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The Sheppards -
Missionaries to Liberia

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Liberia! 

God continues to open up doors of opportunity for Nancy and I as we serve Him in Liberia. 

We thank God for the opportunity to minister with the Jake Memorial Baptist College. We recently implemented the quarter system, which seems to be working well. I taught both the theology and education students “Logic and Critical Thinking” the first quarter of this year and “Christian Ethics” the second. Nancy taught “Reading Comprehension and Accuracy” both quarters to her education students. Final exams for the classes were given Tuesday, June 8th. We are now in the semester break and plan to begin second semester on August 9th.

Nancy’s twin sister Karen arrived on June 17th for a two-month visit. Nancy and she have been hard at work creating the online edition of the class she just finished teaching at the Bible school. Using Bible storying materials from King of Glory, the website “English 70-Story Reading Comprehension and Grammar Course” will come to life. We are excited about its potential to reach people for Christ.

Jonah is doing well. Nancy and I have required him to take the classes we teach at the Bible college. They are over his head at times, but they give him the classroom experience as well as giving him hours we can apply to high school credits. He also enjoys the interaction and competition with the other students.

We continue to have opportunities to minister through hospitality. We recently hosting a group of five Americans with Silent Word Ministries who are working to begin ministries among our Baptist Churches with Liberian deaf and handicapped people. Please pray for God’s wisdom and direction for them and for the local pastors and churches that are ready to start these ministries.

As we said in our Christmas update, Nancy and I had fairly mild cases of COVID at the end of November. We were therefore very hopeful that we would have immunity and not get it again. However, the Indian or “delta” variant of COVID hit Liberia at the end of May and we believe we contracted it just before Karen arrived. One doctor friend here says that he has seen new cases with people who were vaccinated both here and in the States, and even with those who had serious cases and then recovered from the original COVID. We treated the illness according to the protocols found here and gave Karen the same as a prophylaxis. We now are pretty much over it, but still are quite easily fatigued. Thankfully, Karen did not have any serious symptoms.

On June 17th we received the devastating news that one of our key coworkers at Jake, Pastor Moses U-Joe Weidehgar, went to be with the Lord. We got to know Pastor U-Joe in 2005 right after we returned to Liberia. We began working with him at the 2nd Calvary Baptist Church in Logantown and continued until our furlough in 2008. He served as Vice President of Instruction and Registrar at Jake and also taught classes. While he has had a number of health problems recently, his death was a still great shock to all of us. Please pray for his wife and family and for the school as we seek wisdom in replacing him.

Prayer requests:

1. Pastor Moses U-Joe’s wife and family.

2. Jake Memorial College as we seek someone to replace Pastor U-Joe.

3. Wisdom for Nancy and Karen in the creation of the online educational program.

4. Liberia, and the doctors and nurses who are struggling to treat the many new cases of COVID. Pray God would use this to turn many hearts to Himself.

5. Our complete recovery from illness and return to full strength.

6. Jonah’s continued physical, spiritual, and emotional health

7. Wisdom to know which ministry opportunities to pursue

Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support.

In His service,

Mark, Nancy and Jonah Sheppard

Serving with:

Baptist Mid-Missions
Box 308011
Cleveland, OH 44130-8011
http://www.bmm.org

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