When we come under the attack of the evil one as missionaries, we are to praise God and count it a blessing. The inspired pen writes, “The most trying experiences in the Christian life may be the most blessed. The special providences of the dark hours may encourage the soul in the future attacks of Satan, and equip the soul to stand the most fiery trials. The trial of your faith is more precious than gold. But in order to endure the test, you must have that faith, that abiding confidence in God that will not be disturbed by the arguments and temptations of the deceiver. Take the Lord at His word. Study the promises, and appropriate them as you have need. ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’” (RH, April 17, 1894 par. 10).
As you may have read in our article “Great and Mighty Things” in the November 2014 AF, last school year, a few of our Muslim sixth graders shook the foundation of Satan’s empire in Fria. Inspired by our daily Bible instruction and classroom prayer, these little ones exercised their faith in Jesus privately and publicly, inviting Him to bless and help them in their national exams. Christ answered their simple prayers and began to write a new chapter in their life stories, which we pray will someday bring them to baptism. When the test results were announced on the radio, one of the students sent a text message to his teacher: “Jesus is alive!”
I believe that text message sparked joy in heaven but chaos in the devil’s camp. The angry old dragon marshaled some of the educators of our town, and they came down on us with the same attacks they leveled at us two years ago—against our teaching of the Bible, our daily devotion time with students before classes, and the Sabbath.
We know that these attacks will continue and will likely become even more intense. We are not afraid as long as we are on the side of the Mighty Captain who has already defeated Satan.
Even some of our Christian friends urge us to make the problem go away by stopping Bible study and prayer with the students. “The other Christian schools in Fria and in Guinea as a whole do not teach Bible to their Muslim students,” they say. “Why do you persist?”
I always answer them that, until Jesus comes, our duty here is to spread the Gospel of salvation, and we have been given the right to do so by the government of Guinea. Our agreement stipulates that we can use education, health, and any other development project to reach our goals. Also, the Guinea Ministry of Education has given our church a charter to operate a Seventh-day Adventist school in Guinea. So, you see, we have no good reasons to stop what we are doing.
The fame of our school is spreading because of the character transformation parents are seeing in their children. We have witnessed the power of God transforming the character and intellect of many students during our 10 years of operation. Next school year, we will teach Bible through the health message. We are preparing a curriculum for grade three to high school. If you would like to help us develop this curriculum, please email us at afm@afmonline.org.
Under heavy fire, God’s work marches on in Guinea!
