From Our Support Letter

As you know, we regularly look for ways to be obedient to God’s call in how to serve Him. 2 years ago, He sent us on a short missions trip to Honduras, and this experience set a desire in Barbara to serve in a longer medical missions trip. The Lord provided the opportunity for her to spend 2 months at the end of medical school on an international elective. He opened the doors for Frank to come with her, and so we will serve from 3/7/06 to 5/6/06 in Jos, Nigeria, with SIM. SIM stands for Serving in Mission, and is an interdenominational, international missions organization whose main focus is to glorify God through evangelizing to the unreached, ministering to human need, discipling believers, and equipping churches to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission.

Nigeria is a West African country slightly more than twice as large as California. It is the most populous African country and is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups. Some of the most populous and politically influential are the Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. Despite being one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, Nigeria is beset by AIDS, corruption, political instability, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic management. About 60% of the population is below the international poverty line. There is tension between Christians (50% of the population) and Muslims (40% of the population), that sometimes leads to violence.

Barbara will be serving at the Evangel hospital, working both in the hospital and out in the community, focusing especially on AIDS patients and palliative care. Frank will be serving at a youth camp, helping the camp coordinator organize activities for campers while there and follow-up for when they go home.

This is a big step into the unknown for us, and we know that we cannot do this without both God’s help and your help. We know we will be facing culture shock, poverty, unusual medical conditions, violence, and poor living conditions like we have never faced before, and we need your prayers to see us through. We ask that you pray for the problems in Nigeria and for the work we will do there. We desperately want to love the Nigerians and to show them Christ’s face through our words and actions. We ask that you pray for us in that regard, and pray for those who we will meet.

Finally, we ask that you pray for our fund raising process. We will need to raise $9500, primarily to cover flight costs, medical insurance, visas, and daily living expenses while we are there.