It’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon and the girls are bouncing around, hollering in their beds napping. Rain is pouring down from a dark grey sky. I couldn’t have a conversation if I tried for all the water beating the tin roof. There is something wonderful about a West African rain storm. I love them. Love. Them. It rains about 17 feet in 6 months in Conakry; half that in Labe.

There are many great things about rainy season in Guinea. The sun isn’t so scorching, for starters. Everything turns green, and we have more electricity because of the hydro-electric dam.

And then, there are the not-so-great things about rainy season. Primarily the mold. It’s everywhere. Mold grows on everything from walls to clothing that doesn’t dry properly. It’s currently on our kitchen ceiling:

Our roof is leaking, and David can’t find where the water’s coming in. Bummer, since I just repainted it last Tuesday. David climbed up on the roof yesterday to plug the hole, but can’t find it. (He also came back with a tale about fighting off a giant spider… I’m not sure I believe him.) I have one ear listening for the ceiling to come crashing down from the weight of the pooling water. There’s also an animal living up there. It scurries around at night after the light’s been turned off. I sure hope he doesn’t come crashing into the kitchen too. Pray we find and can patch the leak before the rain ruins our ceiling!

In July, we were blessed with the opportunity to teach at a five-day English camp in a nearby town.  Each day we taught three different levels of students, beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  Billie taught vocabulary, and I taught comprehension.  The students also studied grammar, dialogue, and numbers.  Perhaps the most important component, however, was the daily memory verse and Bible lesson.  Throughout the week, the students memorized Psalm 23 and learned Bible stories from the life of King David.  On at least two occasions, they heard the entire Gospel message of Jesus Christ and what he did for them.  Students who successfully memorized the entire 23rd Psalm received a New Testament at the end of the week.  The final day of the week, I shared my personal testimony and the Gospel message with the students.  We ask you to pray that the Gospel would bear fruit in the lives of these students.  Pray for the missionaries in their town who will continue to share the Gospel with them.  Here are some photos from the week.

In less than two weeks, we will be landing in Guinea, Africa.  Our time in the U.S. is drawing to a close, and it is time to return to work in Guinea.  We are so excited to be going back to the land where God has called us to serve.  At the same time, it is sad to think that we will be saying goodbye to our beloved family and friends here.  Please keep us in prayer in the coming days as we finish storing, shipping, and packing in preparation for our departure.  Pray for safety on June 20 in particular as we fly to Guinea with our twin daughters, Amelie and Annika on our laps.  It will be a long journey for such little ones.  We will be in the air for a total of about sixteen hours with another twelve or so spent in airports or traveling to or from airports.

The past few weeks have been a flurry of activity.  One praise is that we were able to get a fantastic price on our plane tickets.  Another, is that we were able to ship more items to Guinea.  We will be especially thankful for a solar fridge and freezer that we were able to ship over.  Here are some other things we took for shipment recently.

Another big praise is that we will not be traveling alone.  Billie’s great friend and college roommate, Lisa, will be accompanying us.  Here presence will be a great help as we attempt to navigate airports and endure long hours in the airplane with two little ones.  She will also have the opportunity to get an idea of what we do in Guinea as we settle back into life there.  She will be with us about two weeks.  Please keep her in prayer as well.  Here is a picture of her.

In January, we placed an order for $1800 worth of Arabic Script Pular New Testaments.  Other missionaries placed orders as well so that many could be printed at once.  Since then, the New Testaments have been printed in South Korea and are currently being shipped to Guinea.  These New Testaments will be a valuable tool to share the Gospel.  The Pular language can be written with two different writing systems.  We have had the New Testament in Pular written in Roman script since about 2007.  Now, the New Testament will be available in Arabic script as well.  There are many people who could not or would not read the Roman script who will be able to read the Arabic script.  Here are some pictures of God’s Word for the Fulbe people written so that they can read and understand it:

This past week our sending church held its annual missions conference.  On Sunday morning, we had a baby dedication for Amelie and Annika to commit to raise them in the teachings of Christ.

In the evening service, the church prayed over us and commissioned us for our second term of service in Guinea.

You can’t see us in the picture above, but we are kneeling in front of all the people gathered around us.  We would appreciate your prayers as well as we return to Guinea for another term.

For a PDF version of both front and back, click this link:

Prayer Card

While on a recent trip to Guinea, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Bah’s twin daughters.  They were born the month before our twins.

We have had a busy few months transitioning back to life in the U.S.  We have been enjoying time with family and friends, church services in English, and our favorite foods.  We have marveled at the many changes that have taken place in our home town and in the U.S. over the past few years.

Since our return, we have also had several opportunities to share about our ministry.  We have shared at our home church, a men’s breakfast, an elementary school chapel, a Bible college chapel, Awana at our home church and another church, and at an orientation for new candidates at our mission agency headquarters.  Just yesterday, we returned from a two week trip to New Jersey where we spoke at six churches.

During the last week in New Jersey, I flew to our mission agency headquarters in Orlando to spend the week interacting with new candidates for the mission field.  During that time, I found one person who is interested in joining our team in Guinea.  We are so excited at the prospect of a new teammate!

This coming Saturday, we will be off again to Tennessee and Georgia to share at a few more churches.  We have several more trips planned for this year that should take us to many other places including Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and California.  We will also be sharing at several churches in Ohio.

Please keep us in prayer as we travel heavily and speak at churches during these next few months.  Pray that we would find more members to join our team in Guinea.  Pray that we would be able to raise the necessary funds to return to Guinea on schedule next year.