July Update

Thank you for your prayer support over our family. It has been a very emotional few months filled with setbacks and great losses. After months between hospitals in Accra and Tamale, Enoch’s mother passed away on July 9, 2022. We went back to Enoch’s hometown for a week and are preparing towards a traditional Konkomba and Krobo funeral in October. Many family and friends from surrounding villages came to the family home to pay their respects. Each time a memory was shared, I was reminded of the selflessness and sacrificial attitude mom had. She dedicated her life to raising her six children and worked hard to provide them every opportunity possible. She served as ECG’s Women’s Leader for the Kpandai District for several years and connected communities together through her efforts. I heard of a woman’s testimony of how she accepted Christ because of a kind act mom had shown her when the woman showed up at a Women’s Ministry event after buying and selling charcoal all day. The woman felt embarrassed to be at the event in her charcoal covered clothes, but she said that mom was the one who initiated talking with her and even brought her food. Many of the now-pastors and our “Aunties” and “Uncles” in Kpandai spoke of how mom would often prepare food or give them fish while they were in bible school, or whenever their families were in times of need even though things were not easy for the Jabab family in the earlier years. Her life reflected the sacrificial love of Christ.

Personally, I will always cherish my first visit to their family home in 2019. Mom welcomed me with an open heart and arms, even though I am sure I didn’t follow the traditional protocols of meeting in-laws! She accepted me since the very beginning and always demonstrated her love for Enoch and I through her affirmation of words. Her departure leaves a great loss in our lives.

A tribute written in memory of my late Uncle shared of how my Uncle encouraged his friend during a time in which there didn’t seem to be any reason for celebration or thanksgiving. He encouraged his friend that every occasion in life is to be seen as an opportunity to offer a “thanksgiving sacrifice to God for His abiding grace through the years” (Psalm 116:17, 107:22 MSG). I have held close to my Uncle’s encouragement this past year, because though we often feel depleted and have nothing left to offer God, we can give him our sacrifices which are our thanksgiving and our remembrance of His goodness in our lives. Enoch and I are grateful for the peace of God throughout all of these trials although the losses are heavy. We look back at the last few months and years and we see God’s provision and care over mom’s life.

“Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!”

Psalm 107:22

Picture with both of our moms on our wedding day in January

Please continue to pray for Enoch and his family; his dad, his siblings and our eighteen nieces and nephews who are grieving their loss.

We continue to wait for an answer from Immigration for Enoch’s visitor’s visa to Canada. If he receives an approval for a visa, we will travel to Calgary for a couple weeks to visit my family on August 8th. This has also been an overwhelming and lengthy process as this is our third application for a visa; so we are grateful for your continued prayer support over this. Please pray for God’s favor over our application, that we will hear of his approval soon well before August 8th and ultimately; for a heart of submission unto His ways (that don’t always align with our own!) We are praying and asking God to teach us to depend on Him more as we surrender control over our lives and futures.

Thanks again for your prayers, love and support. We would love to hear how you are doing and how we can keep you in our prayers as well.

God bless you,

Janice & Enoch Jabab