Hoskins Update

Thank you so much for your prayers during our time of training. We are finally settling down in Swaziland after a month of training in WestAfrica. We were with about 20 other new IMB missionaries to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Our time in West Africa was wonderful! The training was broken up into two different parts. The first part focused on urban African life, so we stayed in the capital city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The second part of the training taught us about rural African life, and we lived in the village of Nalerigu, Ghana during that time.

In both places we would spend half of the day with a cultural helper (a local Christian who our leadership had already identified) and half of the day in lecture sessions. Each day we had to complete certain assignments that would help us understand more about life and people in Africa. For example, a task would be something like: “Talk to a government official today and learn about his/her perspective on…”Our cultural helper would assist us by introducing us to people who could speak to us about the day’s topic. It was often their family, neighbors, and friends with whom we visited.

Each topic was paired with a Bible story, and we were often able to use the story to share biblical truths. More than once, people asked us, “I know since you have come all the way from America, what you have to tell me is very important. So what is your message?” Some of the people we spoke with had never heard the stories about Jesus thatwe were able to share. I (Todd) watched an old man’s excitement ashe, for the first time, heard Deborah tell him stories about Jesus. The old man was wide-eyed and amazed! He really got into the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000. He made all sorts of “oooh” and“aaahhh” sounds (that did not require translation :) . That day he said his life had changed and he would now follow Christ and be a Christian. He was our cultural helper’s uncle.

In Burkina Faso and Ghana, we were blessed to be following in the footsteps of many faithful Christians. Years of a missionary presence along with the day-in-and-day-out witness that our cultural helpers were living fostered an environment where people were eager to hear our message. Training was a blessing and our cultural helpers (Joel,Mark, Solomon, and Emiline) were so helpful.

We are currently living next door to another missionary family but will be looking into the possibility of renting an apartment inManzini, Swaziland that would place us closer to our areas of ministry. Please pray that the Lord would guide this process and continue to put us among the people He would have us serve.

Thank you for your support! Have a happy Thanksgiving!