Dear Friends and Family:

Merry Christmas! 🎄 Angela and I are excited to share some news about an upcoming trip we are taking to Chad, Africa. 🇹🇩 Some of you are already aware of this, and some of you have asked for updates. And some of you – well, you just ended up on our email list and can keep reading or just ignore this. =)

Background

For nearly 15 years, our church has supported missionaries, Scott and Susan Downing, in rural Chad who are bringing clean water, community support, English lessons, and the Gospel of Christ to the people of their village and surrounding areas.

About 5 months ago, our church indicated that a small group would be traveling to visit the Downings and support them in various activities, including teaching English and providing clean water by drilling new wells.

After prayerful consideration, Angela and I decided to join this trip, which will be from February 1-11, 2025. If you want to hear more about the Downings and what drew us to this opportunity to serve alongside them, we’d love to tell you more!

To get a glimpse into the heart of this ministry, we invite you to watch this short 3-minute video and hear Scott share about their gospel work in Chad. 

Preparation To Date

We’ve kicked into high gear for this trip, which includes:

-              Yellow Fever Vaccinations (plus a few others, as needed)  💉

-              Prescriptions in hand 💊

-              Passport Photos and Visa Applications 🛂

-              Brushing up on French (this is Angela’s bailiwick)  🇫🇷

-              Meeting regularly with our team and the missionary couple ⛪️

What’s Next

Angela is coordinating the English as a Second Language (ESL) activities for our team. She’ll continue preparing lessons, activities, and ways to connect with the people in Chad. They primarily speak Chadian Arabic and French (very little English is spoken in the village)

Danny is getting excited about sleeping under the stars when they travel to drill one or two wells about an hour outside their (already remote) village.

How Can You Help?

Please pray for safety, ease of travel (we connect through Paris to N’Djamena), health, and flexibility when things don’t go as expected.  🙏🏻

More importantly, please pray for open hearts to the Gospel, for opportunities to minister and connect with the people of the villages, for encouragement to the missionaries, and for the ability to provide tangible results with clean water and teaching of English.

We are so thankful for those of you who have contributed to support our trip. It will cost about $3,200 per person, and many of you have already given in a gracious manner.

If you would like to financially contribute to support us, you can do so at this link or by contacting us directly.

We look forward to keeping you posted on our preparations, our travel, and our trip.

Grace and Peace,

Danny and Angela