Guinea: Day #5
Today was a fantastic day! I loved every minute of it and wish I could’ve spent a few more days up here. The IW’s are great people and on top of that, they have 4 kids (including twins). Can you believe it? 4 kids! It’s like the perfect number of children. They have 3 boys and 1 girl.
I loved spending time with them. In fact (confession time), I sort of dropped off hanging with the adults and spent time with the kids. Not only were the IW kids there but there were also four local Fulani boys. They were there doing some chores because all of their school fees are paid for by the IW’s.
Anyway, they had a few packs of cards so we played this massive game of war. It was awesome. We were all speaking french which was hilarious because for all of us it was our second language for the IW’s and I, English was first, and for the four boys Poular was first. Yet for all of us, our broken french was the best we could communicate with, it was hilarious.
We had so much fun. It was great for me to be able to hang out and chill with some local kids and just laugh and play. And they were awesome. We had Ris Gras again for lunch and I did manage to get away for long enough to hear about some of the different projects they run in this area.
The U.S. Government donated an ambulance to them which they use as a mobile pharmacy for doing simple medical care. Once a week they have a clinic and they take the ambulance from village to village helping any way they can.
They’ve also recently become able to do optometry a bit, they can evaluate people’s ability to read and provide them with glasses to help them out. In all of this they present the story of iisah and do what they can to help people out.
The local people have a great deal of respect for the IW’s and it’s evident wherever they go.
They have a huge passion for soccer and the city gave him a field that he has been able to convert into a full-sized soccer pitch. They coach four teams and do their best in every setting to share Bible stories with them. It’s a strongly muslim area so some people don’t like that but they always say it’s optional to play but these are the conditions.
Anyway, most of the people are very receptive and it’s really getting me thinking about maybe doing a class or some type of seminar on how to share the gospel with muslims. I think we would all benefit from that, especially in Ottawa where the number of muslims is growing.
We saw a CIDA development project as well (they set up some potato farms for the locals). That was cool and it’s neat to see that Canada and Canadians are having a lasting impact on the community here. One of the IW’s hopes that he’ll be able to get a Junior ‘A’ soccer team because right now their team is just destroying the competition and so we can be praying for them that they’ll have favor with the local soccer authorities.
They also have a computer skills training centre where they teach people how to use computers, even in the interior where electricity is irregular at best and internet is virtually non-existent, people still need computers. Skills in this area could dramatically impact their ability to provide for their families so that is why they’ve set it up here.
We also went and visited the site of the new Familia FM radio transmitter. It was great to see the site and to also see that it is built and supported completely by renewable energy. It’s all solar and wind powered and that makes me extra happy because it is setting a good example for the rest of the county. The biggest contributor of unregulated greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are third world countries, specifically African countries like Guinea. So to see the environmental responsibility of Familia FM’s new tower was great.
It’s also practical because it guarantees power off of the national grid which is sketchy at best.
The technology is cutting edge and doesn’t even have a patent yet because to do so would make it public and they don’t want to do that yet but it’s very cool. I don’t know much about it but they’ve been able to cut the number of watts needed and still hit a radius of about 700 miles with their shortwave signal.
It means that all of Guinea is able to receive the moral and spiritual teachings broadcast everyday on Familia. What a testimony to the power of God and the ingenuity of the workers here. There are way more stories I can tell about this but I can’t post them publicly but God has been at work through much adversity and much work of the enemy to derail the project.
I am excited to say that the power of God is overcoming the attempts of the Evil One and ultimately victory is ours! So without going all evangelical fundamentalist, it’s pretty exciting.
We’re now back in Tinka and we’re all starting to feel the strain of this week. It’s like 10pm and we’re all pretty much zonked.
Goodnight!
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