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True Fulfillment
By Bob Mach
The fulfillment of missionary work comes
from those who have come to Christ and have
consecrated their lives to His service. The Lord
uses these people to encourage us and give
us the desire to continue the Lord’s ministry.

The more that we observe the Lord working
in these people’s lives, the more we wish to see
more lives affected.

We opened the Bingerville church in June of
2000. Right from the beginning, the Abonga
family started coming to our church. The
parents were Daniel and Mary-Agathe. They
came with their children, one of whom was
Mireille (mee-ray-ah). Mireille was not yet 10
years old when her family started coming. At
the time, she was simply one of many children
who were coming to church.

Through my wife Becky’s work with the
children’s ministry in those early years, Mireille
came to a saving knowledge of Christ toward
the end of the year 2000. From that moment,
Mireille’s faithfulness to the Lord has never
wavered despite many challenges. Within the
first year of the church, we buried her father,
Daniel. Six years later, we buried her mother as
well. Although her siblings began to scatter to
different areas of the country, Mireille stayed
in Bingerville. She maintained the home that
her parents acquired and provided lodging for
many members of her extended family.

Mireille finished her education
and was able to seek employment
in Abidjan. In addition to this,
she picked up supplemental work
to support many of her siblings
in addition to herself. Yet, her
faithfulness to the Bingerville
church has remained steadfast.

She taught in our Bingerville
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literacy center where she gave the Gospel to
many throughout the school year.

She is now director of a second literacy center
that we established in a village. This allows
us to continue church services there. She is
actively involved with the youth of our church,
sings in the choir, and has developed a music
ministry with another member of our church.

She writes much of her own Christian music
and has done much special music in our
Bingerville church.

At age 32, Mireille has not yet married but
undoubtedly will sometime in the relatively
near future. Despite the failure of a couple of
potential marital opportunities, she remains
firm in marrying within the Lord’s will and His
Word. Her desire is to marry someone called to
the ministry, and we are truly hoping that this
will happen.

After 27 years of working here in the Ivory Coast,
it is people like Mireille who make our ministry
enjoyable and worthwhile. We
are so thankful to have had a part
in her salvation and Christian
life. She is one of many who
have come to Christ here. Even
more importantly, she is among
those who have completely given
their lives to the Lord and His
service. This is true fulfillment in
missionary service. W
Bob & Becky Mach