by John Wodka | Nov 3, 2025 | Africa, Ethiopia, SAMS Missionaries
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.
by John Wodka | Nov 3, 2025 | Africa, Ethiopia, SAMS Missionaries
God’s faithfulness to accomplish his purposes in the face of obstacles and suffering
The Rt. Rev. Jeremiah Maet Paul gave a Plenary Talk at the 2025 New Wineskins Conference in which he shared about his life and work, beginning as an orphaned child refugee in South Sudan and now anointed as a shepherd of the Church in Gambella, Ethiopia. SAMS Missionaries Bishop Grant and Dr. Wendy LeMarquand were blessed to participate in the formation of Bishop Jeremiah during their ministry service in Ethiopia. Grant was honored to speak immediately before Jeremiah’s talk. The link for Bishop Jeremiah’s talk and an edited transcript are below, 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 the 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 the 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!
Here is the video of Bishop Jeremiah’s testimony:
The following is an edited transcript of Bishop Jeremiah’s talk:
I’m here today, overwhelmed with joy and peace in my heart, as I reflect on my journey back to the days when I did not know where I was going. I would like to thank my parents. I have many fathers and mothers who brought me up in Christ, and I am grateful for them all.
I grew up in a Christian home in South Sudan, which had not yet gained its independence, with wonderful parents who actively believed in Christ Jesus. My grandparents were baptized by CMS missionaries who came to our land. The CMS missionaries established two centers around 1932. These centers were run by the Reverend Charles Petram and his wife, Dr. Mary Betram, a British medical doctor. Mary was given a name meaning “daughter of the land or nation.”
I thank God for my parents, though I had very little time with them because Sudan was engaged in a brutal civil war that separated my father from our family. Our mother died of a waterborne disease shortly after the start of the civil war in 1983.
I would like to share a story about how my mom preached to me the gospel of hope. My personal journey of faith began at the tragic moment when my mother was terribly sick. Knowing that she would not survive, she asked my grandmother to call me to her side. I went promptly to where she lay.
Hearing my voice, my mother smiled courageously and called me by name. Her last words, which I will never forget, were:
“Jeremiah, my son, I am going to my Father.”
I asked, “Where is your Father?”
She said, “My Father is in heaven.”
I asked, “When will you come back?”
She replied, “I will not, but you shall come after me and meet me there in heaven after your time here on earth is over. Remain faithful to Jesus, and He shall protect and provide for you and your siblings. Be a man and take good care of your siblings, because you are the only male in our family.”
I was just 12 years old. Overwhelmed by grief and realizing she was dying, I could not hold back my tears. I cried loudly. My dying mother rebuked me:
“Are you not a man? Why are you crying? I asked your grandmother to call you in so that I could give you my blessing and instructions to look after your siblings since your father’s whereabouts are unknown. Take care.”
Those were her last words. The words, “I am going to my Father; my Father is in heaven,” impacted my life profoundly. My zeal for heaven began burning within me. Though I had known about God and heaven as a child, nothing compared to how I heard my mother boldly and courageously confessing the truth about God and heaven. From that moment, my faith grew stronger, and I believed that one day I would see my mother in heaven.
As it is written in Psalm 68:5, “The Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation.”
My calling to ministry was not something I sought. I did not want to become a priest, but God had His own ways. He wanted me to become one, and I want to narrate how He called me to the ministry of the church.
In 2003, an elderly woman came from a distance of 100 kilometers from Gambella town. At the time, I was leading a Bible study with young people. As the sun was going down, I returned home. The elderly woman was sitting on a neighbor’s balcony. She shouted, “Hallelujah!” and called me by name: “Jeremiah, my son, come here.”
I was confused. How could a stranger know my name? She explained that she had seen me in a dream. In her dream, she needed copies of the Bible and a prayer book. She had gone from church to church without finding them. By chance, someone had directed her to the Anglican Church to meet me. She described seeing me in a wide gown, leading other priests.
I woke from the dream thinking it was real. Kneeling to pray, I heard a voice telling me to go to Gambella Town to find her. I believed that God was speaking to me because the face I saw in my dream was the same as hers. She said, “Three months shall not pass without you being selected for ordination.”
I laughed in disbelief, thinking it was impossible. I was a very young man, unmerited and inexperienced. I said, “Ma’am, I don’t think it will happen. I have no interest in becoming a priest.”
She looked at me sternly and repeated, “Three months shall not pass without you being selected for ordination.”
Three months later, I received a phone call from Bishop Andrew Proud, chaplain and representative of the Anglican Church in Ethiopia. He told me he had recommended me to Bishop Mouneer for ordination because my name kept coming to mind during prayer. I remembered the elderly woman’s words and accepted God’s calling.
I stand here today, and it still feels like a dream, yet God is with me and with all of you.
I want to share one test God gave me. In 2003, there was a severe tribal conflict in Gambella between the Nuer and Anuak tribes. While praying, I felt God calling me to preach to the Anuak congregations across town. Fear gripped me. I was afraid for my life if I were discovered as a Nuer. I could not sleep, struggling with this calling.
Finally, I obeyed God’s command. With my warden accompanying me, we set out for the Anuak. I prayed, asking God to protect us. After a 40-minute walk, we arrived. When the Anuak congregation saw us, they were moved to tears, and I cried as well. In that moment, my perception of other tribes changed. A deep love was imparted on me, and I began to understand how much God loves even those considered enemies by us.
As the Bible teaches, God’s love is deep. The message I carry from Gambella to you is peace. We preach the gospel of peace and hope to all nations.
The work in Gambella continues through missionaries, local clergy, and ministries like the Mother’s Union. Many lives have been saved and transformed, especially children. This work is the foundation on which I continue to build. May God bless you.
Amen.
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 ESV
Reflections on Jeremiah’s election as the first bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Gambella in the Province of Alexandria:
The Most Reverend Dr. Samy Fawzy, Archbishop of the Anglican/Episcopal Province of Alexandria, congratulated Bishop Jeremiah Maet on his election to become the Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Gambella in Ethiopia, which is part of the Province of Alexandria.
“We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Bishop Jeremiah Maet, who will oversee a vast number of congregations, many of which are located in some of the country’s most impoverished areas. Bishop Jeremiah’s election comes at a time of both great opportunity and challenge, as the Anglicans in Gambella continue to grow, particularly among communities facing economic hardship and social difficulties,” Archbishop Samy said.
He continued: “We pray that God will use him to extend and expand the church’s ministry, as Bishop Jeremiah has been called to a vital ministry among God’s people. His leadership will be instrumental in strengthening the Church’s presence in Gambella and ensuring that the Gospel reaches the most vulnerable.”
The Archbishop concluded: “We take this opportunity to express our appreciation and thanks to Bishop Grant Le Marquand and the entire electoral committee for their faithful service in overseeing the election process. Their dedication, discernment, and commitment to upholding the integrity of the process have ensured that the Church continues to move forward in unity and mission. We give thanks for their labour in this important task.”
‘The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:24)
Jeremiah’s Bio:
Bishop Jeremiah Paul was born into a Christian family in Gambella in 1977. He started his church service early, being commissioned as a secular servant in the Anglican Church of St. Luke in Gambella in 2003. St Luke’s was the first church established in Gambella in 1996. In the following year, he was made a deacon and served for four years in that office.
In 2005, Jeremiah began teaching the clergy the Bible and continued until 2011, when he began studying at the Alexandria School of Theology in Cairo, where he obtained a Bachelor of Theological Sciences. During those years he spent in Egypt, he ministered as a priest in the Sudanese service at the All Saints Cathedral in Cairo and worked as a spiritual administrator for the refugee service in the church.
After graduating in 2015, Jeremiah returned to his home country, where he began working as a lecturer at a newly established Anglican Theological Seminary, a branch of the Alexandria School, known as St. Frumentius.
Gambella is the westernmost province of Ethiopia, neighbouring Sudan, which is currently at war, and many of the churches operate in the refugee camps that have sprung up as a result. Its new bishop is Jeremiah Paul.
https://www.jmeca.org.uk/latest/news/next-steps-alexandria
