“Lord, I feel burned out. I am struggling with my interest in going to missionary training. Please help!”
Before attending training the month before I launched to Guinea, I struggled. By the grace of God, however, training was an incredible blessing, and I found myself spiritually rejuvenated.
Yet during training I was unsure if I would be placed with the Coker family in Sierra Leone like I had signed up to do. Because of their long-awaited furlough in the U.S., AFM had to look into other options for me so that my launch date would not be delayed.
During this process, I learned to be okay with not knowing the future and leaving it in God’s hands. I saw Him working in powerful ways, such as when the money for the last two-thirds of my launch goal came in. I had thought I would need to raise the money after training, which would greatly delay my launch date. Instead, God gave me confidence that He was leading me to serve Him as a missionary. He even blessed me with meeting the Cokers during training, who were in Berrien Springs at the time.
“You can help run the Berean Bible Club at one of our churches in Sierra Leone,” they said.
Since the Adventist schools in the area are comprised of mostly non-Adventist students, the club was designed to be an outreach ministry and witnessing tool. Club members develop leadership skills, play fun games, learn more about the Bible, and engage in community service projects.
“That sounds so interesting,” I replied.
By God’s grace, AFM found a way for me to go to Sierra Leone by serving as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in Guinea for three months while waiting for the Cokers to return, then joining them in Sierra Leone afterward.
I arrived in Fria, Guinea, on October 3, 2023. I was supposed to get my passport stamped upon arrival and be issued a three-month visa. However, when we checked my passport later to see when I had to leave the country, we were surprised to discover my stay had been approved for three years, and we wondered if this was part of God’s plan.
After beginning my assignment in Fria, I started to think about how the school was a great opportunity to evangelize. Instead of going out and finding people, the students were already familiar with us. And although it was an Adventist school, outside of Bible class, there was no program to nourish the seeds we were planting.
The student body is about 90 percent Muslim, the predominant religion in Fria. Though there is no state-sponsored religious persecution here against Christians, if a Muslim converts to Christianity, their family can banish or even kill the new believer, meaning our school must be careful in its approach. By God’s grace, I have only heard of three complaints from parents about learning the Bible, and only one parent has pulled their child out of school.
Assigned to the school temporarily, I still felt I was to do something more directly related to winning souls as I taught.
I noticed that students liked to hang around the school at the end of the day and didn’t have much to do besides studying. So I spoke to the school director’s wife. “What if we started a Bible Club here in Fria?” I asked, and we discussed what that might look like.
I presented the idea to the school pastor, Maurice E. Bonnet, who graciously agreed to help. With the counsel of my career missionaries and the school director, we started to plan, soon discovering an issue common to starting a ministry: money needed to run the program. We submitted a request to AFM. To our delight, the money was allocated quite quickly. God manifested Himself, showing that He was leading.
We decided to hold a celebration on Christmas Day to launch the club and gain student interest. By God’s grace, 70 or more students attended. We had Bible games, prizes, gifts, food and a soccer game. The students really enjoyed themselves, and I was amazed at how well they did with the Bible games. Wrapped inside most of the gifts, we included a French-language copy of The Great Hope. About ten gifts included French-language booklets on the Ten Commandments. Happily, we never saw any books lying around after the students left.
Weeks afterward, I saw a student reading one of the books. Another wanted the pastor’s copy, which he used while sharing with the staff.
The students were excited about the club, and over 100 signed up. We asked some of them why they wanted to join.
“To help our community.”
“To help someone in need.”
“To discover new things.”
“To play Bible games.”
“To promote our school.”
I was not expecting those answers. They were truly inspiring. These students were ready to be led.
We have presented our program before the government hospital’s entire staff and the president’s local prefect in charge of law enforcement and public administration. He approved us to do community service in Fria. Two volunteers and I met with the prosecutor of Fria, who permitted us to take the children into the prison, where we handed out toiletries and gave a brief message. The prisoners then shared advice with the students to keep them on the right track. Everyone has thanked us for the club’s work, which has provided good public relations for the school and the Adventist church.
While I was to have worked alongside the Cokers, God opened this door — unexpected to me but a part of His plan all along. Throughout this experience, God has impressed me with the thought: “Nothing is as it seems.” To me, that means being open to new opportunities. Now, God has arranged it so that I will be working alongside the Cokers during my second year. Although this leaves us without a club leader, we pray that one or more people will volunteer. We are confident that God used the club to make a mark in the community and that He controls the club’s future.
“Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish and a plain path before their feet” (The Faith I Live By, 64.6; Ellen G. White).
