Dear friends and family,

We want to thank God and thank you our partners for your prayers and support, especially in the last four years while Sol struggled with his health. God is faithful and your prayers have been answered! We rejoice in wonder, yet again, to see His grace and mercy, to see Sol’s health restored, and more than that, his spiritual health and faith expanded to new heights! All things work together for good, and for His Glory!

Last month we celebrated our 20th year anniversary! What an incredible blessing to spend our lives together, loving each other, loving God, and loving people, dreaming about the future that God has ahead of us, as we continue to minister to people in Gambia and in our everyday life encounters.

We had an amazing opportunity to spend our anniversary in Alaska, on our friends’ fishing boat, experiencing life on the sea! Waking up to amazing sunrises and watching sunsets, chasing whales, watching dolphins and otters playing, and halibut fishing…..we worked too, but all in all it was an amazing, once in a lifetime experience!

Summer ministry continues

With school closed for the summer, we had an amazing opportunity to send a few of our staffs and our girl Bintou, to attend a Children Ministry Training, organized by a group of missionaries in Gambia and a few children pastors visiting them from the US. For two days they learned the importance of why we need to reach children, how to follow the curriculum provided, teaching through songs, games, visual aids and puppetry; how to engage children in prayer and various ways to teach memory verses.

Hope said it was the best training she’s ever been to, and they returned with a full kit that included all the materials needed to apply what they’ve learned. And what a timely training! August 2nd-6th, the school hosted a youth summer camp, and we had the opportunity to share the Gospel message with hundreds of young people.

Future discipleship strategy

Over the years, people asked us if we were going to build a high school to complete the education cycle, and we always said NO! Too much work, too complicated. But all along, God had a different plan!

In April, while we were in Gambia, Bintou a grade 8th student was talking to us and said she didn’t want to leave EMC school to go to high school, can’t we just keep her there to finish high school. Our hearts melted and for the first time, we considered the high school idea. We knew that for that to happen we would need more property to build the classrooms necessary. We prayed and said: if God wants us to start high school He would have to show us clearly and provide the land. The property next door that we have been interested in for many years is now available for sale, and even though it’s a little complicated, we are working on purchasing it. The new land would give us the necessary space to expand and build classrooms for a high school. We need your prayers for this purchase, as things in Gambia are not always as simple.

Our decision for the High School became even more clear when one of our former students that attends university and studies political science, came to visit us in. While she was attending EMC school, she was a practicing and engaging Christian, but now she said she is Muslim because as a Christian she doesn’t have the same opportunities in life. This broke our hearts, and we realized the importance of continuing to disciple our children through higher education, so that their foundation in the Word of God is strong and they recognize His power at work in their lives. After high school we hope some of the students will choose to attend the school of ministry/Bible school we are developing and choose to give back to the community and ministry.

We have been praying for opportunities to have influence in the Gambian government, and it is becoming clear to us that the students we are training and educating are the ones that will someday have that influence, as God raises them up to be the future leaders of Gambia. We are still learning that changing a nation takes time and patience, but God has all the time in his hands to do this great work to change a nation!

We will not see the fulfillment of this great vision in our lifetime, as we are only tools in His mighty hands, we follow and obey His ordained steps, and God will use us to fulfill His great plan and vision for Gambia!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your faithful support and prayers! We cannot do what we do without you!

We pray the Lord bless you and your families most abundantly for your love and support of His people.

Blessings and much love,

Sol and Manuela Bah