After a two year season of quiet, our efforts in Guinea, West Africa are surfacing again. We have been invited to go over to Guinea this winter to attend a large gathering of the believers among the Mano tribe. The Mano tribe is spread over a large area of the rainforest of Southern Guinea and share an identity among themselves unique from other tribes in Guinea. As belief in the gospel message has spread through the region, there is growing interest in fellowship and unity among the believers. For the last several years, they have been meeting in different villages, once a year, for 3-4 days of preaching, teaching and fellowship. Moise Mamy, one of the leaders at the local church of N’zao and of the larger Mano tribe sent an invitation to us to come over and help teach the series of meetings the first week of December. It looks like a large task considering there will be around 500 – 700 people there, so we are quite interested in much prayer for the truth of the scriptures to be shared with the authority of the Spirit. At this time of planning, our group will be Sandy and I, Jordan and Katie, our daughter Sara and Dwayne Wilson. Jordan, Dwayne and I will lead in teaching to the larger group, then smaller groups of men and youth. Sandy, Katie and Sara will be challenged with teaching women’s groups and youth. We invite each of you to pray with us about this as we seek The Father’s purpose and direction in this discipleship challenge.

In other news, Hope Medical clinic in N’zao is thriving! The decision was made last year to nationalize the clinic, in other words, hand complete control of the clinic over to the leadership and administration of the local Guineans. This is a huge transitional step which will mean that non-nationals such as all of the current American staff will gradually turn over their roles to national staff. Since the opening of the clinic 7 years ago, the vision has always been to assist the nationals in initial funding, training and education, and then turn it over as soon as they were capable of moving forward on their own. This time has come and it is quite exciting! There will continue to be many opportunities for anyone to help them as they continue on, such as the proposed new 30 bed addition that will likely begin sometime next year.

Also, N’zao Christian academy is also thriving and growing. If you remember a newsletter we sent nearly 3 years ago, we included a photo of a piece of bare ground that was purchased for a school. This school is slowly being built and is over 300 children strong already. The tractor that many of you helped purchase has been very helpful in maintenance and growth in both the clinic and the school.

Again, your prayers and support will be greatly valued as we make plans and preparations for the trip this winter. For any that are interested, there is a fund set up with Vineyard Fellowship to collect money to support this trip.