It is almost two months since Alessandro and Chantal Parrillo and family arrived back in Senegal without mishap. They returned to a hot, humid, rainy and muddy Dakar, with overflowing sewage and a leaky roof in their bathroom Thankfully, the sewage issue has been resolved. The roof still has some minor leakage, but they hope it will be fixed soon.
Getting settled into their apartment; they are finally enjoying having their own pictures hanging on the walls after four years without them. A week after arrival, the children started school – Samuel in 5th grade and Jolissa in 3rd grade. It has been a bit of a rough start for Jolissa. She had bacterial gastroenteritis and had to be hospitalised due to severe dehydration. After 24 hours of treatment, she was already feeling much better. She has also been struggling with her eyesight and they are trying to get her the needed help. It also feels like they have been taking turns being sick, par for the course with rainy season and returning to school. The hot, humid climate is also draining. They are very thankful that at night they can use air-conditioning to help them sleep better. Pray for their health, strength and energy, and spiritual health too.
Alessandro and Chantal have resumed their roles in the finance office and Alessandro continues with his leadership responsibilities. They have started training a ‘backup’ bookkeeper. Since this is an essential job that requires a fair amount of training, they try to always have a trained backup. She would replace them when they go on home assignment (possibly next year).
Pray for a good balance between family and work, and for wisdom, particularly in the leadership role. Pray for God’s direction as to when to go on home assignment and all the logistics of that.
Their local church was able to extend the time that the church can meet in the rental property, but only until the end of October. They still have not been able to purchase land or a building. Pray for a temporary place to meet and that God will provide a place long-term where they can worship and serve the community.
Pray for:
God to continue to work powerfully in West Africa.
The church-planting works.
Those learning language and culture.
Those working on Bible translation, preparing Bible lessons, and teaching.
A people group in Guinea that have been doing outreaches in other villages and some people seem very interested.
The people group in Liberia who is hearing the Bible teaching for the first time. They just have a few more lessons before they reach the betrayal of Jesus. Pray the rain would stay away on Saturday and Sunday evenings when the teaching takes place.
The new training programme that is starting next month to equip local believers for reaching the unreached, and that God will bring the right candidates for this training.
Thank you for partnering with Alessandro and Chantal through prayer to bring the Good News to the least reached people of West Africa!