This Sunday, June 27, the first round of presidential elections is being held in Guinea. This could mark the first fair and democratic election held in Guinea since independence from France in 1958. It should also lead to the transition of power from the military junta back to a civilian government. If all goes smoothly, it could bring about the end of sanctions against Guinea by various international organizations and governments, including the United States.

Elections can be a touchy time, so we ask for your prayers in particular right now. Please pray for peace and calm. Pray there will be no outbreaks of violence. Pray that the election will be fair and open with no irregularities. Pray that the outcome will be accepted by the population and the transition of power will be smooth and peaceful. Pray also for wisdom for the soon-to-be-elected leader. Finally, please pray that Guinea will remain open to the Gospel, and that we will be able to return there soon to continue our ministry.

I wrote the following poem for a Christmas Eve service at our church.  Some people suggested I share it, so enjoy!

‘Twas the Night before Christmas . . . in Guinea

‘Twas the night before Christmas, in our Guinea hometown

Without even a trace of snow on the ground;

The weather was warm and the foliage was green,

And a layer of dust gave the land a red sheen;

The Guinean children were all snug in their beds,

While visions of rice and sauce danced in their heads;

My wife, Billie, and I in our bed were asleep,

Resting as well as we could in the heat,

When from the mosque speaker arose such a clatter,

The first call to prayer was the cause of the chatter.

I got to my feet and I walked to the door,

and stepped out in the dark for ‘twas yet early morn.

The darkness around me was black as could be;

The town where we live had no power you see.

Still in the darkness some people I saw,

Praying as taught by their Muslim law.

Before very long, the sun rose in the sky,

Granting its light and its warmth to our eyes.

I stepped out of our yard into the dirt road,

And greeted our neighbors outside their abode.

On jaaraama, on jaaraama, they heard me say

Which translated in English, means “you be praised”

It’s the typical greeting a person will say

When meeting a friend or going on his way.

The neighbors greeted me, too, with big smiles on their faces,

And then hurried off to their respective workplaces.

With heartbreak I realized as I went on my way,

For them Christmas day was just any old day.

They don’t know the story of how long ago,

The Savior left heaven for earth far below.

He was born in a stable beneath a bright star,

And the wise men, they came bearing gifts from afar.

He never sinned once, He performed mighty deeds,

He was nailed to a cross, he died between thieves.

He was placed in a tomb, but didn’t there stay,

He arose from the dead upon the third day.

He offers us life and forgiveness from sin

If only we’ll trust, put our faith in him.

And this is the message the people don’t know,

In that faraway land that has never seen snow.

The Guinean people must hear our witness,

Cause that’s the great need in a land with no Christmas.

The most recent reports I’ve seen put the toll in the Guinea massacre at 157 killed and more than 1200 wounded.

Violence broke out again in Guinea today.  According to news reports, at least 87 people have been killed during demonstrations against the government.  Please pray for peace in Guinea.  You may read more at the following link:

BBC News report

Our journeys have taken us far and wide.  During the past couple weeks, we have been in Tennessee and Georgia.  We shared about our ministry at two churches in Tennessee.  The people there were so friendly.

First, we visited Tazewell.  It is a charming small town near the Cumberland Gap.  The leader of the women’s missionary group put us up in her guest cabin nearby.  Every day we were greeted by gorgeous mountain views.  We shared about our ministry at the church on Sunday morning, and I preached.  On Sunday evening, the church had its vacation Bible school commencement which we attended.  On Monday, a couple from the church took us out on Lake Norris in their pontoon boat.  It was a lot of fun.  On Monday evening, we shared with the women’s missionary group.

Next, we moved on to the Knoxville area.  It is a beautiful part of the country.  One day, a friend who was hosting us took us into the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg.  I found out that Smoky Mountain National Park is the most visited national park in the U.S.  On Sunday morning, we spoke to the junior high, high school, and college students about our ministry.  In the evening, we shared about our ministry with the whole church, and I preached.

All too soon, it was time to move on to the next stop on our journey.  We drove three hours south to Woodstock, Georgia.  We stayed with some dear friends there and had a meeting with a pastor.  We have also had the chance to visit with several friends in the area.  On Sunday, we will be sharing in a Sunday school class at a church here.  Then, we will be heading to north Georgia to visit some friends for a day, and next, it is on to Columbus, Ohio, to share at one final church before heading back to our home in northwest Ohio.

While traveling and sharing can take a lot of energy, it so neat to see the things that God does along the way.  We get to meet so many wonderful people.  We see so many beautiful sights.  We renew old friendships and strike up new ones.  God has truly blessed us every time we have ventured out to champion the needs of the Fulbe people, in particular their need for the Gospel.  We praise the Lord for all he has done.

We have had a busy few months transitioning back to life in the U.S.  We have been enjoying time with family and friends, church services in English, and our favorite foods.  We have marveled at the many changes that have taken place in our home town and in the U.S. over the past few years.

Since our return, we have also had several opportunities to share about our ministry.  We have shared at our home church, a men’s breakfast, an elementary school chapel, a Bible college chapel, Awana at our home church and another church, and at an orientation for new candidates at our mission agency headquarters.  Just yesterday, we returned from a two week trip to New Jersey where we spoke at six churches.

During the last week in New Jersey, I flew to our mission agency headquarters in Orlando to spend the week interacting with new candidates for the mission field.  During that time, I found one person who is interested in joining our team in Guinea.  We are so excited at the prospect of a new teammate!

This coming Saturday, we will be off again to Tennessee and Georgia to share at a few more churches.  We have several more trips planned for this year that should take us to many other places including Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and California.  We will also be sharing at several churches in Ohio.

Please keep us in prayer as we travel heavily and speak at churches during these next few months.  Pray that we would find more members to join our team in Guinea.  Pray that we would be able to raise the necessary funds to return to Guinea on schedule next year.

Please keep us in prayer Sunday and Monday as we travel to the United States for our home assignment.  Our travel time totals nearly 24 hours including a four hour layover in the Paris airport.  Pray that there will be no delays or missed flights.  Pray that all our luggage will arrive, and nothing will be stolen or lost along the way.

On Saturday evening after the medical clinic, one of my colleagues invited me to go with him to greet the head imam (mosque leader) and give him Scripture.  This missionary had felt a burden to greet the imam but had been unable to find him.  We headed toward the mosque after the call to prayer.  When we arrived, we entered the courtyard outside the mosque but found that the imam was not there.  There are two mosques in the village, and the imam rotated between the two mosques.  We asked one of the men in the courtyard if he could guide us to the imam’s home.  He agreed and off we went, walking in the dark by the light of a flashlight.

Finally, after about a ten minute walk, we arrived at the imam’s home.  At first he welcomed us warmly.  We greeted him, and he brought chairs for us to sit on.  We chatted for a few minutes.  Then, we offered him a gift, the books of Genesis and Matthew in Pular Arabic script.  When he saw what we were offering, his attitude turned cold.  “I can’t read this,” he said.  At first we were unsure if he was unable to read it (illiterate) or unwilling.  After some more questions, it became apparent that he was unwilling.  He refused to even accept it.  We tried in vain to convince him he ought to accept it and read it, that it showed the path to eternal life in heaven.  Before long, he rudely ushered us out of his home.  Even though he didn’t want to, he guided us back to the main road himself because he didn’t want his grandson to guide us alone, fearing that we would speak to him about the Gospel.

As we arrived back at the clinic where we would be sleeping that night, we stopped and prayed for the stubborn imam.  We also prayed that he would not succeed in leading his community astray or turning them against our message.  You, too, can pray with us for the stubborn imam and his village.

One thing I love about working in the village is traipsing to the outhouse by the light of the moon in the middle of the night. (No, not really.) The first night we were in Loomal for the medical clinic, I went to the outhouse and accidentally walked through a swarm of cula (chew-la), also known as African driver ants. These ants travel in great swarms, up to 20 million strong. They like to swarm over something or someone and all begin biting simultaneously. They have been known to reduce a bird to bones in a few hours. Unfortunately, the cula did not start biting me until I was back in our room. They had gotten all the way up to my head, and were spread all over the floor. David helped pick them off me and I spent the next several hours feeling the lasting sting of their bites.

The second night in Loomal, I was determined to not have to go out in the middle of the night and thus reduce my chances of cula problems. You can imagine my surprise when I was jolted awake by David saying that cula were on him. That meant they were in the bed. David grabbed his flashlight and found that thousands of cula had entered the room at a ground level hole on the wall. They were swarming over our clothing on a chair in the corner. We were able to spray some bug spray around the legs of the bed to keep them from climbing up, and by morning, they were almost all gone. Our colleagues, who had their bedrolls on the ground did get bit a few times, but were able to shake the ants off and get away. The wife spent the remainder of the night in a folding chair and the husband slept on a long, wooden bench.