December 10, 2009

 We we so encouraged when we returned to Senegal after of year furlough to see our guard, who had accepted the Lord and who at the same time was healed of a paralysis caused by a stroke!

 We are also encourage to  see what God is doing in our street children ministry. One of the boys, after spending several years living in the street, shares how one day,” I was welcomed to the center for the first time and was very touched by what happened there. When I accepted Jesus, I at the same time felt a heavy burdren to share the Good News and win souls to Jesus at any price.” This young man is now placed with a pastor and wants to train further and reach out to his own people group!  God is good! 

Please pray for our school for the deaf, with 63 profoundly deaf children, as we need property to build a school for Senegalese deaf children,according to the vision that God has given us. 

 

June 3, 2009

A Five Year-old’s Simple Faith

While travelling in February, my brother, Laurie Winsor, and his wife Marilyn, had a layover in Pearson Airport in Toronto. During the layover, Laurie found a camera bag that contained a digital video camera and two other cameras. These cameras had been left in a restroom.  Laurie asked Marilyn to stand near the restroom in case someone came searching for the missing bag, while he proceeded to the Lost and Found desk.  After inquiring as to whether someone had come looking for the cameras, he found that no one had. Not being satisfied with how they seemed to deal with such matters, he left his contact information with them and kept the cameras.

Upon returning to Newfoundland, over the next several weeks Laurie tried to find the owners of the bag. The pictures on the cameras indicated that the owners were probably Oriental but he was still unsuccessful in finding their identity.

In April, while snowmobiling with our son and daughter, we lost a digital camera from one of our backpacks. When we returned  home, we were telling Laurie about the incident and he said, “Well, I have a bag full of cameras that I found in an airport and you can have one of those, but before I give it to you, I will make one last attempt at finding who the owners are.”  He emptied the bag again and found an old credit card receipt from the store where a camera had been purchased. He called there but they were unable to help, so he called the credit card company. Knowing that the credit card company would not give out any information as to who owned that particular card number, he asked if they would call the owners with the information that he had found something belonging to them. The company agreed to transmit the message.  

When the card owners saw the number of the VISA company on their telephone, they hesitated to answer, thinking that it was telemarketers, but at the last minute, they took the call.  The company relayed Laurie’s contact info and suggested that Richard (the card owner) call Laurie.

 Just a few minutes later, Laurie received a call from Richard, who lives in Toronto.  Richard related how they had realized the cameras had been left behind, but as they had already gone through security, he was not permitted to go back.  Laurie explained to him how he had found the cameras, his attempts to find the owner and that he still wanted to return them.  Richard thanked him and gave his contact information and they hung up.

As Laurie started to prepare the cameras for mailing, he received another call from Richard.  Richard then explained how, after he had hung up from the first conversation, his wife had chided him for not telling Laurie the whole story. He then went on to tell Laurie that they were people of faith and that when they discovered the bag was missing, their 5-year-old son had said, “Let’s pray that whoever finds the cameras will return them to us.” As Richard was telling this, Laurie was amazed and then understood why he had been so determined to find the owners. He then began to share with Richard that he too was a person of faith.

In the ensuing discussion, he told him of how our daughter Laura had lost her camera and how she was home from Senegal where her parents were missionaries. Laurie mentioned that we worked with street children, as well as other ministries, like Christian schools,  along with the Radfords (Sharon Radford is Laurie’s sister)  Richard responded by saying, “That’s amazing,  only yesterday my wife passed me a World Vision magazine with an article on children at risk in Senegal!”

 He then went on to explain that he and his wife had been putting money away to give to some such ministry. So Laurie put him in contact with us and after a few emails and telephone conversations, Richard and his family decided that they would sponsor four Senegalese children through ChildCarePlus, and provide monthly support for the Radfords.  They also decided to help with teacher salaries at our School for the Deaf.  As well, they have given a one-time gift of $3000.00 to Ecole Renaissance for deaf children and $3000.00 to the street children ministry. Richard and his family would also like to visit Senegal some day. God still answers prayer!

Oh, for the simple faith of a five year old!

We have good news!  Since yesterday, Madeleine is doing SO SO MUCH better! Pastor Felix is much encouraged as are all of us! We know that she is being healed by God’s hand and the doctors have even spoken of this. What makes this special for us is that the little baby girl will be given my name! Here I am called Jeanne (French for Jane) and this will be one of her names.

And thank you to the Pastor who is helping out with the burden of the cost of surgery $1,600, an amount that would take several years to pay, without our help.

Please pray for Guy and me in these next couple of weeks. Our Christian schools are opening and there are so many details to take care of.  Guy left before 7 this mornng to visit the school in Yeumbel ( one area hit very badly by the flooding) We are also putting in place a strategy for helping flood victims, with funds from MAK for mosquito nets and food. ) I am the main person responsible for the deaf school, which needs lots of attention.  Also pray for the children’s ministry 4 day conference which begins today. I will be there for the opening day only. We are expecting about 80 children’s workers from across the country.

Again, we are forever thankful for your support, love and prayers.

September 21, 2009

We have an urgent prayer request. Our Pastor Felix’s wife had an emergency C-section this morning and delivered a healthy baby girl. However, Madeleine is not well and has had some serious complications since this morning. She is presently back in IC. Please pray for her healing.

Counting on your faithful prayers and on our faithful God