We are grateful to the Lord for His manifold blessings upon our lives. Ebola is finally gone from Liberia and just about leaving Guinea; this is an answered prayer for us. We give God the glory. We also want to thank you for your prayers for our nations. None of our members was killed by this killer disease. For the month of September, I traveled to Guinea to see the brethren there. It was a successful mission trip. Getting into Guinea is not that easy due to the bad road conditions. Cars are either unable to go through or might spend two to three days on a 5 hour driving distance due to severe road damage. But in the quest for souls it takes high risk and is costly. Because cars are unable to go through, I had to ride on a motorbike on this 5 hour distance from Liberia through Sierra Leone. It takes between 2 to 5 days to get across on the Guinea side of the border, depending on the road condition. Riding on those bikes is a great risk. Rev. Jones has had such an experience and he knows what I am talking about. In this 5 hour bike ride, your life is in great danger because the drivers will run excessively as if to say you were in an airplane. They don’t care about the condition of the road. Though the governments are battling drug trafficking and use, you can see them smoking marijuana like normal cigarettes.
It came to a point where my driver was smoking while I was at the back. I got drunk from the smoke. I had to force him to stop. I asked him to do his smoking while I’m sitting at a distance. After he finished with his smoking, he didn’t care any more if we were humans or life was in us. I could see myself in the air like I’m flying an airplane. He would not listen to me when I talked to him. I asked myself, “Lord am I buying my own death on this motorbike? I was scared to death. But again, in the quest for souls in our Africa, this is the pain, torment, and fear we face all in the name of searching for Souls. God has given each and everyone grace in different proportions and as we join our graces together, we edify the Church and glorify God together. While it is true that some may not be able to go through these difficult situations, you may have the grace to support missions financially. During World War II, Sir Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, told America, “Give me the tools and I will do the job.” In this light, as you support us financially, we here on the ground can get the job done. We are grateful for the Board of Foreign Missions, especially the Executive Director, who himself has experienced some of these tough journeys and remains dedicated to making sure that our quest for souls is productive and successful. In Guinea, the church is experiencing what I refer to as the Acts Expansion Experience. The Lord is using the persecution of the church as a multiplication blessing. As the churches go through persecution and are scattered, the more new preaching points are established. As we speak, we have 7 solid preaching centers in Conakry itself, under the leadership of Pastor David Camara.
However as the churches are expanding and growing, there are also growing needs in the churches.
1. Many members who are going through persecution and rejection from family. They have been thrown out of their homes and families, just because of their belief in Christ.
2. As the churches are expanding and with the distance to cover Pastor David is finding it difficult to visit regular those branches to strengthen them.
3. The church structures are in very bad conditions. They were driven from their previous worship centers. The materials used for the construction were torn into pieces.
During one of the Sunday services, heavy rains came down, and we had to halt the service, because everyone was getting wet. In spite of the many difficulties, I had a successful trip. We had great times of seminar, question and answers sections. It was a blessing to the members and leaders and they did not want me to leave them.
Liberia
In Liberia, The new power tiller has been officially turned over to the town leadership to enable them make their farms. Pastor Moses was there to turn the key of the tiller over while I was away on Guinea Mission trip. We want to thank you so much for your assistance. This machine is a great blessing to the farmers in that town.
