
Dear Family and Friends,
Happy New Year 2025! “The Lord is our Shepherd we shall not want” Psalms 23:1. This verse that reflects how we have felt through 2024 and the first three months of 2025. It does not mean that life was a bed of roses but we felt His hands and arms around us! Is it not amazing that we can say that the creator of the universe, made us in His image and loves us so much that we can be His sheep, His child, and the apple of His eye! Even with our faults, He will use us for His glory when we allow Him to work in our lives. Thank you, Jesus, for that gift!

On Christmas Day 2024, Joël and Jenny welcomed their baby boy, Skip Bryant. Skip was born at 27 weeks weighing in at 1 pound 4 oz and has been in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit since his birth. There have been many challenging moments but we continue to believe in the Great Healer and that Skip’s life will be a testament to God’s presence! We, as a family, have been overwhelmed by the words of encouragements, prayers raised for Skip around the world and feeling God’s presence. If you would like to follow Skip’s journey, you can sign up for them on prayersforskip.wordpress.com. Joël and Jenny have done an amazing job with keeping us updated daily!

After a bit of a rough start with our flights to Chad, Bert and Debbie arrived to Chad on the 17th of January with six suitcases full of supplies for the hospital. It felt great to be back to our African home! Seeing and hearing how the Lord has been using the hospital to bring others into the kingdom. He has been growing our team as they take up the reins of the hospital work and becoming a cohesive team.

The first weeks after we arrived, our senior management team and guest house staff were very busy getting ready for the annual board meetings. Some might wonder what does that entail? Power point presentations, financial reports, and statistics have to be gathered, written, reviewed, be submitted to the board of governance for approval, and finally sent out to all attendees. These reports and presentations have to be done in both English and French.

In between taking time for the paper work, meetings have to be attended, housing and meals for all the guests arriving are discussed and planned. Yes, this time of the year is always a flurry of activities and time of high stress for the staff on the ground! We are so encouraged to see how the various teams involved worked as a unit even during this stressful time. The positive feedback from the local government officials and other attendees were so encouraging to us and the constructive criticism given to help us improve the work for God’s glory.

About two years ago, I was talking to one of our staff members just asking about his family. Wayang told me that his two-year daughter, Haoua, had problems seeing. I asked him to bring her to the hospital to be seen. It was determined that she probably had congenital cataracts. I suggested that he take her to an eye center in Cameroon and we would help them with the cost. They went and were told that she was too young to have the surgery. A few months later, I asked him again about Haoua. He told me that after the trip to the eye center, the family decided that Haoua needed to have traditional medicine. They put sugar in her eyes in the hope that it would get better. Well, you can imagine how upset I was upon hearing that! Fast forward to January 2024. While talking to Wayang, he told me that there was an eye team coming to one of the local hospitals to do eye surgery. Again, I suggested that they take Haoua to the hospital to see if the surgery could be done. Haoua had her surgery in November and can now see. Her parents are so grateful that Haoua’s future looks much brighter and she will be able to go to school without much hindrance due to visual impairment!

PRAISES:
- We had a fruitful trip. Bert says that this time was truly the last time that he will be able to travel to Chad! We shall see.
- The annual meetings were encouraging to all present. A new board of governance was elected. We felt the power of your prayers and a spirit of unity in our board meetings.
- Upon our arrival, Million, one of our Ethiopian chaplains, came to find us with exciting news. One of the local national that he had been talking to, sharing the Good News of Christ over the last five years had accepted Christ as His Savior and now wants to be baptized. Please pray for Ousman as he is taking a strong stance in his newfound belief by wanting to be baptized!
- Haoua was able to have eye surgery with excellent results!
SUPPLICATIONS:
- Bert and Debbie’s prayer for 2025 is that our desire to grow in Christ will increase daily and that God will continue to bless others!
- As we look around us with everything going on in the world, it is easy to become discouraged! Pray against discouragement and that God will open our eyes to see how He is using us.
- Continue to pray for the villages of Guinebor 2 (G2) and Dougia that the people hearts will receive and believe the Good news of Jesus Christ.
- That the new believers will grow in their faith and be a true testimony to those around them.
- Little Skip that he would not suffer complications due to his prematurity.
- We continue to have urgent needs for personnel: general surgeon, OB/GYN, anesthesiologist, CRNA, IT specialist, physical therapist.
We continue to covet your prayers for the work in Chad with its many challenges! Thanks for your continued partnership through encouragement, prayers, and support! If you want to personally hear about our ministry, we would love to share more with you!
In Him,
Bert and Debbie Oubre
I Thessalonians 5:16
