Happy February To You All!!!

February 5, 2012

Greeting from Sierra Leone!

What a joy it was to spend the holidays with family in Texas! Our thanks to our church and all of you for giving us this privilege! It was nothing short of a whirlwind, but a good one. We were blessed to find our parents, children and grandchildren doing well. Our biggest regret is that we could not spend time with each of YOU as we would have liked, but we felt it important that we focus on family for this first trip back home. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING!

VISION 2012! We are thrilled at all God did in 2011, and we expect Him to continue to grow the ministry here even more this year. With eagerness we want to share updates on some of the aspects of His work!

Mohamed (Bobo): Bo is doing well. We are grateful to those who made arrangements for us to take him to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas to the children’s dermatology department for assessment. Dr Agim believes the root cause of his 5+ year skin condition is fungal. We currently have 11 medicines, oral and topical, and are aggressively treating him. We’ve had a few setbacks since we returned. The heat and humidity here may be part of the problem, but we are hopeful that one day this precious little boy will be completely healed. We will soon start the process of expanding our one year temporary fostering status to something more indefinite.

Margaret Tucker’s Orphans: We continue to praise the Lord for a group of Sierra Leoneans and a family from Jefferson City, MO for funding the education of Margaret’s 24 school children for the 2011-2012 school year. And now we have the added assurance that they will be provided another year of school, plus food and medical needs for the family, through an Orphan Sponsorship Program at FBC McKinney, TX.

War Widows Association: The 85 widows are looking forward to 2012 as they expand their farming from 24 acres to up to 74 acres throughout the year. They are also improving the various skills that they have added since the fall of 2010: weaving, quilting, jewelry making, soap making and raising sheep & goats! We have never seen people work as hard as these women!

Hosetta School for Children with Mental Challenges: Construction continues on a dormitory that will house 24 children on site at the school. This will benefit children that cannot attend because of lack of transportation. The school is the only one of its kind in Sierra Leone, and we see such potential for reaching more children who are considered “the very lease of these” in this culture. Teams in May and June will focus on construction, as well as continuing teacher training and curriculum development for the staff.

Young Adult Skills Development: We currently have 14 young men training in electrical or plumbing skills, and we have 10 young women that are launching a business cooperative in March in hairdressing based on the skills they learned last year.

There are so many things we could share, but we will save those for another time. We appreciate you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and financial support! We are humbled and so grateful to God for bringing each of you into our lives!
May 2012 truly be a year of GREAT ADVENTURES for all of us!

Tom & Becky

Contributions:
Please make checks payable to:
Transform Your World Network, TYW05
Mail to:
TYW Network
PO Box 1900
McKinney, TX 75069
OR donate online: FBCmissionallife.com