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 February 4th, 2010 Newsletter #83 from the Moores.
Dear Family and Friends,
“Service for the kingdom does not consist of what you do or what you give; it depends on who you are. When you give God control, He will give you ways to serve. You will not need to drum up any areas to be of use to God. He will give you a zestful, fruitful life purely as His gift to you because you gave your life to Him. Then when He is using you, be careful to keep your eyes on Him!” June Gunden
Greetings from Guinea! The month of January has flown by! While many of you are experiencing extremely cold weather right now we are sweating in 90+ degree weather!
God’s timing is always perfect.Sometimes we have planned to do something and for some reason we are delayed or sense that we need to stay where we are and not leave. We were scheduled to return to Kamsar on January 19 th but put our trip off until the 23 rd because some unexpected things happened. God knew the true reason why we were to stay in Conakry. On Thursday, January 21 st, we heard lots of yelling and arguing as we opened the big metal doors of the house in the morning. We asked one of the guards what was going on. He explained that our neighbor’s son (who lives right across the road from the mission) had been caught stealing. Around 3 AM the young man (SB) and a friend broke a door and a window in someone’s house in the neighborhood and stole a new cell phone and 600,000FG (about $120). SB hid the money and the phone under some rocks by the house where he lived. He then returned to the area where he had stolen the items. Someone recognized him and caught him. A plain clothed policeman came with the family who had lost their goods and took SB. He was beaten and a tire was tied around his neck. They got some gasoline and planned to burn him alive! An imam, from the mosque close by, went and talked to the people and asked them not to burn SB. So they took him to the police station. He was beaten again until he finally agreed to take the police and the family to where he had hidden the phone and the money. When they arrived at the house and looked under the rocks they didn’t find the money and the phone! Someone else had taken them! The accusers wanted to take SB’s dad to jail as they held him responsible for what his son had done. But the dad is an old man! He had been sleeping and woke to all the yelling going on in the yard. They told the old man he had to pay for what was stolen. He told them he had no money and no means to pay them. So they tied the tire around SB’s neck again and brought the gasoline and matches to burn him to death in the yard in front of his father and mother! The old man started crying. They asked around the neighborhood and could only come up with $20 to help the old man save his son’s life! One of the young men in our yard, Paul, came to see us. He asked us if there was any way we could help save SB’s life. What is the value of a human being? This was definitely an expense we hadn’t expected but we couldn’t let SB be burned alive! (He doesn’t know Christ! We’ve explained the Gospel to his family numerous times and they have always rejected it. But God values SB because He created him!) Tom gave the money to Paul under the guise of a loan to Paul. (We have to be careful not to let others know that “white people” were giving the money or the accusers would have asked for much more!) Paul talked to the accusers and they finally said that if he bought them a new phone and repaired the door and window of the house they would have pity on SB and forgive the rest of the money. Paul had them write this down and sign the paper so they couldn’t come back later and accuse SB again! SB was set free! After he bathed, I went over to treat his wounds. His left wrist and hand were badly sprained. He had cuts and bruises all over and was covered in blood. I asked him to take off his hat so I could look at a cut above his eye. He was reluctant to do so. When he removed his hat I understood why. The top of his head is badly scarred. Two years ago he was caught stealing and those who caught him took a hot iron (used for ironing clothes) and pushed it down on the top of his head! I can’t even image the pain that must have caused him! Please pray for SB and his family that they would understand how much God loves them and wants a personal relationship with them. Also please pray that SB will change his ways and that he will never steal again! (If we hadn’t stayed in Conakry SB would be dead today!)
As I was writing this letter I heard a loud thud by the side of the house in Kamsar. I went out to see what had happened. A young boy (14 – 16 years old) had taken his father’s car and was driving around. He was going fast and when he came to our corner he didn’t turn hard enough or fast enough and he crashed into the wall around the church property! He really messed up the front of his car. God blessed us because he ran into one of the pillars in the wall and this stopped him from going further. He broke out a section of the wall about a meter square. If the pillar hadn’t been there he would have run right into the wall of our apartment! Once again we are thankful for God’s protection! Each day we pray that God would keep us safe from “dangers seen and unseen”. He is faithful to watch over us and protect us!
We would also ask you to pray for Mme Gastien and her granddaughter, Anne-Marie (8 yrs. old). Mme Gastien is the wife of the president (chairman of the board) of the Koloma Church. Monday morning she and Anne-Marie got into a “magbana” (van taxi) to go some where. As they were going a fire broke out in the vehicle. When it stopped people rushed to get out. Some people broke bones in their feet. Mme Gastien and Anne-Marie were in the back of the “sardine packed” vehicle. By the time they were able to get out their feet had been badly burned!Please pray for quick healing for both of them.
We covet your prayers for our up coming Bible Camp in April. There are so many preparations to be made! Things are not convenient to get here and it will take much organization and planning for everything to fall into place! I’m still sewing puppets, flags and banners and preparing lots of other crafts for the camp. We believe God will touch hearts to make a deeper commitment to Him and give our children and youth an excitement and desire to evangelize!
The enemy never gives up trying to discourage those working for the Lord!Pastor Dieu Donne and his wife Caroline (who work in the village of Mare) had planted a large rice field this year. Five of their seven sons helped work in the rice field. The rice was ready for harvest, had been cut but was left to partially dry in the field before they brought it to the house. When they went to the field to bring in their harvest someone had stolen almost half of their rice! Villagers encouraged them to go to a “marabou” (a medicine man) to have “medicine” made to bring a curse on the ones who had stolen their rice. They refused explaining that as Christians they don’t put curses on people. However, this has been very discouraging for them because they had counted on the rice to feed their large family during the year. Please pray for them that God would multiply the rice they do have to meet the need.
hank you so much for your prayers for us and for Guinea! We also want to thank those of you who support the Lord’s work financially. God always seems to multiply the finances to meet the needs! God bless you! If you wish to be a financial partner with us in this ministry just e-mail us and we’ll let you know how and where to send the funds. If funds are not designated correctly, we do not receive them for the work in Guinea. God bless you bunches!
In His Service
Tom and Sherry Moore
(If you would like to contact the Moores let us know via the contact page)
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