God’s faithfulness to strengthen and raise up leaders for His Church
SAMS Missionary Bishop Grant LeMarquand gave a Plenary Talk at the 2025 New Wineskins Conference in which he shared about his and his wife Wendy’s call and ministry to come alongside the growing church in the Horn of Africa out of their home base in Gambella, Ethiopia. The link for this talk, and a photo album with excerpts from this talk, follow immediately after an opportunity for your prayerful consideration to participate in a return mission by Grant and Wendy to the recently formed Diocese of Gambella.
Opportunity for you to continue to strengthen a foundation in Christ upon which the church in Diocese of the Gambella continues to build through discipleship:
Bishop Jeremiah has invited Bishop Grant and Dr. Wendy LeMarquand to return on a mission to Gambella in January 2026 to lead a retreat for clergy, participate in a large gathering of the Mothers’ Union to equip women for ministry, and participate in a reconciliation meeting with the Opo people (They were reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in just recent years through the ministry of the Anglican Church). Would you prayerfully consider a gift to SAMS Associate Missionaries Grant and Wendy to help make this mission possible?
I want to give toward Grant and Wendy to help with their ongoing mission work!
Gambella is a difficult place. Ethiopia is largely poor—there are wealthy people, of course, but most are not. And Gambella is probably the poorest part of the country: 90% unemployment, extreme heat—over 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day. Life is fragile. Most children die before the age of five…
…It’s a difficult place—but a joyful one too.”
“One of the great privileges of being a bishop is confirming people…
…At one of my first confirmations, the priest told me I’d also be doing baptisms. We went down to the river. As I was getting ready—putting on my boots, which was silly since I’d be up to my waist in water—I asked, “There aren’t any crocodiles in this river, right?” The priest said, “No, no, no,” while the lay people behind him were shaking their heads “yes.”’
Jeremiah was born and raised in South Sudan, became a refugee, and has lived most of his life in Gambella. He spent a few years in Cairo after learning English—but there he discovered he had to do theological education in Arabic. He spoke Sudanese Arabic, but that’s not the same as classical Egyptian Arabic, so it was a struggle…
…then his little boy fell from a stairway and cracked his head open. People prayed for him.
Suffering happens in this life—and Gambella is part of that suffering.
But here’s what Paul says in Philippians 3:
“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection”—I like that part—
“and share in the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”’
Here’s more on Grant and Wendy…
Grant LeMarquand is a Canadian, a graduate of McGill University and of Wycliffe College, Toronto, where he completed his Th.D. in New Testament studies. From 1998 until 2012, he was Professor of Biblical Studies and Mission at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. He had previously taught at St Paul’s United Theological College, Limuru, Kenya, and at Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.
From 2012 – 2018, Grant was the Area Bishop for The Horn of Africa within the Anglican / Episcopal Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. His episcopal area included oversight of approximately 150 churches in the countries of Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia. In 2018, due to his wife’s health, Grant returned to teaching at Trinity School for Ministry. Grant retired from teaching at Trinity in June 2023.
Bishop Grant has written and edited numerous articles and books, including Why Haven’t You Left? Letters from the Sudan (Church Publications) and A Comparative Study of the Story of the Bleeding Woman in North Atlantic and African Contexts (Peter Lang).
Dr Wendy LeMarquand is a physician with nearly forty years’ experience in family medicine, including tropical medicine and village medical practice. She graduated from McGill University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science, Honors Physiology, and from the Faculty of Medicine in 1982 with a doctorate of Medicine and a Masters in Surgery. After completing a Residency in Family Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Montreal, she began her medical practice in “La Clinique Communautaire de Pointe St Charles”, a bilingual clinic serving in a poor area within the city of Montreal.
In the late 1980’s she moved to Kenya with her husband Grant, where she took care of the medical needs of St Paul’s United Theological College community in Limuru, as well as acting as consultant to the development of the Community Based Health Care Program for the Diocese of Mount Kenya South. In 1989, she returned to Canada and joined an urban practice in downtown Toronto. After moving to Pennsylvania in 1998, she joined the staff of the East Liberty Family Health Care Center, a Christian medical center with a special emphasis on serving the homeless and uninsured in the inner city of Pittsburgh. In 2008, as a long-time board-certified member of both the Canadian and American Boards of Family Practice, she was made a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Most recently, Dr LeMarquand has returned from six years of living and working in Gambella, one of Ethiopia’s poorest and least developed areas. In Ethiopia, Dr. LeMarquand developed and established the Mothers’ Union Community Education Program, designed to empower women to teach one another the simple things that can be done to save the lives of literally thousands of at-risk children in the area. This program is now fully African-led and continuing to make a difference to the lives of those in the communities and refugee camps in the Gambella Peoples Region of Ethiopia. In May of 2018, Dr LeMarquand was awarded an honorary theological doctorate by Wycliffe College, Toronto, Ontario (Doctor of Sacred Letters) in recognition of her work with the Mothers’ Union in Gambella, Ethiopia.
Grant and Wendy LeMarquand now live in Alberta, Canada, where Grant is an assisting bishop in the Anglican Network in Canada. They have two grown children and one grandchild.