Ministry Programs and Activities of the Mennonite Mission Guinea Bissau Projections: 2013-2018

Prepared by:          Beryl Forrester & Andrew Stutzman

      Co-regional Representatives

      For EMM West Africa

November, 2011

Ministry Program: Evangelism & Church Planting

The mission in Guinea Bissau was started in 2005 in the village of Catel, in northwestern Cacheu Region just south of Senegal. From that village the first two missionaries started outreaches in several nearby villages. The first believers in Catel were baptized in 2007. Since then several more have been added to the Catel church and they have been discipled as missionaries. They are now in charge of outreach in at least 8 villages outside of Catel. The outreach includes weekly worship services plus other ministries such as medical access. 

The long term objective is to equip the disciples going out from Catel to be making disciples and raising up leaders in the villages where they minister. The disciples in the second circle of villages will be equipped to be the leaders in their village fellowships providing the village with the gifts of pastoring, evangelism, teachers and other ministries so that village fellowship will grow and mature into a thriving congregation. This model has a ripple effect of workers from a center point, starting new fellowships and from these eventually there will likewise be ministry gifts forthcoming. EMM expatriate missionaries will be needed throughout the projected time to coach African disciplers and participate in village ministries alongside the African workers.

Projections on the ministry:

From the present until 2013 the expatriate missionaries will continue to disciple the Catel missionaries as they go out. More village outreaches will be added as African missionaries become available. Missionaries from the secondary circle of villages will start going out to the third circle of villages.

Throughout this 5 year period expatriate missionaries, as bible teachers well grounded in Anabaptist theology, will be needed as disciplers of disciplers. At some point during this period a missionary training facility along with a Mennonite Church Guinea Bissau center should be established.

How Beautiful on the Mountains; Teaching Peace in Guinea Bissau

How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion, "Your God reigns” Isaiah 2:7

This verse from Isaiah creates a significant image of our ministry in West Africa. We are here to bring the good news of peace. Our message has been both given and received as the gospel of peace. We are here as ambassadors of reconciliation and we disciple believers to carry on the ministry of reconciliation. We don’t believe peace is an important facet of the gospel; we believe and preach that peace is the gospel.

We are currently in a series of teachings about peace. We are equipping the men who go out to the villages to be sharing the vision of the peace that God is calling us to enjoy.

How do believers become ministers of reconciliation? We teach that our new relationship with God is possible only through the death and resurrection of Christ and that as he died, we also die to the world and the flesh in order to be raised to a new life with him. We who have come to peace with God are thereby enabled to be reconcilers among those with whom we live. (I Cor. 5)

Continuing to seek revenge, reacting with anger and attempting to repay evil with evil is indicative that the flesh is still dominating one’s life. The gospel of peace is relevant all over the world, but especially so here in West Africa where bullying, intimidation and violence are the culturally acceptable ways of dealing with affronts. When people become disciples of Christ, they become first and foremost people of peace.

Listen to this testimony of transformation of one believer’s life as he began to follow Jesus. His name is Gibriel Mane.

News From Guinea Bissau Sept. 2011

      An important part of the EMM philosophy we are constantly concerned with is the presentation of a holistic gospel, a gospel that portrays Jesus as one who creates new life at all levels of human brokenness. From the old He creates a new Christlike community that holds Word, deed and being in one seamless whole.

Evangelical missionaries in this part of Africa have a long history of capitalizing on personal salvation and the assurance of an eternity in heaven, above all else. There is concern for physical needs as is evidence in the establishment of many health facilities. But these facilities sometimes are little more than bait stations to get clobbered with an appeal for personal salvation.

Personal salvation happens by praying a prescribe prayer inviting Jesus into one’s heart, stop going to dances, stop drinking and a short list of other behavior modifications. After that it’s learning right doctrine.

Let me give you a story that illustrates the fruit of that kind of salvation theology:

One of the hazards of being a toddler in an impoverished family here in Guinea Bissau is the risk of being seriously burned by falling into a cooking-fire pit or getting dumped on from a precariously balanced kettle of boiling water. I can’t tell you how many little ones have been brought here with extensive 3rd degree burns.

Our procedure is to cover the burn in Vaseline or other special burn preparation. Then the area is wrapped with sterile gauze and in a few days the destroyed outer layer of skin can be removed and new skin begins to reappear. Antibiotics are also needed to fight infection.

We had just such a case a few days ago. The mother brought her two-year old with a large burn from sitting down on a fire pit. The burn occurred a week previously and since he wasn’t getting any better she decided to seek help at our clinic. Right after the burn happened she got treatment at the local witchdoctor which included covering the burned area with ground mandjandja leaves mixed with rabbit hair.

Guinea-Bissau September Newsletter

Women hoeing with wooden hoes.

Rainy Season in Full Swing



A downpour in Catel

On July 26th, about four weeks ago I arrived back in Catel from my travels to North America. The place was transformed from when I left some six weeks earlier. By the end of July we were well into the rainy season and everything was coming back to life after the eight months long dry season. It is great to see how green it is and how much our plants and trees are growing with the abundant rainfall. Since the rains began in early June we have accumulated 30” which means we are about half way to our rainy season average total.

Andrew and Jonathan, together with our local guys had planted moringa tree seeds and cassava in the orchard. They also put a living fence of lemon seedlings around the orchard. All these are growing rapidly with the high humidity and breaks of sunshine between showers.
The past two months have been an intense time of planting for the villagers. Everyday entire families can be seen going to the fields preparing the soil and planting the crops that will sustain them through the next dry season. They have primarily planted rice, sweet potatoes, beans and millet.

Work Plan for Mennonite Mission Catel

August 2011-July 2012

Ministry Area:   Medical & Community Health

Objective: To make basic health care and a holistic Christian lifestyle available to the villages where we have ministry.

1.     The clinic at Catel will be open daily for medicine and consultations. Our staffing will vary, depending on who is available. By December 2011 we hope to have a full time medical professional. At times throughout the period there will be visiting medical professionals who will be assisting short-term. We are recruiting a second full time professional (RN).

Meet Ramatoula

The little girl in this picture is three year old Ramatoula. This is what she looked like when she moved noiselessly into my door frame, after dark, on the evening of April 30, 2011.

That day had not started off well for Ramatoula. As daylight was stealing across the Guinea Bissau landscape and the roosters were about done with their morning announcements another song was heard in the house of Ramatoula’s care giver. It was the voice of her aunt who took custody of this child from Ramatoula’s mother three weeks earlier. The aunt was singing a ditty about a little girl who again wet the bed and needed to be punished. The song and the accompanying ruckus awakened one of our missionary co-workers.

When he heard Ramatoula’s screams he was quickly leaped from his bed and dashed out to the veranda where the goings-on sickened and angered him. There was this little half-pint being held inside an empty rice sack. Around her was the rest of the household doing a mock lynching on her.

Mennonite Church Guinea Bissau Teams up with Arizonans

By Ron Pust, MD, College of Medicine, Univ. of Arizona

The catalyst for bringing together HeartBeat for Africa [HBA] based in Arizona and the Mennonite Church of Guinea-Bissau [MCGB] was a “Providential=God-directed” meeting of Community Health Evangelism/Lifewind [CHE], attended by both in search of a wider and more holistic Christian outreach in West Africa. There Ed Harrow of HBA and Beryl Forrester, Eastern Mennonite Missions country rep for Guinea Bissau were inspired by CHE/Lifewind’s West Africa director, Dayo Obaweya, to partner in Catel, Guinea-Bissau. The first step was to provide CHE training to indigenous MCGB members by Mr. Obaweya in early March, 2011

Later in March, the two Guinea-Bissau HBA Teams learned valuable lessons when we met our Catel neighbor, Dolores M and her 5 year old daughter, Katy [not actual names]. Dolores is a 33 year old Balanta mother of three and a new believer, part of the Catel Mennonite community. 

Medical Professional Needed at Guinea Bissau Mission

Eastern Mennonite Missions, an evangelical Anabaptist mission agency committed to going where the church is...not yet and initiating movements to Jesus, seeks applicants for a health professional in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.


35 miles south of Ziguinchor, Senegal, village fellowships emerged after EMM missionaries began work in 2005. Workers say, “Hunger for the gospel is amazing!” Work also includes development in agriculture, education, job creation, and most recently health services.

Brief description: assignment would include inaugurating the village well-being program of Christian Health Education, operating the village clinic, and training village health workers

Do Missionaries Have Fun?

Missionaries are just like everyone else- they need to get their noses off the grindstone occasionally. The four of us, Andrew, Jonathan, Annette & Beryl did just that in early May, 2011.






Andrew, Jonathan and Annette on the dock in Bissau ready to board the tub to Bubaque





PEARL GOES TO AFRICA

The following story is an account of a 13 member team that visited Catel, Guinea-Bissau  in mid-February 2011. Pearl is a fictional character, but her experiences, observations, and insights are a factual compilation of the experiences of all 13 team members. The names of other characters are their true names. It was simply easier to tell the story by combining the team members into one instead of introducing 13 different characters.

Team members

Getting the Word Into the Hands of Believers & Seekers

Tenin Name (lt) and Mario Mbana (ctr) examine the New Testament volumes in our local language, Upper Guinea Creole. Afriend, Alasan looks on. Tenin & Mario serve on the Church Council.

A few years back I set down some of my life principles- things that essentially make me tick. The second on that list is what I call the ‘Can-do principle’. The section concludes with: “if in your heart you have the confidence God is opening doors for you, walk boldly through them in spite of the detractors.” That’s a polite way of saying- don’t take no for an answer and always have ‘plan B’ waiting in the wings.


I could tell numerous stories of how that principle has positioned me well in forging ahead with God’s Kingdom here in West Africa, a part of our world where the Enemy has long held sway. He thought he could impede the expansion of God’s Kingdom into his territory by making it difficult to us to have Bibles for seekers and those desiring to leave the darkness and move into the light.

A Testimony of Transformation

By Tening Mane, as told to Beryl Forrester


Tening Mane & his wife, Tara


The most important part of my house was the front door, because we all knew that the spirits of our ancestors dwelt at the entrances to our houses. We would pass through there cautiously, because we firmly believed that the spirits had great power over our lives; it was our obligation to stay on good terms with them.

Every year at the beginning of the rainy season here in West Africa, we would assemble our agricultural tools – the hoes, mattocks, machetes, and shovels – and lean them up against the doorposts. Then we would say to the ancestors and Satan, “We are ready to start cultivating and planting the soil ahead of the rain. We ask you to grant us plenty of rain, to protect us from thieves and insects, and to give us a good harvest.”

A Rat in the Well

The rope and washer pump on the well in our garage.

On January 27th we tried pumping water from our well in the garage but it was obvious the rope wasn’t traveling through the pvc pipe the way it needed to in order to bring water gushing out the spout and into the bucket. We soon discovered that the pvc had separated a couple of places along the way down the 30 ft. well and back up the tube to the surface.


Andrew and I knew we were faced with the unpleasant task of raising the tubing along with pulley mechanism at the bottom and make the necessary repairs. Fortunately, Jonathan Miller was there to join us. He and his wife, Annette, had just arrived from the U.S. the previous day.

When we lifted the 30 ft. tube and bottom block from the well we discovered the fiberglass rope supporting the entire mechanism had frayed and broken. That is why the tubing had separated. But how did the rope fray like that, 30 ft. down and submerged underwater? That was the mystery. So we fixed the rope, put the tubing back together and again the pumping wheel at the top turned easily and water flowed from the spout. Once again we could water our garden, have plenty of water to wash up with and use for cooking. We normally didn’t drink from that well because it has an open top at it was possible for debris and other things to fall into the well.

Basic Church

For a resident of a Guinea Bissau village the journey to go from being animist to becoming a follower of Jesus is long and arduous. Most of these people have heard about Jesus but they are unaware He is the Messiah or that He is calling people to share life in the Kingdom of heaven.


For some the journey starts when someone from the village hears good reports about missionaries in the area. Positive reports that they are teaching about Jesus, that they are concerned about health and well-being, and agriculture. Then people from the village begin making contacts with the missionaries inviting and even pleading with us to come to their village to share the good news of Jesus.