On the morning of Tuesday, January eight, after our team worship, Brother George, Brother Joshua and I left my home to go to our Adventist elementary school. As we approached the school gate, I noticed a folded piece of paper taped to it. It was a handwritten letter (full of errors) warning that we should stop having morning devotions in our school with our students. The writer threatened the school administration, saying that we would serve as an example for others if we did not comply by the 25th of January. The note was signed Les Jeunes Musulmans de Fria (The Young Muslims of Fria).
I called an emergency staff meeting and asked one of the teachers to read the note aloud. Everyone was shocked. Fria has been a very quiet and friendly city where Muslims and Christians lived together respectfully. Muslims and Christians mingle in public, and you can hardly tell who is who. We all agreed that it was a very serious issue and that we should inform the local authorities, including the local representative of the Ministry of Education. We ended the meeting with a prayer asking for God’s direction. Then I called our AFM field director, Dr. Marc Coleman, and told him what had happened.
On Wednesday morning, I scanned the note, made several copies and wrote letters of complaint to the mayor, the district commissioner, the local representative of the Ministry of Education, the local labor office, and the chief of the community where our school is located.
The municipality took the threat seriously and called a meeting of community and religious leaders at city hall on Thursday. They appealed for restraint and understanding. They reminded everyone that the Muslim families with children enrolled at our school had read our rules and regulations, which state clearly that Bible and prayer are part of our method of education, and they had signed their consent. They also reminded them that Guinea is a country of religious freedom. If they do not want their children to read the Bible or pray with Christian teachers, they should not enroll them in a Christian school. They concluded by warning the community and religious leaders that if anyone of us was physically attacked, the perpetrators would be dealt with severely under the laws of the state.
After the city hall meeting, Brother George and I were walking home when my cell phone rang. It was our school chaplain. “Uncle Fred! The director of education and his entourage are here at the school, and I don’t think he is happy!” I asked Brother George to continue on home since he had a Bible study appointment, and I hailed a motorbike taxi to take me to the school.
The director of education met me with a scowl. Why was he angry? I didn’t know. I invited him into our office, but he said he wouldn’t be staying long, so all seven of us sat down in the waiting room. With me were the school administrator and school chaplain. The director of education had three persons with him. To my great surprise, one of them was Mr. Diallo, the director of private schools here in Fria and the father of one of our students.
Mr. Diallo told me they didn’t want to hear any explanation from us. They had just come to warn us about our school activities, and we shouldn’t blame anyone but ourselves for the threat we had received. They had two demands: 1) Stop morning devotions and prayer with the students. 2) Implement the normal Guinean daily and weekly school schedule. The school day must begin at 8 a.m. and go to noon, have a two-hour break, and then reconvene from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Classes must meet every day of the week except for Thursday and Sunday. If we refused these conditions, they would have no alternative but to close the school.
“You know our rules and regulations!” I said to Mr. Diallo. “You even send your child to our school! We have devotions with the students every morning, during which we give them moral counsel and ask God to bless them with wisdom. For the past nine years, we have been starting school at 8 a.m. and ending at 2:30 p.m. with two lunch breaks. You know we go to church on Saturday, and that is why our school hours are Monday to Friday, six hours a day and 30 hours a week, which is the government requirement. This is how we have been operating this school since it was established. If this has not been a problem before, then why has it become one now?”
“I am going to send a representative tomorrow to watch your activities,” the director of education replied angrily. “If you do not comply with what we have outlined, we will close the school.” With that, the men got up and left.
When I informed Dr. Coleman about the new demands, the AFM home office immediately began a week of fasting and prayer for our situation. Word spread through social media, and many more people joined with their fasting and prayers.
On Friday morning, Mr. Diallo was waiting in the school courtyard when the teachers had their devotions. At 7:45 a.m., when we assembled the students for devotions, Mr. Diallo interrupted our program and addressed the students. He told them to be respectful to their teachers, yet they should refuse to pray with us and should not comply with the rules of the school.
The students quickly became angry with Mr. Diallo and began to mumble disrespectfully under their breath. The more he talked, the louder they became. I sensed a riot was brewing, so I interrupted Mr. Diallo and addressed the students. I encouraged them to be respectful to Mr. Diallo. Then I told them to go home and invite their parents to a PTA meeting that Sunday. They were very angry and reluctant to disperse, but we managed to send them home.
Upon seeing their children back home, more than half the parents came to the school to see what the problem was. Some were very angry with the education officials and were talking loudly. We were able to calm them and invited them to the Sunday PTA meeting.
After dismissing the students, I called all of our teachers to the administrative office for a prayer session led by our school chaplain. We spent two hours that Friday morning singing hymns of praise and worship. We prayed for God’s direction. After two hours of worship, the idea came that we should send a delegation to the President of our Mission Station and to Mr. Pierre Touré to seek their advice. Mr. Pierre Touré is an education consultant and the brother of one of our team members, Brother Joshua.
On Sunday, about 95 percent of the parents showed up for the PTA meeting—by far our largest meeting ever. After we explained the situation, they expressed their universal outrage. It was heartening to realize they were all on our side. They wanted to march immediately to the residence of the local director of education. I intervened and told them they were responsible parents, so they should do things respectfully. I proposed that they form a delegation of three or four people to go and see him.
When Pastor Kwasi Gameti, the president of our mission station learned of our plight, his reaction was very encouraging. He called an emergency mission committee meeting with the goal of saving the school. With the help of our education consultant, they were able to meet with the Guinea national director for private schools, Mr. Etienne Fodé Keita.
This move was a blessing for our Adventist school and a tremendous opportunity to educate the authorities about our church and its education system. Mr. Keita promised to come and investigate the matter in person, and he asked Pastor Gameti to be part of his delegation.
Later that week, Mr. Keita and his secretary, along with Pastor Gameti and the mission treasurer, arrived in Fria. Mr. Keita’s first stop was the local office of the Ministry of Education. While that meeting was taking place, we were in fervent prayer with Pastor Gameti.
Two hours later, Mr. Keita drove to our school campus accompanied by the local representative of the Ministry of Education. Mr. Keita was quite impressed with the campus and our little library, where he met the school administrators and Pastor Gameti. He asked how much time we spend in devotions each morning with the students, how many school days we have each week and how our students had performed on the national exams over the previous three years.
We answered all his questions, inviting the Ministry of Education representative to corroborate our facts, which he did without objection. Our curriculum director finished by telling Mr. Keita, “With regard to the national exams, for the past three years, our school has produced the best results in this entire district.”
With this explanation and confirmation, Mr. Keita announced his finding that our school was in full compliance with Guinean national standards. He urged the Education Ministry representative and us to work together and try to understand each other.
Recently, we learned that the effort to shut down our school was initiated by rival schools in complicity with the local director of private schools. We have heard no more from the mysterious “Young Muslims of Fria.” Our school continues as it has for nine years. We have devotions and pray with the students, and our school days are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. God not only answered your prayers to save our beloved school, He also used this crisis to raise the profile of our church and school locally and nationally. May His name be praised!
