Family Serving Together

During the last two weeks of March, William, Kathy, and their daughter, Kathryn Nyone, 7th grader at Portland Christian, went on a mission trip to Rivers State, Nigeria. William, who is Vice-President of Glad Tidings Ministry, travels to Nigeria almost every year. He often takes a team with him. In March of 2014, William took his three sons, Joshua Nyone ’02, Jonathan Nyone ‘05, and Caleb Nyone ’09, and his daughter-in-law, Darcy Durant Nyone ’02, and her parents, Larry and Rhonda Durant, to help the two churches and to conduct a free medical clinic where they were able to treat and give out free prescription medications to over 500 impoverished people in Lewe.

Glad Tidings Ministries has planted two churches, which are in Bori, the capital of Ogoni, and in the village of Lewe where William grew up. This year we were blessed to have eight people including Theresa Swett ’94 and her parents Perry and Laura Swett go to work and minister in these two churches. We had a powerful service in Lewe on Palm Sunday when Pastor Timothy Chiles spoke; it lasted for 4 hours and no one left early. The youth leaders organized a youth rally for the whole church for the three nights leading up to Easter. Each of the three pastors that traveled with us spoke for one night. Early on the morning of Good Friday during high tide, we had baptism in the sea at the Glad Tidings farm. Ten people were baptized including Kathryn. On Easter Sunday, we dedicated the new large church building in Bori. The cement floor was only poured 3 days before Easter and the roof was finished that week. There is still a great deal of work to be done, but we were thrilled to meet there and worship the Lord. We thank God for the supporters in the USA and Canada who provided the finances to make this dream come true.  On Easter Monday, which is a holiday in Nigeria, we held a free medical clinic in the new church building. This was an outreach to the community of Bori and we saw over 200 people.

It was a very exciting, memorable trip for everyone. We are thankful for the expansion of the Kingdom of God, His divine protection over us, and all of the prayers offered on our behalf.
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* Written for and previously published in REALS, the quarterly magazine of Portland Christian Schools.