Thank You! Thank you for your love, support, sacrifice and partnership! My desire is to live a life that is worthy of Christ and to please Him always. My desire is also to live a life worthy of the sacrifice people are making to support our ministry. Here are a few things God has done this past month that make me stand and shout praises to Him.
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| Please pray that our house will sell! |
Praises from the United States:
1. Melanie and I are fully supported for our mission to Liberia! There are still several onetime expenses that need to be covered but we have received pledges that will fully support a long-term ministry in Liberia. Praise God!!
2. Melanie and I have desired and felt led to be our family’s missionary. Here is what I mean by that. Melanie and I have been blessed to have been raised in Christian families. We didn’t desire our personal support to come from churches. We have been praying that we would be completely funded and sent to Liberia by our families. This has become a reality! Praise God! 100% of the money necessary to support our family in Liberia is coming from our family! THANK YOU FAMILY FOR BELIEVING IN AND BECOMING A PART OF OUR MINISTRY! Our family’s only financial need now is money for Airline tickets, and money for a few other onetime expenses. God is providing!
3. God has been providing me with side work so that I am able to support my family until we are able move to Liberia. I praise Him for meeting every one of our needs. He is good!
4. Last month I was able to complete a 4 year music CD project! By God’s grace, the CD sounds awesome / professional! I am planning on giving the CD away to everyone I know as well as giving away the rights of duplication to everyone so that the message on the CD can be heard. I pray that God would use this CD to encourage His church. If you are interested in receiving a CD, please send me an e-mail request (donriley4@gmail.com).
4. While in the States, we desire to be on mission for God. God has been leading us to start a Bible study with the people who live on our street. Some of the people on our street would never step foot in a traditional church but they have committed to being part of this Bible study. 5 out of the 10 homes on our street have committed to join. Please pray for this ministry as it is getting started. We are trusting that when the doors open for us to go to Liberia, someone else will take over this ministry. There is a man on our street who is studying for the ministry. Maybe he will take it over?
5. Before we can go to Liberia, our house needs to sell. There are still no offers on our house. Please pray!
Praises from Liberia:
1. Last month, 98 people were baptized and 35 people completed our extensive Bible study program. Please pray with me, “Father, thank You for your grace. Thank You for saving me from my sins. I praise You for these people who have surrendered their lives to You. I pray that they will now grow to maturity in their faith. Please give wisdom to those who are discipling them. I also pray for these 35 people who have been in training for Your Kingdom. Please lead them and use them to help others know You better.” Thank you for praying!
2. Last month, 800 - 1,000 people watched the Jesus film and 8,500 pages of teaching material was distributed to people who are being discipled. Praise God!
Stories and Reports from Liberia:
1. Bertin is a refugee from Ivory Coast; she is single and lives by
herself. She stays down the road from us. We have a regular Bible
study at her place with her and other refugees that live around us.
As we are able, we assist them with food. One day Bertin ran out of
food and money. She went to bed and prayed, “God you are my Father,
no money, no food. If I die, I die. You are my Father, take care of
me.”…. A man showed up at her house. She didn’t know him nor had ever
met him before. She invited him in and offered him some water. He
said he was passing through and gave her $20. She was overjoyed and
asked him his name. He said, “You do not need to know it. I will
return.” She asked for his phone number. He said, “You don’t need
it.” He left. She was amazed and so very thankful. That night she
couldn’t sleep wondering about what had happened. About 4:00 AM she
fell asleep and dreamed. In her dream a man came up to her. She
asked him, “Where did that man and money come from?” The man said,
“The man and the money came from God.” She is in a constant state of
rejoicing and peace. She says, “I know my God sees me, knows me and
can take care of me.”
2. We help start churches and work with existing churches. Most of the
leaders of the existing churches have had no training and are eager
for our training. We have produced a manual called, “Where There is
No Church.” It is a training manual for discipleship, for starting
churches and for existing church leaders. Typically we will do three
day trainings and give them a copy of the manual after the training.
We did the training in Moserado County, about 20 attended representing
about 7 churches. In the church where we held the conference their
roof had recently blown off. They had patched in some rotten roofing
pieces to cover a small section of the building, there we huddled for
the training. The pastor and his family live in a deplorable shack.
After our training, instead of using their small money for their roof,
that pastor and some of their church members took the training and
traveled to 4 other remote village churches they had started and are
united with. In two weeks of revival services, with those churches,
they baptized 83 people! We have provided each of those baptized with
certificates and will start them on discipleship training.
3. Road bandits are increasing. Liberia is sparsely populated and mostly jungle, forest and bush. There are long stretches of wilderness between settlements. Thieves will shoot and rob lone bikers.
Financial Update:
Here is a summary of where we stand financially:
- It will cost $30,000 a year to support our family once we are in Liberia. Praise God, this need has been met! THANK YOU FAMILY!
- Wow, Praise the Lord, my wife just got a phone call from Kim in Liberia. He shared with her that $5,000 was given for the construction of our house in Liberia. PRAISE GOD! I wish you could see me smile! Thank You Jesus for opening doors! This gift is enough money to complete the construction on our house! Praise God!
- It will cost around $8,000 for airline tickets to move our family to Liberia. We have been able to save $3,820 so far. We are still in need of $4,180.
- We will need around $4,300 in one time expenses such as passports, visas, in-country travel, and set-up cost. So far we have been able to cover $1,500 of these expenses! Praise God! We are still in need of $2,800.
Thank you everyone who has contributed toward our expenses! Thank you! Once these onetime expenses have been met, we will be able to completely support our family off of the $30,000 a year that our extended family is contributing. Please pray for our unmet expenses. These expenses and the sale of our house are all that stands between us and Liberia.
Donations may be mailed to:
If you are interested in donating toward these needs, donations may be sent to
Wordsower
P.O. Box 1648
Piqua, OH 45356
All donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to “Wordsower.” A receipt will be sent at year’s end.
Family Updates
Christian’s Update:
“Dear Friends and Family,
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| Christian and Don's Raccoon trap |
Grace’s update
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| Grace and Tommy |
“This letter is by Grace. We learned in our devotions about John the Baptist. John would sleep and then wake up and eat bugs and wild honey. After that, he would go and baptize people. One time Jesus came while John was baptizing. John said, you don’t need baptized. I need to be baptized by you. Jesus said no, I need to be baptized by you. So, Jesus got baptized and then He went into the desert. So that story is done and I am going to talk about something else. We went to a river at our Nanny and Papaw’s house. I went tubing. I will see you later, goodbye.
Love, Grace”
Tommy’s update
“Hello from Tommy. I am a missionary to Africa. I hope you like time with us. Last month we went skiing on the river. We went tubing and I stood on the tube. The only tube I can go on and stand is the red tube. Hi Nanny and Papaw. Hi Grandma and Grandpa. Nanny, I love you. Goodbye.”
Little Don’s Update:
This is little Don’s message to you. As you will see, we needed to reteach the story of John the Baptist to him. There was a lot that got confused in his interpretation. Enjoy! :)
“Hi, I have been learning about John the Baptist. John told the people, you need to stop sinning. Then he baptized them. Then John said you need to go see Jesus. God sent a bird. John said, “you know these bugs, you need to eat them. Eat bugs!” In Africa we may eat bugs. John the Baptist is in Africa. This I know because in Africa people are baptized all the time. John said, “stop sinning.” John told the people, “go away. I will see if I can get money and buy bugs. Do you want bugs. I will give you bugs for food.” John baptized Jesus. John told Jesus, “watch out for that bird it will get you. The dove will make you the devil.” The devil took Jesus into the wilderness.”
Melanie's Update:
Thank you all for praying for us. It is fun to see how the Lord works and shows up when we are least expecting it! Praise Him!!!!! As my children have told you, this past month, we have enjoyed visiting with family and being with our cousins. :):) I do not think that Don mentioned this but my brother in law became very sick and even needed to be on a ventilater for quite a few days and I know many of you were praying. Thank you. He is doing well for the most part now. Praise Jesus!!
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