Larae Hoff Prayer Letter: Helping Daughter Churches with Their Children’s Ministries

Humility . . . I have been learning about humility while helping with the church in Mamponteng. Emmanuel, the gentleman I am training to lead the children’s ministry, has an interesting testimony. We had a discussion the other day about clothing. He explained about how the year after he got saved, he decided to get rid of his clothing that had inappropriate words. Wow! How many of us decide to be humble and make decisions like that once we decide to follow Christ, even if it means that we have fewer clothes to choose from?

So much has happened since I wrote last. God has been doing exciting things in our daughter church, Fundamental Baptist Church of Mamponteng! Thank you for praying for this church and their workers! On Saturday evenings, I have been helping Mrs. Lydia, the pastor’s wife, with the Bible Club she does at her home. We’ve had 4 new children come. We’ve done a Saturday morning Bible Club in 2 different locations, 6 weeks for the first and 3 weeks for the second. The Bible Club workers started encouraging the children to come to church, and Pastor Kingsley began taking his pragya (“tricycle taxi”) to pick up children farther away from the Bible Club. This has resulted in over 23 children coming with him, as he makes 2 trips before bringing his wife and children (and me, when I stay at their house). On August 3, we started Junior Church, and the next Sunday, I noticed a small, but great problem—chairs! There weren’t enough chairs to set up for Junior Church, as well as for the people to sit on during the morning service! So, because of your financial giving, I had 22 benches built! Thank you for being faithful! On August 17, we divided the Sunday school into boys’ and girls’ classes. Emmanuel is teaching the boys, and Bridget, one of the Bible Club workers, is in charge of the girls. Emmanuel, Bridget, and the Bible Club workers have grown a lot in their understanding of teaching verses and Bible lessons.

How cool is this?! On August 2, we saw a blessing at the Saturday morning prayer and soul-winning meeting—8 children from Bible Club were there! It has been so exciting to see these young people have a desire for God and church. Please pray for these children’s parents to come to know Christ as their Saviour. Please pray for the workers in Mamponteng to help the children grow spiritually.

Fundamental Baptist Church of Mamponteng had their Vacation Bible School August 26-29. We invited 19 workers from our church in Bohyen to help. There was a total of 309 children who attended over the 4 days. We had 130 children come from the 2 Saturday Bible Clubs. Thanks to the soul winners sharing with the children who raised their hands to be saved, 115 children accepted Jesus as their Saviour throughout the week. Over 100 children made sure of their salvation/eternal security also. The Sunday morning after VBS, 3 adults and 17 children came to church for the first time! Thank you for praying! We are still seeing fruit from VBS, including these most recent Sundays. During VBS, we had an exciting blessing. At the second Bible Club location we did, several children had told us their parents would not allow them to come to church, but on the Tuesday of VBS, 8 children came from that location! Praise God!

September 9 was the first day of school at Fundamental Baptist Academy. There is a lot of excitement going on. Last year, I was able to work with Leo, a student in our pre-K who has non-verbal autism. Leo is returning this year, and another student with special needs is joining our school. His name is Theophilus, and he has Down syndrome. It was great to see Leo make small progress. Please pray that the new student will be able to do well in school. Please join me in praying for the FBA teachers to communicate well with each other, which is sometimes hard to do in their culture.

I want to thank you for your financial giving, which has allowed me to help provide biscuits (what they call types of cookies here), candies, quiet-seat prizes, and items for Bible-lesson review games. These items have all been greatly used in Mamponteng for their children’s ministries. Thank you! Please continue to pray for me as I finish up helping in Mamponteng and prepare to go to the next daughter church sometime in October. Public-school preaching and soul winning are happening again, and the workers have asked me if I would help, but I won’t start until the first Wednesday in October. Please pray that Mavis, my translator, and I will be clear and effective for these primary students to understand the Gospel. Thank you for praying for my storage totes; they are still slowly on their way to Kumasi, Ghana.