Office Opportunities

Joanne’s Jottings

News from The Gambia, West Africa

March 2008

I never would have thought that a small, cluttered office would end up being a hub of personal ministry. From my office at the Literacy Center, where I work from Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM. until 2 PM, I direct the programs of the literacy center, handle the finances and talk to people who come to my door. The office, with my employees coming and going, provides a place where I can have serious conversations, even with men, and not risk gossip. With no missionary men in NK, this is vital.

In the past week, these are some of the conversations that I’ve had in my office:

• A woman has been struggling with depression for several months since the death of her daughter. She comes to my office to get out of her house and have a safe place to cry. If I don’t see her at least once a week, I start getting concerned.
• A young woman continues to struggle with her husband’s neglect of her and their children. He is actively seeking a second wife and is known to be involved with other women. I listen and encourage her to pray for him and not stoop to his level.
• A man comes to receive his pay and starts talking about how the world is full of problems. We discuss how Adam and Eve’s sin brought trouble into the world and that we are still seeing the effects of their sin as well as our own.
• Another man, a believer, comes with some questions about Scripture he is reading. I answer his questions and take the opportunity to challenge him regarding accountability with another male believer.
• A woman who was widowed and remarried recently (to her late husband’s brother) comes to inform me that her husband is angry at her and the children so he is not providing food for them. He is trying to put the family compound in his name, but his brother’s sons should inherit the compound. He is threatening to knock down the cement houses that he built on the land. Today she returned to let me know that the husband has relented and is providing food again for her and the children. Peace returns, at least for now.
• A man tells me that he wants me to send him to America. Of course, I tell him that I can’t do that. He responds that he will become a Christian and starts telling me that God just wants a clean heart. Hearing my opening, I jump and explain that our righteousness is like filthy rags and that the only way to have a clean heart is by trusting in Jesus Christ. He let me explain the gospel to him. Whatever his motivation, God’s Word is powerful.
• A man has been reading a book on evangelism (he found it somewhere) and wanted me to explain the words wrath and redeemed. I explained them fully, probably more fully than he wanted as he also had ulterior motives.

God has a plan for The Gambia. Please pray with us for God’s plan to be fulfilled in God’s time. In the hard times and the easy times, our only responsibility is to be obedient. God alone is responsible for the results.

Serving by grace,

Joanne