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Missionary Update
GENO, JUDY & BRENT BACON serving in Guinea, West Africa If you wish to support their ministry, donations may be mailed to New Tribes Mission, 1000 E. First Street, Sanford, FL 32771-1487. Make your check payable to "New Tribes Mission" and specify "for the ministry of Gene R and Judy K Bacon."
JULY 13th 2010
Dear
We send you all another huge thanks for all you have done for our family here in
The work is full on in the fields everyone is planting at the moment and many are starting to prepare their fields where they will put the final rice once is grown a bit. Yesterday really felt like rainy season for the first time it rained almost the whole day and there was not sun. It was nice to have a break from the heat the only down side is the fact that when there is no sun there is no power since the panels cannot charge the batteries. We do have a generator so can keep the house running just don’t have the extra power we have in dry season. We continue to pray and ask you do the same that this year would be a great harvest for our neighbors. Something new has happened this year for the first time in a long time many are also planting peanuts and beans so hopefully this will help to supplement their food source. For the next few months this will be a very busy time for them and many usually get very sick so pray along with us for God’s grace to strengthen their bodies to plant their crops.
Today has been a sad day for us as once again we just returned home of one of our neighbors although this man was very old that is little comfort when you know that he has not yet had the opportunity to hear the truth from God’s word. It really gives you a reality check as to why we are here sure we help with many things but the focus has to remain that we want to one day be able to teach them what God’s word says. The men here on the team are really working hard each day giving all they can to be able to work on the translation and Bible lessons as fast as they can. We truly hope to be able to teach sometime in the next year. Please pray that will all the other things we face daily we will keep the reason we are here in our minds. We are excited that the literacy is going so well so that once we have believers they will be able to study God’s word on their own. My class is going well they have been faithful during this busy time to still come seem very motivated to learn. It is a wonderful feeling to be a part of teaching people to read and write a language that before this time had never been written down. Gene has done a great job on the primers I am very proud of his hard work and the people are being blessed because of it. All of our language helpers are coming along with their classes as we each individually teach them. We truly pray that in the future we will be working along side with teachers here in the village that they will want to take over and continue to teach their neighbors and families.
On the home front we are all healthy at the moment they guys do have the sniffles but this is how it will be in the rainy season for them. We are blessed each day to have plenty to eat and a house that keeps the bugs out and waterbeds to lay our head so even though we at times complain we truly have no reason. This is always brought home to our hearts when we head to the village or just drive in the country we do not know hard times. We thank you for giving to our family and we are thankful to have the means to be able to share with many here in many ways. On huge praise this month is that our son Brent will be turning 16!! We cannot believe how quickly the time has passed and he has been the greatest gift to our marriage everyday makes us smile just to watch him grow into the man God intends him to be. On Thursday he will be having some of his friends over for pizza and a movie and of course cake. He is still only doing three days a week of his classes most likely after another week or two will have him go back to full time are trying to still give a little break. He still has four baby Guinea fowl that are keeping him busy. He has been a little sad the past few days because it has been so rainy has not had the time to head out fishing. Please pray that as a family we can keep the balance and truly enjoy the next couple of years before Brent will be heading off to make find his place. I know that many of you know the many thoughts he is experiencing and the decisions that will need to be made soon but we don’t want to miss what the Lord has for us today. We thank you for your love and prayers and we will continue to keep you updated.
Love, Judy for the family
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JUne 30th 2010
Dear family,
Thank you so much for your prayers concerning the country and the current elections taking place The country voted this last Sunday and so far the process has been peaceful and there are reports that there were large turnouts of voters. We should hear the results within 3 days as to the possible president or at least the top candidates. If one of the candidates has not won by at least 50% then there will be a runoff between the top two candidates this next month. Please continue to pray for peace and safety for our neighbors during this process. Continue to pray for the future leaders of the country.
That man that you have been praying for that was residing in our house with us has now returned to his home and has been there for almost one week. He is able to walk out to our home now and seems to be steadily improving. He even walked to the market last Saturday but told us later that on his return to the village his legs were shaking terribly. Monday however he seemed fine and we are constantly reminding him that his recuperation will take some time. Please continue to pray with us for his full recovery and most of all his opportunity to hear God’s message to him.
Speaking of God’s message, the translation check that our partner David just had went very well and the book of Jonah along with the Joseph story can be printed with limited distribution. We are planning on offering it to people as post literacy material. We thank our Heavenly Father for the work He has directed to be accomplished. This also means that David is now allowed to begin translating at the beginning of Genesis which will in turn allow me to begin the lessons for the chronological teaching. Please pray with us as we begin this process and the unity divine guidance we will need.
Our first literacy class continues to do well and they are already in their third primer. They have even decided to keep coming two days a week for classes in spite of their very busy planting schedule that is upon them.
Our second class however is a bit of a different story. We have a rule that we place at the beginning of the class that if a person misses class three times we will need to drop them from the class. We need to do this as there is so much taught in each lesson that if someone consistently misses it impedes the ability of the entire class to move ahead. There is one older man that has been faithful in coming. In fact he comes early before the classes begin. So we are going to continue on with him and probably wait towards the end of the planting season to begin another class. Please pray with us as we work towards the goal of having literate people to read God’s Word and at the same time developing teachers that will be able to continue teaching our neighbors. We are on a learning curve ourselves and since all of us on our team are also teaching people who work with us we have an opportunity to evaluate what we are doing and see if changes need to be made. Pray for our primary teacher Judy and Micha and for their patience and wisdom in teaching.
Brent’s work with the guinea fowl continues and we finally have some success. After having to discard about thirty eggs that were close to hatching but just did not make it we have five keets (name for the small guinea fowl chicks) that have hatched. Brent says that he has a certain number that he needs to hatch before he calculates it will be worth trying again after he pays off his debt. He has also started his 11th grade classes. He is only doing three days a week at this point but it was either him begin school or us build him a shack by the water so he could fish day and night. First thing this morning after he took care of his birds I heard that request that is so familiar now,” Dad can I go fishing?” Since it is his day off from school you can imagine where he ended up. Judy and I both are enjoying watching him grow into a very unique young man. Continue to pray with us as that development continues.
All of the seed rice that we had for planting this year was distributed out to 78 different families. This occurred within two long day’s time and there were many that were unhappy that they did not receive any but we did first come first served. Early on in the distribution there were some dishonest practices so I had to personally be there with the people. To the people that did not receive any we were able to tell them once again that we did not give the rice seed we loaned it. And next year when the people that received harvest their rice and return what they owe we will have more for next year. Pray with us that our neighbors will have a good year this year and that what we are implementing with the rice seed will be a success.
We hope that this update will be an encouragement to you and a small picture of the great work our God is accomplishing all over the world. Thank you for allowing us to be a tiny part of that great work. And thank you for your part in that great work. Thank you for your prayers for our neighbors and for us.
By His love,
Geno, Judy and Brent
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JUNE 2, 2010
Dear family,
This is the month for the planned elections and we ask you to continue your prayers for peace and safety for our neighbors. The field of candidates has been narrowed to twenty-four by paperwork and fees that were placed as requirements in these latter stages of candidacy. It appears at this point that there are three candidates among the others that are the most popular. This is the first time in over forty-years to have and election like this. Continue to pray for the leadership of the country.
The man that you have been praying for and who is residing with us at the time is doing much better. He has had no fever for a week now and is eating fairly regularly although he had a small setback this last weekend. We are not sure at this point when he can return to his home and family but they are able to come every afternoon and some mornings to sit and visit with him. He has told us that he would like to have the ability to walk from his home to our home before he leaves our care and we think that those are reasonable expectations. It has been a bit of an adjustment for him as well as us during these past weeks and we are all learning new things through new situations. Please continue to pray with us for his recuperation.
Our first literacy class is doing well and they are now approaching the end of the second primer They are rapidly improving with their reading and writing and it is exciting for us to see their improvements. We started a second class and the students in that class are catching on to the concepts much slower than the first class. We use the syllable approach in our teaching and at this point the students in the second class are having a challenge making the transition from the syllable to word level where they actually begin reading the combined syllables that they have previously learned. We are trying to keep students with similar learning rates together in the same class so that those that move a bit slower do not feel intimidated by a rapid learner and vice versa so that the rapid reader does not become bored with the rate of learning. It is interesting to us how the students themselves notice the difference and will verbally share that with us to help confirm our own perspective. Please continue to pray for us that we would have patience and plenty of encouragement for our students. Please pray for the students in the two classes that they will have the diligence and desire to continue to do their best and catch the long term vision of the benefits of being literate. Please pray for Judy and Micha as they are the “teachers” for each of these classes and that the closer relationships that they build with the students would be ones of “eternal” value. Please continue to pray for me also as I am behind in preparing the material for these classes and I could be as effective as possible each day.
Brent’s work with the guinea fowl has reached a critical stage. He now has about thirty-five eggs in an incubator we rigged up with a 12 volt light as a heat source. We checked several of the eggs and it looks like there are embryos forming so he is excited. Our neighbors here do not usually get very good results with the hatching of guinea fowl. It seems that the birds will not usually set on their eggs and so they have to take the eggs and slip them under a chicken that is on her nest. We have about a week and a half to go before the first eggs could hatch so hopefully we are doing things right. It has been a good experience for Brent so far and although he is still in debt for the cost of his pen he is faithfully paying back a little each week from money he earns for work and fish that he sells. He is also learning well of the responsibilities involved with feeding, watering, turning eggs, and generally taking care of his investment/project. Please continue to pray with us for his development as a young man and the life skills that we are attempting to share with him will be a beneficial to him now and later on in life.
Please remember our partners David and Rachel Burke during this month. David is supposed to have a translation check on the portions of Genesis that we have all been working on and the Jonah story. The consultant that is coming has been working in West Africa for many years and has primarily worked as a translator so it should be a valuable time of passing on information that will be an enormous help to us as a team. Pray that this will go well and that it will allow us to begin translating the book of Genesis and I will be able to start on the lessons so that our neighbors can hear the most important news in and out of this world.
We are entering the planting season and we will begin distributing the planting rice that we have saved this week. We have seen the costs of everything increase leading up to this election and our neighbors are very happy to have access to this planting rice. This planting rice will be loaned to the people. They do not have to give in money but they have to add a third to the seed that they borrow when they return it so that we can increase our seed for next year. Please pray that this goes well and the village will see the benefit of this long term.
I am going to have to close for now as it is three in the morning here and this computer’s battery is about at depleted, thinking about it so is mine. Thank you as always for taking time out of your schedules to consider and pray for these requests for our neighbors and for us.
By His love,
Geno, Judy and Brent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ APRIL 30th 2010 Dear family, As the elections get closer we would continue your prayers for peace and safety for our neighbors. At last count we were told that there were one-hundred and sixty three candidates. Continue to pray for the leadership of the country.
Please continue to pray for the man that I mentioned a few days ago. He has had the surgery and he is still in the hospital recuperating. He is still very weak and just began to try eating some food two days ago. Please pray for his recuperation. He has battled with his condition for a long time and we still have not heard clearly what the doctor did or found. Different family members are staying with him during his time of recuperation so please remember all of them in your prayers.
The literacy classes have begun! Our first class is doing well and they are now approaching the end of the first primer, which is basically a book to help teach them how to read and write their own language. There are a total of six primers so please pray with us for the diligence of the students. We will be starting a second class next week so pray for us that we would have patience and truly show the love of our Savior to our neighbors.
Our time with the literacy consultant, Marina, was an especially helpful time for us. She was able to help us fine tune areas of our program before we started and even helped us teach the first few lessons so we would understand the methodology behind the teaching. It was so humbling to us to see that the first class was made up of people older than ourselves and yet when we would ask them something they would say,” You are the teachers, whatever you tell us to do that is what we will do.” One of the funny things that we notice is the students desire to really please us by doing a good job. We are so proud of their accomplishments and we try to encourage them all the time because they can be hard on themselves when they do not get something correct. We keep telling them that they are learning and everyone makes mistakes when they are learning. In fact our neighbors have a nice proverb that says, “We don’t birth knowledge, we birth learning.” Everyone on our team are also teaching their language helpers so it is a busy time. I would appreciate your prayers personally as I am not done with all of the material for the literacy program and I need to stay ahead of the classes so pray for my own diligence in this effort. Office work is not one of my favorites and I have had to do a lot of it this last year. But the joy of watching others learn something so important for the first time helps to balance out temporary difficult times.
Brent has the guinea fowl going well and we just covered the pen with roof grass for the rainy season. He is also taking his finals for the tenth grade. I told him he doesn’t need to rush the ten years I spent in the tenth grade were some of my favorites. Anyway, he has another project he has started now with an old one-thousand liter water tank. He is either going to try raising some shrimp in it or some of the fish that we get during the rainy season. We just hooked up a small pump today to try and circulate the water and put some oxygen back in it but we can’t leave it running all night because it draws too much electricity off of the battery. So we will have some fun experimenting with this project. We really encourage him to try some different things and I have to remember that we encouraged him when we are in the sun, sweating like crazy trying to keep some little shrimp and fish from dying. It is truly a joy to watch him grow and mature, that’s Brent not one of the fish or shrimp.
Judy and I were asked to counsel a young couple in the village a few days ago. We were able to share with them some things that the Lord has taught us in our own marriage and we were even to share with them a portion of what God declared after the creation of Adam and Eve. We told them that we are not ready to share the entire story yet but we are very close. Please pray with us that as we begin the lesson development we would have the God guided mix of urgency without sacrificing understanding.
I am sorry that this update is a bit short but I must finish as my wife is leaving shortly to take Brent for an overnight visit with some of the other missionary kids. Thank you as always for taking time out of your schedules to consider and pray for these requests. Thank you for caring. You are a blessing to have as partners in serving our Savior.
By His love,
Geno, Judy and Brent
<>< <>< <>< April 1, 2010 (see pictures at end of letter)
Dear family,
The elections in the country are still proposed for June or July of this year. There are several candidates that are running for office and people seem to feel that this election is going to happen. Please continue to pray for peace during this process. Continue to pray for the leadership of the country, for those currently guiding the country and those that will transition into the leadership roles. Pray that we would honor God in our thoughts, conversation, and labors during this process.
The literacy classes will begin very soon. We met with the leaders of the village and they were very excited about reading and writing their own language. The announced to the population that we would begin soon and everyone clapped and gave their approval. We will start the first class with nine people and we have asked the leaders to choose those nine people for the first class. They will be bringing those names to us shortly. One interesting note is that I was talking to one of the leaders yesterday and he told me that they want to have men and women in the first class so that it includes everyone. This is exciting to us that our neighbors see the importance of everyone having the opportunity of becoming literate. This will only be the first class and as we work out the mistakes that are surely in our material and walk through this process with the literacy consultant, who will arrive soon, we hope to add more classes soon as we are able. Please pray with us that our Savior would be glorified in our attitudes and actions towards our neighbors. Pray for our neighbors and their encouragement during this process. Pray for our team as we ourselves learn through this process and that we would value the relationships that are built through this process. Pray also for the literacy consultant, Marina, who has taken time away from her own work and family to come and assist us with this important work.
Brent has been learning about starting a small chicken raising business and although it started out well his chicken population has been decimated by sickness. It is not only his but many chickens in the village have died. This happens every year about this time but this year has been especially difficult. He has taken it like a trooper though and even is slowly paying back what he what he borrowed to begin his project. He told me the other day that he was doing well but then all his profits were eaten up with the death of his chickens. I agreed with him and shared that life is like that many times and most people that have succeeded in things have gone through tough times first and it really helps with the learning curve. Even the story that we had been working on with Joseph pointed out that God had a special plan in mind with his life because no president in any country would take a man as his head financier of the country with a couple years in prison as his credentials for the job. Anyway, Brent’s new idea is to try raising guinea fowl because they are not susceptible to the same sicknesses as the chickens. For those of you that have not seen them they are larger than a chicken and usually have black and white feathers. They have a little head for the size of their bodies and I don’t think that you would ever want to see them on Facebook unless they changed the name to Uglybook because they are not much to look at. But they are good to eat so you can pray with him for this new challenge and most of all that he will enjoy the process. Brent is also only about twenty lessons away from finishing his tenth grade year and that may be part of the reason for the joy in the midst of difficulty. He even asked if he could do just one final exam a day because that is what he did when he was in Hayesville High School. We are expecting very soon he is going to try and ask for a snow day off.
Judy recently had a language evaluation and it went very well. She is in the last stage of fluency within the language and we are all very proud of her. She still has some work to do but the long way that she has come with so many other responsibilities is truly a work of the grace of God in her life. We are hoping to go for a couple of days soon to another part of the country to rest a little bit with just our family. Brent and I plan on pampering Judy during that time and let her know how grateful we are for all she does for our neighbors and us. This same care was shown yesterday as Judy and I were walking in the village visiting with some of our neighbors and we came to a house were a woman was sitting with a very painful look on her face. Judy sat and talked to her and saw that she had a huge boil that was swollen on the side of her right breast. She shared with Judy that she had not been able to breast feed her baby because of the pain. It was easy for Judy to have compassion on this lady since she had dealt with boils herself a couple of years ago. She was able to talk to her and teach her how to treat the boil. She then later took her some medicine to help with the pain and infection. Judy is such a vital part of this team in so many ways and I truly thank the Lord for His wisdom in providing such an example to us of the love of Christ at work.
We have been constantly reminded how our walk with the Lord is moment by moment. The other day I had a lot of things that I needed to get done and as usual it was taking longer than I expected. I have always had a tendency that when things that I am working on get difficult I just want to work harder and get it done even if it would be better to wait a while and approach the same task a little later with a fresh perspective. You think I would have learned by now but there are times where it still becomes me against it, and I was losing for the moment. During this time a friend from the village, whom I am very close to, came to work with me on some things. My wife came and told me he was there and I was too busy. I figured people are used to waiting so it was no big deal. My son came and told me he was there and I was too busy, I would talk to him in a minute. Maybe an hour later I was ecstatic that I had finished the task, I won, or so I thought. I went to visit my friend and he was not there. I asked another man where he was and he said he left our house but he did not tell him why. I thought that maybe he had something else he needed to do, so a little later a sent one of the teenagers to his house, which is culturally appropriate, to tell him that I wanted us to talk. He did not come that day. The next day I sent a young man to his house to tell him again that I wanted us to talk and he did not come again. The next day this friend was supposed to come and work with me and he did not come. I went to his house and found him sitting there. I sat with him and asked why he left the other day and it was then that I saw the real magnitude of my blunder. He told me that he had called to me and I did not answer. He said that I did not come out and greet me, which is a major faux pas. He said he tried to greet my wife and she was busy talking to me. He concluded that we did not want him there but we just did not come out to tell him. I was so convicted and I apologized to him and told him about the problem I have at times not letting work go if it is not going well. As I was apologizing to him a noticed that his wife was smiling and came and sat next to us. After I finished he told me that he has the same problem at times and he understood and for a moment I saw God working in a situation where I had totally blown it. We reconciled and he came to work with me that day and I thanked God for His consistency when I am inconsistent. For His faithfulness when I am unfaithful. For His grace when I am so selfish. There are times that I think the Potter needs to throw this lump of clay out and use another batch but I concede myself to the fact that He knows what He is doing and how to do it. Continue to pray with us that we will all look to our Savior to be the representatives He desires us to be and that we will rely on His strength and not our own.
Our email service is still very sporadic and we hope that you are receiving these communications. As always we thank you for the love you have for our Savior and our neighbors. We count it a privilege to serve together with you. Greet your family and friends for us
By His love,
Geno, Judy and Brent
MARCH 2010
Dear family,
We are upcountry for a short time and we have access to the internet so we wanted to update you on some things that are going on.
The reason that we are up here is for a team translation workshop to help us work together to give God’s Word to our neighbors in their own language and in a culturally appropriate way. We ate growing together as a team through all of this and more importantly, learning some valuable tools that we will need to do the work that God has given us to do in the best way possible. Our partner David will be the main translator on our team and we ask that you would pray with us for him that he will clearly see the path that God will guide him on through this process. We will all be working on this together so please pray with us for team unity and that we will work as effectively as possible and most importantly, that we will be lead by the Spirit of God.
During this team workshop we have been working through the story of Joseph and especially Genesis 37. After we have worked together as a team completing our rough draft, we then go through this with a language helper to get the thoughts said in a natural way to get the mother tongue draft. After that we go through the material for a content check and make sure that we have not added or taken away from the text. After this we go through comprehension testing with different people in the village to see if we are communicating the main theme as well as the details. This is accomplished by asking very general stories such as,” What was the story about? What did the father do? What did the brothers do?” Etc. After we have tested this portion with several people in the village, we then do a back translation into English for the language consultant. Then we are prepared to have the language consultant come and go through the translation with people in the village and see if there are other corrections that need to be made. As you can see this is a tedious process and we would appreciate your continued prayers in this effort.
As we were working through this process the other day with one of the men in the village he made a very revealing statement. We had just finished going through the story when our partner was called outside. While we waited for him to return this man said to me,”Geno something is bothering me in my mind. My mom has died, my dad has died, and the religious leaders tell me that if they did good things then they will go to heaven. I know this story has bad things that were done and I know that I have done bad things in my life, but how do you know if you have done enough good things? Do you understand what I mean? It is really bothering me in my mind and my liver and the work you guys are doing is good. This is what we need to hear so that we know the things that are good and the things that are bad. You all have learned our language and you know what God says so you need to keep doing this so we will know. Do you hear me?” Please continue to pray for our neighbors and the work that God started in their lives long before we came to bring them into a relationship with Him.
With all the great things that we see God doing, you would think that we would be ready to run like race horses but in fact we have felt of late more like tired old worn out cart horses. We know there have been other times in our lives where God has been faithful regardless of our feelings and we know that many of you have gone through much more difficult times that have been an encouragement to you later on. We are convinced that our walk with the Lord takes us through different seasons in our lives and we are looking to Him during this time of trusting Him in our weaknesses. Thank you again for all that you are in our lives and the tremendous encouragement that you are to us in so many ways. Thank you for considering these prayer requests before our Heavenly Father.
There has been so much work done on the literacy material and we give the Lord the credit. He has managed to coordinate things in such a way that we will have a literacy consultant in the village with us at the same time we begin the classes. The classes begin very soon and we know that there will be corrections and changes that will need to be made as we go through the learning curve of teaching our neighbors, for the first time, how to read and write their own language. We owe so many of you thanks for the process getting to this point and we look to you to join with us in prayer for a good beginning. Part of the process has been to prepare lessons for the eventual teachers so please also pray for us to recognize the leaders that God would have us use in the future for literacy development.
Brent has discovered Facebook while we have been here and it has been fun for us watch him and his excitement as he contacts other friends. He is also improving in his running. This morning there were three of us running and as we reached the point we were going for the last few hundred yards I told them to go ahead and pass me if they could. They passed me and when they were about fifty yards ahead of me I took a short cut to the end and waited for them at the finish. For some reason they thought that wasn’t fair. He is also doing well in his school and we have just ordered his school curriculum for next year. It will have to be shipped soon and there is always the possibility of problems with the shipping. Please pray for the safe arrival of these materials and Brent’s continued development as a young man.
Judy has been going through some difficult times lately and we would appreciate your prayers for her as she walks through this time in her life with the Lord. She gives so much of her life to others in ways that have been shining examples of someone that loves God and seeks to serve Him with everything she does. The change that Judy is going through, well the change that all ladies go through as they become more mature, hopefully a good choice of words, along with the many other challenges here on the field have been especially difficult as of late. It is hard to know if one is having a hot flash when the weather is 100 degrees, the humidity 100%, and one is working like crazy. So we would again appreciate your prayers during this time.
If you find that we are not responding to your emails in a short time from now then you will know that our satellite modem is still not working correctly. If you need to write something to us it would be good to do it in the next few days as after that we will return to the village. Thank you as always for your service to our Lord and the prayers that you offer up for our neighbors. We will write again when we can.
By His love,
Geno, Judy and Brent
Feb. 2010 Dear family, We know that it has been some time since we wrote you last but we are having problems with our email service again. Working with a satellite modem for email can be difficult at times. There are instances where we just cannot connect and it has been like that here for some time now. Sometimes one or two emails will go out and we will not receive any. Judy is traveling to our mission center today so I am trying to get this out to inform you that if you do not hear from us during the next couple of weeks we are still having modem difficulties. Thank you for your patience and we will let you know when things are working properly again.
Thank you for your prayers for the situation in the country. There are plans for elections within the next six-months and we would ask that you would continue to pray for the country of Guinea and for all those that are serving now in interim positions. Pray that peace would continue and that we all will look to the Lord for His direction in everything that we do.
Our neighbors have begun storing their planting rice in the storage building that was completed last year. For now they are asking that I keep the key for the building. Two days a week, one of three men comes to the house to get the key and when they are finished for the day he brings the key back. We pray that in the near future we can begin handing over the responsibility of the key to our neighbors. It is good to have earned their trust but it can also become a bit overwhelming for us to be involved in too much at one time. Pray that the rice storage project will go well and that the people will see the benefit year after year.
We have also been able to buy over two tons of planting rice in preparation for next year. It has been a lot of work getting it stored, we are still not all finished, and marked. The plan is that next year we will loan our neighbors each one measure of rice, about a five gallon bucket full, and when they harvest they will bring that amount and fifty-percent more for their usage of the rice. The plan is that the amount we have to store will continue to increase each year and our neighbors will not have to put out money for the planting rice during a time of year they have great difficulty earning anything. They are excited about the plan and this is another time that we have to thank you for your generosity. We know that our thanks are to the Lord but without your faithfulness in allowing Him to use you to assist our neighbors none of this would be happening. We know that we do not have a chance to thank you enough for all that you do but we pray that you can sense are constant gratitude for you.
In all of the fields that our tractor was able to work last year they produced abundantly. Our neighbors continue to tell us to thank you for helping them and they say many blessing in your behalf, it is the normal way of saying thank-you here. From the school kids that had the vision to love others to the man that passed away shortly after delivering the tractor to the port to be shipped, you are all a part of this plan that our Savior has to draw all mankind to Himself.
We are getting closer to beginning literacy classes soon and it still seems that there is so much to do. Overwhelmed has been the word of the week for several weeks now. We know how important this is and it seems that the closer that we get to begin the classes the more things that come up that try and draw us away from our goal. Please pray with us that we would have clarity in the coming weeks and that we would be able to keep our focus on the priorities.
I apologize that we can not cover more in this update but Judy will be leaving shortly and this needs to go with her so she can send it out. Thank you for your confidence in our Savior and thank you for your love for others.
By His love,
Geno, Judy and Brent
<>< <>< <>< Saturday, December 05, 2009 Subject: Village update
Dear family,
So far the situation in the country remains calm and we praise God for the safety of our neighbors and the continued privilege of working here. The President of Burkina Faso recently gave his assessment of a situation that occurred in the past after meeting with some of the parties involved. This information should be available on the internet as well as any reactions by others of the international community. Please continue to pray for the leadership of the country and for decisions that will benefit the population. Pray for many who are working in difficult situations. Pray for the representation of our Savior that many times becomes more clear in complicated times.
We have seen God’s mercy displayed many times during this rainy season, from abundant amounts of rain for the harvest to medical situations that would have been doomed without His intervention. We ask that you pray with us that His mercy would continue as this is a difficult time for our neighbors until their harvest comes in next month. They have worked hard this year and are hoping for a good harvest. We are also hoping for a good harvest and that the One that provides the ability for His laborers would be pleased. Please continue to pray with us for a great harvest.
We heard this week that a dear friend of ours passed away. His name was Jimmy, the kind of man that loved to talk and laugh with friends. We have many memories of sitting with him and his wife Debbie as we shared food, stories, and a deep friendship that was rooted in our love for our Savior. We can still remember him showing Brent how to play the guitar behind his head, and now that Brent can do it somewhat, it reminds us that it is not always the quantity of time that is spent with someone that affects their life the most, but the quality of that time. We know that he is home with his Lord and we ask you to pray with us for his family and friends during this time of loss.
Judy has been doing a good job of teaching Brent some of the skills he will need in the kitchen.. In fact, I keep telling them they need to practice more as the more they practice the more the “goodies” come out of the kitchen and I really want his education to be thorough. In fact, there are sounds being strung together at this moment in the kitchen that are quickly becoming a symphony that will soon receive praise from a growling audience (my stomach) by their applause (the clapping of my teeth together). I, on the other hand, have been teaching Brent in some other area; one of them is physical fitness. Since the days and nights are fairly busy, we start at 6:30 AM and among other things one day a week we do a 2 mile jog with a sprint at the end. Brent has been steadily improving, while I have been getting better as well. He has been noticing his improvement, so I challenged him to a race (ok, it was trash talk) with mom at the end with a camera so she could confirm the winner. When we left for our run, I told him I had a plan for him that day that would ensure my win. We ran faster than we had ever run, and when we came to the sprint at the end, which is about maybe 130 yards, I gave it all I had. The problem was my opponent was right beside me and I was beginning to see his tail lights. The race is on film but there were two problems that were not captured on film (currently I have a petition filed against the filming agency). The first is that the finish line was not straight across the dirt road like everyone except me thought it was, but at a steep angle that would have made it much closer on my side. Second, somehow my opponent was able to deplete the oxygen molecules on my side of the road which became obvious the way I was huffing and puffing at the finish line, suffering from severe oxygen deprivation. My opponent has since agreed to another match with another filmed finish, so if anyone has any digital editing software please send it to this email with “Geno will win the race when rocks fall up” in the subject line. Seriously, we are pleased with Brent’s improvement in all areas, and although there are many areas that we fall short as parents we see God’s blessing on him in spite of ourselves. Please pray with us for his continued growth and direction in life.
Our tractor was working well this year until one of the operators that had been trained attempted to engage the four-wheel drive while the tractor was working in the field instead of stopping it like he had been taught. We will have to order a part and repair it. This will be one of the many hurdles that we face as we teach people in areas that they have no experience. Many of our neighbors had a simple solution that they suggested, just get another tractor and when one is broken the other one can work. When I explained to them the cost again of the tractor and shipping it over, they then exclaimed,” God help us!” It was the realization that there was no way that they could come up with the cost for something so expensive and the only hope would be that God would somehow provide a way. We are praying for this same type of realization when we began teaching in the near future. Something very expensive indeed was provided as payment for those that could never pay themselves and could only hope in God to provide a way. Please continue to pray with us that God would continue to use all means necessary to convince our neighbors of their need of His Way.
The literacy program continues to develop and we are hoping by early to mid next year to begin teaching our neighbors to read and write their own language. We continue to press on in this area, even though we never imagined that it would take as much work and revising of that same work before we would even begin teaching. Working with a language that has never been written before brings on some unique challenges. It has also brought some unique talents to our team with a consultant named Marina who has already helped us avoid many pitfalls in our preparations, and of course the invaluable work that Emily has provided. We know that all of us who have grown up in a literate world take so many things for granted that we see as “normal”. We recently had another example of what it means to live in that world when there was a contention about some land that was supposedly owned by two different families. Both families had done their share of insulting one another and had gone to the leaders to settle the dispute. When the leaders were not able to make a judgment then the families called the oldest man in the area to decide who the owner was. The old man was not able to state who the owner was and I had one of the men in the dispute tell me,” The problem is that we have to go to the elders to tell us the truth. If they do not remember or if they lie then we do not have anything to prove who is telling the truth.” Pray with us that as we look towards working through literacy and then presenting God’s Word to our neighbors in a way that they have never experienced before that they will understand why God chose to record His Word in a way that would not change. That they would see that the Truth has been preserved for proof to us as evidence of the grace of God and that it is the Truth that can provide them with a country and home that will never be disputed.
In closing we have a praise that we want to give and it includes you all. Since we arrived back in February of this year our finances have gone down each month. And even though we had been able to save some when we were home, the expenses for our neighbors and us was rapidly depleting what we had saved. This last month that was not the case and we want to thank you. We know that there have been difficult times for many and that all of you could probably have used the same money that you graciously gave in many other ways. There are numerous areas that continue to help our neighbors and us and you deserve a great big “Thank You!” We have shared many concerns with you over the years and we want to share some of the praises for your kindness which we know comes from your love for the Savior of the world.
Thank you for your faithfulness even in difficult times. Thank you for allowing us to share prayer requests with you. Thank you for those secret things that you do to honor our Savior. Thank you for loving God with your heart, mind, and soul and loving our neighbors as yourself. As always you are a blessing and motivation to us. We hope that you have a Merry Christmas and one that is centered in the reason for the season, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord.
By His grace, Geno, Judy, and Brent
VILLAGE UPDATE (10/30/09)
Dear Family,
Conakry has remained calm and life is continuing its normal course although food prices are going up and there are signs of unrest among the youth. The President of Burkina Faso is still trying to bring the parties together and acting as mediator to bring about the best solution possible in this present situation. More pressure is building up by the international community on our government.
All our personnel in Conakry have almost left the capital and will continue their ministries or wait it out for the moment from different locations, either Dakar, upcountry or in their home country.
All NTM personnel in the tribal locations and at the Mission center up country are safe and continuing in their ministries.
We will continue to keep you assessed of the situation as we can but the best source of general information will be through the internet.
We have had numerous medical needs recently for our neighbors please pray with us for God’s wisdom in handling these situations.
Continue to pray with us for the development of the literacy material and that our God would continue to grow the desire in our neighbor’s hearts for His Word.
Thank you for your love for our Savior and your dedication to Him. Thank you for being faithful prayer partners and your love for God’s work all over the world.
Blessings,
Geno, Judy, and Brent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OCTOBER 2009 UPDATE Dear Family, We want to ask you to pray with us for the country of Guinea. First, we ask you to pray for the government and all leadership that they would make decisions that are best for the population and that this could be done peacefully. Second, we ask that you pray for all of our neighbors that are searching for answers to some of the situations that have recently occurred and more importantly answers to deeper and more everlasting questions. Last, we would ask that you pray for all the believers in the country that they would be comfort in times of difficulty and would continue to seek the wisdom that is needed from our Heavenly Father. Please keep all these in mind as we look forward to the proposed future plans for the country. For more information about any details your best available source would be the internet. Thank you for your love for the Lord and your service to Him. Thank you for joining us in prayer as we know that nothing comes as a surprise to our Lord and He knows the direction we need for anything that comes our way. Blessings, Geno, Judy, and Brent ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE AUGUST 2009 Dear family,
Greetings from the village! It is always best to share something of great importance when it happens so, our son Brent is back! My brother Victor was able to escort Brent back to the village after he completed the 9th grade in the USA and it is great for all of us to be together again. His group of fishing buddies is reunited and they are already having success catching and selling the fish. Our neighbors are especially pleased with the groups success since everyone in the village loves to eat fish. Brent was able to save money before we went on furlough and bought a nice pellet gun so the group has also added bird hunting to their list of activities. The hunting is a double benefit this time of year because the doves descend on the areas where our neighbors have thrown seed and eat up all of the planting rice. So the hunting chases the birds away and provides food for others during this difficult time of year. With all of these fun activities to do we added another one to the list but he was not quite as excited. Brent began his 10th grade curriculum last week. Since I heard all of you say, ahhhwww, I need to let you know that with our work here we have to take work our schedule differently than we would back in the USA so we have found that allowing Brent to start school early and take breaks when needed works better than trying to follow a schedule that would work better back home. Please be in prayer with us that he will continue to grow physically, mentally, and spiritually, into the young man God desires him to be. Pray with us that God would continue to give us wisdom and guidance in favor of Brent’s future plans.
I mentioned that my brother Victor was able to escort Brent here to the village but that by far was not the only thing that he did while he was here. He brought a gift with him for the village and when we went to present it to our neighbors beside the Mosque my brother began to weep out of compassion for our neighbors. The really interesting thing is that the leader of the village went over and hugged him. A hug is something that the leader knows within our culture is a way that we show joy, compassion, and familiarity, with someone else and for him (the leader) to do that in front of the population with someone that I introduced as my younger brother and a “Pastor” is another indication of the work God is doing in their lives. Victor was also able to form and concrete in the metal door and build the trusses for the rice storage building. And he was able to meet and build relationships with many of our friends in the village. The witness that he and others we have had in the village has presented to our neighbors as representatives of “the body of Christ” has been a great promotion to the work God is doing here. It is amazing to see Him work in so many ways and many of them in ways we would not expect. We are in the middle of the planting/rainy season and the rain is increasing each week. Each year we ask our Heavenly Father, on behalf of our neighbors, to provide all that they would need for their crops to do well and He is being faithful once again! And one of the big differences for the village this year is the tractor. It has taken some time to train the men that the village provided for the tractor work but they were able to work a full week this last week in the fields and their schedule is filling up fast. We had a bit of difficulty working through the real cost of operating a tractor, i.e. oil changes, maintenance, replacement parts, etc, until we actually had to stop using the tractor for a while until we could come to an agreement. The entire idea of making some preparation for future problems is a foreign one in this culture. We have now passed that point and we are beginning to get a more realistic view of how things should progress. An encouragement to all of us is that we are all “learning together” and it is truly amazing to see how God is causing people to learn something so different for them. Pray with us that this time spent together would be profitable in showing our Lord’s goodness. Pray that the time spent teaching will continue to be a learning process for us as well. We are continuing to develop the literacy program and all the components necessary for it to be successful. Emily was such a blessing while she was here and thankfully she is going to continue to assist in this development remotely. There is so much to do in preparing a literacy program that not only allows an illiterate person to become literate but also provides the necessary teaching lessons and material for a local person to teach others how to become literate. We have had some exciting comments in some of our sample tests of early primers and our neighbors say that they are excited about learning to read and write their own language. We have continued to tell them that there will be those that will be able to read God’s Word in their own language and all those that we have talked to have said “that would be so good.” Please continue to pray for the literacy development and that we would learn all that we can in preparation for development of Bible lessons. Pray that we can co-teach literacy with teachers from the village and our neighbors will be able to take over responsibility as soon as possible. The special lady in the village that has a close relationship with Judy that I mentioned last time is coming later today with her husband for some counseling. Their trust of the advice that we have given them in the past and their willingness to be open before us with some of the problems that they are having we count as real privileges. We are using these opportunities to share some truths with them about marriage relationships but we honestly tell them that there are important things that they must understand from God’s Word so that it will all make sense. We also tell them that since we are not ready to teach yet we want them to take the advice and trust that God will make it clear why we said those things when they hear His message. The lady especially has told Judy many very personal things and Judy has found it both an encouragement in their friendship and also a motivator to see us present the Truth to them as soon as we possibly can. The couple says that they have seen that we are good people and that is why they trust our advice but we tell them that God has given us (Judy and I and Brent) a place where He lives when we die and it is not because we are good people. Pray with us that we can continue to be a reflection of the “light of the world” to this couple until they can hear about the Truth. The young man that I asked you to pray for that we took to the capitol to get his stomach looked at is doing better. It appears that he has ulcers in his stomach and he also had a place where his intestines had become twisted so that he was not able to use the bathroom normally. The Lord actually worked it out where through some unique circumstances he was able to see a Professor of Medicine in the capitol and he was able to get the intestine untwisted without performing surgery. I would have never thought personally that the man we sent could have received the great medical care that he has in the capitol but I want to thank you for your prayers on his behalf and most of all for the God that answers prayer. Continue to pray that the man’s stomach could heal and that he could return to the village and his family as soon as possible. I was working outside yesterday with another man from the village and I could not find one of the yard tools that we needed. There is a small brick area that we keep the tools next to the house so I squatted down and lifted up the top and began looking for the tool. I stuck my hand under one piece of Styrofoam that I had in there and looked under it and then started to stick my hand under the other side under another piece of foam when I decided to look under it instead. When I lifted it up I found myself having a short stare down with a big spitting cobra that was not yet alarmed. I have to say I was not really scared but I was glad I was wearing my brown pants if you know what I mean. I gently set the top back down and called for Brent to bring me my boots, since I was wearing flip-flops, and some eyeglasses. I told the man from the village there was a big cobra under there and he said that we have to kill it. Brent brought the boots and glasses and the man from the village started lifting things off until he got to the Styrofoam and I reminded him again that the cobra was big and I needed him to lift it up enough so I could chop down on it with a shovel. I asked him to lift slowly so he would not excite the cobra but I don’t think he understood how big it was. When he lifted it up the cobra flared out its hood and the man yelled and dropped the foam back down where I could not see. The man started yelling at me to get some medicine to put on the snake and I slowly started lifting the foam again and a small piece of the foam about as big as a man’s hand fell right on the snakes head and it lowered down like it was hidden. I took the shovel and got a good strike on it’s back but then he lifted up and started spitting, thankfully I had the glasses on and I was able to finish killing the cobra with the shovel. Thank you for your prayers for our neighbor’s safety as well as our own. We have much ahead of us and we are truly blessed to have a family like you praying for us. Thank you for your great faith in our God that allows us to serve here. Thank you for your love for our neighbors whom many of you have never seen. And thank you most of all for your fellowship in serving Jesus Christ our Lord. By His love, Geno, Judy, and Brent PS. - Some areas of information in this and future updates have been made intentionally vague. In the past, information that became public has in some cases been misrepresented and taken out of context and then used against some others working in different parts of the world. Sometimes the information has been used to cause problems in future plans. We want to avoid any unnecessary hardships. ===================================================================================
6/09 Update: Dear family,
I begin this update with an awareness of joy in our family’s hearts and at the same time a feeling of bereavement relating to the death of a great Christian friend. His name was Garland and just one of the things he did for our Savior this last year was to work tirelessly to help our neighbors here in the village obtain a tractor and the implements that they would need to improve their working conditions. He did this for people that he had not personally met and with the solitary motivation of Glorifying our Savior. The trip that we were able to make together, with his good friend Tom, was one that I will always remember. We were able to share about so many good things in relation to the race that God had us in and of all the many hurdles in this life that He had helped us over. In short, (Garland would have liked this beginning since he was a man that was not exactly tall) he was an example to us, a hero. He was a man whom had overcome much personal adversity and still considered his walk with the Lord of chief importance. A man that invested the love he had received in others so that they might be encouraged to do the same. A man that would not just smile, but when he would laugh his entire body would join in the celebration. A hero is someone that you “look up to.” It becomes much easier to do when they are with our Father in heaven. We will miss him, for a while.
The team that came to help with some of the dental needs in the village was a tremendous blessing to our neighbors and us. They were able to extract teeth from a number of our neighbor’s mouths who were suffering with decayed and infected teeth. They were also able to teach a person in the village how to extract teeth and praise to our Heavenly Father that he was able to do his first extraction a few days ago. They also brought a hand water pump that they installed in one of the wells for the village. They were also able to help us get the foundation for the rice storage building poured. We all began teaching our neighbors how to play volleyball and it provided a great opportunity to laugh together. The best parts of the entire time that we had together were the relationships that were built with our neighbors, individually and in groups. The farewell statements from the elders and leaders from the village were a clear indication that our desire to reflect the beauty of our Savior was the thing that impressed them the most. Please be in prayer with us that the time we had together would have a lasting effect on our neighbors and each of the team members that came to serve them. Pray that our Saviors love that was exemplified in that time of serving would compel our neighbors to know more about Him. I would like to write more details about the team but there are reasons that I can not at this time but I will be glad to explain more when we see each other face to face.
Emily has been a tremendous help to us as we continue to work on literacy material to teach our neighbors to read and write in their own heart language. She has a special gift for organizing data and paying attention to details which are areas that are just not in my “box of goodies.” She will be with us a while longer and then she will need to return. Please pray for her that she will stay encouraged during her time with us and she will be able to clearly see the areas that she can be the most effective. Pray for her as she continues to look to the Lord for His direction for her life.
The relationship of Judy and a very special lady in the village seems to get deeper each day. Judy has a lot of very close relationships with ladies in the village but this one in particular is naturally becoming like that of close sisters. They love being around each other and it shows when they are together. It has been interesting to reflect on the way that God built this close relationship out of a situation that seemed terrible at the time and He has now used the terrible situation as a foundation of trust. We can only imagine what this relationship would be like if this very special lady was a believer. Please continue to pray for this lady and the relationship she has with Judy. Please pray that as we get closer to teaching literacy and God’s Word that the things that Judy says and does will be Spirit led and continue to build a hunger in this lady to know the Truth.
The biggest holiday of the year will be upon us soon and the holiday is called “B-day.” It will be that day that Brent will come back join us after finishing his school for the year. We are so encouraged with his ability to continue with his schooling without us physically being with him and with the family that has given up some of the freedoms that they would normally have to watch over him, but we are ready to see him. God is so good and we thank Him for the body of believers that He directs to work His will in His way. Brent will be flying in with my brother Victor and so it will be an especially good time for us all to visit and “catch up” on all that has gone on while we have been apart. The only ones in the village that will not be happy to see Brent are the fish. Please pray with us for their safe arrival and for travel to the village shortly after.
The three men that have been in training with the tractor are close to beginning their work. We have had about three small rains so far and the fields are just beginning to be wet enough to work them. If the rains continue well we should be starting in the next week or so. There was not much rice that people saved while we were gone so there will be a big need for planting rice. Most people still do not seem to be successful in storing their own rice because as they say, “if it is in the house we will eat it.” We are happy that we can provide this service to them but we are hoping that with the combination of the rice storage building and the change that occurs when they are changed by the Truth there will be a real difference in the future for some. Please pray for our neighbor’s harvest, the work with the tractor that will begin soon, and the more important harvest that we expect later on.
There is a young man in the village that we consider a dear friend and he has been a tremendous help to us ever since we arrived. He is currently having some bad stomach problems. We have helped him in the past to try and find the cause but the results have not been clear enough to know what we should do. Just recently he had a bad attack and we were able to get him some treatment but it is something that keeps reoccurring so we have decided to take him to the capital in the near future to see if we can get a better picture of the cause of these attacks. He told me when we returned this time that he thought he was going to die while we were gone to the USA so he decided to try traditional medicine again. Please pray that we could find some real answers to this problem. Pray for his family during this time as they depend on him for their provision and ability to work especially during this time of year.
I recently read a quote by Dwight L. Moody that said, “God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.” Thank you all for not being full of yourselves and, “loving your neighbors as yourselves.” Thank you for allowing God to be the One that works through you to accomplish such an impossible task. Thank you for your service to our Lord and we count it a privilege to serve together with you.
By His love,
Geno, Judy, and Brent (remotely, but not for long!)
P.S Some areas of information in this and future updates have been made intentionally vague. In the past, information that became public has in some cases been misrepresented and taken out of context and then used against some others working in different parts of the world. Sometimes the information has been used to cause problems in future plans. We want to avoid any unnecessary hardships.
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