DeKryger - Todd , Jennifer & boys

DeKryger Detailer
July 2008
 
Greetings from Togo, W. Africa.  We are doing well; we are blessed, we have laughed and cried, having been very engaged in the ministry here. I think of the blessing of seeing an older woman coming back from a coma to accept Christ as her Savior, minutes before she died.  I think of the tragedy of a young mother and friend of our family (likely without Jesus Christ in her life), who died of toxic liver poisoning, having come to our hospital much too late.  We have days when up to 5 people die, and days when 6-8 babies are born in good health.  We rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.  We have daily opportunities with people of all different faith groups, to explain that God is good, loving, faithful, and compassionate to all that He has made.
 
Items of Update: 

• We are very grateful for our co-workers, those whom God has placed with us to carry out His plan.  He has given us the return of veteran missionary couples: Tim and Esther Neufeld and Steve and Mary Jo Mills have come back from furlough.  We have also welcomed a new couple, Alan and Katherine Niles, who are here to begin the outreach into Mango, Togo, with the Neufelds and another family, the Mayburys. 
• Our family has been personally blessed by the presence of Kristen Colley, a PA student from Maine, here in June, and Lisa Lauritzen, school teacher from Fremont, MI, who worked with us in France, here for the month of July.
• Our family, have asked our team for a year of furlough starting in September of 2009 to September of 2010. That will make 4 years since our departure to language school.  We would then return to Togo in September of 2010 and move directly to Mango, Togo. 

 
Items of Thanks:  Thank you for keeping us before our God in prayer, and thank you for your ongoing financial support of our family.  We love the Togolese people, we are amazed at what He is accomplishing in their lives, and we embrace the plan that God is showing us.   God is expanding His ministry in the Muslim north of this country, and we feel as committed as ever to be a part of carrying out His amazing plan.
 
Items of Prayer:  

• We need God to do a mighty work to raise up medical teammates for the new hospital in Mango.  We need a career surgeon, medical doctors, Physician Assistants, nurses, technicians, and administrators.  If a missionary candidate started on the path towards Mango today they would most likely arrive just in time for the opening of the hospital in 2013.  There is, from a human standpoint, very little wiggle room for God’s people to delay their commitment to serving the Lord for the start of this medical outreach in this Muslim stronghold of Togo.  Pray that God would do a great work to make this happen in His perfect timing.

• Please pray that God puts in place the Togolese teammates He desires to be a part of our team.
• Pray for Jennifer’s Bible study with her Muslim friend Aisha, and for Todd’s study with Isifou.
• Please pray for the timely arrival of Kelli Thayer, the teacher for our boys, who is raising the last of her support.
• Our gardener, Chef, is dying of liver cancer.  Pray for the peace of God on him, his family (many from a fetish background), his wife (6 months pregnant), and his 2 daughters.  

 
In closing, we are grateful for you.  Thank you for praying for us; we need your prayers.  Thank you for sustaining us in your continual support of this ministry.  We are sorry for all the delays in getting back to you by email as our email system had been down now for over 2 months.
 
In Christ,
 
Todd, Jennifer, William, Grant, Luke, and Drew DeKryger