God blessed during the month of April, and I had the opportunity to preach the Gospel in 4 different schools, including 1 where the principal led the entire school in prayer for me and our ministry. The Devil was fighting though. On April 2, we took Barrett to the clinic since he couldn’t keep anything down and found he had a severe case of malaria and an infection. We ended up staying at the clinic for a good portion of the day, and Barrett was miserable. However, when his little sister Joanna arrived, she managed to cheer him up.

Two days later, I was in the most severe pain of my entire life and ended up going to the same clinic a little after midnight. After 31 hours of treatments and tests, I was released, with their best theory being that I had a severe infection, as my white blood cell count was at 17.4. The doctor asked if I had been sampling “their” food, to which I replied yes. He then said, “No more—stick to foods you know.” I now have doctor’s orders to stay away from Nigerian food, which is living proof “. . . that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Barrett and I spent a lot of time together in the clinic for follow-up visits in the days ahead, bonding over our shared experience.

The discipleship class continues to grow, and it seems that each week there is someone new there. On April 18, we had an activity at the church for the young people. They enjoyed games, food, and Christian fellowship. I preached on the brevity of life and making sure that your life counts for Jesus, and the altar was filled with young people making decisions. On April 22 & 23, we had a Bible Quiz at the church for the youth, in which 2 other churches participated. I was 1 of the 2 scorekeepers and was surprised and encouraged by the level of knowledge the teenagers possessed. On April 25, I traveled with a group from the church almost 2 hours away to Grace Independent Baptist Church of Omoku to go soul winning in advance of their 10th anniversary. On the 27th, I went back to the church to teach Sunday school for the anniversary service, while Missionary David Maskey preached a powerful morning message that resulted in multiple people being saved.

Thank you for praying about our housing situation. I am pleased to report that we had an accepted offer of rental on a house and hope to move in during the month of May. God was in it, as we had looked at multiple houses much farther away. However, this location is less than a mile away from the church and has the best layout of any house we looked at. The close proximity is especially helpful, as we are without a vehicle, but now we can walk to the church in about 15 minutes.

The owner also still accepted our offer despite being over 20% less than what he was initially asking for. Please pray as we get settled in our new place. It will be the first time in close to 2½ years we have had a place we can call home, and we are looking forward to it. Please continue to pray for our health and safety. I would ask that you also pray for the school ministry, as we strive to preach the Gospel in the local schools.

Working hard to bring fruit to your account,

Jeremy, Sandra, Carina, Barrett, Henry, Alex, & Joanna Barker