Pedal to the Metal

Jordan Kurecki and Alicia Ramirez arrived at BBTI in 2017 and could not have come from more different backgrounds. Alicia was homeschooled and raised in a Fundamental Baptist church. She learned to play the violin, interpret for the Deaf, and be an EMT. Jordan came from a totally non-religious broken home in the Chicago area. He attended public school and learned early to play with alcohol, drugs, and a wicked lifestyle. A friend invited Jordan to a Baptist church when he was nineteen. After a time, he trusted Christ. Alicia made a profession of faith in Christ at age four and later, at age fourteen, received assurance of salvation. It took the same grace to save a good girl as it did to save a bad boy! Jordan graduated from Fair Haven Baptist College and Alicia from Faith Bible Institute.

At some point, they noticed each other in our classroom, and the rest is history. At times, we wondered if they were too distracted by each other to hear what was being taught, but apparently not for they have put what we taught them into practice in Uganda. Jordan wrote, “BBTI has made a huge impact in the way I look at missions and has equipped me with a skill set to reach people that many would consider too difficult or impossible to reach!” Here at BBTI, Jordan learned about the Nubi people whom he is targeting. They are a Bibleless Muslim group of Uganda numbering thirty-four thousand.

Jordan and Alicia were married in July 2019 and later that year visited Uganda. They were sent by Park Gate Baptist Church in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, and began deputation during COVID, the worst possible time. They persevered, making thousands of phone calls and emails. At first, only one in five churches they visited took them on for support, but as they neared their goal, the churches saw their determination, and that ratio improved. They traveled in an old car, and little by little dumped about $6,000 into repairs until the transmission finally quit. It was then that a brother in Christ loaned them a nice car to drive. He “just happened” to buy it on a whim but did not need it. During deputation, Jordan began to study advanced courses in Hebrew and Greek in preparation for Bible translation.

While at BBTI, Jordan met a Nubi man on Facebook who is somewhat of a leader among his people. When they arrived on the field in February 2023, this man introduced Jordan to many people, and he had favor with them—for a while. Later, after he began church services, a large group of angry Muslim men raided a service and beat two of the Christian leaders, one quite severely. Jordan was treated roughly but not injured. The honeymoon was over! Threats and abuse of the church leaders continue. Nevertheless, Jordan and Alicia continue learning the Kinubi language, becoming proficient after less than two years. (There is no language school or professional teacher; they have learned by applying what they were taught at BBTI.)

In May 2023, Jordan discovered a small group of Nubi speaking believers who attempted to translate the Bible into Nubi but had given up because they did not know how to proceed. Jordan has organized and trained a translation team of five Nubis. Recently, they had to dismiss a team member for bad behavior. The man has become a real enemy, trying to extort money from Jordan, threating physical harm and exposure of the team to the Muslims who bitterly oppose a Bible in their language. He would like to get the Kureckis expelled from Uganda. Nevertheless, they plod ahead, making very good progress. There is no time to waste. Despite serious bouts of malaria, threats, and the hardships of missionary life, Jordan and Alicia push the pedal to the medal and move forward!

Winter 2024-25

Hands to the Work

Carrie Whaley was blessed to be born and raised in a Christian home. She made a profession of faith and was baptized at age four. As an eleven-year-old homeschooler, she was assigned to write about her salvation. Like many who are saved at a young age, she had serious doubts about the validity of her salvation experience. She could not remember what she prayed; she only remembered her baptism. Carrie shared her doubts with her mother who then explained salvation to her. Carrie prayed, asking Jesus to come into her heart and save her. This took care of her doubts for a time, but they returned and stayed with her through her teen years. Had she simply said words to have a salvation experience to write about for her homework requirement? Did she pray because it was what was expected of her? The doubts drove her to her Bible where she learned the meaning of and received the assurance of eternal salvation. Strangely, vivid details of bedtime devotions in her brother’s room came back to her from her experience and prayer at age four. Her mother confirmed what Carrie remembered.

Carrie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing at Western Carolina University and worked as a nurse for seven years. She loved her work but became burdened for the foreign Deaf when she met Dr. David Bennett, director of Silent Word Ministries International. All Carrie knew about the deaf language was the alphabet she had learned from a coloring book at age seven, but at his invitation, she joined a group taking a trip to Liberia and Ivory Coast, Africa.

Upon Dr. Bennett’s suggestion and the blessing of her home church, Carrie attended BBTI. Her pastor described her as a faithful, hard-working church member with special musical talent. At BBTI, she proved to be an excellent student. After graduation, she worked diligently to raise financial support to serve the Lord in Liberia, Africa, and left for the field in February 2024.

She wrote recently, “The honeymoon phase is over, and it is not all sunshine and roses, but I am still having the time of my life!” She is adjusting well to her new country and its language. Pray for Carrie. Her valuable teammate, Monique, was forced to return to the states for cancer treatment, and her future is questionable. Carrie is busy conducting Bible studies and teaching sign language to a group at her church as well as planning a missionary internship/training program. She is making slow but sure progress reaching the Deaf. She is working with BBTI graduates Bruce and Amanda Stewart to prepare a deaf Christmas drama that should reach the large deaf community in Monrovia. The problem is that
Bruce and Amanda live five hours away!
Carrie says that the people are usually friendly, but it is difficult to distinguish between those who are really interested in God’s Word and those just looking for a handout. The well-intentioned generosity of foreign aid organizations has produced many who ask the missionaries, “What do you have for me?” Carrie reports that spiritual warfare there is almost tangible. Even some church members practice witchcraft on Saturday night and then worship God on Sunday. Because of their works-based salvation mentality, they want to placate God so He will give them what they want. They try to “cover all the bases” with both God and Satan. This is not to say, however, that there are no true, godly people; it is just difficult at first to be sure who they are.

Liberians, hearing and deaf, need missionaries! BBTI students, Kyle and Elisabeth Burchwell, are surrendered to go and plan to depart next summer. Could God be calling you to labor there? If you are interested in Carrie’s internship program or just wish to send encouragement, you can contact her at: [email protected]

Fall 2024

It Began at BBTI!

 

Daniel O’Connor was born in 1995 in Louisiana, and Libby Mashburn was born in Alabama in 1996. They both came to study at BBTI in 2019 but did not previously know each other. They graduated the following year and were married in April 2021.

Proving himself to be an excellent phonetician, and with a view to teaching Phonetics in 2021, Daniel began helping the out-going Phonetics teacher, Michael Carpenter. Libby easily grasped the linguistic concepts of phonology and morphology. In 2021, she began teaching Phonemics. This year she taught our Morphology class. Both Daniel and Libby are an important part of our linguistics department. The O’Connors wasted no time beginning their teaching career, and neither did they waste time beginning a family. Eleanor Josephine was born in March 2022, and Verity Ruth in September 2023.
Daniel was raised in a godly Chrisitan home and was home schooled. He was influenced by a strong interest in ministry and especially missions. Daniel has had extensive Bible training in his home and church. He was taught to work hard and grew up learning the building trades. Daniel made a profession of faith in Christ at age eight, but at age fifteen, he realized he had only said a prayer, and not trusted in the finished work of Christ for his salvation. After hearing a message on hell, he received Christ.

Libby’s background is much different. She attended a Christian school for only one year. The rest of her education was in the public schools. She graduated from the University of Alabama at Huntsville with a Foreign Language and International Trade major. She learned to be a seamstress and later began making and selling modest women’s clothing. Libby was led to Christ by her stepfather at a young age.

Whereas Daniel’s home was stable and peaceful, Libby’s was tumultuous. Her parents divorced when she was young. Her mother’s life changed when she was saved, and she determined to raise Libby in a godly environment. Other family members believed that she had become a fanatical cult member, and thus began the custody battles. For a time, Libby lived in a home where she learned biblical principles. Other periods were spent in a home that taught and encouraged worldliness. Libby was rebellious but God was longsuffering and victoriously brought her through. She decided to seek and follow Christ. In this world where broken homes and dysfunctional families are almost normal, Libby knows what young people are going through.

Daniel has the desire and skills to help with the much-needed upkeep of BBTI’s facilities but works part time to provide for his family. He wants to increase the family’s level of financial support so that he can teach, help with maintenance, and represent BBTI full time. These are all essential ministry needs. Please contact them at [email protected] if you would like them to present their ministry to your church.

The O’Connors desire to serve the Lord on the foreign field. For now, however, they want to invest their time and talents in the preparation of missionary students at BBTI.

Leadership and Servanthood

As a boy, Chris rode church buses to various Protestant and Baptist churches. When he was in his early teens, his family joined a church which taught baptismal regeneration. They baptized him based on an earlier profession of faith, but he had no assurance of salvation. In 1993, at the age of fifteen, he attended a church camp and fell under deep conviction. He pleaded with the counselors for guidance, but they assured him he was okay. That evening, a speaker recited the sinner’s prayer which reminded Chris of the true Gospel he had learned previously. He asked Christ to be his Saviour. Later, he was scripturally baptized and called to preach at Ray Avenue Baptist Church in Salina, Kansas. He attended Bible college for one year and was trained for six years by Dr. Plato Shepherd at Smoky Valley Baptist Church in Lindsborg, Kansas. Chris served as an associate pastor for three years, and in 2005, he became the pastor, serving until 2018. He also became a firefighter and an Emergency Medical Technician. He taught both EMS and CPR.

Bonnie was raised in the home of a godly pastor. She made a profession of faith at age four, but like many children, she later had doubts. It was not until she was a pastor’s wife that she received full assurance of her salvation. She graduated from Calvary University in Kansas City with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She was a pastor’s wife for fifteen years. She has taught music, written and led ladies’ Bible studies, led youth ensembles, spoken at ladies’ conferences, written historical novels, and taught piano. Bonnie has training and field experience in Teaching English as a Second Language.

The Matthewses could have easily continued serving the Lord in Kansas, but God began to burden their hearts for a very restricted country in Southeast Asia. Upon hearing this, people began telling them that they needed to attend BBTI. Shortly after arriving in 2019, they fell in love with our school and could see how it would benefit them on the mission field. Even while they were students, Chris envisioned returning to BBTI one day to help train missionaries.

In less than a year after graduation, the Matthews family arrived on their field. God gave them a very fruitful ministry in evangelism and leadership training. They were having the time of their lives! They loved the place and especially the people, and the people loved them. They often saw God protect them and provide miraculously. One such time was during the strict COVID lockdown when they needed to return to the US for the impending death of Bonnie’s dad. They were not allowed to leave their neighborhood, but they had to obtain their passports from another part of the large city. Couriers could not get through the military/police checkpoints, but Chris rode his motor scooter unhindered through every checkpoint without even being stopped!

Chris and Bonnie were not looking for an easier place of service or greener pastures, but God was impressing their hearts that they needed to labor at BBTI. Rex Cobb had previously told Chris that BBTI would soon need a younger director. After much fasting, praying, and seeking counsel, they contacted Brother Cobb, other staff members, and our sponsoring pastor, Steve Summers. No snap decision was made, but all involved, including the school trustees, believed that Chris was right for the job. He will officially become the director at graduation on May 18th. He plans to make trips back to his field to train church leaders and help oversee a Bible translation project. Chris’ leadership experience and Bonnie’s many skills will help move this ministry forward in the days to come.

Spring 2024

Compassion and Faithfulness

Part of the application process for enrollment in our Advanced Missionary Training program is a recommendation from the pastor of the applicant. Doug and Lisa Nispel applied for enrollment at BBTI in 2014. One question we ask the pastor is, “What is the applicant’s greatest strength?” For Doug, he answered “faithful” and for Lisa “compassionate.” We found the pastor’s description of them fully accurate. As students, they were a constant joy to us, along with their two daughters, Abigail and Elizabeth. They worked diligently both in the classroom and during our afternoon Work Detail.

Doug was a bus kid. His parents sent him to Red Lion Bible Church and his grandmother paid for him to attend the Christian school until the sixth grade. He heard the Gospel many times and was saved at the age of eleven. Doug lived for God for a time but became tired of feeling like an oddball and not having any friends. He decided to go his own way. As is always the case, this led to some poor choices. Even as a preteen, he began using the marijuana and alcohol that he had access to at home. However, God did not give up on Doug. When he was nearing the age of twenty, his father was gloriously saved. The booze and drugs left the home, and his father began serving the Lord. (Today he has a truck stop ministry). This had a convicting influence on Doug, and at the age of twenty-one, he surrendered every area of his life to God.

Lisa was raised by good, religious parents in a Methodist church. Then came the day when the pastor distributed to all a copy of the Good News for Modern Man and announced that it would replace their Bible. Her father had enough discernment to leave the church, and the family began attending Red Lion Bible Church. Lisa was led to Christ by a faithful Sunday School teacher who used the Wordless Book to teach the Gospel. Lisa’s father and mother began a bus route. Together, they serve faithfully in that ministry until this day.

The Nispel family arrived at BBTI in 2015 with the desire to serve the Lord in Romania. They continued raising support as students and graduated in 2016. In March 2017, less than a year after graduation, they arrived in Timisoara, Romania, and began learning the new language and culture.

A big part of the Nispel’s ministry is training believers in evangelism. They serve primarily in five or six Baptist churches, helping with outreaches and training the believers to use different methods of evangelism and tract distribution in outdoor and public settings. People are receptive and willing to listen but slow to trust Christ. Doug and Lisa look for outreach opportunities such as carnivals or festivals. They incorporate the use of Christian films in their open-air meetings. In the summer, they assist several different Baptist churches in vacation Bible school outreaches in places where there are thus far no churches.

When the Iron Curtain was torn down in the early 90s, Gospel seeds were sown in Romania and other Eastern European countries. It produced a great harvest for people who were hungry for prosperity and freedom. Thank God, that many missionaries went. Sadly, many stayed only a short time. There is, no doubt, a great need for new, church-planting missionaries in Europe, but there is also a great need for missionaries such as the Nispels who will take up the unfinished task of training believers to reach others.

Compassion took the Nispels to Romania, and faithfulness keeps them there!

Winter 2023-24

A Providential Collision

Marco Paulichen was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1978, and his wife Patricia was born in Ontario a few months earlier. But two could not have come from more distinct backgrounds.

Marco’s mother was from Argentina, and his father was from Uruguay. Marco’s first language was Spanish. His parents were devout Christians and raised Marco in church where he heard the Gospel often. At age five, his Sunday school teacher led him to Christ.

Patricia’s mother was an unsaved, single mother who left Patricia soon after her birth. Though she eventually returned, Patricia grew up in broken homes feeling unwanted and unloved. By age twenty, she was using drugs daily and attending drinking parties each weekend. By the grace of God, Patricia was given a gospel tract by a street preacher. It showed her that she was lost and on the way to hell, but she did not know how to respond. She asked her friends about the way of salvation, but none of them could help her. She tried self-reformation, attempting to please God. This only led to deep depression and thoughts of suicide.

Patricia was in an office building for a job interview when she literally bumped into the young electrician working there. She gladly accepted his invitation to attend his church: later he led her to Christ on their first date. Her life changed drastically; she was a new person. Eleven months later, she married that young man! They have been serving the Lord together for twenty-four years.

Marco and Patricia felt led of God to go take the Gospel to Uruguay. Along with their teenage children Josh and Josephine, they attended BBTI from August 2017 until May 2018. Josh and Josephine studied BBTI classes in the morning and worked on their homeschool assignments in the afternoon. They all excelled. Marco, a master electrician, made many needed electrical improvements at BBTI.

In October 2018, the family arrived on the field prepared to learn the language and culture of Uruguay. Because of Marco’s paternal roots in the country, he and his children are allowed dual citizenship of both Canada and Uruguay. Patricia has been granted residency. They do not struggle to obtain visas like many other missionaries; they are allowed to travel in other countries of South America without restrictions. The children are also entitled to educational benefits. While in Canada, Josh and Josephine studied music at the Royal Conservatory, and in Uruguay they were admitted into a classical music conservatory. This has resulted in many good contacts for the family’s church planting ministry in the interior city of Salto.

Having never lived in Uruguay, Marco has had to learn the country’s unique Spanish. He was able, however, to soon begin the Iglesia Bautista Fundamental in their home. The church began in the living room, kitchen, and under the carport. God blessed and the church grew. They currently meet in a rented building but are looking for a building in a better location. Marco preaches on the radio five days a week and sets up a literature table in two open-air markets where he witnesses for Christ. Thank God that the Paulichen family is faithfully giving the Gospel to the lost in their city. However, many more missionaries are needed for the places where the people wait for someone to bring them the Good News. Pray for laborers for Uruguay and the surrounding countries. Remember that the Gospel is not Good News if it gets there too late!

Team Zambia

Cindy Stacy is not another Mary Slessor. She does not trudge alone through the African jungles facing the danger of lions, cannibal tribes, and pythons. (She does need to avoid contact with black and green mambas and other venomous snakes). Much of what she does as a missionary in Zambia is what she did for many years in New Mexico.

On March 24, 1964, Cindy was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Eight years later, she was born again at Temple Baptist Church. After graduation from the Temple Baptist Christian School, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Eastern New Mexico University.

Cindy joyfully served the Lord in her highly active church, Gospel Light Baptist, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. She taught in the Christian school for twenty-three years. Why did she not stay where she was comfortable and safe? She was drawn to Zambia because she saw a much greater need there. Of the 13,800,000 people in this Southern African country, half are under the age of fifteen. Cindy saw wide-open doors and opportunities. A church-planting missionary family needed her experience and expertise. Though most of Cindy’s peers are willing to serve the Lord in the United States, few of them want to go overseas. However, Cindy was willing to serve outside her comfort zone. Instead of asking, “Why should I go?” she asked, “Why should I stay?”

Mission work requires preparation. Once Cindy’s church commissioned her as their missionary, she began presenting her plans to other churches. Knowing full well what children need, she began asking God’s people for school supplies to take with her to Zambia. They responded generously to the need. Cindy also began saving for passage and setup expenses. A single missionary may require a smaller amount of monthly support, but plane tickets, visas, housing, furniture, and vehicles are expensive. Cindy worked diligently. Seeing the benefits of BBTI’s Advanced Missionary Training, she arrived for training in August 2014, graduated in May 2015, and left for Zambia in January 2017.

English is not the first language of Zambian young people, but they need to learn it. Cindy teaches grammar, reading, and ESL classes to the youth. She has Thursday and Friday evening Bible classes for neighbor children and conducts a successful Children’s Bible Hour on Saturdays. Cindy enjoys teaching her Sunday school class of seventy-eight children as well as discipling ladies.

Missionary work is not simply teaching people but training people how to teach other people. Through the Solid Rock Bible Institute, Cindy is training two young ladies to be future teachers. Though they are not allowed to have their own class in the church before they graduate, they have begun a neighborhood Bible class on their own. One lady asked Cindy to teach her four children to read. Instead of teaching the children, Cindy trained the mother to teach her own children. The team wants the young people to have Bibles, but they do not simply give them out. The children must earn their Bible through the Faithfulness Campaign which requires church attendance and Scripture memorization.

While church and school duties keep Cindy very busy, she still finds time for her cat, dog, and vegetable and flower gardens. Zambia, like many places, has its share of difficulties, and Cindy must share those difficulties with the people she loves. Often there is no daytime electricity, and water is very scarce. Prices have increased by seventy-five percent, and, of course Zambia was plagued by Covid-19. Nevertheless, Cindy is very content and does not want to be anywhere else! She extends this invitation: “If you’d like to come work in Zambia, you can teach the two-to-seven-year-old children. I will give you thirty children, chairs, a room, the curriculum, a helper, and all the hugs you’ll need for the rest of your life.”

Winter 2022-23

A Lifetime of Missions

Charles V. Turner was born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1934 and born again in 1951 at a summer camp ministry of Marcus Hook Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. It was at this church that he dedicated his life to the work of missions in 1952. The following year, he enrolled at Columbia Bible College and graduated in 1957.

Classmates of Charles were Wanda Sifford, Mary Lou Pruitt, and Joshua Crocket. Charles married Wanda and they served the Lord in Papua New Guinea as missionaries with New Tribes Mission. Joshua married Mary Lou, and they were home missionaries helping struggling Native American churches.

Charles was busy in 1957. He finished Bible College, took the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) course in Norman, Oklahoma, got married, and began training with New Tribes Mission (NTM). No sense wasting time when you know what God wants you to do! During summer vacation of 1959, while still students at New Tribes, the Turners returned to Norman to re-take the SIL training.

In 1960, after six years of formal training, the Turners were sent by Marcus Hook Baptist Church to Papua New Guinea where they served until 1980. First, Charles and Wanda learned the trade language, Tok Pisin. Then they learned the unwritten language of the Sinasina tribe. Applying the linguistic skills, they learned at SIL and NTM, they developed an alphabet, giving the language a written form. They produced literature and taught the people to read. In 1975, they completed the translation of the New Testament. After several years of use in the churches, Brother Turner and the church leaders revised and improved the Sinasina scriptures. For twenty years, Charles and Wanda spread the Good News, baptized converts, taught literacy, and began four or five churches and a Bible institute. In recent years, the work has flourished, and many more churches have been established in the Sinasina area. According to family members and medical experts, Wanda should never have gone to the mission field because of a heart condition. However, she did go and was a good missionary/linguist. In 1975, Wanda had open heart surgery, and then returned to the field.

In 1980, the Turners returned to the NTM training center where Charles taught Bible translation, linguistics, and language and culture learning. He began writing the book Biblical Bible Translating. In 1982, they transitioned to Baptist Bible Translators Institute (BBTI). They took the BBTI training which was a review that prepared Charles to teach the same courses at BBTI. In 1991, he became the director of BBTI and served in that position until 2005.

Wanda passed away in December 1994. Later, Charles married Mary Lou, whose husband, Joshua had died a few years earlier. Mary Lou took the BBTI training and served the Lord and the BBTI students. She went to be with the Lord in November 2020.

Charles desires to visit the Sinasina people again; pray that his health will allow it. He currently serves the Lord as a BBTI trustee, a deacon at Truthville Baptist Church in Truthville, New York, and a teacher in their Christian school. Servants of Christ may change locations and job descriptions, as Brother Turner has, but when he signed on, it was for a lifetime of service.

Fall 2022

A Wise Investment

It was August of 2019 when we began living in a village in northern Uganda where we could not understand a single word of our neighbors’ heart language. The language they spoke during their growing up years is the same language they use to ponder deep thoughts, and it was nothing but meaningless noise to our foreign ears. This local, tribal language called Lugbara was one that we were warned would not be an option for a foreigner to grasp. No language school exists [although Lugbara is spoken by 1.7 million people]. Because it is tonal, the most subtle change in one’s tone profoundly alters the expressed meaning.
God called us to these people, therefore we felt it prudent to take whatever steps necessary to understand their culture and communicate in their heart language. For months we would go out every single day, notebook in hand, and use the language acquisition tools we were given at BBTI. Under the shade of a mango or avocado tree while our three-year-old and one-year-old played on a papyrus mat with the African children, we carefully transcribed words and phrases to commit to memory afterwards.

What was their reaction? Absolute fascination! They could not fathom why this family would come from America to learn their language and do life with them. They were overwhelmingly humbled by our desire and anxiously supported our effort. The most frequent question was “Why? Why are you here? Why are you learning our language?” I explained, “Our plan is first, to learn the language, and second, to help people understand the truth of God’s Word.”

There is a mosque in our village which half of our local community attends. The Imam (leader) of the mosque is a man named Agobi. The only language he speaks is Lugbara. I met Agobi during our early months on the field but had very little ability to communicate with him. The Lord gave me a burning desire to share the Gospel with him. Our surface relationship was maintained for some time until two years later when he invited me to his home for tea. My heart was full as I was able to sit in his home and share, in Lugbara, the simple, powerful truths of who Jesus truly is. We pray he will one day turn to Christ.

The preaching of the cross and the hope we have in Christ is well worth any amount of language learning effort if it causes a single lost man to become more tender to such a message. By striving to speak the language of these people, a powerful statement of sincerity resonates in their hearts and minds. Every Lugbara person we encounter is met with an immediate connection and highly effective bridge to the Gospel because of the ability to speak their heart language. I cannot think of a better way to invest our time during these first few years on the field than learning this language.

Summer 2022

I Surrender All

Tom and Barbara Needham were farmers, and they went to Cameroon, Africa, to teach the people better farming methods. There a missionary led them to Christ. They returned to Iowa, sold the farm, went back to Cameroon as missionaries in 1991. Their daughter Elizabeth, the fifth of seven children was two years old at the time. There she grew up and served the Lord with her family. She learned Pidgin English and Fulfulde, the language of the Fulani Muslim people, as well as sign language. Elizabeth was homeschooled and was saved at age six. At age twelve at summer camp, she was memorizing the words to the hymn their group was about to sing. “All to Jesus I surrender. All to him I freely give.” She realized that it was not true of her, but she immediately surrendered all! Suddenly she had a burden to reach the lost.

Cameroon is divided into two parts; one speaks English and the other French. The Needhams worked in the smaller English-speaking section until forced to move to the French side because of violence that arose in 2018. Elizabeth is currently learning both French and French Sign Language.

Elizabeth graduated from the Baptist College of Ministry in 2012 and then returned to Africa. She and three of her sisters attended BBTI from 2019 to 2020. She was an excellent student and a blessing to all each day. Elizabeth’s childhood friends named her Sangle which means “joy,” and to this day, she wears a perpetual smile. She returned as a missionary to Cameroon in January 2021.

Through her church, Elizabeth ministers to women and children, but God is especially blessing her outreach to the deaf. Here are a few testimonies:

“One deaf man who trusted in Christ last week said, ‘I want my wife and all my deaf friends to hear this same preaching.’ He invited us back the next Saturday to preach to all the deaf that he could gather but was disappointed that none of them came. We taught him how to share the Gospel with others and arranged to meet him again next Friday to meet his wife and other deaf friends. Another deaf man who was a Jehovah’s Witness also trusted in Christ two weeks ago after Synthia and I had witnessed to him multiple times. He came to church with two friends and really enjoyed it. He is still holding to his connection to the JWs, trying to decide which one he will follow. Another deaf woman told me, ‘I have gone to church many times, but I have never heard before what you have told me today about Jesus.’ She was so surprised and amazed to hear that Jesus died to take away her sins. Today I stopped by to give her a Bible. She was so happy! Charnelle, another deaf woman I have reached out to came to church last Sunday. She told me afterward, ‘I do not understand anything in the church that I have been attending. I just sit and stare at the pastor until he is done. But here you interpreted for me, and I could understand. I want to come back next week.’ Charnelle’s deaf husband came to me with one of the tracts I had given her. He told me he is a believer and said, ‘This paper is so true…I want to gather all my deaf friends in my house on Saturday and explain to them all what I read in this paper, and I am going to invite them all to church on Sunday.’ One very tall deaf man with large hands stood in front of the rice shop where he loads and unloads 50 kg bags of rice. He meekly listened to the Gospel and asked questions. Then he prayed a sweet, simple prayer, ‘Jesus forgive me. I believe in you.’”

We praise the Lord that He allowed us to have a small part in a great work in Africa. But what if Elizabeth had not surrendered all? Most missionary kids do not return to the mission field. Thank God Elizabeth did!

Spring 2022