Participants:
Series Code: AFM
Program Code: AFM000013
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01:07 Some say that some places in the world are just too hard
01:10 to reach with the Gospel. Guinea would probably 01:13 fit into the hardest to reach of this group. 01:16 With a population of 9 million, this country is a descendant 01:20 of the ancient Sosso Empire of the 1100s. Animism was at that 01:25 time the religion, but it was not long before Muslim tribes 01:29 moved into the area, forcibly converting those that 01:33 they found. Now, Guinea is a bit of a melting pot, 01:37 close to Arab Africa, yet firmly entrenched in West Africa. 01:42 90 to 95 percent of the population is Muslim. 01:45 Marc and Cathy Coleman founded the Susu Project of Adventist 01:49 Frontier Missions in Guinea in the year 2000. And after 01:53 several years of learning the culture and language, 01:56 launched into an active ministry of medical missions, 01:59 friendship evangelism, and development work. 02:01 As young people started to convert, education later became 02:05 part of this program. Now, many years later, 02:09 a thriving church and school, a lay training program, 02:12 and local leaders fill their places. God has shown once 02:16 again that no place is impenetrable, impermeable 02:21 to the Gospel, because God is bigger than all of 02:25 the challenges. 02:28 Hello, we are the Colemans. My name is Marc. I'm Cathy. 02:31 I'm Rebecca. And I'm Chelsea. If you were to ask me, 02:34 "What is your lasting impression of Guinea, or what is 02:38 one picture you have that stays on your mind that left an 02:41 indelible impression upon you?" And I could tell you stories 02:45 from now till next week about checkpoints - military 02:49 checkpoints... There was one particular day when a soldier 02:52 came to the car. We were stopped at a checkpoint. 02:55 And they always had guns, but this young man was full of 02:59 knives, talismans, and a machine gun strapped over his shoulder. 03:03 And it was a particularly tense time in the country. And he 03:06 came up to the car in a very menacing way, and it was a 03:09 little frightening to look at him. We didn't know what 03:12 would happen. But after a quick prayer, and some very pleasant 03:17 exchanges, this young man became our friend. 03:19 And to me this is a symbol of what it was like to work in 03:22 Guinea. Sometimes the obstacles seemed insurmountable 03:26 and very frightening to look at. But through prayer, through 03:29 perseverence, through faith, we saw those obstacles 03:31 become oftentimes the means of blessing and 03:35 opening hearts to the Gospel. Come with us now. 03:38 Let's take a further look at how God opened the door 03:41 of this relatively unreached country. 04:07 From the beginning all the way until now, members 04:10 have faced a variety of challenges. The number-one 04:13 thing is cultural and family issues. But there is another 04:18 area where all of the members have faced a big challenge. 04:22 And that is the area of Sabbath. And so we have a couple of 04:26 members that have especially poignant stories when talking 04:30 about the Sabbath. Joshua is one of those people. 04:32 He is a very gifted locksmith, and he is also a very good 04:35 mechanic, so the pressure for him has been amazing. 05:57 Brother David, one of our faithful members, has also 06:00 faced great persecution from his own immediate family. 06:04 He has made a faithful choice to follow God and to trust. 06:09 One day I was seated at home, and my friend came and said 06:14 to me, "Hey friend, I saw a new church. 06:19 It's called the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 06:25 Can't you go with me today so we 06:26 can visit? But they keep the Sabbath." 06:29 I said, "What in the world is the Sabbath?" 06:38 I came home, and I gathered my whole family together, 06:42 and I said, "I've begun to go to a church, and it's called the 06:45 Adventist Church. 06:50 My children and my wife said, "It's not good. Let's stay where 06:53 we are. It's not good." I said, "Let's go and visit there 06:57 just to see." And I began to go every Sabbath to 07:02 church. 07:06 But my friends weren't happy with me at all. 07:10 And they began to really persecute me. 07:13 They all left me. Everyone abandoned me. They 07:16 wouldn't even speak about me. My children at home 07:20 wouldn't listen to me. And above all else, 07:23 my wife turned against me. But I continued to adhere to 07:28 the Adventist Church, especially because of the Sabbath. 07:33 It really, really hurt me on the day of my baptism that 07:37 not one of my family members were there. It hurt a lot. 07:42 But because God was with me, I was happy to be baptized. 07:50 Today I feel good. 07:52 Because what I forgot, what I didn't know, 07:56 what I hadn't yet discovered, that's what I found at the 08:00 Seventh-day Adventist Church. 08:04 When I was at my old church, I was doing all kinds of things, 08:08 especially drinking. But I left all those things behind. 08:11 I thank God so much. And my friends now tell me, 08:15 "It's good that you went to that church. He's changed 08:18 your life." And I said, "Well, you see now, maybe 08:21 that's what He wants for you. Maybe you can come 08:23 and join me." 08:29 Niouma is an interesting story. He first came to 08:32 church on a community guest day. We had a small 08:35 group - five or six people only. But we would have 08:38 community guest day. We would invite a large number of 08:41 people - Muslim, Christian - and we would tell them we were 08:45 going to answer their questions on a particular topic. 08:47 And Niouma was sitting in the back. Well, he ended up 08:51 learning about the truth and becoming a member at the 08:54 school. And that is when the persecution started. 08:58 I remember people talking to him and telling that he 09:02 had made poor decisions, that he would never go anywhere. 09:05 He worked hard. He was teased because he was the only person 09:09 in his class who went all the way through school, 09:11 decided to sit the national exams. That year it didn't fall 09:16 on the Sabbath. And Niouma placed first on the national 09:21 exam in our city. So now, suddenly from being a 09:26 pariah, now he is being congratulated by the very 09:31 people who were discouraging him. But, then again, the 09:34 persecution started and, "So what are you going to 09:36 do with your life now? You can get a full scholarship to 09:39 any university you want to." Which is very difficult to do, 09:41 by the way."Well," he said, "I want to study to be a 09:44 minister." People again began to ridicule him, 09:47 "What's wrong with you? You want to be a minister?" 09:50 They were forgetting what they had said to him before 09:53 and how God had miraculously provided. But he had already 09:55 seen God work for him through his education, and he held firm. 10:33 I'm pleased to tell you today that he is getting very high 10:37 grades at our university in Cameroon. And he is 10:40 preparing for the Gospel ministry. And I just thank 10:43 the Lord for young people like Niouma, who through 10:48 AFM, through the faithful prayers and support of 10:52 people like you who want to build up the work in very 10:56 difficult places, Niouma is now preparing for the Gospel 10:59 ministry for this country, that as of yet, has no 11:04 national Seventh-day Adventist minister. 12:23 It's not an easy thing to face the persecution that people 12:26 face when they do make a choice to become a Christian. 12:29 The challenges are amazing, and that's why it's so 12:32 important - the biblical ideal of a family in Christ 12:35 made up of all nations so that we can provide the 12:38 support structure for those who are being pushed away 12:41 from their familiies as a result of their decision 12:44 to follow Christ. 18:07 Linda Scabey had been attending a lot of different churches 18:10 over a period of time, trying to find one that 18:13 taught the truth. She was finally introduced 18:17 to our little Adventist group here, and she started 18:20 attending. She was impressed by the the way the Bible was 18:24 taught and how it was taught simply so that everyone 18:27 could understand. And so, she wanted to share this 18:30 experience with her son, Ousmane, who was around 18:33 the age of 11 at that time. But he didn't want to 18:36 have anything to do with Christianity. 18:39 But even though outwardly he didn't want to have 18:41 anything to do with it, inside he was battling. 18:46 Because he would go to the mosque, and he would hear 18:48 the imams preach, "Don't steal." 18:51 And yet, everyone still stole, and it was just normal. 18:54 He would hear the imams preach, "Don't lie." 18:57 But yet, if you told a good lie and didn't get caught at it, 19:00 you were considered clever or smart. 19:02 The imams would preach to stay healthy and stay away 19:05 from bad eating habits and keep your body in good shape. 19:09 Yet the town was of full so- called Muslims who were 19:13 alcoholics, smokers, drug abusers, and just so many 19:16 things. So he was confused. He wasn't sure if he really 19:19 wanted to embrace Christianity yet. 19:24 Time went on, and one day his mother came 19:28 to our house and shared with us that Ousmane had a serious 19:31 hernia, and she was asking for help. 19:38 So we talked it over with the team and decided that it 19:41 would be a good thing if we could help him get an operation. 19:56 So we arranged for him to have an operation, and fortunately 20:01 it was successful and went very well. And after he got 20:05 out of the hospital, he came with his mom to our house 20:09 and thanked us for what we had done. 20:11 After that, it's like something changed. And he started 20:15 coming to church on Sabbath with his mom. And pretty soon 20:19 he was a regular attendee. And he really seemed to 20:21 be enjoying it. 20:23 He joined a Bible study group and even expressed a desire 20:27 to be baptized. And we were just really excited about it. 20:36 And on top of all that, he even raised his hand to be 20:40 a cell Bible study group leader. We were just really amazed 20:44 at how the Holy Spirit had just transformed his life 20:47 from him starting out before not wanting to have 20:49 anything to do with Christianity to being so on 20:52 fire for the Lord and so eager to spread the Word. 20:55 So we were just really, really excited about that. 20:57 But it wasn't always easy for him. 21:07 He faced a lot of opposition from his family, a lot of 21:10 persecution. Ousmane went down to Conakry for 21:15 summer break, and he went down to visit his father. 21:19 And his father was a very strong Muslim. 21:22 One Sabbath, Ousmane wanted to go to church. He didn't know 21:26 where the Adventist church was in Conakry, so he started 21:29 asking around, and he found it. So he attended church 21:32 that Sabbath, and when he got home, his father wanted to 21:35 know where he had been. So Ousmane said, 21:37 "Well, I went to church." And his father was very angry. 21:40 He said, "If you go to that church again, 21:41 I'm going to kill you." He just said it point blank. 21:44 He said, "No son of mine is going to be a Christian." 21:48 His mom even had the same problem. She received 21:52 relatives that were threatening to take all of her children 21:54 away from her. She had five kids - Ousmane and his four 21:58 sisters. And she was threatened to have them all taken away 22:01 from her if she didn't stop coming to our Adventist church. 22:08 But they remained faithful, and Ousmane just continued 22:12 coming to church, continued growing. And we were just 22:17 really, really excited over what God had done 22:20 in his life. 22:36 We had waited for a long, long time for our candidates 22:40 to be baptized here in Fria. 22:43 They had gone through Bible studies for over a year, 22:49 but yet a pastor had not been tasked to come here to do 22:54 the baptisms. Our baptismal candidates asked us, 22:58 "When are we going to get baptized?" 23:00 "When are we going to be able to join your church?" 23:04 "We've gone through study, after study, after study and 23:07 we are ready." 23:12 As we waited, we prayed. We contacted AFM. We shared 23:15 with them our burden and our concerns. 23:18 Souls were at stake. 23:20 We had young university students, young men eager 23:24 and ready to give their hearts to the Lord and to be 23:28 baptized and become members of this church, but yet silence. 23:32 And so the struggle, the struggle continued. 23:37 But God performed a miracle, and we received a letter 23:42 from the Union stating that they had given Marc the 23:46 permission to now baptize our candidates. 23:50 Everyone was excited! We arranged the dates. 23:54 We arranged everything, and the announcement went out 23:58 that the Seventh-day Adventist church was going to have 24:01 a baptism. And not only did we have a baptism, 24:06 but we also had a baby dedication. Two little 24:09 children were dedicated to the Lord that day. 24:12 And after that, the baptismal candidates went to get 24:18 prepared to put on their robes for baptism. 24:21 You should have just heard the church. The church was just 24:24 singing - we were full of joy! We realized that God had 24:27 performed a miracle. We had waited two years for this 24:30 day to happen. 24:33 And when Marc said, "It's time now." 24:36 We all marched outside. We have a little baptistry 24:40 outside, a cemented baptistry. We all walked outside. 24:44 We all surrounded that baptistry. And one by one, the 24:49 candidates were baptized. 24:54 But then there was a solemn, solemn moment. 24:56 Our last candidate, the fourth candidate, 24:59 as he approached the baptistry, 25:02 I could slightly see tears coming from his eyes. 25:07 And as he held his face like this, 25:11 he walked up the steps and down into the water. 25:17 And my husband asked him, "Alexandre, what is it?" 25:22 And Alexandre proceeded to share with us 25:29 his deep concern about Jesus having had trials 25:35 after his baptism. And how He faced 40 days in the 25:40 wilderness being tempted by Satan. And he, too, thought 25:45 at that moment, will he be able to stand like Jesus? 25:49 He's getting ready to be baptized. What trials 25:53 will he be facing? Will he be able to stand firm for Jesus? 26:01 He solicited prayers, our prayers. He asked the entire 26:04 church congregation to please pray for me as I make 26:07 this step and this commitment into the watery grave 26:10 and to become a Christian, to become a Seventh-day 26:13 Adventist Christian. And so he went down 26:16 and he came up. Singing went up again. We were just really 26:21 so excited about this time. After that, we decided we 26:27 wanted to have a Bible game. 26:29 And it just did my heart well 26:33 when I saw all of our young, 26:36 new believers searching their Bibles for the answers. 26:41 They are truly Bible students now. They know their Bibles. 26:49 And after that, we all were able to walk out together 26:55 as a group, praising the Lord, singing down the road 27:00 because of what miracle God performed that day. 27:05 This was truly, truly a day to remember. |
Revised 2015-07-15