November 8, 2012
It’s been almost
four months since we left home. We’re
now at the point of the transition where it’s feeling almost normal to be
here. We’ve settled into a routine,
gotten used to filling up buckets for showers, filtering our drinking water,
monitoring our solar panels, and putting on insect repellent. The school routine is also feeling normal,
getting into that smooth and steady rhythm when teachers and students alike all
look forward to the next break. This is
also about the time when we are starting to feel more homesick. For me Thanksgiving is especially difficult
as it’s my favorite holiday to spend with family. We’ve started making our
plans with our team, but I know it won’t be the same. Still I enjoy talking about our little U.S.
holiday with such an international group.
Seeing as the root of it (giving thanks) is so Christian, it will be a
great occasion for us to celebrate.
Interestingly
enough, our team decided on having a traditional American feast, as opposed to
an international potluck. I’m sure it
will be difficult to find some of the items we need for this (I’m thinking in
particular of my favorites: stuffing and
green bean casserole), but it will be fun to see what we can come up with. Hopefully by then the weather will have
started to cool down. Fall is my favorite
time of year in the states, and this time of year Guinea is supposed to cool
down as well. As the rain stops and the
sky clears the temperature is supposed to drop, at least in the mornings and in
the evenings (not so sure about mid afternoon).
So far though we’re still having regular rain showers, and it isn’t much
cooler. So we’ll see what happens.
Other than that, it seems as though our team is
being challenged to step up and share the gospel more freely. The NTM recommendation is to wait to share
the gospel until you can do it in the tribal language. But as our team talks about a possible
extended furlough next year, I think they’re realizing that time is running
short. God is challenging them to share
the gospel every opportunity they get, even if it means doing so in French,
simply trusting God for the translation.
It’s exciting to watch and hear of different conversations our team
members are having. Recently Andres and
Diana have been sharing with Bangoura, their language helper. He’s been helping them translate children’s
Bible stories into the Jahango language.
As he’s been doing that, he’s taken a deep interest in the stories and
is asking a lot of questions. Last week,
as a follow up to one of their sessions, he asked how Jesus could possibly be
the Son of God. “Just because your dad
is a carpenter doesn’t necessarily make you a carpenter,” went his
reasoning. The team is excited and
praying for him as he is wrestling with these complicated truths.
Simacan is another man Andres has been
sharing with. They’ve recently gotten to
the part in the study where it discusses Jesus’ true nature as God. Simacan is also asking a lot of questions,
hungry to know more.
Last week too, a
pair of ladies from Correrah asked for prayer for deliverance from evil
spirits. Following this prayer time they
returned and gave away all their charms and magic medallions. The friend of the gal being prayed for told
Corinne, “if this works, I will believe in your God.”
Finally, Cees has
asked for special prayer for their driver.
This is a man they have had a long term relationship with, and they
recently asked him to go along with them to Senegal in order to finalize some
documents for Jeremiah’s adoption. The
Snetselaars didn’t really need to bring him along, but they felt like this
would be a perfect opportunity to really share Christ with him and allow him to
experience life in a Christian family.
We’re hoping and praying that God will really touch his heart during
this trip.
Another area God
seems to be challenging our team is in the area of finances. For a long time the missionaries here have
generously served the village of Correrah, paying for kids’ education, medical
needs, and a variety of other reasons.
In many instances, however, this financing seems to have developed more
of an entitlement and dependency on the missionaries, without bearing much
fruit in terms of relationship and receptivity to the gospel. While each new situation still requires great
wisdom and prayer, it seems like God is challenging us to rethink our
strategies and reconsider this position of wealthy patron or rich donor. This is rather difficult in a society where
the expectation is for the wealthier members of society to support the poor,
and where the wealthy members use their money to buy themselves greater status
and honor in the community. It’s mostly
self-centered, each group using the other for its own advancement and
prosperity. There seems to be little by
way of true generosity or love. Thus
it’s difficult for the missionaries to participate in this system. If we don’t give, we’re seen as greedy and
selfish. If we do, our generosity is
often abused without much gratitude on behalf of the recipients.
Jennifer and I
have been fortunate to escape most of this so far. We’ve had the beggar women approach us in
town, but no one as of yet has come to our door begging for money or asking for
special favors. That may change tonight
as we have invited Calissa, our bread guy, to come over for dinner. He’s mentioned a few times that he wants to
visit us and talk, because I once asked him about his intentions to study at
the local college. He mentioned to me
that he had applied to the school but was waiting on the financing to see if he
would be accepted. Andres told me that
this often means that the director is waiting for a bribe in order to give the
student a spot in the school.
It’s difficult to
know whether or not to help the student and thereby participate in the
corruption, or to stand on principle and refuse to help someone who clearly has
no other option of being accepted into the system. Last week our team was talking about a
similar situation, discussing the fact that higher education here often isn’t
worth the cost, not because the education is bad, but because there are so few jobs
even with an “advanced degree.” This was
quite a shock to me, having come from the West where education, and especially
higher education, is constantly stressed and is considered an absolute
must. The most useful path for a young
person in Guinea, however, isn’t to go to the University. Instead the best course is to learn a trade
which is much more marketable, though perhaps less profitable.
I guess it just goes to show how different our
societies are. Maybe it’s because we are
more advanced in the West, maybe it’s just that our situations are so much
different. Either way I feel for these
young men and women. It’s gotta be tough
competing for jobs when so few are available, trying to advance oneself when
advancement is way out of reach. It
definitely doesn’t give one much motivation to go to school. In the West we use university and careers to motivate
teenagers to study hard and finish high school.
But if education isn’t important in giving you a better job, then why
bother? I know these issues and more are
the root causes behind the widespread poverty in Africa, but they’re not issues
that will be solved overnight, and they’re definitely not issues we’re going to
be able to solve during our time here. I
just want to know how to help a guy that brings me bread every day. I suppose giving him business on a regular
basis is probably one of the best forms of help I can give him, other than
being his friend and sharing Christ with him.
“Dear Lord, please
move and work in the hearts of these people.
Please give us wisdom and discernment in how to handle the various
issues that come our way. Please guide
us in how and when to share the gospel. Grant
us opportunities to do so. Open the
doors and pave the way. May you do a
great work in and through us, and even without us, so that we might rejoice in
your power and share in your glory.
Thank you, Jesus, for including us in your plans to save the world. May your Kingdom come and your will be done
in Guinea as it is in Heaven. Amen.”
p.s. We just had
dinner with Calissa. We had him try
spaghetti for the first time, which he didn’t really like though he was very
polite to try it. He didn’t ask for
money for school, because it seems he was discouraged by his friends to even
find out how much it (the bribe) would cost him to get in. He did hint at needing funds to be able to
buy his own motorcycle. Apparently the
one he uses is a rental and most of the money he makes goes to the owner. It’s also very hard on him because he
basically supports his whole family. His
father is in the hospital, his mother is too old to work, and his brother is
lazy. I’m not sure how true his story
is, but these things are very common here.
In the end I told him I couldn’t just give him money, but I would be
happy to give him work whenever we could in order to help him out.
From there we
somehow found our to talking about religion.
I asked him if he knew what it meant to be a Christian and if he wanted
to know more about it. He said he did,
so we sat down and went through the gospel message using the illustrations from
a Bible cloth. The conversation seemed
to flow naturally, and he genuinely sounded interested. He responded by saying that he felt like he
understood what I was saying and was very grateful to me for sharing. I told him it’s not enough just to listen,
but eventually you have to make a choice, to accept Jesus or not. I urged him to think about it and invited him
to come back if he wanted to talk about it some more. He suggested we do it again next week.
“Thank
you, Lord, for this opportunity. Please
move and work in Calissa’s heart as he considers your message, your truth, your
Son. Amen!”
