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.