January 2010

Is it really true, everything that happens in those movies featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger? Adulai (picture) was wondering one night as he and Diego were roasting corn on the cob together. Diego often passes hours outside with our night guard, chatting and listening to the sounds of the African night.

The question took Diego by surprise, and he started inquiring what Adulai meant by it. Further conversation revealed that Adulai had seen one of Schwarzenegger’s movies, and was rather shaken by all the violence in it. He couldn’t quite understand how an enlightened people as that of California could elect such a violent person as their leader. But it’s just acting! Diego said, after which it became clear that the concept of make-believe and acting was rather foreign to Adulai.

He was concerned that the events of the movies were true story, and he said that when he saw the movie with a large group of people, several of the women present had been frightened to the point of weeping!

In a land where neither plays nor movie theaters are common, and where even television is an unusual luxury, maybe it’s not so strange that people are not used to distinguishing between acting and reality. But this was still quite a revelation for us who are so used to these things that we consider part of life.  On the other hand, it explains why movies make such an impression on people, and why many of the local Churches use the Jesus film actively in their evangelization efforts.

One night after Christmas, Diego asked Adulai if he’d seen the movie about the prophet Isa, which is what Jesus is called in the Fula language. He hadn’t but he really wanted to, as he’d heard of others who’d seen it. So Diego asked if he’d like to invite our neighbors out for a movie night, an idea that Adulai thought excellent. So the next morning, Diego took off to borrow equipment for a large-format outdoors screening of the Jesus film, and a local pastor was invited to speak and help with any follow-up and questions afterwards

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In the afternoon, Diego paid a visit to the local omi garandi, or “big man/elder”, and was granted permission to show the movie. In this culture, it is very important to respect the traditional authority figures, and often, doing so can open unexpected doors. In this case, the omi garandi sent a messenger off to make sure the whole neighborhood was invited to the event, and he asked Diego if he would postpone the viewing to an hour later than he’d planned, so that the boys from the local Qur’anic school would be able to attend as well!

We were very excited to see that between 80 and 100 people came to see the movie which was dubbed in Fula, the native language of all our closest neighbors. Children, adults and seniors all came to see, and even though they either had to stand or bring a chair from home to get a seat, they all followed the movie attentively from beginning to end. It’s difficult for us to speak with them still, because of the language barrier, but they know where we live, and that they’re welcome to come ask questions if they want to later. A local pastor, himself a converted Fula, is starting a Church in the area and already organizes children’s and youth ministries here on a weekly basis. Evangelizing to the Fulas is a work of patience, as they consider themselves the carriers of Islam to Africa, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try! You are invited to help us pray for our neighbors that we’d get more opportunities to talk to them and share the story of Isa (Jesus) who loves them and wants to give them a future and hope…

In the Church we attend, we’ve started to teach the youth and adult class (see picture) in Sunday school. The congregation is very young, consisting mostly of children and youth in their teens or early twenties. The pastor, whose name is Marius, has such a passion for the unreached, and he does his very best to train the young people that are growing up to become missionaries to the villages surrounding Gabu. At present time, the Church already has church planting ministries in six different villages! To give an idea of the magnitude of that number relative to the size of the “mother” Church, I can say that attendance on Sunday morning in the Church in Gabu is somewhere around 50, including children. Pastor Marius has asked us to invite our supporters at home  to adopt this ministry in prayer, and we urge you to accept that invitation. The name of the Church is “Filadelfia”.

In order to train the missionaries he sends out to the villages, Pastor Marius wants to hold leadership seminars for them every four or eight weeks. He has invited us to teach at these gatherings, and we’ll commence this work in February. We feel very honored to be able to invest in these courageous young people who are willing to go to these remote villages to share with the unreached what they’ve experienced with Jesus.

These missionaries have the local knowledge like language and culture understanding that we don’t, and they are able to reach out to many people that we’d never personally be able to touch. But by helping to train them, both we and you who support us in prayer or financially, are reaching out to people living far away from what we call “civilization”, cut off from the rest of the world from lack of roads, electricity and phones. If you’d like a comprehensive list of the villages where churches are being planted, please contact us by e-mail  so we can send it to you.

We want to say a big thank you to all those who donated towards and prayed for the safe arrival of our truck. It’s a Toyota Hilux, and it arrived by container ship to Bissau in November. After only ten days of paper work and waiting, Diego was able to bring it home. In the picture you can behold the “miracle” and see the usefulness of four wheel drive and high ground clearance on the roads around here.

Finally, we’d like to tell you some very big news that have made us very happy: We’re expecting! The baby is due in July, and we’re so excited about all the new experiences that this will bring to our lives. We’ll be returning to Norway a few months before the birth in order to ensure safe medical supervision for mom and baby.  Then we’ll be coming back to Guinea-Bissau in the fall again to continue our work here. Please pray for divine protection in these months, especially from malaria and other dangerous diseases or accidents

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Well, we just celebrated Christmas for the first time in our new home, while enjoying the lovely visit of Tanja’s parents who spent two weeks here with us. We wish you all a blessed new year full of excitement and joy.

Sincerely,

Diego and Tanja Valdez