Prayer for Andrew and Rebbecca

Who is Andrew and Rebbecca?

Many of you may have heard me talk about Andrew before. He is the only believer in his entire village - The Goonies - up in the mountains, and has faced great persecution because of it. He is also one of the leaders in the church in Archenland.

Andrew has been very instrumental in our work to get God's word out to the Maninka people. He is our story crafter. He's been so willing to spend many hours talking about God's word so he can put it in story form and record so more of his people can hear about God in an natural and easy to understand way.

In the years that he has been a follower of Jesus he has endured many trials, but his faith remains strong as he continues to walk the Jesus road. When I think of Andrew's situation I'm reminded of the song Trading My Sorrows and the part that says "I'm pressed, but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. I'm blessed beyond the curse for HIS promise will endure, and HIS joy is gonna be my strength..." That has been Andrew's attitude towards every trial that come his way, and to this day he continues to face them, and it seems they come one right after the other.

With the death of his older brother just a few months ago Andrew has now become the head of his household. That includes everyone in his compound, his mothers, his sisters, and his brother's wives. It is a custom in the culture that the wife / wives of the one who just passed be married off to the next oldest brother - in this case, Andrew. But as a follower of Jesus Andrew will not take a second wife, and so pretty much the entire village is giving him a hard time for his decision.

In addition to looking out for his household Andrew has been taking care of his wife Rebbecca who is constantly sick. She has had all kinds of illness, from malaria, to typhoid, to being possessed by evil spirits. Her illness comes and goes, some days she feels healthy enough to move around and even go to the field, other days it gets so bad she can barely hold herself up. As the years pass it has gotten worse and worse.

Recently her illness acted up again, and after not getting good results from the doctors in Archenland, we took them to a clinic in the Capital so Rebbecca can be properly diagnosed. There we discovered that her illness is very severe. It has taken a toll on her body and has made her seriously weak and thin, and was looking like she doesn't have too long to live. She was given some medicine to strengthen her, and will soon be put on a treatment specifically for this disease. The medicine seems to be helping out as we noticed her condition improving in the last couple days we've seen her.

In the last 2 weeks we've been back and forth to the clinic numerous times so we can figure out what is really going on with Rebbecca. During one of our visits to the clinic the doctor suggested that Andrew get checked as well as it is possible he may have the same disease as Rebbecca. And it turns out Andrew does. Although he has not been showing any signs that the disease is affecting him, he will begin the treatments to help fight this illness and hopefully prolong his life as well.

With all these circumstances that pile up and test us, it is clearly very difficult to face alone. That is why I am thankful we serve a God who is bigger than all these circumstances, or anything that we could ever face. A God who cares and loves us and will walk us through the fire, and help us in the trials, so that we come out stronger and the victor.

PRAISE HIM!!!!

"I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there?

My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth!" ~ Psalm 121.1- 2