Prayer Letter
December 2009 / January 2010

The Christmas season always gets the children excited here: they get a month off from school, a bowl of rice and stew on Christmas day, a new set of clothes from their parents, and usually nothing more. Independent Baptist Church tries to make Christmas more special. We had parties for the morning and evening classes with a Christmas story and some games and crafts. The children were thrilled to make cards out of used Christmas cards glued onto construction paper. Then, they strung colored beads to make necklaces. Even the boys wore theirs home. As they left, we gave them some small toys, balloons and candy.

This past Monday morning the Lord sent two “messages” of encouragement, for which we are very grateful. First, we received delivery on some concrete blocks for two small projects here at the church. Along with the blocks, we were given a white envelope. Inside, I found the money we had used to pay for the blocks two days earlier. Later, Ellen stopped by to thank the owner of the block company and he said it was a “contribution” to the church. He added that he was very happy that we were still in Lokoja.

As for the second message of encouragement: shortly after the blocks had arrived, we received a phone call from our lawyer’s office manager. He told us that our neighbor’s appeal in the court case over our mutual boundary had been denied! (She had recently tried to reopen her lawsuit against us after the case had been decided in our favor a year ago.) We are still involved in a second court case with a different neighbor over another part of our land.

Join us in praising God for the two messages of encouragement and then in prayer for the remaining court case. Also, please pray for two brothers, Paul and Stanley Okafor, who received Christ as their Saviour and Lord, and for Idris, a long-time Muslim acquaintance, to whom I am still witnessing. In addition, please pray for the salvation of the four Muslim children in the foreground of the photo. They live across the road from IBC and have been attending the evening program. They are Abdul, Bimbola, Jemila and Fatima.

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support.

Your fellow-laborers in Christ,
Ross and Ellen Ligon