Dear <<First Name>>,
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am so thankful to be home “in my right mind” this Thanksgiving. Two years ago as of November 21, I had a brain hemorrhage in Senegal and evidently spent that Thanksgiving (11/23/2017) in a French hospital in Dakar, though I don’t remember it. GOD IS GOOD, AND HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER!
I returned home on November 17 from this last trip. What a trip it was! All along I really sensed that God had gone before me, surely in answer to heartfelt prayer of you and many others. I was able to work in Senegal, Mali, Chad, Nigeria and Togo during the last month.
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Here's a Quick Recap of My Trip
SENEGAL: Though I was only in Senegal for a few days, I was able to have meetings with the head of the Methodist Church and the new superintendent of the Assemblies of God. Both are eager to use Live School to train their people as missionaries. Paul from Sierra Leone, who I’m grooming to help us with the west coast countries of WACA, met me in Senegal. We spent some time together with our Senegal coordinator team, Guy and Nathalie. Then, after a couple of days when I flew to Mali, Paul traveled to The Gambia, Guinea Bissau and throughout Senegal.
Top Picture: With Methodist President of Senegal, Jean Pierre (far left on bottom row)
Bottom Left Picture: Methodist VP of Senegal & Kine Mane, who was with the previous president in the 1st facilitator training done in Senegal back in 2016)
MALI: The Lord is unifying His Church! Even though we strongly urged the two church associations to come together to hold one meeting with us, they would not. BUT GOD... Through a series of events, on the morning of the first meeting, both church associations came together, and we held one church meeting together as the Body of Christ in Mali! Hallelujah! “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity" (Isa 133:1). May this be a sign of things to come (Jn 17:20-23), that every people in Mali might embrace the Lordship of Christ! When we lift our eyes to see the vast harvest around us, we recognize that we need each other to bring it in (Mat 9:35-38; Jn 4:34-36). May we all "hammer their swords into plowshares...” (Isa 2:4) and work "together for the faith of the gospel" (Phil 1:27)!
Many who wanted to come from deep interior could not because of the bomb threats on the roads, ambushes and the like. Please pray for the Lord to send us two to four brave men from Mali who are full of faith to be trained in the Guinea Leadership Development Academy (LDA) that we have planned for the first quarter of 2020. Upon graduation, we hope to send these across the difficult terrain of Mali to “provoke, enthuse and inspire” it to make disciples of every people. We are called to help our brothers “possess their land” (Josh 1:14-15)!
While Mali is officially a “French-speaking” nation, only about 20% of the people speak French. 80% of them speak Bambara (Bamanankan), which is very close to Jula. The languages are so close that they are basically the same. If we are really going to impact this region, we need to equip and empower the Church among these 12.75 million people to reach them! Please pray with us about how and when to focus on this.
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CHAD: In Chad, I was able to spend time with the graduating LDA students from Central Africa and was honored to be a part of their graduation ceremony. Listening to their testimonies helped me understand and see firsthand some of the elements in these Chad LDA's that need to be implemented in every LDA we have. An LDA is not a typical Live School. It is an intensive 3 month training to develop coordination teams in WACA countries to help us roll out Live School and focus the Church on fulfilling its task, the Great Commission. It was also a great blessing to spend time with Justin and his wife Maimouna.
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NIGERIA: From Chad, I flew to Nigeria. The first line of business was to meet with the entities translating and audio dubbing Live School into Hausa. Not only is everyone on the same page and the project set up to be done in time, but there are other key languages that GCMN (the Nigerian Campus Crusade for Christ) may be able to help us with in the future: Fulani, Moré, Bambara, and Wolof. Hallelujah! The other main reason for going to Nigeria was to meet with several solar companies identified by Moses, our Nigerian Coordinator, and test their products on the projectors to be used in the Kaya, Burkina Faso refugee Live Schools. Many thanks to you who have already sponsored the 2 projectors! All that remains for these two Live Schools to start among the refugees in Kaya, Burkina Faso now is getting them two solar systems, about $550 each. Sowing towards these solar systems, something so practical, translates into providing genuine opportunities for ministry and the healing of these refugee's hearts who have fled severe persecution in the north. I have no doubt that as they go through Live School, they will move from being victims to victors in Christ. We expect 50+ in one and 70+ in the other Refugee LS in Kaya, Burkina Faso.
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Our involvement with the solar testing goes beyond these two important schools. We plan to have a brochure with different solar options to give our WACA team in August. They, in turn, will make them available to vetted potential host churches back in their countries that are in areas without electricity. Believe it or not, there are a lot of areas like this in WACA, usually nearest to those with the least access to the Gospel. Moses our Nigerian coordinator is doing excellent work in finding solar systems that will cost host churches a fraction of what it would cost them to piece together a solar system themselves, sometimes costing less than 1/3 the street price!
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TOGO: In Togo we looked at venues in which to have our August WACA-wide Team Meeting. Due to our budget and the number of people we expect, only 2 of these venues will work. We plan to spend one week in this venue and to split up into smaller teams the second week to go interior and blitz the country with LS and outreaches. Expatriates coming will spend a couple days with us in the larger WACA Team Meeting and then go interior to experience and be a part of what we do. If you are interested in coming, CLICK HERE.
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Amazon Prime & Sonrise International
It's that time of year of finding the perfect gifts for your loved ones. What if you could purchase that perfect gift as well as make a difference in the lives of men and women in West and Central Africa? Sign up for Amazon Smile on Amazon, choosing Sonrise International as your choice of nonprofit and every purchase you make on Amazon will make a donation to Sonrise International.
Click HERE to shop Amazon while giving back to Sonrise International.
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During the entire trip, God, as always, did exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond all I could ask or think (Eph 3:20)! WE HAVE SO MUCH FOR WHICH TO BE THANKFUL! Praise His holy name!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Chip & Kathy Carroll
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Sonrise International exists to bring transformation to cultures for the Glory of God by opening the bottleneck of laborers to the mission field. We do this by assisting the national churches in West and Central Africa (WACA) to train some of their everyday believers as effective cross-cultural missionaries.
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May the Lord's blessings rest on you, that all nations might know His glory. (Genesis 12:1-3 & Psalms 67:1-2)
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