APRIL 14, 2010

Time is passing quickly!

December 29th, we held our last evangelism evening of they year in a village where a group of youth wanted to plant a church. This was a village without any Christians. They held a traditional wrestling tournament there, followed by an evangelism evening and a concert. Many were skeptical in view of the method being used, saying, "You don't evangelize by wrestling!" Well, I was back in this region last week. The youth were proud to announce to me that presently, about thirty people meet regularly at the weekly home cell group in this village, and travel every Sunday to go to the nearest church in town.

Yes, God is at work in Senegal and we are seeing progressively a greater opening to the message of the gospel.

Evangelism: We finished the year with 75 evangelism events. Phew!!!

We had set 60 events as our objective. Since January, we have already held 40 evangelistic outreaches and have proclaimed the gospel to more than 11,000 people. About 500 people have responded to the invitation and have come forward to pray and entrust their lives to God.

This is the reason we have not been able to give you news earlier; we were overwhelmed. We are making sure to put a structure in place before our departure so that the evangelism department's work continues in the same direction in our absence.

Construction: We have finished the roof of the Thiaworé church. This church is now functional after having been closed for 15 years. We installed the roof of the Ngayokhem church in February.

We have also started the construction of the Tataguine church and will install the roof in May. We just completed painting the new classrooms of the Kaolack school, as well as a wall around the Nguénienne church.

Operation Christmas Child: We received 6 containers holding 60,000 gift boxes in February, and the distribution season is in full swing. We will have an official ceremony with government authorities in the town of Fatick on April 21st. Gaétan has withdrawn from the leadership team, but continues to counsel them as a "coach." We now have thousands of children who are being followed with the course, "Parole par poste," and who are progressing in the knowledge of the gospel. Since the beginning of the program in 2004, we have been able to distribute a total of 260,000 gift boxes to children in need.

Finances: On this topic, the only words that come to our spirits are: Help, it's a catastrophe! Without any error on our part, since January we already have a deficit of more than $8,000 on our 2010 budget. We now need to buy our tickets for our return to Quebec in July, but we do not have the funds... We also have several projects to complete for various churches before our departure, but the funds are not there!

This is probably due to the recent announcement of Gaétan's election as pastor of l’Assemblée du Plein Évangile in Ville Lasalle for September 2010. However, rest assured that we are still missionaries until August 31st, and that we really need your support!
Please don't drop us in the last stretch when we are so close to the finish!

Thank you for your participation at our side in this work!

Your missionaries,

Gaétan & Jacinthe Gaucher

Prayer Requests:

PRAY FOR…

• The gift box distributions. That this would be a powerful testimony of the love of God.

• The distribution ceremony at Fatick April 21st with the government authorities.

• That our finances will recover quickly so that we finish ahead and not by begging.

• Pentecost. We will have two days of outdoor celebrations in Dakar in order to make the evangelical churches known to the population.

• Gaétan has been elected pastor of l’Assemblée du Plein Évangile in Ville Lasalle. He will take responsibility in September 2010. Pray for this important transition in our lives after 15 years of ministry in Africa.