Nigerian Prayer Update

Dear Prayer Partners,

With Thanksgiving on everyone’s mind I wanted to send out an update of some of the things we have to be thankful for as well as some prayer requests.

Our Evangelism outing at the beginning of the month on the 6^th to the 8^th of November, in Yashi, Southern Plateau State was amazing. There was over 650 individuals that we were able to share the gospel with. 61 of them trusted Christ, 7 received assurance of their salvation and 3 rededicated their lives to Jesus Christ.  

We continue to be so grateful for our many volunteers and had an incredible time with them last Saturday. We brought together almost 40 Bible school students that help us with Bible Clubs and over 20 individuals that help us with Evangelism outings. We broke up into small groups and shared about our Quiet times, had a time of testimony and enjoyed food, fun and Fellowship.

Last Nov. we visited the village of Lu-Tinghen where we saw many trust Christ, but their remained a serious problem with alcohol and a lack of education. We challenged the village chief and elders to work towards correcting this situation and offered to help with one bundle of roofing. Over the last year the Church had to be enlarged to accommodate the many new believers and the School building has been completed by the community. The local Government provided chairs for the school and the National Youth Service Core is providing teachers. You cannot even imagine how excited I am to go visit them next Thursday and celebrate with them all that God is doing in their village.  

We had asked for prayer for the funds and printing of the Gospels of John for a 21 day challenge that we hoped to reach thousands of individuals with. Although we hoped to begin this before the year ended God has answered your prayers and the funds came through and the printing is under way. Please do continue to pray for the 8 cities in 6 different states where we will provide training to volunteers to challenge Nigerians with the Word of God.    

We are putting the finishing touches on a camp that will hold Jan 3-6 in Southern Kaduna, with counselors training Dec 6-7. We are anticipating 300 campers with evangelistic evening programs open to the smaller villages around. We are so thankful for all of the amazing opportunities God gives to us here in Nigeria.

Meredith’s mom’s health continued to deteriorate last week and on Thursday she passed away after a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer. We originally planned for Meredith to try and visit her during Christmas break, but later changed plans and made arrangements for Mere to travel on the 22^nd of Nov. Meredith, thankfully, arrived safely  in the US and I Lord willing I will join her in CT on the 9^th of December for a few weeks. A memorial service has tentatively been scheduled for the 11^th of Dec.     

Please continue to pray for strength, wisdom & perseverance in all that we do to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Bob & Meredith DeVoe

Nigeria

 

FW: Nigeria update

Dear Prayer Partners,

As we are headed out today for a weekend of evangelism, I wanted to ask for you to pray for safety, that the equipment and vehicle would not disappoint us and most of all that the Lord would use this weekend to bring many to Himself.

 

Our first outing last weekend was in Southern Plateau State in the village of Karbang and we were able to minister to 366 individuals with 19 of them trusting Christ and another 12 receiving assurance of their salvation. Please pray for this community as they have a problem with alcohol and marital faithfulness. The picture is of last week’s team headed out.

 

I had also asked for prayer about a project to distribute and challenge thousands with the Gospel of John before the year ending. There have been many difficulties we have faced with this project, however the biggest right now stems from new banking regulations which makes conversion and access to funds a much more trying task than it has ever been.  

 

Please also pray for Meredith’s mom who is experiencing poor health.

Thanks for your faithfulness

Bob & Meredith DeVoe

    

 

 

Devoe Prayer Letter

Greetings my Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

 

I know from my sister in NY that some of you have already had snow, which is hard for me to even think about with 80 degree weather here. Meredith is staying very busy with teaching and working on her Masters. While I will try to fill you in a little with the attached prayer letter, I am headed to Kogi State tomorrow to speak at a conference for national missionaries from that area. I love spending time with the national missionaries, they are some of the most hard working humble servants of God that you could ever hope to meet. When I meet The zonal coordinator who invited me to Kogi, he was managing a small church and 2 additional church plants in Plateau, one of which he had to cross a river on foot to reach. So his entire day on Sunday was spent preaching and moving from one  church to the next. Although it will be a full day of travel tomorrow it will all be by car and crossing rivers on bridges, we hope and pray.

 

Thanks for your prayers and support

Bob & Meredith DeVoe   

Grant Letter

Hey Meredith,

Attached is the grant letter that came to WOL, look at  the address it has Susan’s old street address on WOL PO Box???

Back in Nigeria

Greetings Brothers & Sisters,

 

Our trip to Nigeria was long and tiring with no troubles and all of our luggage arrived with us. We reached our home at about 1pm on Thurs. (8am your time) and have already readjusted to time difference. We spent the day Friday exchanging money, buying groceries and trying to get everything around the house back in line with us being home. Today we tried to finish up getting things squared away including getting the internet going so we could send out a prayer update.

 

Friday also included a brief meeting with the planning committee for the 3^rd annual youth/children camp in our area. We will spend several hours on Monday finalizing the details for the camp. Camp counselor training will hold on the 6-8^th and camp will take place from the 10^th through the 15^th.   We will also need to spend several hours this next week with bringing staff, interns & volunteers up to date with the exciting changes with the Word of Life Club materials. This month also includes hundreds of man hours with all able and available hands involved with contextualization of the Bible Club lessons. Before the end of this month we will need to pray and tentatively   lay out our plans for the coming dry season months of evangelism.

 

Meredith returns to Hillcrest School on Monday to prepare for the first day of school on Thursday. Please pray that God will supply the one elementary teacher they are still needing; the principal and special needs teacher will be filling in and it will mean a lot of extra work for everyone. Still Meredith remains excited about the coming school year and praying for her students!      

 

God Bless you and encourage you as you do us.

Bob & Meredith DeVoe

Nigerian update

Hello to all of you who have been praying,

 

I had spoken in our last prayer update that we did not have the needed green cards to get back into Nigeria. Rejoice with us that we have received them and our flight on the 28^th is a go. We leave Syracuse NY at 10:30 am and land in Abuja Nigeria on the 29^th at 4:30 pm will drive up to Jos on the 30^th. So pray for safe travels and for our luggage to arrive with us. In Nigeria they do not deliver your delayed luggage you have to go back to the airport to get it once it comes. Do continue to pray, as our Green Cards expire in Oct and the quota they are issued under was not renewed so we are not out of  the woods yet and do need  prayer for the paper work that allows us to live and serve in Nigeria.  There has also been some Boko Haram trouble in Jos this past few weeks so continue to pray that the President’s campaign to bring the insecurity to its end will succeed.  We truly do regret that in our short stay here in the States we were not able to see everyone, but know we will make every effort to see you in 2017 when we will be here for 6 months.

 

God Bless you for your prayers and  support.

The DeVoes

May Prayer letter

Good morning Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

 

I refused to leave the office yesterday until I had composed the attached prayer letter. Which I hope encourages you as well as motivates you still more to pray. In addition to praying for our safety and fruitful ministry this weekend,  please also pray for the fuel shortage we are experiencing. It has driven up the price and created long lines as well as caused our electricity supply to fall to less than an hour a day. Pray also for Meredith who remains at home this weekend as I am out with evangelism & again next week as I am doing a 4 day training in Kaduna.

 

May or Lord bless you as you bless us

Bob & Meredith DeVoe  

Nigerian Prayer Update

Dear Prayer Partners,

We came back from Lu-Tinghen yesterday and I had to share with you how your prayers continue to be answered. Although the problem with alcohol addiction is still present, there have been significant changes. Pastor Isaac Luka (below in the red trousers) said “because of your time with us we are growing”. Pastor Luka’s Church had an average attendance of 25-30 individuals on a Sunday. However, in the weeks following our first visit, the church grew to an average of 50-60 and right after Christmas they decided that the building could no longer contain them and needed to be enlarged. The Church was able on their own to provide all the needed labor and funds for the addition and expect it to be finished before the end of Feb. The Pastor also has started a prayer house in a settlement a few miles away and is also doing services there. It is easier for him to go to them on a motorcycle instead of dozens of them trying to walk to the Church for services. Pray for strength and wisdom for Pastor Luka; between Family, farming & follow-up of those that made decisions for Christ along with making the many converts into real disciples; he is a very busy man.  

During our first visit in Lu-Tinghen I spent a good amount of time near those selling the local alcohol; talking to individuals about Jesus Christ and trying to really understand this community. Kwatman Mathias and several other elders of the village along with the Chief felt most of their problems stemmed from a lack of education. They showed me a school building that was never completed. Before we left that weekend I was able to bring the religious leaders, the village elders and the Chief together and challenge them that they had everything needed to repair and complete the school building. Along with those in the community that had an education who should now teach the next generation.  I promised that we would help with one bundle of zink roofing ($62) as an encouragement (they will need 10-12) and would be back to see their progress. The community has taxed themselves for funds needed to cover cement and roofing materials for the school. As you can see in the photo below many had come out to clean up the site, bring sand for building and begin forming the bricks needed to repair and complete the building. Pray for the completion of this school and for Godly teachers that can teach reading so everyone in the community can read the Word of God.        

We have been out on Evangelism for the last 2 weekends and are also headed out today for a village in Southern Kaduna, Kuyiripizi. It is a small village and the community is really scattered. In addition to our regular activities for the weekend we will be walking some distance on Saturday going from house to house in an effort to reach the lost and challenge those that profess Christ of their need to grow. Pray for safety as we travel, equipment to not disappoint us and for many to know and grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. The photo below is in Kuyiripizi when we were there on Tues. for the survey trip

The last 2 weekends had incredible results in communities that are predominantly followers of African traditional religions. Over 500 hearing the Gospel and 49 making decisions for Christ in Limun (photo below) and over 1,000 attending our programs in Zamgwa with 613 making decisions for Christ. Pray for follow-up and growth for the many that have indicated they have taken Christ as their Savior.

There is so much more to tell but space and time do not permit. I could write pages about the Bible Clubs and the discipleship taking place with the children, students and our volunteers’. With the elections coming please continue to pray that things would remain peaceful and that they would be conducted in a free and fair environment. Also pray that Boko Harem’s reign of terror would come to an end.

May Our Good Lord encourage you by all that He is doing.

Bob & Meredith and the many that help with His work

 

Nigerian Prayer Update

Dear Prayer Partners,

Since our last prayer letter in November so many great things have happened, yet there remains much to pray about. We were blessed with having Ryan and Sarah join us for Christmas and really enjoyed having them around. Just a few of the highlights’ of  their time with us included: Ryan playing father Christmas for a children’s program, having a Christmas meal and activities at a local orphanage and attending a Nigerian Christian Rap program for wayward youth. Their time with us was short but packed full and we experienced no troubles.   

At the end of Nov our Evangelism team traveled to Lu-Tinghen, near Yelwa-Shandam in Plateau State with almost 500 people coming out to hear the Gospel and 88 of them making decisions to trust Christ. Please pray for this village as there is a terrible problem with alcohol addiction as much as one third of the community begin their day with a local fermented drink and consume it throughout the day. The biggest business in town is producing this drink and selling it, with the families that produce it giving it to their children because mom is to preoccupied with the business to make food in the morning.  We will be returning there in the next few weeks for follow up and further discussion with the elders about the School that they had started and its completion. Below is a photo taken before 7am of one of the many drinking establishments.

  

In Nov & Dec special training was provided for about 20 of our team members with a specific mission to reach out to Muslims. On Dec 19 -21they traveled to Dangi and were able to witness to almost 300 Muslims with 35 of them accepting the Lord as their personal savior with 50 more who were very open to the gospel and will need a second visit which we hope to do also do in the next few weeks. Pray for us as we think of good ways to follow-up with them and the discipleship process.

Today we are headed to Limun in Souther Plateau for the weekend to a community that almost 70% practice traditional indigenous worship with no Islam influence and very little Christianity. Next week end we are headed to Zamgwa which has followers of all three of the previously mentioned religions. Pray for safety as we travel, open hearts and for many to trust Christ.  

No doubt most of you have heard of the continued troubles with Boko Haram and the attack on Baga town which may possibly be the worst massacre in the history of the current insurgency. Official Nigerian figures list the number killed at 150, but there are other reports of up to 2000, many being women, children or the elderly. The number that are displaced at this point from their homes from what I read is over a million, with 35,000 in plateau alone. With elections coming up on the 14^th  &  28^th of Feb there is added concern about all of this. How will elections hold in the 3 Northern States currently under emergency rule and how will the many displaced individuals be able to vote? There has also been a problem with the distribution of registered voters id cards with reports of as many as half of those registered not receiving them yet which means they will not be able to vote. Elections are always a concern because of potential violence but this round has more against it than ever with a very close contest between the current President and his opponent who was a military ruler back in the early to mid 80’s. Pray for the elections to be fair and free of violence, with the results being accepted by both sides and no loss of life over Politics.        

God Bless you and Keep you & thanks for your Prayers                                                       

Bob & Meredith DeVoe