May God bless and protect them.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot
Dear Friends,We are sorry that we were not able to keep you updated this past week on the recent crisis in the Ivory Coast as our e-mail was down. As you probably have heard by now, all missionaries in Bouake' were successfully evacuated for which we praise the Lord! The Holmes family is in North Carolina with their parents. Also, Becky Mach (the lady who gave birth at home during the uprising) and their four children have safely arrived in Cleveland. Bob will be traveling home later after he closes things up.
Nate's sister, Joan Cuthbertson is due with their ninth child any day now. The Cuthbertsons are still in San Pedro along with Nate's mother, Joan Watkins, Andy & Becky Messer and family (Nate's youngest sister), as well as the Gault and Johnson family. Things are calm in San Pedro for which we are thankful. The Sheppard family were in Liberia for a conference when the war started and borders were closed, so they are presently in Monrovia, Liberia waiting out the war by serving Pray for a safe delivery for Joan C. and that things would soon return to normal in the Ivory Coast. Also for wisdom for the mission and missionaries as they make decisions about whether the missionaries in San Pedro should leave the country or not.
Dear praying Friends,
Hello. Well, things have changed for us again. We found out just today that the government has not signed the peace treaty and in fact, has attacked Bouaké to try to take it back from the rebels. The people of the country seem to support this action and want the government to "squash" the rebellion. However, this means war here and we have been advised by our Pastor to leave the country if the other missionaries leave.
We are planning to leave San Pedro on Tuesday, Lord willing, and head to Monrovia, Liberia (where some of our fellow missionaries are waiting for us--Mark and Nancy Sheppard). We will be traveling with Dan and Joan Cuthbertson (my sister) who are expecting their 9th child any day now. We were going to wait for Joan to have her baby before leaving, but in the light of the news, we want to get out while the getting is good AND, we heard that there may be the possibility of hitching a ride on a helicopter from Harper, Liberia to Monrovia, Liberia (thus avoiding a long drive) if we are there on Tuesday afternoon.
So, unless the baby decides to come tomorrow or Tues. early, we plan to leave Tuesday morning to drive to Harper (about 6 hours) and then at least my sister (and hopefully my mom and I with some babies) will fly to Monrovia (Dan and Andy will come in the cars). We plan to wait in Monrovia to see if things will clear up in a few weeks. This will be a much needed time of rest for us and Lord willing we will be able to return to our homes. We can't tell you how things will turn out, but please pray for us and for Cote d'Ivoire. There are ministries in Monrovia in which we can be involved while we are waiting, and if we see that the wait is going to be too long, we will then have to decide what to do (probably come home to the U.S.) Do I need to say again that we covet your prayers???
Please pray for a safe trip out of Cote d'Ivoire (our main concern is that they will let us cross the boarder) and for a safe delivery for my sister. Pray for us to trust the Lord in all of this. We know His timing is perfect and we are truly seeking to do His will. We are not ready to leave the works here, so we are hoping to be able to come back and continue them as soon as possible. We have people who will care for our house while we are gone and we have two men who will carry on the church services in our absence. It will be a good time for them to test their wings so to speak. Pray that they will be faithful.
Also, Andy has a man who will oversee the church building project as we are gone. We truly hope to be gone only a few weeks, but who can tell. Only God knows. We shall take it one day at a time and try to keep you informed. If you don't hear from us for a bit it is because we won't have access to a computer till we get to Monrovia. One of our main problems is how to get money into the hands of the people that are staying here to pay our bills while we are gone. We hope to pay up as much as possible ahead and then leave money here to cover the rest. There are a lot of details to handle before we leave so tomorrow will be a very busy day. I'm sure many of you will be praying for us and I want to thank you in advance. We are not stressed and we know that God is in control of all of these things. We are sure that this will bring growth in the lives of the believers here and in our church. Rom. 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." We know we love God, so we have nothing to fear.
Much Love in Christ,
Andy and Becky Messer
Missionaries from Salem Baptist Church
Serving with World Wide New Testament Baptist Missions
Please continue to pray……