September 2025 Nattier News

It's been a minute since our last newsletter.  The past several months have been full of changes and a wide range of emotions.  In May, we said goodbye for a while to our team, our coworkers, and our many friends in Mango.  We are so thankful for our teammates and for the ways we have seen the Lord work there over the past 8 years as we have served at the Hospital of Hope.

It was a challenging decision in many ways, but we had sensed the Lord clearly leading us to step away from the ministry in Togo for now. This will be more than a 1 year furlough and probably better described as a sabbatical. 

In June we were able to attend a medical ministry debriefing course at Alongside ministries in Michigan.  This was extremely useful as we processed the wide variety of experiences over the past several years. We were able to celebrate many mountain tops, but it also helped us to begin working through some of the valleys as well. We had recently begun asking ourselves if the schedule for ministry and furloughs demanded by our mission to be full time were workable for us, given the demands of the ministry and changes in our family. We hoped to use this time away at the center to begin thinking about what our next 5-10 years of ministry might look like. We have been praying for the past year for the Lord to reconfirm where and how he would have us serve with the time, talents, and children He has entrusted to us and to guide our steps in the direction He would have us to go. 

As many of you have experienced, our kids are growing up very quickly.  Our oldest Elliahna recently started her first semester at Anderson University in South Carolina.  This has been a big transition, and it has also confirmed to us that we are exactly where we need to be right now. She is settling in well, but it's also been important for her to know she can come home for a little family time whenever she desires. We are living in Greenville, SC, so she is just about an hour away.  

Andrew has begun his senior year, and is applying to colleges. Sofia started her Freshman year in high school at a charter school across town. Ahni started middle school at a different charter school. Mélyna and Josiah round things out with our local elementary school and K4 at a church in town respectively. Yes you read that correctly-4 different schools and it has been a challenge to say the least. We are thankful for an extra driver in Andrew, but Natasha has been a busy taxi service. And, we are thankful to have family near by who can help us out in a pinch.  

As we had prayed about what we should do with at least a year stateside, Bryce considered doing a surgical fellowship that would last for 1 year while we got our oldest two started in college. Over the past few years we have tried to start offering laparoscopic surgery in Togo.  It is greatly beneficial to our patients to have less pain and return to their work or provide for their family much quicker than with open surgery. This past year we were able to perform about 10 operations laparoscopically, and it was clearly very beneficial. We have heard it said, that the population in Africa, in some ways, could benefit even more than us in the West from the shorter recovery times of minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This is because they don't have insurance, medical leave, nor a safety net. Unfortunately, there is less access to surgery let alone laparoscopic/minimally invasive surgery.

For that reason, Bryce decided to apply for MIS fellowships and, by God's provision, was able to match in Greenville, SC where we already have community, family, and a place to stay.  He started fellowship August 1st, and it will last until July 31, 2026. He has been learning a lot and growing greatly in surgical skills in just under 2 months.

We are very thankful for many of you who have faithfully supported us for the past 10 years through language school and our time in Togo. You probably have questions for us, and we are happy to answer those questions on a 1 on 1 bases if that would help.

For now, we have changed our status with ABWE from Full time to Associate status. What that means, is that we are no longer drawing a salary or other monthly benefits like insurance. Over the past few years, we have become under-supported in monthly giving and our account was essentially depleted. We hope that during this time, those who give will help us have funds for one time expenses like returning to Togo and traveling to conferences to share about the work being done and the needs that exist. We will continue to have access to these funds for ministry expenses. This will be for things like supporting the ministry through recruiting, speaking engagements and travel related to the ministry. Additionally, we will use some of these funds to support the ministry in Togo in a few ways. For example, we recently learned our first head and neck patient, Nafi, needs to return to Kenya due to a recurrence of her tumor. We are also hoping to use funds to purchase laparoscopic equipment and supporting the PAACS training and discipleship program to name a few. 

We also want to update you on our dear friend, our most recent  head and neck patient. God, in his divine intervention, saw fit to allow her to begin a sewing training program with a very talented local tailor about a year ago. Before having her mass removed, Afi went through a sewing training program in a neighboring country. She had passion and talent but her certificate did not allow her to work as a seamstress in Togo. She has been working very diligently this past year to grow greatly in her skills and has continued to faithfully attend a weekly Bible study. A few weeks ago, she underwent a full week of intensive testing and was able to pass, gaining her official certificate to begin working as a seamstress in Togo. While she must continue training under her mentor for probably another year, the most challenging part of taking the exam in now behind her. Some of you have given financially specifically to support her. These funds have helped provide her with safe housing, food, and necessities while she is training and unable to earn money, have covered the costs of her training, and were used to provide her with a new sewing machine (presented to her in celebration upon passing her exam). Thank you for investing in this precious woman. Please continue to pray that the truth of who God is and what He has done for her would penetrate her heart and that after counting the many costs, she would find him worthy and submit her life to Him. 

Since we will be a bit more occupied with our current engagements, we are not planning to write updates over the next several months.  

Prayer

Our family: Please pray with us for the Lord's wisdom and guidance for us and our family for this year and for what comes next in 2026.  

Our Team: Our Togo north team has been without a team leader since April of this year.  There is currently no-one clearly ready to take this role.  Please pray with us for the Lord to direct the right person to take on this important role.  

PAACS Team: We are praising the Lord that all 3 residents passed their MCS written exam this year.  They still have an oral exam next month, before they will be cleared to advance to the last 3 years of FCS under our certifying organization COSECSA.  Also please pray for the Togo PAACS leaders, Dr. Enock Mupepe the new site director at HOH, and Dr. Jack Kehl who has taken over as the PAACS program director.  Additionally, there were 2 new residents who were selected to start in in the 2026 class.  Please pray for them as they transition to Togo.  

 

 

  

March 2025 Update

The last several months have been quite eventful. Unfortunately, some of these things we are unable to share in this format, but suffice it to say, God has been at work here in Mango. We will give you a glimpse of a few of the recent events:

The Hospital of Hope celebrated its 10th anniversary the end of February. It is difficult to even begin to do justice to all the the Lord has accomplished in the past 10 years. From incredible highs of seeing new believers from unreached peoples, to the lows of losing teammates and mentors. One thing has been clear, God is accomplishing his mission in this region, and he is using the Hospital of Hope. We are thankful for the opportunities to see his faithfulness and provisions during many different seasons over the years.  

Backing up a few months- Christmas is a time of year when we really miss family. This past Christmas, we were blessed to be able to celebrate with Bryce's youngest sister, her husband, and our niece and nephews. The holidays were full of sharing experiences of our Togo life and ministry, working together in the hospital and clinics, eating local foods, and embracing some of our Togo holiday traditions. Additionally, we saw the benefits and blessings of having a physical therapist here. Jordan was highly sought after and his training has enabled one of our nurses to continuing doing some physical therapy with a few of our patients. Elise put her PA skills to work in the OB/Gyn and surgery clinics as she worked alongside both of us. They were both great additions to our medical team. It was such an encouragement to our crew to have family here with us.

In our last update, we had shared about a family with three children who required major abdominal surgery for holes in their intestines due to typhoid infections. Three others were also suffering from typhoid fever, but did not yet have perforations. We thank the Lord for his protection of this family. The oldest brother in the family, speaks their mother tongue, Konkomba and French well.  We have gotten to know him and his family over the past few months. It's complicated with his father having children with 5 different women, 4 of them who are his current wives. It was the children from the youngest wife, who we were able to treat. The father is the brother of the chief of his village. The entire village has been watching as this family went through this time of physical illness. They were actually shocked that none of the children died, but rather have all returned to the village with some in better health than before. Praise the Lord for this testimony.  They gave us the opportunity to share the Jesus film in their village. This village is a bit remote, and we needed to wait until after the river dried up to go by car.  During the showing of the film we had more than 500 people come and watch attentively. They clapped and cheered as Jesus preformed miracles and engaged as the story unfolded. Please pray for this village, that the Lord will continue to grow the church there. It's more than a 1 hour drive from the hospital, so it's difficult to go regularly, but the Lord has allowed continued opportunities to invest in the older brother. There have also been continued opportunities for our national partners to work in this area. They are looking at doing a bible study training in this region in the coming months, to train leaders.   

Another update from our last newsletter, Afi has returned to Mango. This was initially due to an infection related to her operation. However, the Lord has used this challenge, to allow her opportunities to develop skills she can use in the future. To make a long story short, she trained as a seamstress in Niger. Unfortunately, her certification is no good here in Togo. Additionally, due to her illness, she really hasn't been around people for the last 5 years plus. She has been trying to figure out her life, and what's next.  Natasha has been able to come alongside her in several ways including a weekly bible study with several women of various faith backgrounds. They are currently studying in Luke. Additionally, we were able to connect Afi with a trainer in sewing who can allow her to get the necessary refresher course, enabling her to take the exam and receive certification in Togo in a shorter time than would normally be required. God has been doing so much in her life to show her He is the one true God and that he cares for her deeply. If you'd like to hear more, we would love to share. She has decided to stay here in Mango and is living with an ex-pat friend. Please pray for her as the Lord continues to work in her life. Pray for his leading as she works out future plans.  

We had mentioned Abou in our last update. His medical and social situation was beyond complicated to say the least. We are so thankful for the team at Bethany Kids in Kijabe, Kenya who cared for him through a long process of pneumonia, surgical resection of his esophagus that lead to a long complicated course on the ventilator postoperatively. Sadly, Abou passed away, but it has been clear that he has touched many of us in the time we cared for him. We don't know ultimately all that God accomplished in our midst, but we continue to pray for his mother. She comes from a very difficult family situation, but our teammates have continued to pour into her life. Please pray for her and our teammate Katelyn. During a recent trip to Kenya, we were able to visit Abou's grave, which was provided through a ministry in at Kijabe called "He turns graves into gardens".  

We just returned from an annual conference for PAACS first year residents in Kenya. They additionally hold a faculty development tract and course for spouses and children. It was a great opportunity to hear from other programs around the continent of how God is working, but also how we can be praying for and supporting one another. Many of us have similar challenges within our work. It's an encouragement to hear not only how God is working, but also how he has provided solutions in some of these situations. It's helpful as our program is still just in its infancy. We welcomed our third class of residents this past January, who have already been great additions to the program. PAACS is built on 2 Timothy 2:2.  "What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also".  Here we can see multiple generations and the idea of discipleship in passing along what we have learned to the next generation. During the conference, I was able to introduce these first year residents to one of my mentors from residency, the chairman of surgery at the Medical College of Georgia during my training, Bruce Macfadyen.  He impacted my life in many ways including connecting us with ABWE and the work in Togo during my final year in residency.  It was neat to introduce these two to Dr. Mac, and cast a vision to them for continuing to pass on our faith along with the practice of medicine and surgery to future generations.      

 

Franck

 

Josue

Finally, we have been praying about how to best shepard our family over the past 4 years. It has become clear that it would be wise to return with our oldest, Elli, as she launches into University. It looks like she will be attending Anderson University in Anderson, SC next year. We will be returning as a family in May in time to attend a medical missions debriefing conference in Michigan the first two weeks in June. Please be praying for us in this time. We are still working on many details for the future. Our return date to Togo is not yet known, but we will plan to update you on this more in our next update.  

Additionally, our current monthly support is under funded by more than $1400 per month. If you or your church would be interested in hearing more about partnering with us and the work in Togo, please contact us at Bryce.nattier@abwego.org. Additionally, if you wish to support us monthly or one time, you can click the following https://give.abwe.org/worker/bryce-and-natasha-nattier

During our time stateside, we hope to reconnect with many of you, and share about what God is accomplishing in Togo at the Hospital of Hope and around around the continent with PAACS.

Prayer

Our Family: Please pray for our preparation for return in May 2025 back to Greenville, SC.  There are many details to be worked through as you can probably imagine. We would greatly appreciate your prayers. Please pray for us as we attend the debriefing conference as well. There are many blessings but also many challenges to the medical missions work we have been doing during our time overseas. We are hoping to work through some of the struggles we have faced during the past 10 years as individuals and as a family. There will be others in similar situations from around the world, who will be attending. Please pray for the Alongside staff who will be working with us as well.    

Our Team is currently going through a season of great transition. Our team leader and his family left to return to their home country a few weeks ago. Our team here is currently searching for a new team leader to help lead one of the largest teams in our mission. Please pray with us for this search. 

Our PAACS team:  We praise the Lord for our current group of residents. Please continue to pray for them by name: Sweni, Arung, Patiente, Josue and Franck. It's clear that they are growing in many ways during their time in the program. It's not easy, and the 3 seniors listed first will be sitting for exams in September 2025 with the College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central, Southern Africa (COSECSA).  They are required to pass or will be required to repeat the 2nd year of training.  Please also pray for their spiritual growth as we serve together at our two Togo hospitals.