In Guinea, the beginning of the rainy season in April-June and its end in September-November are punctuated by tropical storms. These storms always develop between 3 and 8 p.m. Rain clouds build, and a cold wind begins to blow. Quickly turning violent, the wind bends trees, breaking branches and entirely uprooting some. Birds and animals flee in panic and seek shelter. Tin roofs rattle. The terror lasts for 45 minutes to an hour. When the storms pass, they leave communities with lots of cleanup and repair work to do. Often, people get hurt, too.

Many houses in our town were damaged by last year’s storms, and so were our church wall and school building. Our church is located at the edge of town in an area where there are few trees to slow the wind. The property has an eight-foot-tall perimeter wall. A hundred-foot section of this wall collapsed. The wind also ripped the roof off of the guardhouse, leaving the church yard accessible to thieves who stole the well cover and some iron rods from the wall. It was a Friday evening and the church guard was off duty. In this culture, most Muslims believe stealing from Christians is not a sin because Christians are infidels. All in all, there was about $2,000 of damage.

The storm also damaged our rented school building. It ripped off the roof of the first-grade classroom and soaked the school supplies—about $500 of damage.

The beautiful part of this story is the effort the local members put into rebuilding. They quickly formed a repair committee, and each baptized member with some form of employment agreed to contribute $20 for building materials. The youth and students volunteered to supply gravel and labor. Weekend after weekend, the youth looked for sand and gravel in ditches and carried it in rice sacks on their heads to the church yard to make concrete bricks.

This outpouring of support and effort from our little band of believers is a very positive indication that your prayers and financial support over the past 10 years have not been in vain. In my opinion, it shows that we have succeeded in making disciples for Christ, not just church members.

Let me explain what I mean. The Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t tell us to go and make church members, it bids us to make disciples for Him. There are many differences between church members and disciples. Church members might just be people who worship at church and then go home, not getting involved in church activities. Perhaps they think these activities are what the pastor is paid to do. Disciples, on the other hand, take responsibility in the church and get involved. Disciples believe the work of God needs to go on even without the pastor, and they feel called to serve.

I believe this is the attitude of our little flock in Guinea. They have shown that the church into which they were baptized is not just for the missionary or for the pastor. They take responsibility for it and make it their own. Now I am confident that the work among the Susu people will not die when the missionaries leave. It will continue because of the disciple-spirit displayed by these believers.

However, these members need your help to complete the task they have begun. Your support will encourage them and remind them that they belong to a worldwide community of faith. They have expensive building materials to buy, like roofing for the school and the church guardhouse and steel rods for the church wall. If you or your church is touched by this article and want to make a donation to the effort of rebuilding our church wall and covering the first-grade classroom and guard house, please send your donation to the AFM Susu Project and indicate “church wall” or “school roof.” Thank you!

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