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.