Christi’s Mission Adventure in NIGER!

Here’s a ministry update from our 20-year-old daughter, Christi Dunagan, who just came back from her second summer mission, this time from NIGER, WEST AFRICA:

Hey Friends and Family!

Well, this summer has just been packed full of adventure and experiences. After five and a half weeks in Cambodia I had a 10 day break at home with my family before I jumped on another plane (well.. several planes, actually) to go to Niger, West Africa, where I would be a little over three weeks with my sweetheart Trae’s family, ministering with them at several local churches and helping with two week-long African children’s camps.

The trip was awesome. Living with the Childs’ family for several weeks was such a great learning experience and glance into what life as a foreign missionary family is like. The children’s camps were incredible as well. Hundreds of kids from different parts of the country all came together to learn more about the Lord. Hundreds received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and left ready to take what they learned back to their homes and villages

Thank you so much everyone who helped support this trip. God bless!!!

Christi

The life expectancy in Niger is only 52 years old, and 49.7% of the country is under the age of 14. Children’s missions outreach is a crucial part of ministry in this country that is so lost and in need of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

This is a newly saved “Gourmanche” girl. Niger is only approximately 3% Christian. Tribal tradition includes scaring the faces of babies to identify their village and people group. The Gourmanche people also file their teeth to points as a sign of beauty and identity. In the past two years several churches have been planed in Gourmanche villages and hundreds have come to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

Here’s my special guy, Trae Childs, doing a puppet show with the kids, speaking in the “Housa” language. In addition to English, he speaks “Housa” (fluently) and French (nearly fluently, although very “African”). Trae is a 3rd generation missionary kid; his missionary grandparents have been preaching the Gospel in West Africa (in both Nigeria and Niger) for 30 years; and his parents and family have been full-time missionaries (focusing on evangelism, church planting, discipleship, and poverty relief) in Niger, West Africa for 13 years. 

More about the Childs Family and their missionary work in NIGER
More about how to pray for NIGER, WEST AFRICA (link to Operation World)
More about Christi’s earlier mission outreaches (to CAMBODIA & E. AFRICA)

Daring daughters & dirty feet

I’ve always had this “thing” for baby feet. I pull off darling shoes, and little newborn socks, and just want to kiss each of those tiny toes! I always ponder where a baby’s precious feet will go, and about God’s destiny and purpose for each new life. But speaking as a mother, what happens when our kids grow up, and God perhaps would call our sons, or our DAUGHTERS, to dangerous places?

Our oldest daughter, Christi, recently climbed a mountain barefoot. She didn’t want to wear out her TOMS, which incidentally are shoes produced by a company that helps kids in impoverished countries . . . . who don’t have shoes. These dirty feet actually give a pretty clear glimpse of our daughter. Christi’s always dreamed of daring things for God. She’s grown up on a steady diet of missionary biographies — Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, Florence Nightingale, Lottie Moon, and Elisabeth Elliot; but she’s done more than merely read about godly self-sacrificing women. Christi’s been living-out her own mission adventure story, as she’s also continually dreaming about the future.

The Bible says, “And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace,

and bring glad tidings of good things!” – Romans 10:15

I want to be a mom who encourages each of our children to completely fulfill God’s destiny — not by our own efforts, but by God’s GRACE!!! Jon and I know that each of our sons, and our DAUGHTERS, have been entrusted by God into our family to be raised FOR HIM and His mission-minded and eternal purposes. We want each of our kids, including each son and each DAUGHTER, to fully obey God’s call and purpose for his or her life. Sometimes, as a caring and loving mom (who remembers kissing our babies’ feet and tucking away their precious hand-knitted booties for the next generation), that can be challenging and stretching.

But oh, what a JOY!!!!

Our daughter, Christi

Here are a few pictures of our daughter on a mission outreach in East Africa. Christi was instrumental in helping to establish Osanidde Village and Guma Na Yesu Children’s Center, Harvest Ministry’s two orphanages in Uganda, currently caring for over 600 children orphaned primarily because of AIDS. During her last year at home, Christi worked tirelessly in our ministry office, coordinating child sponsors and sharing needs. She’s traveled the globe to share the Gospel and to help others; but her passion for people who need Jesus is just as fervent here in the United States! She loves to mentor young women, to pray for those who are hurting, to speak out for world missions, and to have fun with community outreach projects (just last weekend, on Oct. 31st, she worked alongside an “army” of college students in an exciting city-wide canned-food drive!).

As mothers in God’s kingdom, we need to not only raise our own daughters to love the Lord, but realize that there are multitudes of God’s precious daughters throughout the world, who desperately need all the motherly-and-sisterly-love we can give, along with our sacrificial support and prayer.

Rescuing one of God’s girls . . . in Uganda, East Africa

When Christi was 15-years old, she wrote a powerful orphan essay (you can read it here) about the needs of one precious abused girl, named Jennifer, and this essay was only the beginning of God stirring His compassion in our daughter’s heart.

Here’s a picture of this rescued orphan girl, Jennifer, today (four years after Christi wrote the article). This precious young woman is still living with our dear friends, Naboth & Alice, and she continues to be a vital testimony about God’s hand on these beautiful orphan children. The most recent report is so beautiful. Naboth wrote:

Jennifer is now in primary four. She sleeps and “feeds” at Pastor Naboth & Alice’s home, and she is very bright and hard working. She “leads praising” in Sunday school. Her hope and happiness is restored, as God has healed her wounds.

Fulfilling a dream . . . for God’s girls in Cambodia

As for Christi, she’s now in her final year at ORU. This semester, she’s writing her senior paper, focusing on the horrible issues surrounding child prostitution and international human trafficking and the necessary process of healing after sexual abuse. She’s also preparing to be an ATL (Assistant Team Leader) for an upcoming two-month ORU summer mission to Cambodia, in Asia.

It’s amazing how God puts all the details together. Some people say that homeschool families isolate their children and keep them sheltered from the world. For us, we have protected our kids and teens from allowing compromising friends and lifestyles of sinful distractions, as we’ve covered them in the power and blood of Jesus Christ, so they can IMPACT a dark world with the bright light of our wonderful Lord.

Interceding for God’s girls . . .  in Iran

As a side-note, I (Ann) have had a tremendous burden this week for persecuted women, especially in Iran, who are being abused and tortured for their unfailing love for Jesus Christ. Just today, I received a specific prayer request from Voice of the Martyrs to uphold two beautiful Christian girls in Iran, Maryam and Marzieh, who are suffering persecution right NOW for their faith.

Please pray for our daughter Christi, for Mayam and Marzieh, and for God to give all of us more of His passion for ALL of His daughters throughout the world.

I love Proverbs 31. Sometimes we neglect to read all the verses about God’s virtuous women. As moms, we don’t need to be afraid about what is to come, for our household is “clothed in scarlet” (protected by the blood of Jesus). We need to reach out our “hand to the needy” and train our daughters to be women who “fear the Lord.” Here are my favorite verses from Proverbs 31:

“Open your mouth for the speechless,

for the cause of all who are appointed to die.

Open your mouth and judge righteously,

and plead for the cause of the poor and the needy.”

Proverbs 31:8-9

May we raise daring daughters, perhaps with dirty feet, who will fully obey and follow God’s plan and purposes, in complete obedience and submission to Him, with fervent love.

God is so good.

May His goodness flow through us, and through our sons and our DAUGHTERS.

11/18/2009 – PRAISE REPORT: Just received news today via twitter (on @persecutionblog and The Voice of the Martyrs) that the two women in Iran, Maryam & Marziah, both mentioned in this article, were just SET FREE after 259 days in prison!!!)

QUOTE from persecutionblog.com: “VOM’s friend, Elam Ministries, which serves the growing church in Iran, has announced that Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh have been released from Evin Prison in Tehran. Family members picked them up at the prison this afternoon, Iran time. The two women immediately expressed thanks to Christians around the world who had prayed for them during their 259 days in prison.

“Words are not enough to express our gratitude to the Lord and to his people who have prayed and worked for our release,” they said.