This month, Fred and Isatta Coker, our faithful friends and colleagues for the past eight years, are assuming local leadership of the Susu Project. We have prepared them for this new responsibility, and we are eager to watch the work expand under their direction. —Marc Coleman

Fred and I are from Sierra Leone, a neighboring country to Guinea. We came to Guinea in 1997 as refugees from the civil war ravaging our home country. In 1998, we were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We met the Colemans in 2000 at the Adventist church in Conakry. For the past eight years, we have been working together for the Susu Project in Fria. I work with Cathy visiting in villages, running Band-Aid clinics and developing health materials. Fred works as the director of the school. Together, we have become acquainted with the spiritual and felt needs of the Susu people.

I am a former Muslim, and Fred is from an animist background. We think this makes us a perfect pair to serve the animist/Muslim Susu people. Guinea is quite resistant to the gospel message, and multitudes are unknowingly trapped by forces of darkness. Working with the Susu people has opened our eyes to the great controversy between Christ and Satan. We see the Lord’s mighty armies going out conquering and to conquer (Rev. 6:2), and we believe we are called to be out on the front line.

Here in Fria, I have worked closely with a young girl who has become a shining example to many. She was in junior high when I met her and her mother. We developed a friendship, and they became interested in the Advent message and asked for Bible studies. We started with basic Bible stories and drew spiritual lessons from them that challenged their beliefs and culture. The girl and her mother invited a friend who also has a young daughter in junior high. I immediately made friends with the second family.

These two families were extremely poor, so Fred and I decided to help. As we worked with them, the first girl and her mother became jealous of their friends. They began causing problems and finally decided to move out of town. I was discouraged, but after talking with Cathy and Marc, I took courage and moved on. We turned to our only weapon here on the front lines—prayer. I continued to work closely with the second family, and after three years of Bible studies, both mother and daughter gave their lives to Christ and were baptized. Before her baptism, the girl took a stand by refusing to take her national exams on the Sabbath for three consecutive years despite lots of pressure from others. Today, she encourages other students in our school and church to be faithful to God.

The front line of missions is a rough place to be, but we keep pressing forward. Paul wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). We have learned to trust and obey the commander-in-chief, Christ Jesus. With your prayers and financial support, together we can make a change in the lives of unreached Susu people.

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