NTM

We want to invite you to join us here in Guinea. Hazel Dell Christian Church is planning a 2 week trip here in March that is open to anyone interested in participating. Come, challenge your perspective, take ownership of our ministry, your ministry. New Tribes Mission of Guinea also has an urgent need for teachers for the next school year. If you would be interested in teaching MK’s for a year or two, NTM has an associate program that is for short term (6 month-4 years) missionaries. Without new teachers next year, our school will have to close its’ high school program and students will have to be home-schooled, sent to Dakar Academy in Senegal, or sent to the US for school. Please consider these opportunities to impact the lives of missionaries and Africans for Christ. We cannot do what we do without your prayers and financial support.

Dave and I are constantly amazed at how much our perspective has been forever imprinted over the last year here in Guinea. Life in Guinea is very difficult compared to the life we lived in Indiana. I must cook everything from scratch, like tortillas, bread, and fried chicken. But my African girlfriends must do even more than I to put a meal on the table. They must plant the seed, tend the garden, harvest the grain, dry it, pound it, sift it and then can begin the cooking process…over a wood fire in the front yard with water carried in buckets on their heads from the well two family compounds away carrying a baby on her back. I am humbled daily when I feel like grumbling and complaining about the work it takes to keep my family fed and clothed. I have the resources to buy a washing machine instead of taking my laundry to the river and beating it against rocks. I have the means to buy ample food to feed my family instead of feeding them only enough to maintain life. I have a husband who regards me as an equal and treats me with respect instead of sharing him with another wife, enduring beatings and being treated as a possession. I cringe when my kids innocently come up to me at meal times and exclaim, “I’m starving, what’s to eat?” How easily those words escape their mouths when many of our African neighbors are starving and do not know when they will eat next. There are many such experiences that have affected me and send me to my knees in prayer for our neighbors. My prayers are not only for the Africans to hear the saving gospel of Christ, but for our friends, family, supporters and brothers and sisters in Christ to do all they can to further the teaching of the Bible. Guinea is a country trapped in darkness whose only hope for a better life is in Christ, whether here on earth or in eternity.

Sana is a boy in desperate need of your help—you can literally save his life. He does not have some debilitating disease that will claim him—his plight involves spiritual darkness.
Sana was born as a set of twins, being the second baby to be born. Upon reaching two years of age, he was given to his grandmother to be raised and led an active, normal life up for two years. At four, however, Sana began to have epileptic seizures. He was initially given medication with some effect, but his grandmother wasn’t able to follow the directions and soon after stopped administering it. Consequently, seizures became more frequent.
In Sana’s tribal culture, any abnormalities/deformities (cleft palette, seizures, etc) are believed to be due to demon possession. Those with handicaps are believed to be demon-human hybrids, and are many times poisoned as newborns. In Sana’s case, he was not poisoned since he appeared normal up to age four. While they believed he was a demon, instead of poisoning him they have kept him in a dark, isolated room. While his grandmother has sometimes given him some food, his family has in essence been starving him. The combination of his isolation and starvation has left him a weak, emaciated mass of skin and bones, covered with bed sores and depleted of his capacity to speak. He is now 11 years old.
A missionary found out about Sana and took him in to at least nurse him back to a level of health. She observed Sana trying to eat his hands and feces and has had to restrain him to stop him from continuing. With prayer, food, medical attention, medication and physical therapy, Sana’s condition has improved tremendously! In three-weeks, he as gained over pounds, is gaining muscle mass and tone, and is becoming more alert and trying to speak again. He is improving a little bit every day, but it is going to take a lot of work to bring him back to a normal life.
Unfortunately, Sana’s life is still in danger. The missionary cannot take care of him indefinitely, and he will need to go back to his family in a few weeks. His family, however, apparently does not want him back, and there has been talk of selling him to another tribal group to be killed as a sacrifice to their god.
Sana needs a family who will love him unconditionally. Can you help?
We must remember that he is a precious child of God. James 1:27 gives us the Lord’s desire for us in relation to Sana, “Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

Well, the time has finally arrived.  We are preparing this week to junk the tractor feed printer we use for bookkeeping and upgrade our software and printer!  You can’t imagine how happy Lori is.  A trainer from NTM Sanford has arrived and begun training the bookkeepers and supply buyers on the new accounting system.  The old system worked well for many (read since 1989 or earlier) year, but Lori is very excited to get a more user friendly accounting system.  The kids are bummed however, because instead of cancelling school for the 2 weeks of training, Dave is taking over as teacher.  I am sure the change will be good for both the substitute and the students! 

Guineans in general are very cordial people. We are quickly building relationships with several members of the local Landuma tribe. In fact, we’ve been give new names. The Guest Home workers (Ami, Fatou, and Mariam) decided Lori’s name didn’t sound “African enough” so they renamed her “Jennaba Sampo” (Sampo being Ami’s last name, so she could have a sister!). Dave is referred to by the locals as either “David” (the French pronunciation) or “Dawuda,” (pronounced “Dow-da”), which is “David” in their native tongue. Dave has a budding friendship with a teenager named Ailiah (pronounced “I-lee-ah”), he teaches Dave French while Dave teaches him English. Dave seems to have also made a friend in a very sweet elderly man named “Uzman”, (a very common name here), a guard on the compound near the workshop. Dave frequents the workshop and Uzman has helped him with projects many times—interesting because neither one can speak the other’s language, but they’re able to communicate enough to get the job done. Dave longs to tell this kind man about Jesus one day. Other frequent visitors to our home are Abram (a believer), Labelle, and Lauren (brother/sisters).

While the kids definitely miss their friends and family back home, they are also having a ball.  They have many friends only a short walk away, there are all sorts of trees to climb, bugs and toads to catch, places to hide.  They even have a neat river to swim in.

We brought their bikes so they can get around that way too.   Adrianna and Thomas’ classroom is less than 30 steps from our front door, they have only three kids in their class (they are two of them), and their teacher is a wonderful missionary from England.

Our second week here, Abraham got Chicken Pox!  He was a little trooper and got through it okay and almost looks his old self again.  Isa picked it up too, but thankfully her case is very mild by comparison.

We arrived in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, on August 3rd.  It was hectic getting through customs with 4 kids, way too many carry-ons, etc., but thankfully New Tribes was there to guide us through the process, translate for us, and help us with all our bags.   A big praise—all our luggage made it! 

While we knew the infrastructure had serious issues, it was still a shock to see how dark the city was at night.  We spent the night at the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) Guest House, and headed out for a drive to our new home at the Mission Center here in Guinea. 

Compared to Conakry, the Mission Center is beautiful.  It is very lush and green—much more so than the pictures we’d seen (they’d been taken during the dry season).   It’s currently rainy season, which means LOTS of rain and humidity, but it also means the temperatures are cooler (when the sun isn’t out, that is). 

We were warmly greeted by many missionaries upon our arrival and shown around our house (see pictures below).   Everyone’s been very supportive and helpful in helping us get settled, which has been a tremendous blessing.

Our Cell Group put together a wonderful Ministry Night for us on Jan 30th!  We shared our ministry with an great audience of about 60 friends.  We had awesome desserts and wonderful music from dear friends.  Thank you to our Cell Group and to Hope Church for your love and support.

Well, Adrianna, Thomas and I were baptized last friday during our church’s women’ s ministry, "Pray & Play".  The water was warm when Dave did the dunking and the kids wanted to stay and float for a while afterwards.  The ladies of Pray & Play along with my parents were a great encouragement.  Isabella now asks to be baptized.  We’ve told her she must be at least six first (she is only two and just wants to swim with her brother and sister).  The kids were inspired by watching video of a baptism service sent to us from Guinea.