Virginia

This story is of a little girl name Virginia and the village of Koumana. Virigina is five years old and this photo of her was taken this April. As you can see she is adorable. This is where our first summer team of this season went to erect a metal structure with a tin pan roof which is now their first permanent church building.

A pastor who lived in the area surrounding Koumana had a dream/vision one night. In that dream God had pushed him to the village of Koumana on his bicycle powered by a great wind. The pastor said he did not pedal but the wind directed him into the village.

The next day he woke up and immediately got on his bicycle and pedaled to the village from his dream. When he arrived he found there was only one Christian in the entire village. The other villagers told him about the old man, who believed in Jesus and they testified that every Sunday morning for years and years the old man went into a nearby run down building where he prayed.

When the pastor found the old man he told the pastor that he had been praying to God for years to bring the gospel to his village. The old man cried with tears of joy that finally his prayers had been answered. Soon after the district committee assigned Joshua to be the full time pastor of this village.

The church began with three people, the pastor, the old man and one other but within a year or so it had grown to 166 believers!

The original church was made of tree branches and a woven straw mat roof. Many in the village were not happy that the pastor had come to preach the gospel, and the church was growing, so they burned the church and their few benches up . They did this hoping to instill fear into the believers and the pastor……BUT ……I love this word….. BUT, the pastor encouraged the believers to stand strong, and he assured them God had great things in store for them. Then our Summit work team arrived to gift them with a strong, permanent metal church structure!

The local pastor gave us the photo of Virginia and told us her story. She is five years old and has this large hard growth coming out of the back of her head. John sent her to a larger city to see if a medical intervention could help her.

Yesterday the pastor called and said that they would be able to surgically remove this growth but it would cost $1000. So once again we ask for first of all your prayers for this girl, her family, this pastor, this village, and for God to touch the hearts of those He would have give to provide this life changing surgery for this young girl.