June 06 2007 Newsletter #58 from the Moores.

A Special Father’s Day Letter from the Moores

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from Guinea! As we were going through some old papers we came across this letter that Tom wrote to our oldest son, Tom II, thirteen years ago. Tom II would soon be ending his time in Guinea and returning to the States to attend Eugene Bible College. This was an emotional moment for us, a new sacrifice in the service of the Lord. We wanted to share this with you as Father’s Day approach

es with the hopes that you also will consider what values you are passing onto your children (if you have children) or to the young people you have an influence over. Tom writes:

“As we are nearing the end of our second term in this distant field called the Republic of Guinea, memories of the past eight years flood my soul and my mind. Tonight tears have rolled down my cheeks as I see my oldest son, Tom, who just turned 17 years old, facing the last six months with us on the field.

Through the years of visiting the villages, experiencing the dusty and sometimes muddy country roads that are difficult to explain; laughing through the experiences of eating baboon meat on top of a giant bowl of rice ( it was an early morning breakfast); the swinging on the vines on a mountain side overlooking the fantastic view of the valley below; seeing the struggles of the work within the national church; sometimes facing rejection because he was white; experiencing mobs of young people throwing large stones and pounding on the front and back windows of the car as if they would break them out; seeing the flare bullets fly through the air and hearing the firing of the machine guns; hearing the mobs attacking houses nearby putting one tribe against another tribe; hearing those sounds and trying to calm our frightened, barking African mutt, so loved; watching the chimpanzee refuse to come out from her cage for more than five minutes, for days, after the firing had stopped (She had taken a bite out of Tom’s hand just a month before.); facing other dangers we’re not able to mention, but always knowing that our God was and is in control. Never-the-less, through the rejections, there were also the victories within the church as the young pastors came back from Bible school and were sent to totally unchurched villages. I could see that soon I would be leaving this son behind when we return to Guinea for our next term. Will my son realize the great course that he has run? He did not come to Africa because of a calling his dad and mom had. We had been called as a family! It has been our calling. Now I can see my first son having to leave. I hope and pray that he will not forget the faithfulness of God to us and to the church during these blessed but very difficult years. You see, I don’t really want my son to leave us, for he has always been a part, up to now, of reaching the lost in Guinea, a Moslem country, untouched by the Gospel. We were one of the first to return to the land when the doors swung open. My prayer is that he will never forget God’s faithfulness. As with all his brothers, he has never complained when we gave a good part of our living allowance to support these young national pastors and helped them get set up for work in their villages as missionaries, with no other means or trade experience to earn their own living. Our boys had a part in helping them get started in reaching their Jerusalem for Jesus. I trust my son has learned the great lesson of how to give and how to be a servant. These lessons are hard as sometimes we were rejected, sometimes lacking the means, but God was always supplying in some unknown way. I pray he has learned this lesson well for I have so little time left to share this very important lesson of life with him. So many, in life, have never learned the lessons of sacrificing of their means as well as of their time. May my Jesus always lead him to continue in our calling to His Kingdom building.

You see, God let our boys, Tom and Mike, minister with King’s kids (YWAM) touching a lost and dying world in Spain, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Lithuania, during the last two summers. This was a real miracle as a missionary allowance could in no way send them. However, family and friends sent the funds needed, in joy, showing again that giving and loving are not just a part of our family’s way of life but it is also a part of multitudes of believers around the world. I thank God that my son could see the masses of people around the world that need our Jesus. I pray that this message has been burned into his heart.

As we head into the last six months of this term, we will experience a group of 22 MOVE men who are coming with excitement in their bones, fire and compassion in their eyes and hearts full of joy as they mix mortar and build a church building for a core of young believers.

One of the last experiences of our calling as a whole family will be this next year of itineration. We have only a half of one region where we have never itinerated before and we don’t know where we will be sent this time. I can only say that I’m sorry for the churches we haven’t been able to minister in. Not because they haven’t heard our boys sing those African songs, nor because they haven’t received the testimonies of the wonderful work that our Savior has done and is doing in Guinea. But I feel my son will have missed the opportunity to know every church, every pastor and their family and to be able to experience the mighty moving of God in the churches across our land. To visit God’s people who have been faithful in sending finances, faithful in praying for the work, the ones who covered us with the blood of Jesus as we were facing the mobs and hearing the gun fire as well as experiencing the stray bullets bouncing on our tin roof; to see those faithful ones, who are faithful to do the servant’s work of giving, praying, corresponding, and encouraging is a very special experience. You see, I want my son to see those back home that have been faithful in this way so that he too might be faithful all his life long.

I know my son has missed the friends, the camps, the high school activities, the sports, the cars at ages sixteen or seventeen, the girls and the fun times of the youth groups but I know he’ll forgive me for taking him away from all this and his beloved country. I believe that he has learned that we are just pilgrims passing through and that our true home is with our Heavenly Father. Do you know why I believe he’ll forgive me? Well, I too missed many of those things! I didn’t always understand the American way, but my father and mother gave me a greater way and that was Jesus’ way. If my son has learned this lesson and those other lessons, I have been a good father. If I have failed, I can only trust that God will enlighten him during these last eighteen months.

We visited the Mercy Ship, the M/V Anastasis, just last week, and as we said good-bye and the tears rolled down our cheeks as we left our dear friends, my son said, “It’s as if we just finished a chapter in a book.” (the book of our lives). Yes, he is closing his chapter as an MK (missionary kid) in Guinea, West Africa but there are many more chapters to write. May they be of service, of giving, of loving, of reaching out and of forgiving. May the wisdom of God be his portion. Thank you to those of you who have been faithful and who have been an example for my son, Tom, and my other sons too! You have been a blessing to this family! Thank you for investing in my family, in my Guinea and in the great Kingdom work that has been set before us!”

Have a blessed day and be sure to let the men, who have influenced your life for the good, know how much you love and appreciate them!

In His Service,

Tom and Sherry Moore