This Thanksgiving there are many things we are thankful for.  We want to take a moment to thank all those who have prayed for us, encouraged us, and supported us over the past few years.  We are so blessed to have people who love us and love the Lord; people who want to see the people of Guinea come to Jesus Christ.  The car in the picture above will be a valuable tool to help us in our ministry in Guinea.  May God bless you and give you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Before I visited Guinea last October, I had no idea how small banana plants were. Yes, ‘banana plants’ are plants not trees! And to my surprise, I found out that bananas grow upwards, toward the sky; not down, toward the earth!

To find out more interesting information about the banana plant, go to this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_tree

We have one banana plant on our property along with a few other fruit trees, including a a papaya tree, two guava trees, and what we have been told is a Japanese Cherry tree.

David has gone to the market, Phoebe (our new kitten) is running all over, and I am once again unpacking our things into a new home. We finally moved to Labe two days ago. David is happy as a clam; on cloud nine. In fact, he doesn’t mind not having any electricity, the leaky toilets, no hot water, the bucket baths, or the mice that get into the food. For him, this is the place on which his heart has been set for the past thirteen years. He has finally arrived in his target city for ministry.

I’m excited too. I’m excited to finally have a place to call home. Somewhere I can paint the walls and buy furnishings. Plant a garden and have fruit trees. I’m excited that we can settle down and not have to pack up and move in six months or a year. I’m excited that little by little, I’ll learn the language around me and I’ll understand what people are saying.

We’re both excited that as we learn Pular we can share the life, ministry, and purpose of Christ. It will be great to host visitors from the U.S. who want to be empowered to pray for missions more effectively, and get a closer look at God’s heart for the nations.

The cooler weather here is wonderful! Even now I am wearing a cardigan and the quilts on the bed are piled high.

The other missionaries in our area have given us a warm welcome. One couple had us over for dinner the night we arrived and sent us on our way with a loaf of orange and cranberry breakfast bread. The couple from an hour away came by yesterday and gave us a welcome bag full of plates, tools, books and food. The mission community in Guinea is very close, and we are grateful for all they have done to take us in and show us the ropes.

We have a long way to go, and our house needs a little work here and there; but if the coming months are anything like the past two days, God is going to lavish on us blessing upon blessing. I pray that we will be faithful to pour out Christ’s love to those around us, and be vessels God can use to bring Guineans to Himself. And I hope you catch a bit of the excitement we have for Guinea, for the Fulbe people, and for our purpose here.

We are so excited because just last month, the Pular New Testament finally arrived in Guinea.  For the first time, the Fulbe people will have a finalized translation of the New Testament in their own language.  For the moment, however, these New Testaments are only available in Roman script.  For that reason, our colleague has been working on making some books available in the Arabic script.  Luke is the first book he has completed.

Last week, we helped collate these copies of the Gospel of Luke in Pular written in Arabic script.  The Pular language can be written using two different alphabets, Roman script, like English uses, and Arabic script.  Among the Fulbe people, there are those who can read both scripts, but many read only one or the other.  For that reason, we need copies of the Bible in both scripts.

We were thankful for the opportunity to assist on this project, even in a small way.  Please pray that God would use the power of his Word to break through the layers of opposition to the Gospel that have built up over the years here in Guinea.

A while ago you prayed for “Binta,” my Pular teacher to carry to full term and have a healthy baby. “Adama” is a sweet answer to your prayers.