Participants:
Series Code: AFM
Program Code: AFM000014
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01:09 Some say that some places in the world are just too hard
01:12 to reach with the Gospel. Guinea would probably 01:15 fit into the hardest to reach of this group. 01:17 Guinea is a land of paradoxes. Unsurpassed natural beauty 01:21 belies the grim fact that it has one of the highest child 01:25 mortality rates in the world. It is known as the water 01:29 source for West Africa because of it's many large 01:32 rivers. Yet, in the capital and around the country, water 01:36 faucets are dry. She is blessed with riches of gold and iron, 01:40 bauxite and oil, diamonds and wood, yet her people 01:44 struggle against grinding poverty. This is truly a story, 01:48 the story of the Gospel going forward in Guinea, 01:50 that only God could write. 01:52 Marc and Cathy Coleman founded the Susu Project of Adventist 01:56 Frontier Missions in Guinea in the year 2000. And after 01:59 several years of learning the culture and language, 02:02 launched into an active ministry of medical missions, 02:05 friendship evangelism, and development work. 02:07 As young people started to convert, education later became 02:11 part of this program. Now, many years later, 02:15 a thriving church and school, a lay training program, 02:19 and local leaders fill their places. God has shown once 02:22 again that no place is impenetrable, impermeable 02:27 to the Gospel, because God is bigger than all of 02:31 the challenges. 02:34 Hello, we are the Colemans. My name is Marc. I'm Cathy. 02:37 I'm Rebecca. And I'm Chelsea. 02:38 Got a puzzle for you. Here's a hard question. 02:42 What do you do when you are in a place and young people 02:46 are starting to come into the church by the 10s, soon maybe 02:50 by the 100s, but because the church is so small, there's no 02:54 educational system for them. If they stay in the national 02:58 educational system, they have persistent problems 03:01 with the Sabbath. They're not able to finish their school 03:04 and their studies and other problems with philosophies 03:07 of resistant religions. What do these young people do? 03:11 What do missionaries do? Come with us again 03:13 and let us share with you this exciting story of God's 03:16 wonderful providence. 03:39 Young people in Guinea face several real barriers to 03:43 completing an education. 03:44 Many young people come from polygamist families. 03:47 And what that means is a lot of children, and not 03:51 everybody can be educated. A country like this where 03:54 there is a lot of political and social upheaval, 03:57 that is another barrier. 03:59 Now, for a young person coming into the Church, 04:02 he may often have to come to the Church against the 04:05 will of his family. Now, suddenly added to all of 04:08 these is the fact that Saturday is a regular school day. 04:12 So how do they attend school and respect the Sabbath? 04:16 So there was our challenge. And it's for this reason that 04:20 we felt a strong burden to start a school. 04:23 We were able to solve one problem with the school. 04:26 But now the national exams are another problem. 04:28 When kids finish school, they have to take national exams 04:32 to go on to the university. And there's a national 04:36 exam also from tenth grade, which is the end of junior 04:39 high here, to high school, 11th grade. And there is another 04:42 national exam from sixth grade to seventh grade, 04:44 the end of primary into secondary school. 04:46 And you never know from year to year whether one of these 04:49 tests is going to fall on the Sabbath. 04:51 Usually, or many times, they do. We had one particular 04:55 young lady who twice failed one of those exams in the 04:59 high school level because she kept the Sabbath. 05:04 I used to be a Catholic. 05:06 One day, my mother's friend 05:08 came and told us about an 05:10 Adventist church she was attending. 05:17 The next Saturday, my mom asked me to go with her 05:20 to the church. 05:24 I liked how everyone had their own Bibles and 05:28 read out of them. So I said to myself, 05:32 I really want to know about this. 05:36 I had never read out 05:38 of a Bible before, and I wanted to learn more. 05:44 I had the ambition to know the Bible. 05:48 But I had a problem. It was the Sabbath. In the Guinean 05:52 school system, students are required to attend 05:56 classes on Sabbath. But what I was learning at the 06:00 church had an impression on me. So I would skip 06:05 classes to go to church. My friend and I were also 06:10 going to Bible studies. 06:15 When I was ready, I was baptized with my mother. 06:20 It was an awesome day for me. 06:23 When school started again, 06:26 I didn't know how I could 06:30 respect the Sabbath and still get good grades. 06:33 I asked myself, "How would my grades be if I went to 06:39 church instead of school?" 06:44 But I still made a firm decision to not go to 06:47 school anymore on Sabbath. 06:53 When I took my 10th grade national exams, I didn't go 06:56 on Sabbath, and I failed. 07:00 So I took it again and again, and I failed the third time. 07:07 My friends would ask me why I didn't want to go to exams 07:11 on Sabbath. 07:14 Why would you skip classes every day? 07:17 I tried to explain why to them, but they still didn't 07:22 understand. 07:26 They told me that God would understand and that one 07:30 day wouldn't ruin my relationship with Christ. 07:38 My friends started to constantly bother me. 07:42 Even my family and professors started to persecute me. 07:48 When that would happen, I would cry and ask God 07:53 "Why? Why me?" What could I do so that they 07:57 they could understand the truth? I thought that if 08:02 God didn't help me with my situation, everyone would 08:07 think that they were right. 08:12 But I can say that I truly saw the hand of God in my life. 08:18 The pastor of the church and the director of the school 08:22 came up with the BDIS test. 08:26 I took the exams, and God really opened doors for me. 08:31 I passed the exams, and I was accepted in the universiy. 08:35 When that happened, I was so shocked. 08:39 I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 08:43 I didn't even know how to thank Jesus for what 08:47 He has done for me. When I started telling 08:50 people that I had passed my exams, they asked me 08:54 questions. "How did you pass your college entrance 08:57 exams when you didn't even pass your 10th grade exams? 09:01 How did you pass? What exam did you take? 09:05 Is it recognized by the government?" 09:08 I told them that I took an exam that was not only 09:11 recognized nationally, but internationally. 09:14 They said, "We don't understand." 09:17 I told them that I had been trying to tell them, but still 09:21 they didn't believe me. God has many ways to 09:25 provide for His children. 09:29 The school then proposed to have a graduation ceremony 09:34 for me. I invited a lot of people, and I was able to 09:39 wear a robe and receive my diploma. 09:46 I told my professors that God had opened up all 09:50 these doors for me. 09:57 He took away all my shame. 10:04 To all those who find themselves in a similar 10:08 situation, let them apply themselves and pray 10:11 continuously because 10:14 God always hears His children. 10:20 God showed me that He didn't abandon me. 10:23 He's always with me. 10:25 I am now a teacher at the Adventist school here in 10:28 Fria, Guinea. I teach second grade. 10:34 The school is attracting 10:37 more than just Christians. 10:39 But we have also Muslim 10:42 students and non-Adventist students. It is the only 10:45 Adventist school in the country that has from 10:47 grade one to 13. 10:50 Every morning at 7:45, we assemble the students 10:55 for devotion, both Muslims and Christians, and they 10:59 love to sing praises to God. And then after the devotion 11:03 they will go into their classes. 11:04 Since our school has been attracting a lot of Muslims, 11:10 we have Bible classes that are challenging and very 11:15 interesting to the Bible teacher. Most of the 11:18 parents send their kids to the school because they 11:22 are attracted with English and computer classes 11:25 and some Christian parents, Bible classes. 11:28 But at the end, you can find the kids having more interest 11:32 in Bible. And most of them will come walk into the 11:36 office and ask for Bibles, and some would ask for 11:39 puzzles, Bible puzzles, and some would ask for 11:43 little Bible stories, segmented Bible stories. 11:50 There is one student that I want to bring to your 11:53 notice. His father is one of the highest ranking Muslim 11:57 officials in their village, the chief imam. 12:00 He was going to our neighbor school, 12:03 Franco-Arab. It's purely Muslims. One day when we 12:06 first moved here, we were clearing this courtyard, 12:10 and Sylla walked up to me and asked me, "What are you 12:13 doing here?" And I told him, "Well, our school has moved 12:16 to this building, and we are preparing it for the 12:19 next school year. And so he took the hoe from me, and he 12:22 started to work with me. At the end of our work bee, 12:24 he came back to me and expressed his desire to be in 12:28 our school. And then I told him, "Ah, it's a Christian 12:32 school." He said to me, "I'm interested. I want 12:33 to be in your school." 12:36 The reason that I decided to come to this school, 12:40 everything started when I went to work for Uncle Joshua, 12:45 a collegue of the missionaries. 12:49 One day I asked him, "Uncle Joshua, I would like to 12:54 review all my past studies so that next year I can 13:00 go to a new school and to leave where I am 13:02 because I am starting to have problems there." 13:05 And he said to me, "Would you like to go to a new school?" 13:10 And I said, "Yes. That is what I would like to do." 13:13 I then asked him, "How would I take care 13:18 of my monthly needs because I don't have the 13:21 financial means to take care of myself?" 13:27 So he said to me, "Don't worry about that. You're 13:31 going to our school. You will continue studying 13:35 there until you finish your studies." 13:39 Uncle Joshua is really the one who helped me 13:42 get into the school. 13:46 Since his registration, Sylla has been visiting the 13:50 church, most times in the evening, and there are 13:54 times when he goes for Sabbath worship, too. 13:57 And during one of his visits, the church was doing foot 14:02 washing and having communion service. And Sylla wanted to 14:07 participate. And Pastor Coleman told him, 14:11 "You can't participate 14:13 because we don't know if you have accepted Jesus 14:16 as your Savior." And Sylla said, "I do." 14:20 And so he participated in the foot washing. 14:24 The Bible helps me to understand how to carry myself 14:28 and how to understand the teachings of God. 14:33 It also helped me understand about the day of ressurection. 14:38 The Bible helps me unerstand all these things, 14:42 so I thank God for that. 14:45 So what have I learned from the Bible? 14:49 Well, even before coming to the Bible, I heard it 14:54 said from the Koran that Jesus is the son of Mary. 14:59 So, now I come to the Bible, and I see that Jesus is 15:04 the Son of God. 15:09 So He is sent of God to take away our sins. 15:13 I learned that Jesus is the Son of God. 15:18 I really believe that, too. Because of all of His 15:23 suffering and the miracles He did. 15:26 If He is not God, or the Son of God, there is no 15:31 way that He could have done those things. 15:38 There is only one thing that I wish. I don't want 15:42 people to thank me. I don't want money. 15:45 The only pleasure I could ever gain from this is 15:50 if the student goes to someone and tells them, 15:55 "Yves showed me something that led me to know God." 15:59 That is good for me. 16:02 In conclusion, my vision is that each student 16:07 comes to the knowledge that they are precious to God. 16:15 They must also realize that they have talents that 16:20 God gave to them. These talents are to be used 16:25 to serve others. If I teach and have not 16:30 reached this goal, I know I am missing something. 16:36 The other point is that the Bible is the basis 16:40 for everything. 16:43 The educational component here is so important. 16:46 70 percent of the church here is young people. 16:49 You can't run a strong missionary work in a place 16:51 like Guinea without taking into account the 16:54 edcuational component of those who are coming 16:56 into the church and facing real difficulties because of 17:00 the Sabbath and the desire to serve and honor God 17:04 and His truth. 17:12 We had a little church right in the neighborhood. 17:16 We rented a house as our church right in our 17:19 neighborhood. And so we said, what do we want to 17:21 do to reach all the young people in this neighborhood? 17:26 So the team decided, "Let's do a vacation 17:29 Bible school." As we got started with the 17:32 planning, we realized that a battle was going on. 17:37 Satan seemed to be in all of the details. And it 17:42 seemed like no matter what was going on, 17:44 things were falling apart. And it was starting to 17:47 become discouraging for all of us. But we decided 17:50 that we were going to press forward anyway. 17:55 Well, I tell you, vacation Bible schools here are 17:58 nothing like in the United States. Here, you have 18:00 to do everything from scratch. Say, for instance, 18:03 you wanted to teach the children how to do a 18:05 sand sculpture. What we have to do here - you have 18:09 to go and get dirty sand. You have to clean it first 18:12 and sift it. Then you have to set it out in the sun 18:16 and let it dry. Then you have to go to the market and 18:19 get different colors, and you have to color the sand. 18:22 Then you have to let it dry. And then you have 18:24 to sift it again. And then you have what is necessary 18:28 to do a sand sculpture. All of our programs, 18:31 our stories, the play, 18:33 we had to create all ourselves. 18:38 Well, finally the day came for the registration. 18:41 We set the table up outside, and children started coming 18:44 from all over. They said, "We want to be in this 18:48 program." So we started signing them up, and 18:51 we said, "We can only take 50. We only have manpower 18:54 for 50 children and supplies for 50 children." 18:57 And we figured maybe we would get 50. 18:59 Well, we reached the 50 mark within one hour of 19:02 registration. What are we going to do now? 19:05 So many more children are wanting to come. 19:08 We told them, "We're so sorry. We've reached our 19:12 limit, and so you have to come next year." 19:15 The children started climbing the walls. They said, 19:18 "We want to be where those kids are. We want 19:22 to be where - whatever you are doing, we want 19:25 to be a part of it." And we told them, 19:27 "We're really sorry, but you have to get down 19:28 from that wall, and we cannot let you in. 19:31 We're really sorry." Well, even one man 19:34 knocked on our door, and he begged us. 19:37 He said, "You have to let my child in. I hear good 19:40 things are going on in there. I hear you're 19:42 teaching the children about kindness and 19:44 about how to treat others. And I want my kid to be 19:47 a part of it." 19:49 When we started our program, we decided that we were 19:52 going to do stories. So the children would gather 19:55 around, and we would teach them Bible stories. 19:59 They did arts and crafts. Some of the children had 20:03 never even touched a pair of scissors before. They 20:06 didn't even know how to use crayons. 20:08 And so it was just such a blessing to see these kids 20:10 maneuver the paper, cut out, and color and draw. And every 20:15 day they came. We were just having a wonderful 20:18 time together. We would have recess with them. 20:21 They would play soccer. By the end of the program, 20:25 we sent out invitations to the parents, because we 20:28 were going to do a big program at the end for them, 20:32 the grand finale, I guess you could say. 20:34 The children were excited. They had been working hard. 20:37 Because we decided to do a play. And so the 20:40 children were all dressed up in costumes. Some 20:43 were angels, some were wise men, some were shepherds. 20:48 And they had never done this before. 20:50 And I tell you, it was a riot just trying to get these 20:54 kids to practice every night. But in the end, 20:57 it was a blessing. The parents came. 21:00 They saw their children participate. We put out 21:05 an art and craft exhibit to display all of the things 21:09 the children had made. And it was just amazing. 21:13 The parents, as they looked, said, "Did my child do this? 21:17 Wow! Can we get our kids into your school? 21:22 We want our children to be a part of your school." 21:26 Several years have passed, and we can see that the 21:30 battle that was started for these souls - actually it 21:34 was well worth it. Because now we see 21:37 in our school some of those same children there learning 21:42 about Jesus, learning about God, praying to our heavenly 21:46 Father. And they are receiving a Christian education. 21:49 If we had to do it all over again, we would do it 21:52 all over again because we know in the end 21:54 a soul is being won for Jesus. 22:18 When we first came here to Guinea, we lived in 22:22 Conakry. And in the neighborhood we would see children 22:26 who had little owies and boo-boos and sores and 22:30 scrapes, and so we did a small type band-aid clinic. 22:34 I would take my little doctor's bag, as you would say, 22:38 and go around in the neighborhood and treat 22:40 the little children. 22:48 But then we left Conakry, and we moved here to Fria. 22:52 We knew no one here, absolutely no one. 22:57 And so we started to pray, what can we do to enter 23:02 into the lives of the people? 23:07 And the Lord just kept impressing, impressing 23:09 upon our minds to start a medical work there. 23:20 One day we were traveling to a village where they 23:25 have a Sunday market. On our way we were 23:29 behind this van-type vehicle 23:32 that was piled up inside 23:36 with people, people were on top with all of 23:38 their wares, their loads and everything. And they were 23:41 driving really fast down the road, speeding. 23:45 And right before our eyes, this thing tipped. 23:49 People from the top fell off. So we took as many 23:54 people as we could to the hospital and tried 23:58 to get them admitted. And it was there, actually, 24:01 that the ministry started because that was a way 24:05 we were able to get into contact with people. 24:08 Before, we knew no one. And so Isatta and myself, 24:11 we decided, you know what, every evening we're going 24:14 to go to the hospital, and we're going to pray for 24:17 these people. We're going to spend time visiting them, 24:19 making sure they are okay. After they were discharged, 24:23 we started visiting them in their homes. And there 24:27 was one particular lady named Fatumatu Kamera. 24:30 We visited her in her village called Atamasuria, 24:34 and she just welcomed us and her entire family 24:38 welcomed us. And the Lord just kept impressing, 24:42 impressing on our minds, start a medical work there. 24:46 And so we continued to pray, and we made a request for 24:50 a nurse to come, a student missionary. And once we 24:54 received a student missionary, we knew it 24:55 was confirmation that we needed to start the medical 24:58 missionary work. We asked the chief of the village, 25:02 who happened to be Fatumatu's father, 25:05 "Do you mind if we come to the village and 25:10 treat people?" He just welcomed us with open arms. 25:14 "Please come and help us." We decided to not only do 25:18 it in Atamasuria, but in another village, Tigae, 25:22 and also another village, Tuba. Every Wednesday, we 25:25 would go to Atamasuria, and on the other days 25:28 we would go to the other villages. And what we would 25:31 do is we just get medicines, and we would set it up 25:36 just on a porch, nothing spectacular, just a plain 25:40 old porch with a rickety table with a table cloth on it, and 25:44 there we would start treating patients. Treat them for 25:48 skin infections, malaria, diaheria, disentery, 25:51 lifestyle diseases, which are creeping in today, 25:55 diabetes, high blood pressure. Different things like that 26:00 we treat through lifestyle changes. And most of the 26:03 time, people are very receptive to change 26:07 because they are hurting and they are suffering. 26:10 And they can't afford all these pills and drugs like 26:12 we hand out in the United States. And we see a 26:16 difference in these people. Their blood 26:18 pressure gets lowered, they are able to control 26:20 their weight better, different things like that. 26:23 Here in Guinea when you go to a normal hospital, 26:26 a government hospital, the nurses and the 26:28 doctors holler at you. "What are you here for?" 26:32 they say. "Sit down! Stop crying!" What a difference 26:36 it is when they come to our clinic, and they see the 26:40 love and compassion that we have for them. 26:43 And they are starting to see a difference. 26:45 What is happening here? These people are different 26:48 than our people. One of them had seen down 26:53 in the bush - he said he saw a ghost. And when he 26:57 saw the ghost, he just became completely afraid, 27:01 and all of his vital signs went haywire. And he 27:06 was in the bed for several days because he could not 27:09 function because of fear. Well, we were able to go 27:13 in there. We asked the father, who was the chief 27:16 of the village, "Is it possible for us to go in 27:19 and pray with him so that the chains of Satan and 27:22 the demons can be broken?" He said, "Yes, please pray 27:26 for us." And so we went in there, bowed on our knees, 27:30 and we just agonized with the Lord in prayer so that 27:33 these bonds that Satan has on these people 27:36 can be released. And it was the next day 27:39 they came and told us, they said, "He's been relieved. 27:44 His vital signs are back to normal. He's up from the bed, 27:48 and he's walking around." And they just thanked us 27:52 but, in turn, we thanked God for the power to break 27:55 the chains of Satan in that man's life. 28:01 It starts out with friendship evangelism. And we have 28:04 found out that because the only way that you can share 28:08 Jesus with somebody is really if they know you 28:11 care about them. We try to follow Jesus' method 28:15 in treating their sicknesses and their diseases. And when 28:19 that happens, they are more open. They trust us. They 28:22 know we care about them, and they are more 28:24 open to the Gospel. |
Revised 2014-12-17