started singing “1234567, God has made a way to heaven!” and “Jesus loves me”. I could barely hold my tears… You may think this is so basic, but when I shared my experience with Sol, he reminded me how he NEVER heard anything about Jesus while he grew up in Gambia. They had Christian neighbors that brought sweets to his family every year during Easter and Christmas, but they never shared their faith. Nobody shared the Gospel with him or his family or told them how much God loves us, so it was not until he moved to America that he had the opportunity to hear the truth of the Gospel.

That’s why we think it is such a big deal for these little one’s to hear the truth at such a young age and to be able to build on their knowledge every year.

Another day I was with the Grade 3 students, and I had another fun conversation, about “How do we get to heaven?” and they knew “only by the Mercy of God” and how did God show us Mercy, I asked? By sending Jesus, so the only way to heaven is to believe in Jesus! I hope you are smiling with me by now and you can see the bigger picture of what God is doing in the lives of the children and staff at EMC! I could go on and on, and I wish I could tell you all the stories about how the lives of over 300 children are being impacted by your faithfulness. **Thank you for praying and giving, so that we can share the story of God’s love with people who have never heard it before!**

Outreach Opportunity: Before we came to Gambia, we discovered the prayer in 1 Chronicles 4:10 JABEZ prayed, “Lord Bless me and enlarge my territory, have your hand upon me and keep me from harm, so I may be free of pain! And God answered his prayer.” God is answering our prayer by keeping us from harm and pain and by enlarging our territory! Last year in May, at one of our leader’s meetings, Andrew shared with us about his burden for the village of Faala, a village without a church who had a few young believers who were getting together to pray in different homes. Andrew found a property in Faala that was for sale and in January we bought the property with the intention of building a multipurpose facility that would be used for prayer meetings, youth outreach and other activities that would help spread the Gospel. Andrew is working with Joseph, a young man from Faala who shares his burden for the village; they want to share the truth of the Gospel and see many come to the Lord. Joseph is also the leader of a few believers in the village, so by teaming up with Andrew in prayer and sharing the Word, we believe God is and will continue to do a mighty work in that village. We haven’t seen the property, we bought it in faith and we believe with all our heart that God has a plan for it. We would like to fence the property in by the end of February, so we do have some work ahead of us. Thank God for Lamin Darbo and Ansumana, who are so willing and trustworthy and are looking after the things that need to be done in order to make blocks and purchase supplies for the fence, so that we can focus on the School, continue with the Bible Study group, and the Sunday School.
God is at work in Gambia and we are amazed at how He is able to use us to accomplish His purposes in this land.

How can you pray for us?

• Please pray for our health and safety
• Pray that the Muslim people will open their hearts to God, to put a hunger in their soul for more than just legalistic works and to desire a relationship with God.
• Pray for the children at the school to have more than just head knowledge and for their hearts to be touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit!

Only the Holy Spirit can do such a work and we continue to pray for a breakthrough, for the power of darkness to be broken and for these dear people to be freed from bondages! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your love, support and prayers. We cannot do what we do without you! May God continue to bless you as you continue to bless His work.

In His Service,

Sol and Manuela Bah