Stateside partners transition to field missionaries in Ukraine
CRIMEA, Ukraine (BP)--When Victor and Lana Girard* first began praying for an unreached people group in southern Ukraine, they had no idea God would soon call them to live among this people.
Fla. church has only 15 members but still reaches the world
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (BP)--At Mission Baptist Church in Titusville, Fla., church members strive to live up to their name. And with nine of their 15 members volunteering in places such as Haiti, Belgium, Brazil, and various countries in Africa, the small congregation is doing just that.
‘Hungry season’ leads to greater distribution of Gospel
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| Journeyman missionary Nate Gunter works among the Tuareg people in Niger. Gunter spends much of his time speaking with fellow villagers and developing relationships with the Tuareg people. |
“This is the hardest part,” Nate Gunter, a journeyman missionary working in Bankilare, Niger, said. “They’re saying it’s just not enough.”
After working among the Tuareg people group in a bush village for two years, Gunter said he became accustomed to people begging for food, medicine and money. It wasn’t until he returned from a three-week conference in July 2005 that Gunter said he realized the despondency of the situation.
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| Nate Gunter, an IMB Journeyman, initiated famine relief efforts in Niger, and continues to work closely with Niamey partners to distribute rice to those villages that are in the greatest need. |
“I started asking around town and found out that some people out in the bush encampment areas had already died from hunger,” Gunter said. “Many were sick. Many had been eating grass for a couple of months and had developed sicknesses related to nutrition. It was at that point I came back to Niamey and met with my supervisors and said, ‘We need to do something about this.’”
During his senior year at Hannibal-LaGrange College in Hannibal, Mo., Gunter struggled with the decision of how to use his college degree. While juggling the demands of classes, ministry and work, Gunter said he contemplated everything from church work to seminary to military service.
24-year-old is first missionary to West Africa’s Sokoto Fulani
NIGER, West Africa (BP)--When Danielle Koepke spent her first night in a Fulani village in Niger, West Africa, the young missionary journeyman wondered if she was ready for the experience. Surrounded by an older Fulani woman and several members of her extended family, Koepke suddenly realized how little these Fulani people understood her.
Piercing the hopelessness of West Africa’s Songhai people
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| Joining hands atop a giant sand dune, members of the Songhai missions team pray for the people group with whom they seek to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. |
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| A Songhai man leads a pair of camels near Timbuktu, Mali. Though Gospel seeds have been sown in one area where the Songhai live, the majority of this people group have no Christian witness. |
After 12 years in Niamey, Niger, Songhai team strategy coordinators Brad and Sally Womble have grown accustomed to the phrase.
West Africa’s need for the Gospel unites churches, board
TAMPA, Fla. (BP)--With every light in the auditorium of Idlewild Baptist Church turned out, pastor Ken Whitten noted that the physical darkness of the room could not compare with the spiritual darkness of West Africa.
