Soon we will be 2…...Celebrating Gilly! 

On October 27^th Gilly will board a plane to Cape May, New Jersey to begin boot camp with the United States Coast Guard!  We are so proud and excited for him and his decision to serve our magnificent country! On that October morning, we will go from being a missionary family of 3 to a missionary couple and a Coastie.
We have been blessed as Gilly's parents and it has been an honor to witness him become the man he is today. We want to share some of our favorite moments with you as we served as missionaries with our favorite missionary kid over the years - today, we celebrate Gilly……

We have been blessed to be Gilly's parents and it's an honor to witness the man he has become. We want to share some of our favorite moments we have had over the years with our favorite missionary kid.  

Today, we celebrate Gilly……

Serving in Kenya......

  

  

  

 

  

Serving while in the USA......

 

  

  

Visiting Sierra Leone to see where Mom & Dad will be serving......

 

   

  

Serving our country.....

As Gilly begins his journey with the US Coast Guard, we hope you will join us as we pray for his safety and protection! We love you, Gilly and we know the Lord will continue to use your talents in magical ways. You are such a blessing to the world. 

Passing of Bishop John Yambasu

This past weekend, we learned that Bishop John Yambasu passed away in a car accident on his way to attend a funeral in Sierra Leone.

“My People have been forgotten….will you pray about serving on Sherbro Island?” During our initial meeting years ago to discuss where our help was needed most in Sierra Leone, these words were spoken by our friend and ministry partner, Bishop Yambasu. It was during this meeting that we learned of the love that Bishop Yambasu had for his people, especially for those he termed as “forgotten”.  From these words, our prayers for discernment were lifted to the Lord and the response from God was received..... “Go and serve.”. 
Bishop Yambasu’s request for us to help his people will remain in our hearts as we carry out his request to serve on Sherbro Island next year.  We will certainly miss the joy, love and admiration that Bishop Yambasu had for the people of Sierra Leone and we ask that you join us in prayer for his family and the United Methodist Church during this time.

Rest in Peace, friend, your work here is finished……‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’  Matthew 25:23

Nick & Heidi Griffiths

Sierra Leone 2021

What a blessing it is to share about our call to be full-time missionaries with you!  By the invitation of the Bishop of the United Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, Africa, we will be serving on an island just off the coast of Sierra Leone, Sherbro Island, for 5 year beginning in 2021.

Here’s a quick overview of our ministry:

Mainland Ministry:

In the small town of Bonthe on Sherbro Island, Nick (Civil Engineer) will be helping to restore community wells and boreholes and Heidi (Surgical Assistant and Wound Care Specialist) will be helping the local clinic with medical training and medical supply resources. Nick and Heidi will also be teaming with local pastors to strengthen and grow the local United Methodist Church. 

Outreach Ministry:

Within the small fishing villages on the outskirts of Sherbro Island, Nick will be helping to repair and restore small wells and Heidi will be providing bush medicine and teaching basic hygiene. Nick and Heidi will also engage in discipleship and evangelism with local pastors within these primitive fishing villages.

It takes many gracious supporters to sustain us financially in the mission field for 5 years as full-time missionaries - we pray that you would consider supporting us as we commit to serve in Africa.  Go to www.TMS-Global.org/GIVE   Acct#3019 to support us.

Thank you for your support and prayers as we join Jesus in His mission across the ocean.

All 4 Him,

Nick and Heidi Griffiths

404-323-3161

Earthdesigninc@hotmail.com

The love of Jesus + 2 Miles = Clean Water

  Missionary Training – Fortifying the Armor of God

                                           

     During the Fall and Winter months we will be preparing for the mission field through a number of trainings. Nick is a Civil Engineer and I’m a Surgical Assistant & Wound Care Specialist.  Although we have professional licenses within our specialties, we have a multitude of trainings to help us thrive on the mission field as long-term missionaries. TMS Global provides and connects us with these trainings - it’s their job to equip us to be good missionaries. We like to think of these trainings as fortifying our Armor of God.

Here’s a snapshot of our upcoming trainings and how these will fit into our ministry in Sierra Leone……

October 2019 - Heidi

Certified Wound Care Specialist Training – Cleveland, Ohio

This training is essential to our ministry by giving Heidi the extensive knowledge she will need about wound injury, healing and treatments.  Heidi will be helping the local clinic and remote villages with wound care and hygiene on Sherbro Island.

January 2020 – Nick & Heidi

TMS Global Gathering – Cypress, Turkey

During this mandatory training with our worldwide TMS family, we will be debriefing about our progress of re-entry onto the mission field.  TMS Global will be evaluating our emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual health, as well as, discussing our proposed first year in Sierra Leone. We discuss the progress of the relationships with our ministry partners, language plans, proposed housing, proposed Bible studies, ministry projections, emergency evacuation plans, and development of a plan of self-preservation. Lastly, we review our financial support in comparison to our proposed budget to sustain us in Sierra Leone for 5 years - TMS Global gives us the green light to launch, once our funding is in place.  This is a time of profound prayer as we mentally prepare to leave our friends and family in the US and enter a new culture.

May 2020 - Nick

Equip International Well and Borehole Drilling – Marion, North Carolina

Nick will learn how to provide a safe, potable water supply in remote locations and how to manually drill with simple, less expensive, percussion methods and hand augers. Well and borehole drilling and maintenance will be Nick’s mainland and outreach ministry on Sherbro Island.

We pray that you would consider supporting us as we commit to serve in Sierra Leone for 5 years beginning in 2021

www.TMS-Global.org/GIVE   Acct#3019

All 4 Him,

Nick & Heidi Griffiths

Hallelujah!! God has Revealed His Plan!

Hallelujah!! God has revealed His Plan!
'Jesus said, "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."' Matt 4:19

31 hours by plane, 4 days by all terrain vehicle, 3 hours by boat - this was the makeup of our 2 week vision trip in Sierra Leone.  God had been wooing us to this sacred land, and now, the smiles of the people were winning us over and the gentle Spirit of our hosts stole our hearts and sealed them with a longing to return to serve full-time. This, now abandoned foreground, was the landing place of the first United Methodist missionaries back in the 1800's.  It remains a place of love and compassionate people, it holds a strong sense of community as family and it remains a land deeply affected by war and disease. It holds the perfect ground for the message of Christ to dwell and burrow deep into the hearts of those hearing the Good News. 

As we touched down in Freetown, we were told that "In Sierra Leone, you will journey by air, land and sea." - this is a true statement!  Once off the plane, we waited for a ferryboat to take us to the main land. After one night in Freetown, we began our 4 day journey via all terrain vehicle through the maze of dirt roads of Sierra Leone, southward towards the Island of Sherbro - a remote island just off the coast of Sierra Leone and where we believed God had been calling us to serve. Once at the edge of the Earth, I mean, once at the edge of Sierra Leone, we patiently waited for the public transport to take us the last 2 hours of our journey. A very old, but colorful, wooden fishing boat covered with tarps to protect it from the rain took us to the main "town" of Bonthe on Sherbro Island. 

During the next few days, we traveled daily to the remote fishing villages by boat from Bonthe, to see the needs of the island, first-hand. There we were welcomed by smile after smile and departed with the sweet sound of waving children yelling "bye, bye, bye!".  Our hearts were broken by these impoverished fishing communities, but God revealed that this is our place to serve. Hallelujah! God has revealed His plan!  

Our guide was Reverend Mathew Kainyande, a United Methodist Pastor, and he became our beloved friend during our journey in Sierra Leone.  Mathew is already at work on Sherbro Island engaging in evangelism and discipleship and we will help strengthen this Christian foundation among the people of Sherbro.  We feel called to share the gospel through the need for clean water and medical care. Nick feels called to work with wells and bore holes including maintenance

and education of clean water sources on Sherbro Island. And there's a lot of borehole rehabilitation needed!  There's also a great need for medical care and training throughout the island. There is only one tiny "hospital" on the island that is lacking in staff, training and equipment and the fishing villages have no medical resources.  Needless to say, God has set a large and glorious task before us and we pray that you will join us in growing God’s Kingdom across the ocean.

Basic needs for our ministry in Sherbro Island:

A motorboat to reach the fishing communities
Funding for housing
A generator
Ministry materials like Bibles and language resources

Click HERE to become a financial supporter: Griffiths Account #3019
If you would like us to visit with your small group or church family, just send us an email at:  earthdesigninc@hotmail.com

The Prep and Purpose

We are 3 days away from departing from the US and meeting the people of Sierra Leone face-to-face!! Our bags are packed, our inoculations have been administered, our visas have been approved......WE ARE READY!
As I sit and ponder what our time will be like in Sierra Leone my feelings of fear, anxiety, pinch me - is this real?, did I pack enough mosquito spray?, and general worry over our safety and well-being have been replaced with peace, joy, and the confidence that Jesus has gone before us and is joyfully waiting our arrival.
So, we thought you might enjoy a few odd and silly things that missionaries do to get ready to serve in the bush:
1. We hang our clothes outside and spray them with insect repellent (ALL of our clothes). Our backyard looks like our dryer is on-the-fritz a few days prior to leaving.

2. We pray!

3. We bring food items to sustain us for 2 weeks like beef jerky, granola and Gatorade mix, in-case we don’t have enough food in-country.

4. We bring small gifts for our in-country hosts like American Hershey's chocolate and blow-pops.

5. We buy the best water filter on the market to make sure we have clean water, even in the most unhealthy conditions. And we leave this filter with our host as a gift of thanks.

6. We pray! And we ask other folks to pray for us.

7. We pack medicines for nausea, diarrhea and vomiting - oh my!

8. We purchase military-grade mosquito nets to hang over our beds to protect us from things like Malaria, Dengue Fever and Chikungunya Infection.

9. We get vaccinations that most people have never heard of like Japanese Encephalitis and Typhoid.

10. Did we mention that we pray.......a lot?!?

11. We leave love notes for the people watching our home, our pets and checking on our family while we are away.

12. Lastly, we make sure someone pick us up at the airport when we land in Africa! But, from there, our journey is an open book and mostly unplanned. Did we mention that we pray?!?

We are honored and extremely blessed that we are beginning this journey again to serve our Brothers and Sisters in Africa! Thank you for believing in our calling to Sierra Leone, for supporting us through prayer and financial assistance, and most importantly, for knowing that Jesus Christ will find a way to make His name known across the ocean.