Daada & Naomi Luogan
January 2021
Ministry:
In my new role in the mission as Diaspora Church Team Leader, the Lord has been opening doors for me to engage with Diaspora Church leaders. Two Diaspora Churches are starting Sunday Services in the centre, which I will be training and supporting them to reach the least reached on the district
Our ministry is to reach the poor and least reached with the Good News of Jesus in the Islington, King’s Cross areas. Part of my role involves bringing together Diaspora pastors and Christians to form a bigger team of gospel workers to reach the multicultural and marginalised people groups. Please pray that we will see people saved from different backgrounds, who will also become witnesses to their own people here in London. Pray for us as a family to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord for our needs, wisdom and knowledge in serving him.
All of what we do, we do them for God. Christ’s love controls us to do them. We praise God for 2020, the opportunity he gave us, and how He used us all in spreading the gospel here in London. We want to take this time to wish you A HAPPY NEW YEAR IN THE SAVIOUR’S NAME! And may He grant us his strength and wisdom to continue to live in faith, hope, and love throughout 2021 and years to come.
It started as a virus thousands of miles away in China, but within a few months it has taken over the world with devastating impacts. 2020 will be remembered as a year that shifted everyone’s lives, made us to adapt and conduct most things differently. Governments around the world came up with social-distancing, lockdown, unlock, then lockdown again. Plans disrupted, separated from loved ones, family reunions restricted, and people confined to their homes, all these have made an impact on our mental state. But isn’t it wonderful, that we are not serving a distant God? God who clothed Himself is with us, as our Wonderful Councillor to shoulder our responsibility to guide our path, strengthen us, and fill our hearts with hope, grace and love throughout 2021 and beyond.
One of the ways I will remember 2020 is the tremendous goodwill shown by communities, individuals and particularly Christian Church through prayers, and the various initiatives to reach out the venerable people, and providing for some of our less well off.
We speak of plans disrupted, I also learned that God’s plan wasn’t disrupted. Throughout the various lockdown we saw God at work. I saw the prayer life of the Church and mission organisation like us life deepened, praying with urgency and expectancy, to see the gospel spread. We saw answer, as during the lockdown, a muslin lady we have known for many years confessed Jesus as Lord. Joining the Westminster Gideon team, led by Jeremy Thomas to give out New Testament Bibles on Oxford Street and Warren Street tube station, has been such an answer to prayers and spiritual encouragement. One Saturday we gave out over 500 NTs along with the Comic: The Messiah, for children and families who wanted a copy.
For some people this year went very slow, personally, 2020 went quickly. Through prayers and support of Christians my mind was kept alert, especially during the time we were faced with redundancy and reapplication within our organisation. I was kept on my feet through provision visiting homes with food items, and opportunity to share the gospel. By November, I did not have to think what to give to needy and Diaspora people. They were requesting for food for Christmas. How thankful I am to First Ahoghill Presbyterian Church family. You provided us 100s of pounds of food vouchers to give to the community. We were able to get some vouchers from Buckingham Evangelical Church as demand kept growing. On December 9th, I took on my bicycle to visit families with food vouchers on the district. I visited homes of 46 families and 11 couples and singles. Counting the number of people in the family and couples, we provided good Christmas lunch for 102 people, along with gospel tracts and conversation.
In my new role in the mission as Diaspora Church Team Leader, the Lord has been opening doors for me to engage with Diaspora Church leaders. Two Diaspora Churches are starting Sunday Services in the centre, which I will be training and supporting them to reach the least reached on the district.
For 2021, my prayer and hope is to take my sabbatical in March. I have never been so concerned about the future of Liberia than I am now. Under the current regime, Liberians have been reduced to beggars, and widespread drug-addiction among young people, rapes and lack of security in the country. My intention is to go there in March, I will value your prayer.
Praise:
For your faithful encouragement in the Lord’s work through your prayers and giving.
For the many homes we visited with vouchers and tracts over the Christmas period.
For many of our contacts opened to the gospel and seriously considering decision.
That as a family the Lord has provided and kept us during the pandemic.
Prayer:
For the people we contacted during the Christmas season, that we will be able to follow them up in the new year, and that some of them will give their lives to the Lord.
For some of our contacts, struggling with fear, anger, frustration and mental issues as the result of the Covid-19, to find peace and rest in the Lord.
For the political, economic improvement in Liberia. For the raping, and ritualistic killings to stop. For a system of governance in Liberia, that will honour the rule of law, justice and accountability.
For the Christian church to be faithful to the Lord, truthful in the society, not taking sides, and living lives constantly according to the teachings of the Bible.
Family:
As a family, to be faithful, trusting and relying on the Lord daily, for our ministry to the least reached, as I encourage the Diaspora Churches to do in their communities.
For protection for Naomi in the NHS as the virus spreads. Sunday night one of her midwife colleagues died of the new form of the virus. The same night, one of the mothers in All Souls Church died of the Covid. We know the family. Our Rachel is a friend to her two children. Please pray for Rachel, we have been praying with her and remembering her friends and assuring her the Lord’s will in human sufferings and death.
For my financial need both to finish renovation of clinic properties and my stay in Liberia in the month of March, and for the political and economic conditions in the country.
That God deepen our understanding of the Scripture and connect it with today’s reality to enable us to love with Christ’s love in sharing the gospel.
When I think of the thousands of young people that had perished in the Mediterranean sea trying to cross to Europe for a good life, and the many girls in the sex trade here in London, and the many young men and women into doing and dealing drugs, and I read a passage like Nehemiah 5, it brings me to the reality that; hunger, poverty, and hardship will make one to do things out of the ordinary living. Pray that 2021, we will see a change of good leadership in Africa. For some of our Diaspora people to come to Christ. It is no excuse, this year I was so busy during the Christmas time, that I did not send out letters or cards. I finished work on Christmas Eve.
May the Saviour give us grace to strengthen our bond with one another, family, and friends this New Year as we labour for Him.
Thank you so much!
Daada and Naomi