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.

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.

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This past weekend we helped out at a medical clinic outreach in a village deep in the Guinean countryside.  During the course of the clinic, we saw 92 patients.  Diagnoses ranged from the minor (heartburn) to the serious (heart murmur) to the critical (kidney failure).  We saw people of all ages from infants to a man 90 years old.  Billlie helped out mainly by registering the patients as they arrived.  David helped by showing the Jesus Film to people as they waited and by selling Scripture and health literature at the registration table.  Every person who came through the clinic was prayed for and received an audio cassette of Scripture before they left.  In the next few blogs, we will be sharing some of our experiences from the clinic.

This past week, a colleague and I went on an outreach to a village market.  We loaded up our backpacks with Scriptures and other literature and drove approximately two hours into the Guinean countryside.  There we came to a village where they were having a weekly market.

We prayed, got out of the car, and headed toward the market.  As we approached we saw some women dressed in the telltale head-to-toe covering of the most fundamental sect of Islam.  Fortunately, most women were not dressed this way.

We began calling out in Pular, “God’s Books, God’s Books!  Buy God’s Books!”  A crowd quickly gathered around us, and the people began looking to see what we had for sale.  We were carrying translations of Genesis and Matthew.  We also had Scripture calendars and some health books.

Almost immediately, people began buying Scriptures.  My colleague and I split up to cover more ground.  In places, a crowd gathered around me, a few people would buy some literature, and the crowd would gradually disperse.  Then, I moved on to another spot, and the same thing happened again.  It seems that people attract more people.  The people also seemed vaguely amused to see white people, dressed in African clothes, selling Holy Books and speaking Pular.  Some even asked if I was Arab.

As the day wore on, we sold more and more literature.  Eventually, it was time for us to head back home.  We had a quick meal of rice and peanut sauce at a lunch counter and headed back to the truck.

Some people ask why we sell Scripture in markets here instead of giving it away.  Quite simply, by asking a price for the books, we show that we are selling something valuable.  We know God’s Word is more valuable than anything else in the market.  Of course, we sell it for less than we paid for it.  We are not trying to make a profit, only to keep the books from ending up crumpled on the ground.  If people pay for something, however little, they are more likely to value it and read it.

Two days ago, while waiting outside a store, I struck up a conversation with the young man sitting on the bench next to me.  After some small talk, I asked him if he prayed.  That is a common question here to find out if someone takes their Islamic religion seriously.  It is also a good way to start a spiritual conversation.

The young man, “Sal,” responded in the affirmative.  He said that he does pray, and that he had studied the Qur’an.  I asked him if he could understand what he was saying when he prayed, since Muslims are required to pray in Arabic, and he said no.  He had simply memorized the words to the prayers and repeated them from memory.

He asked me if I pray.  Knowing he was wondering if I was a Muslim, I answered “yes, I do pray” but was quick to emphasize that I am a follower of Jesus, the Messiah.  To this he replied, “Does he live in your neighborhood?”

I answered, “No, I mean Jesus the Messiah who is written about in the Gospel.”  Our discussion continued on, and two days later I was able to bring him a copy of the Gospel to see for himself.

Pray for Sal, and the others that I met there that day, that they will come to know Jesus, the Messiah for themselves.

Saturday was full of drama around our house.  David woke up and unlocked the doors to find our guard, Mr. B so sick he couldn’t walk. David took him to a colleague who used to be a nurse. She recommended he be taken to a local clinic for further examination. After trips to two clinics, David was able to find a doctor who knew what he was talking about. He then returned home to have lunch.

After lunch, David went to several pharmacies to fill Mr. B’s prescriptions. When he returned, I went out to open the gate for him and heard our two year old neighbor screaming. His grandma said he put his hand in a pot of boiling sauce. She wanted to know if I could help them. I had no clue about treating burns, so I ran inside and called our colleague. She came over right away and showed me how to treat a burn.

Now the toddler comes to our house every day at 4 o’clock for treatment. I am getting better at cleaning and dressing his wounds, but my hands still shake when I have to pull dead skin off his little hand. He should be totally healed within a week or two, and Mr. B will be well in a few weeks if he takes all his medicine, too.

I’m grateful for opportunities like these to reach out to those around us. It’s fulfilling to share the love of Christ in a tangible way. It also gives me hope that they’ll be more open to the Gospel when my language skills are sufficient to share it with them.

Last Tuesday at the invitation of ‘John’, our home owner, we visited Gar, a village we had never before been to. Gar sits just outside our city and is only a few minutes away by car.

When we entered John’s family compound, we were welcomed by all and immediately given a platter of freshly roasted goat and sheep. I always pray that God will do two things when I find myself in situations like that: 1. That God will help me to swallow the food I eat, and not throw it back up and 2. That I won’t get Montezuma’s revenge from eating raw and undercooked foods. (more…)

Last week, we finished formatting the 2009 Scripture Calendars and sent them to the printer in Conakry.  We expect them to be finished soon and ready for distribution.  This year we are printing 4755 total calendars.  One calendar is in the Susu language, another in Maninka, another in Pular, and the last includes both French and English.  These calendars will be used by over nineteen missions and/or missionary families throughout Guinea as a means of sharing the Gospel.  If each calendar touches ten lives, which is certainly possible if it is hanging in a prominent place in a family home, then these calendars could impact up to 50,000 lives!  The theme for the 2009 calendar is God’s Law and Justification by Faith.  The first ten months each deal with one of the Ten Commandments.  The last two months are drawn from Romans 3, and explain the purpose of God’s Law (to reveal our sinfulness and need for a Savior) and God’s provision of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.  The calendars include artwork for each month illustrating the teaching of the verse.  Please pray that there would be no problems with the printing of these calendars.  Pray that God would use them greatly to share the Gospel with thousands of people throughout Guinea.

Our latest newsletter is available to read online.  Click on the “Newsletters” link to the right to access our fall newsletter.  If you do not know the password, click on the “Latest News” link above and scroll down to the “Request a Password” form.  We keep our newsletters confidential for the protection of other Christian workers.