Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! The Lord has certainly been the reason for the season here. We are thankful for His continuous hand of blessing, protection, and guidance here. We see what HE is doing in the hearts and lives of the people here and know that He truly is Immanuel, God with us. We look forward to the new year and anticipate even more opportunities to give hope to the Deaf here in Ghana!
We were blessed to see more Deaf being added to the church by stepping forward in believer’s baptism. Many had hesitations because of the strong indoctrination that if you don’t live a life of repentance (sinlessness), you should not be baptized. Thank God for the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, which help them see that they were simply obeying and NOT identifying with the works of righteousness which we have done, but with the finished work of Christ on the Cross.
Every week we work on a portion of Scripture to memorize as a church, along with our Bible-reading schedule. We began with very easy, basic verses. We were glad to see many of them work diligently through the week to accomplish this task. We then changed it to portions of Scripture. We were excited to see eight (six pictured) memorize Psalm 23. This was no easy feat for them. Many of them work ALL DAY LONG to provide for their families. A few of them are language-deprived, meaning they have a harder time understanding the words they are reading. We were pleasantly surprised at their determination to memorize the chapter.
Esther has been faithfully attending church for quite some time now. Emmanuel brought her as a visitor even though he is traveling often and is not as faithful. Esther became Deaf late in life and learned the few signs she does know from the Deaf community, especially Emmanuel. She spoke Twi before becoming Deaf, making it nearly impossible for my wife or me to witness to her. I scheduled a time when Emmanuel was in town to use him as my interpreter. It was an incredible thing to see; but, praise God, Esther stopped trusting her good works and put her faith in Christ alone for salvation!
Please continue to pray for God’s guidance, protection, and blessing for our family and the work here in Ghana. Reminder: Please contact me if you would like to schedule an update during our furlough for fall of 2020.
Your co-laborers for Christ,
The Hall Family
