Solomon Ishaku January 2021

Hey there family and friends!

I have been reading through the Psalms with my baby brother, Jamaal, and this one has been such a sweet encouragement:

Hide your face from my sins, 
    and blot out all my iniquities. 
Create in me a clean heart, O God,  
    and renew a right spirit within me.  
Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,  
   and uphold me with a willing spirit.  
(Psalm 51:9-12)

Isn’t it a humbling reminder that we cannot even worship God to our fullest potential without His help? We become so burdened with “doing everything well” that we forget He is the author of EXCELLENCE. As the holiday season comes to an end, I want to encourage you to remain in God’s presence and continue to celebrate the birth of our Lord! Sit at the hem of His garment and rest in the power of His Word. This has been our strength during a quite unpredictable year, and I pray it will be yours!

By God’s grace, I was able to visit my family and friends in Louisiana. As always, it was a sweet time. With every embrace, I could feel peace rush over them knowing God has kept me. I was also able to spend time with friends I have not seen since my Nigeria departure and the reunion was truly a gift. Ishaku was not able to join me, but we pray he will in 2021. We will continue his visa process after the holidays; please pray with us that God will provide, and he will be granted approval.

We are also preparing to have my mama over to officially meet Ishaku! She was not able to attend the wedding, so we are hopeful that she will, at last, be able to give him one of her sweet “welcome to the family” hugs. This week, I will book the flight and she will begin the visa process. COVID-19 is still underway, so pray that God will have His hand over the entire process as travel can be largely impacted.

Me and my beautiful Mama

During my visit, I was able to speak with my Lake Charles partners about joining my second term commitment with the Rafiki Foundation. I will continue as the Headmaster of the schools and agreed to do this for two more years, God willing. Many of you signed up for a two-year service term in 2018, and although I was not able to visit, I ask that you would continue your commitment.

Lake Charles pop up

I was also asked to speak at a few schools and churches about missions, mission partnership, and mountain-moving faith. If you would like to see any of those write-ups, they are on my Facebook page and the Sale Street Baptist Church Facebook page. We are praying that God will move in the hearts of His people to become financial partners with us. Please feel free to reach out if you are interested in sharing our information with anyone you know or presenting it to your church or organization. After speaking at First Baptist Church Moss Bluff, a parent told us that her son had recently grown rather fond of Africa and is praying that if missions is his calling, He would water that seed!

Lake Charles Charter Academy

First Baptist Church Moss Bluff

Our campus here in Jos is steadily growing and changing. The students got about six weeks to review content and get back into the flow of school after having been out for nine months due to COVID-19. They, along with the staff, were more than eager to hear the buzz of life on campus again. In November, we were blessed to admit over twenty new students from the surrounding community. This brought our roster up to 315 students. Word of mouth will always be the best advertisement. Not only will these children get a beautiful classical Christian education, but they will also be taught the Word of God every morning by teachers who love them like Christ! How great it is to share the truth and light of the Scriptures.

Many of you loved our last community service update, so we thought we would share another. A lot of our life is on social media, but things like the following we keep closer to home. For the holidays last year, we were able to purchase a few yams and some rice for the neighbors. About forty families received half a yam and a bit of rice. This year, God did abundantly more. Because of your continued partnership, we were able to save enough to buy almost three times more yams and rice for the families near and around our compound. It was surreal to watch the bags and boxes fill up and be whisked away.

As always, thank you for your continued support, prayers, and encouragement. Please share our newsletter with anyone you think would be interested. As our family grows, so will our needs. Please pray alongside us for people to join in this life ministry of service to the Kingdom.

We love you!

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