David and Jenn Wright, missionaries to Niger – Update

wright-family

It’s Hot!
Hot season has arrived full force this year and everyone is complaining. In fact, last week the Bible school director took the time to interrupt my class just to announce that it was 49°C outside. Thankfully we had air conditioning (when the power is working). Fortunately things cooled off towards the end of this week We picked up a projector last December in the after Christmas sales for $400. We’ve been using it to watch Narnia with some friends. One friend asked, “What was going on with that lion? Did he have like some bad medicine? How did he come back to life?” It has been good to have the opportunity to introduce Jesus into more of our conversations with friends. One woman recently said to Jennifer, “I say my prayers and try to be a good Muslim but I still have lots of questions about my faith. Can I talk to you about it sometime?”

I’ve(Dave) also been trying “tea ministry” as a way of getting to know neighbours and develop relationships. Touareg tea is generally drunk in three rounds, boiling the same tea leaves every time, moving from incredibly strong to incredibly sweet, as another load of sugar is added each time. In one tea conversation, a neighbour said he’d been invited to church down at the market. I asked him why he didn’t go, and responded by saying, “Church? That’s not good. Church people say that Jesus is God’s Son and that’s bad.” Pray that misunderstandings will be resolved as friendships grow.

Celebrating What God is Doing!
We are excited to let you know that during Dan’s last visit one of the churches that we have been working with officially went through the affiliation process with the Free Methodist Church and became the first FM church in Niger. This is a fledgling church that was only started a little over a year ago, please pray that God will continue to bless this small group of believers and for Pastor Soter and his wife Penine as they lead this congregation and reach out to their neighbours.

Also during Dan’s visit we had the opportunity to accompany him to Ghana to see what is happening in the mission district there. It was a great opportunity to connect with other FM churches in West Africa and to learn from them.

We had the additional blessing of being apart of the first baptism ceremony for the FM church in Kwara Tagui. Dave’s height came in extra handy when the Pastor asked if he would help with the baptisms as the shallow end of the swimming pool was about 4 feet deep (they had to put a table in the bottom of it for the baptismal candidates to stand on!).

Recently the church asked Dave to put together some training materials to teach people how to put together Bible lessons to teach. While Dave is teaching, Jennifer is trying to start a kids ministry. The process is ongoing and the results are yet to be seen.


We thank God for:

  • opportunities that God is providing for connecting with neighbours
  • Affiliation of the new church


Please pray for:

  • the Holy Spirit’s leading in where we spend our time and the connections that we are making
  • the new church in Kwara Tagui
  • training times we are planning with the church leaders
  • The possibility of buying a piece of property for a home and ministry base
  • Wise use of films in our community and conversations over tea