Update Finally!

Hi family,

It’s 9:30am Thursday morning here in Conakry, which would be 11:30pm back home in Hawaii. I’m sitting on my couch at home and I wanted to write a blog because it’s been so long. It has been a little less than a month since I’ve updated. I’m sorry about that but we’ve just been really busy since returning from the south eastern part of the country, not to mention the difficulties of getting to the internet and it’s tortoise like speed. First though, I just want to thank all of you who were praying for me. My body was battling some type of parasite for about a week but I was able to go to the doctors and get meds to kill those nasty buggers. I feel fine and ready to finish out the next two weeks!

Last time I told you guys about the investigative bible study through Matthew that we started. Tonight will be our fourth meeting. It has been going well and we haven’t really found a consistent core group of guys. We consistently have about 9-12 of us but we’re getting new people all the time. When I say new I’m not talking about strangers, I just mean more of our friends that have never come yet (that’s a praise->we have a lot of friends!). So that is one thing you can pray about. There are a few of them that are consistently coming and generate good discussions and questions. Perry explains context and then facilitates the discussion and turns the questions back to them to get them to think and then answers. All of this is in French, so matt and I keep quite most of the time just praying haha. I must say though, I was very surprised that by knowing the context of the passage I can follow their questions and conversations in French and can pick up a lot of it! So I was really excited about that =) Tonight we’ll be showing a film called “The God Story”. I think it’s about creation to Christ. I’ll let you know how it goes.

                Before we got here I remember discussing goals with our Hands On big boss Emily in Niger and I was thinking, “How in the world will we ever get a small group started, let alone a church in an area with all Muslims?” I was feeling discouraged and pressure and it just seemed overwhelming when I actually go here. God quickly reminded me that it wasn’t any of my business to be worrying about that. He is God and He has people here that our responding to His calling. He does the work and we just follow. I was just so relieved, like duh rocky you know that! Well looking back at that and seeing now where we are having three small groups (beau and us, the guys on the block, the kofi students) is such a blessing. God has really given us the grace and worked out His plan for us in this area.

The English club and our two classes at Kofi have been great(that’s a praise->read former blogs). We basically give them topics at the beginning of class and break them up into groups to have discussions and debates about the topic of the day. We have awesome, interesting, and at times heated discussions but I want to share one in particular with you. A week ago we asked them “God knows ALL THINGS, if you could ask God one question, what would you ask Him?” (atheism is a joke here). So here are some of their questions (remember Muslim context):

*Why do people who pray still poor? -Cissé

*Why was I born in a poor family? -Ali

*Why I was not born in U.S.A.? –Sekouba

*Why so many problems in Africa? –David

*Why does God create human beings and leave them to suffer, while He could solve all their problems? -Maiga

*God, why you have killed all my parent, now I’m alone in the world? -Rock

*God knows we are His children, why He let satan in this world? –Paul

Now it gets even crazier.

*Why Life and Death? -Mariam

*Why do I have a Soul? -Sanoussy

*After death, where will I go after Last Judgment? -Traoré

*After death, what God reserve for me in the Paradise? –Soumah

*If I die right now, what God reserve for me? -Shaun

*Why Paradise and Hell? –Mamadi

*God! How to avoid sin in my life? –Togba

*Oh my God! Can you forgive all my sins? –Vanessa

*Oh my God! Can you forgive my sins? –N’Deye

*Why people say Jesus is savoir of Christian? –Soulei

We we’re able to discuss a lot of these topics and I know the both of us were able to share are opinions. For example, Shaun who asked if he were to die today what is reserved for him (nick this is the tall kid that really liked you). We went out to grab food and hang out with him and two other guys that day after class and God opened the door to share my testimony and then the full Gospel. The conviction was there and it set in, you could just see it in his eyes. Please pray for him and the others as we continue to befriend them, looking for opportunities to share the answers to these questions with them.

Perry has a lot on his plate as we prepare to leave. Please keep him in your prayers as he will be following up on the ministry we’ve been doing that’s not including his own personal ministry and family. He is planning to start a small discipleship group with Beaufils and a couple of the young guys at a Baptist church here. They’ve never been discipled and it will be a great core group for Beau. He’s also going to be carrying on the two investigative groups with the guys on the block and the Kofi students. He’s been with us meeting a lot of these guys and building his own relationship with them so that is good. So please just pray for that. We were here for five months but Perry will be here for who knows how long.

I’m going to head out to the awesome new cyber café that we’ve discovered and try to get this out because my batteries dying and we don’t have current. So I hope you guys enjoy the update. We are planning at the moment a presentation at Waialae when we get back, so were excited about that. We’re also excited to finish out strong and get home to our girlfriends, families, and friends. We thank you so much for all your prayers. Mahalos

><>rocky

it's been a while but here ya go =)

So if you guys have been keeping up with the updates, you know and have probably been praying for beau and his family. Thank you very much for that. One night soon after his mother’s burial we were drinking tea in his family courtyard with a bunch of the guys, a bunch of his cousins, and all his siblings. Next thing we know they start discussing religion, well I wanted to jump into the conversation so I asked Beau if he could translate for me. So we started going and after about two translations beau just completely takes over the talk. I’m sitting on the side saying, “okay beau, wait beau, wait” because I’m used to doing all the talking but he just started going off on the Gospel and I was sitting there waiting for him to give me the floor again. I continued to try to get him to stop and let me speak but he stuck his hand out in my direction like “no rocky, I got this.” It was awesome! From what I could understand in French, He just flat out shared the gospel, how Christ was the final sacrifice for all the sins of the world and there was no other way for forgiveness and reconnection with God but through Jesus. It was awesome, he must’ve went on debating with them and giving analogies and just sharing truth with his friends and family. Some of them were like “nooooo beau, your crazy” and they kept saying that when he would speak. Another was like “beau you love the Christians”. I saw a young man anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit that night. When Beau spoke, they listened; He spoke with authority, conviction, boldness, and a passion for the truth of Jesus. Later that night when he walked us to our compound, we both told him how proud we were of him. I told him that I saw God upon him tonight and just encouraged him. He was just like “nooo, it’s nothing, It’s important for my guys to know the truth, that’s why”.
I thought you guys would be encouraged to hear that. I totally didn’t do it justice but that’s okay =) We’re continuing to meet with him going through John and its amazing how he can just recap and summarize what we’ve read from prior weeks. We basically just try to re-tell the section of scripture and then go through the context and finish it off by pulling out a personal application.
Please continue to pray for Beau as he is now the chief of his family. Pray that he can have a way to pay for his schooling or that he would find a good job. Pray for the relations between his elder family members and himself. Unfortunately because he’s jobless and not attending school at the moment, some of his family disrespects him and treats him poorly, which stresses him out a lot. Most importantly pray that He will continue to grow in his love and knowledge of Jesus.
Also we just got back from the south eastern region of Guinea, which was a 17 hr drive from where we are (two day travel). It was a fairly large town about a 30 min drive from Liberia. We went out to do a basketball. It was great, there were about 50 kids who participated. There were good relationships built that will now be followed up by a missionary living in the area. It was completely exhausting, we start coaching at 8am-12pm, then from 4pm-6pm for three days. It was just crazy tiring but fun at the same time.
We finally had our first week of English club at the university. We’re having a great time in our sessions with the guys. There are good discussions and they all speak up and give their opinions. We’re praying for open doors to discuss the gospel and things that will lead to the truth of Jesus. Please pray for our time there.
This week Thursday, which is tomorrow for me, we’ll be starting our first investigative bible study through Matthew. I don’t know for sure who’s coming yet but I know one of our Rastafarian friends, beau, and a couple of the other Muslim friends. The reason why were having this meeting is because ever since beau has had his first bible, all the guys are always wanting to read it with each other and discuss. I mean only here, you’d walk into a room and find a bunch of Muslim guys rolling joints and reading and discussing the scriptures at the same time. So we saw the openness and asked if they’d like to read and discuss the teachings of Jesus together, so we can find out for ourselves what exactly Jesus taught, instead of just relying on something an imam or a friend told them about the teachings of Jesus.
Thank you guys for praying, we really feel it here. God has been so faithful to us in strengthening and sustaining us here. We have little more then 5 weeks to go here, so just pray that we would finish strong and give it our all. I love you guys and know that I do think about each of you often. No, seriously haha I miss you guys really.
><>rocky

Internet is Scarce...Here's an update for ya'll!

March 18, 2009

Aloha To All,
Well, it has been about two and a half months being away from home and being here has been a ride that we will never forget. From the last post you heard about our friend Beaufils and all I can say is that the Lord is working in his life. Rock continues to read the Bible with him and slowly but surely the Lord continues to reveal truth to him through His Word. He often comes over to our house asking us to read the Word with him. So, we continue to read, talk, explain scripture and pray with him. It has become an experience that we both value and love because every time we see him, we can see that God is working in him. Keep on faithfully praying for this gentleman that God will continue to work in Beaufils’ heart. A little less than a month ago, Beaufils told rocky that he prayed in Sousou (his ethnic language). He said He asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins, to be the King and boss of His life and to change him and ever since we have clearly seen a change in this young man. Beaufils before would constantly speak of the hopelessness of his life and complain about his situations. Now He spends most of his time reading through John, Proverbs, and Genesis. He smiles and there’s just that sense of hope in Jesus now. Rocky challenged him last week to share the truth with one person that week. By the end of the week which was Sunday, we were like “Beau this is your last day to try to accomplish your challenge, you better get on it.” And he replied, “No, Last night I explained to the truth to Amz.” He said the guys think he’s crazy but it doesn’t bother him. We gave him his first French Bible and English Bible along with a Sousou casset tape. Please continue to pray for Beau, he desires very much to be a changed man. He’s also very encouraged to know that there are multiple brothers and sisters in Christ praying for him, he couldn’t believe it. Praise God for the work that is being done and just continue to lift him up because his walk will not be easy.
As the aforementioned stated, God is working in Beaufiis and continues to give us a unique ministry for these five months in Africa. The ministry that God has entrusted us with takes place well beyond the daylight hours and in to the late evenings and early mornings of the next day. All we do is hang out with friends we have made down the street; all of whom are friends of Beaufiis. As a result, many spiritual conversations have taken place and continue to take place every day. There is a compound full of about twenty guys that continue to wander throughout life with no sense of purpose, direction and often times hope. That is our ministry and the ministry that God has continued to lay on our hearts. It’s hanging out with a bunch of twenty something year old guys, building a relationship with them and telling them the Gospel. Just think, this all started from borrowing one basketball! This is definitely a unique ministry and every time we hang out with them, the bond keeps on getting stronger. Please continue to pray for “Da Boyz on Da Block!” Pray that the Lord will continue to shine His Light through us daily and that we will continue to live out our faith amongst “Da Boyz.” Pray that God will show them the truth and stir in their hearts a desire to know the truth. As we continue in our time here, we are excited about what God is going to be doing through us. “It only takes a spark to get a fire going” and we hope that the “spark” has already started.
In other news, we are still waiting to get in to the schools to teach English. The school that we are suppose to be working in has been having examinations for about two to three weeks and often times leaves us frustrated and searching for things to do. So, we just find ourselves prayer walking throughout our neighborhood and making ourselves available for the students at the school. We continue to build relationships with students but most of our conversations take place for English purposes. We cannot wait to get in to the formal classroom setting and actually start building stronger bonds through that. Hopefully that will be next week and last for the duration of our stay. Pray that God will show us those students whom He is working in and that more doors for the Gospel will be opened, specifically for these students!
Along with those things that I have mentioned, there have been some other ministry opportunities that we have been a part of. A couple of weeks ago a mission team from Smyrna, Tennessee came here and we had the opportunity to go with them to the northern part of the country. That was an experience that the both of us will never forget. We travelled for thirteen hours (one way) to the countryside across mountainous, rocky, curvy and dirty roads that had potholes the size of meteorites. It was fun! Especially since we were travelling at high speeds; however it was scary because if we hit those potholes at the right angle, we would’ve been stuck out in the middle of nowhere for who knows how long!!! But anyways, our time out to the country side was one that caused us to step out of our comfort zones. During our time there, we had the opportunity to visit three villages that were on the out skirts (two hour drive along the same type of road) from the place that we were staying. Might I add that we had to draw our own water from a well to take showers, drink and flush the toilet. However, during our time there, we had hands on cultural experiences that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. In the villages, we had the opportunity to eat authentic African meals in the chief’s hut, receive authentic African names and experience real village life. Eating in the hut was an experience because there were four people to a bowl and no utensils. Our hands were our utensils! But in each of the villages, we got to sing songs of praise for the villagers and share with people our personal testimonies and C2C (creation2christ). The village was fun and really a great cultural experience; much so that we are getting ready to go out again. This time we are going to be heading out to the southern part of the country (sixteen hour drive – one way) to do a basketball clinic in the coming weeks.
Another ministry that we have been involved in has been a weekly basketball clinic at one the local schools and most recently the local prison. It really gave us a fresh hands on perspective of how things are run here and the excitement that comes on the faces of the children and teens when you invest time in to them. At times it is total chaos but this part of the ministry that God has opened for us has served as an outlet for us to be able to interact with young people in hopes that they will be open to the Gospel. We are going to continue helping in these ministries and pray that God will work through the language barriers and overwhelming environments so that His Word will touch the lives of those we are interacting with.
In all, we are keeping busy and God is working amongst the people. We serve a God who is presently active here as well as in other parts of the world. Thank you all for your prayers and continued faithfulness in lifting us up to Him. Keep praying that God will continue His good work here and for the various aforementioned people and ministries that we are in. We love you all!!!
In Him,
Matt G.
4 Specific Prayer Request 4 March
-We continue live out our faith in front of this dark and lost people
-Matt would have the opportunity to share the Gospel w/ Petit Amz. One of the guys at the compound who was drawn into the worship music one night we played.
-We would get an “English club” started where we could have dialogue w/students
-We would have the opportunity to share C2C w/Salam and his family. He’s a paraplegic boy that we met on the vision trip and were able to reconnect w/him and his family. We visit there often.

Hey Guys!

><>Thursday Night, February 19, 2009

Earlier this week we had made an appointment to meet and study through the Bible with Beaufils (bo-feez), our friend I told you about last update. Through this he could practice his English and reading comprehension and at the same time learn truth about the teachings of Jesus. Beau is in the picture above. He's the guy sqauting in the front with the red and black shirt.

Well we just finished our first meeting with Beaufils. When he just arrived I had to take a shower b/c I just finished working out…Anyways in the bathroom I was just like okay Lord, Beau is here and I have no clue how to do this. I was like just anoint us and give us wisdom, understanding, and clarity.

You see, Emily (our HandsOn Coordinator) and others have told us about a method they use to study the Bible with the Africans. They go through stories and have the people reiterate the story over again after their told that way they learn it. They then ask them questions about the story and some lesson they have learned from it. They then ask them who that they know needs to hear this story and lesson and ask them to go out and share it.

This method is very interesting and we wanted to kinda integrate it into our meetings with Beau. I think that we kinda followed it but kinda didn’t haha. Anyways here’s how it went.

We prayed and decided that we should go through the gospel of John. Basically what we did was go verse by verse through the first 18 verses I believe. We broke up the verses into sections and just made Beaufils read the little sections over and over and over. Then I would ask him questions about but the text and what it was saying, trying to work on his comprehension. I made him explain to us what was going on in the text. It was awesome! We went verse by verse, just asking questions about who said what, what was going on, why it said that, what it meant. It was amazing the Spirit was just moving. We would make him summarize after every portion to make sure he understood it in the context of the passage. It was great because usually when he reads things he has no clue what he’s reading in English, but this time we wouldn’t move on until he had a clear grasp of what the Word was saying and why. Every so often I was like okay well that’s really good we can stop here and he was like no we must keep going, I would be like you sure? And he was positive. I did that about 3 times to see if he was really engaged. It was great. When we finished, we closed the Bibles and I asked Beau to summarize the passages we had just read and discussed. He basically went verse by verse summarizing what we just read and discussed. I told him to go home and practice because the more he practices, the more he’ll remember and understand it. So we said that he must practice until we meet next week and every time he sees us, he must explain the first half of John chapter 1. My brothers and sisters, isn’t God amazing!

Here are some things that stuck out tonight.  We went over Jesus being in the beginning with God and how He was God and how all things were made through Him. We also hung out at the passage speaking about though all things were made through Him, they did not know Him or accept Him when He came to them. Another one was when John who was a prophet called Jesus higher ranking and existing before him.  According to Islam Jesus is just another prophet, a mere man, so to hear these things about Jesus being God and the world not knowing and rejecting that was very interesting to Beau. I also asked Him why John would say that about Jesus being that Jesus was a man younger then John. Beau was like “because in the beginning Jesus was there long before any of these men”. I can’t really put into words how the spirit moved. Beau says that He was amazed at the teaching of his religion, how it doesn’t teach this truth and how what he learned tonight was the time ever for him to see and study for himself the truth of who Jesus is. He has said time and time again that He has seen the truth between both religions. He considers himself Muslim but I believe he believes in Jesus as God and the teaching of Jesus. He just has to make a decision to commit his life to Jesus.

That is the great dilemma. The social ostracizing, the family shame, the persecution, it’s all being weighed out in his mind I believe. Islam is the way of life here. It’s not just a two day religion; it’s how people interact socially. I can’t explain it. So please pray for Beaufils. Tonight as I walked him out of our compound, he said he’s going to going home and ask Jesus to come to him. I believe God is moving in his heart and it’s just a matter of time. The Word won’t return void but it’ll accomplish the purpose God intended for it. We see him almost everyday and we’ll continue to meet with him. Hopefully this meeting may expand to more people interested in the teaching of Jesus.

I love you guys, thank you so much for all your prayers.  I’m not going to write a lot about this because it isn’t necessary but we were robed last week by “police men”. Everything’s all good, we’re safe but I would like you to pray for our continued safety and also that Matt’s black berry and camera is recovered. I got the guys first name and we’re working on getting his family name right now. But pray that the whole situation can be used for God’s Glory and a witness to all our African friends who are very upset. Also thank you very much for all the little encouraging comments, you all know who you are =) but if you can’t leave a comment because you don’t have a blogger id, you can always email me @ rockykomatsu@gmail.com

Your brother in Christ, rocky

It's Definitely Tuff But God is Faithful!

I wont get to finish this blog today because the internet is acting up again.

"And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore, i would much rather glory in my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell within me. Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, and with difficulties, for when I am weak then I am Strong." 2 Cor 12:9-10

If you are reading this then i know you are praying for us, this means that i can be pretty personal. This has definitely been the weakest i've ever been in my life. This is comming from the guy that gets homesick after being a couple days in San Fran! There is no way to explain just those times in the week where you just feel homesick. Think about it we're half way around the world from home (sometimes i feel like i'm not even on the same planet), we're away from our islands, our homes, our families, our friends, our culture, our language,  pretty much everything that we know and love also with minimal communication. It can be hard, very hard. I'm not trying to throw a pitty party at but i just want you to know what it's like. I feel like i've never been so weak in my life ever. Yet, at the same time i have never been more strong and in utter dependense opon the presence of God, upon the authority and activeness of His Word, upon the annointing and empowering of Holy Spirit. God has been extremely Faithful in my brokeness. God's faithfullness through speaking through His Word and just our day to day activities has been sustaining for me. I don't know why i shared this but I just wanted to share the testimony of my nothingness and brokeness and the magnifisance of His grace and His power to lift me up. Thank you for you're prayer because ministry has been great and personaly i just wanted to share what my prayer life looks like day to day morning by morning. Beggin God to get me through the day. Some of you guys (scrubs! haha) may read this and be like ha what a weakling suck it up, well good i am weak so that He makes me strong, but either way thanks for praying and now you have an indepth look at what is probably the most important thing to pray for me about. 

Quickly though, D is doing good, we had many talks that just turns into theological discusisons. He definitely sees the truth of Jesus. Now it just comes time for Him to answer to the question Jesus asked His disciples which was "who do YOU say that I am?". So now we are just waiting, praying and loving on Him and when the moment occurs for a seed to be sown hopefully being ready. He is a very good friend of ours so we'll keep you updated as we continue to spend time with him. thank you very much for continuing to pray for him.

We’ve made very good friends with our neighbor who we play basketball with down our street. He’s heard my testimony and I’ve shared bits and pieces with him. He’s 25 and He just has a fond place in my heart. His name is beaufiles (handsome in French). He owns a little shop on our street that is right in front of his compound. The other day I was able to pray for his wrist that was sprained and the next day it was healed. The other night he took me into his compound and introduced me to his mother and aunt. That was a privilege. This kid is open and is broken with no hope in life, just eat sleep and ball, over and over again. The reoccuring theme of his life is no hope, no joy, no hope. It's so sad, my heart is connected with his somehow the Lord has done it. He came over for dinner Thursday night with his little brother. We had a great time playing eating chicken/corn/rice. Matt and I played worship with our ukulele and guitar. Then we had a good discussion with Beau. He said many interestesting comments but the one that stuck out the most was that He didn't like Islam. So i asked him and he said essentially their fake and that there's rules that don't make sense. He also said that he loves christians more and Jesus because they are loving (This would be the third muslim that told us they prefer Christians over Muslims). So then I asked him why he was a muslim and he said that if not he will be rejected and called crazy(persecution and social ostrisizing is very common here). But the most interesting thing he said was that he watched the Jesus film long ago and that he saw the truth about Jesus. We talked and responded to alot of these with many words from the Lord (i believe). Just pray for Beaufils, he is going to start comming over once a week to practice english reading comprehension using the Bible. We'll read stories and then ask questions and make him resite the story. Please pray for this guy, the harvest is ready. Sorry i can't share the whole convo it'd take forever just know that the Gospel was glorified. So please please pray for beaufils.

Also there are a bunch of guys that hang out over there. Probably about 30 or so but we’re getting to know about 10 of them pretty well. The basket ball rim is in front of beaus store so guys hang out there all the time. Just the other night one of the guys that my heart is just breaking for caught malaria and I asked to pray for him before I went home. The next day The sickness was gone! but the messed up thing was that i got really sick two days later probably from holding his hand when praying now i know is not good.  Keep praying for this minsitry oppertunity.

We go to Kan Kan (country/villages) in two weeks. Upon returning we'll start working at the two universities untill May. I love you guys thank you so much for everything.

rocky><>

UPDATES UPDATES UPDATES

 I’m sitting in our house writing this blog on Word because I don’t have wifi access. I want to try and update you all as much as possible but it’s very difficult. The weather here is beginning to turn into Conakry weather. It’s just beginning to be very hot and sticky! Yuck!

Matt and I have really enjoyed our meetings with D. He’s been over quite a few times for diner and we’ve enjoyed long talks about various topics. So far our past two Saturdays have been spent with D. Together we’ve been exploring the city, trying African foods, shopping, and even working out. We also met his aunty who is a big shot radio journalist who travels the world. We spent about 3 hours in her court yard with her family just conversing. She and her family were very kind to us and invited us over for a special African dinner sometime. Well as we’ve been hanging out, there has been numerous times where we’ve gotten to share little testimonies of Gods Grace in our lives. Usually when he’s over at our place he asks a lot of question concerning Christianity. He often explains Muslim beliefs and traditions. One night as we were chatting over dinner, I asked him to explain what he believes about the after life, sin, and the way to salvation. He explained very clearly what the Koran taught about paradise and hell, sin and forgiveness. The whole time we were praying patiently waiting for the right time to explain the true gospel. After about 20 min of Islam doctrine, he finished off by asking the question, “So I heard that some Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God?” and the door was opened for the gospel. 

I shared that night like I’ve never shared the gospel before in my life. We went from the fall of man and everything that encompassed, to the law then into the high priest on the Day of Atonement in detail. Then we talked about the prophets and the 400 years of silence which lead to John B then to Jesus. Explaining to the best of my ability who He was as fully God and fully man and the reason why God Himself needed to come down to satisfy His wrath against our sin. Then we talked about the cross and went back to the Day of Atonement with the high priest, talking about how the whole bible points to the coming and the work of the messiah and how Jesus was that fulfillment. Then to the resurrection and how that proved that it was finished, God’s wrath was satisfied and now to all who repent and believe in this Jesus can have forgiveness of sins and a new life. It was pretty intense. Praise God! The spirit was moving and gave me the utterance. For Africans they love to listen and tell stories so I told it like one long story and Matt even said that it looked as if he was just engaged in the conversation. Almost always when a person’s phone rings here during a conversation even an important one, they’ll excuse themselves out of the conversation especially if it’s the person’s girlfriend. D’s girlfriend must’ve called about 4 times during it and He didn’t flinch. Later he told me something that he’s never said before and that’s that he still has lots to learn. He doesn’t know which way is the truth. He is a Muslim but he doesn’t know if it’s the true way. We then shared that he needs to find which way is the true way. That He cannot accept both teaching as truth which most Muslims ignorantly do. It is either Jesus and his teachings or Islam. He said he must discover more and that convos like these are very important. Please pray for D. I know the spirit is speaking to his heart.

We’ve been taking Conakry by storm! Haha well not really but we’ve just been exploring our area of the city which is called Kipe and the surrounding areas. We walk down to the main road which is about a four minute walk. When we get there we can go shopping at the many boutiques (little food and random item stands) or jump in taxis to go further down Kipe. Recently we’ve been testing out the taxi service here. There are seven people to a taxi (even if you’re a bigger guy like me). The other day I felt so bad because I was smashing, well actually every time when there’s four in the back seat I feel bad because I’m smashing everyone;) but their very nice about it. “c’est bon” it’s good, they say. The taxi fare ranges from about 500gf (around 10cents) to 5000gf (aprox $1) depending on the distance you travel. Last week we went all the way down to Medina market all by our selves and met up with J. That was a great feat for Matt and I being that Medina is about a 30 min drive away from our house. The Guinean people are extremely friendly to us. I’ve been to four different cities in west Africa now and Conakry is by far the friendliest. They are always greeting us with big smiles, cava or bon jours (how you doin or good day). We are learning that it’s very important just to stop and try to make conversations with people we meet. We have met so many people thus far and we’re hoping for chances to share the truth about Jesus with them. We had our first taste of Guinean food last week. It wasn’t bad, they eat a lot of various types of sause with rice. My favorite dish so far is Poulet Yassa (chicken with an onion sauce on rice) which is served at this Senegalise restaurant 10 min from my house. Speaking of cultural encounters, we attended our friend’s wedding this past week. Mr. K is the head of the English department at the school we’ll be working at. It was the civil ceremony not the traditional which is held in the mosque. It was very interestering… oh and did I mention it’s starting to be hot and humid.

Le lessons du francias est tre difficile pour nous d’ici a ma maison, mais pas que nous somes American et mes amie de Barak Obama nous pouvons plus faire! I think that says the French lessons are very difficult for us here at the house, but because we are American and friends of Baraka Obama, we are more than able to do it! Haha, you French speakers sorry if I slaughtered that. So anyway we’ve been doing the French lessons 2hrs in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. I failed my French midterm last semester but for some reason the Lord has been just brining it all to me haha. Matt is also picking it up, it’s all just a matter of time. Oh my goodness the humidity is something else!

We appreciate all your prayers, emails, and notes, rocky

Prayer Request:
Salvation for D and the others we make contact with. Jesus often comes in dreams to Muslims.
Continued unity, brotherhood, and selflessness among Matt and I. Division will destroy the mission.
Ps 27:4-5-Abiding in the Lord. Acts 1:8-The Empowering and anointing to be His Witnesses.

Limited access...

So guys we have very limited internet access and when we actually get to a place that has wifi, it is very sketchy and doesn't always work.

1-23-09><>Were here in Conakry. We have very limited internet access so I’m not expecting to be able to update the blog very often. We both really appreciate all the prayers and love that all of you have shown us. We have just been getting acclimated to Conakry and to our new house for the next 5 months. God has really blessed us. We have already met so many people here. They all love us and surprisingly my French has come in handy!  We have been able to carry conversations with people and the words just come to me haha! We ate dinner with Doumbia yesterday. It was a great reunion. I hope that we can discuss salvation and our beliefs. Please pray for open doors with that. He was over for about 4 hours yesterday

We made some friends down the road from our house, also in a little hardware shop. We are going to practice our French with them and also our Malinke (Manika). We have been out running, buying groceries, and exploring trying to get an understanding of our new home. It’s been awesome. We are going to be pretty much on our own when it comes to cooking and buying our groceries so please pray for us!

As of now we are going to start 3 weeks of intensive language learning. We’ll spend 5 days a weeks, about 5 hours a day learning French and Malinke. We then we’ll go out in the afternoons to practice what we learned with people in the streets. We’re pretty excited about that. On the fourth week we’ll head up to the Kan Kan which is the country very far from the city. They call it the “bush”. We’ll be getting culture and language experience in Maninka.

Prayer Request:

-We’ve been making lots of friends in our community. Pray for open doors for the Gospel.

-French is very difficult but we are able to carry conversations with people. The other night we had a conversation with our guard for about three hours. He did not speak English! Pray for the ability to absorb and retain the language.

-Pray that we continue to abide in the Lord. We need to be empowered to be the witnesses we need. The battle is very heavy here. Thank you for praying.

rocky

and we're off 2 Conakry...

We have finished orientation. Our Hands On coordinator has been awesome! Her name is Emily and she has made a great effort to make us feel at home. It's time to head out to Conakry now. We leave tonight our time and will arrive in Conakry at 5am our time (5pm HI). I am looking forward to seeing the Logerstedts (our host missionaries) again. I am also excited to meet up with the Waialae team (Ken,Carol,Ed,Joy,Nick,LaTesha)who has been there for the past two weeks! 

 

Yesterday we went prayer walking.  Here's a quick picure =) It was great the Lord really opened up doors to pray for certain people. We walked through a small town part of the city of Niamey and just cruised in there. We stumbled upon a bunch of kids and I was able to practice my french. It was really fun to play around with them. 

  Alot of them jumped out of the way when we took the picture because some believe a camera can still a soul. It was interesesting b/c all the mothers grabbed the younger ones and pulled them out of the way. It was just good to get out and walk around. It was cool because while we were prayer walking i just felt encouraged b/c i knew we had people praying back home that very moment, over that very situation, so thank you. Most of the people are extremely friendly. Please continue to pray for the people of Conakry, that God would reveal Himself anyway possible.

 

I also have the tendency to write everything the Lord is teaching me through His Word and just different things but I can't because it would take forever, God is so faithful! So just pray that we continue to Dwell in Hm. 

"One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the Beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His Temple." Psalm 27:4

We gotta abide in Him. Not just asking for it in prayer, but minute by minute day by day, seeking Him making a constant effort to seek Him His presence in the Word, in prayer, in worship not matter where we are and what we're doing. That's just been one of the consistent things Matt and I have been praying for. 

Shoots guys, Thank you for all your prayer and support while we're down here. I don't know how often i'll be able to get internet. This may be the last time for a while. So we love you guys and keep fighting for us. 

 rocky ><>

PS: please make a blog account so that you can leave comments on our blog. We really appreciate any comments and encouragements!

I need a bigger cup...

This mornin i found myself asking God to enlarge my cup. I really desire a greater capacity to retain and absorb everything He is teaching and showing me here. I feel incapable almost too do so. Some are lessons that i'm constanyly applying and others are new things. I feel like there is so much that I am learning about real trust & faith in God, about true humility, about daily daily daily gettin on my knees and beggin God for His annointing and empowering of His Spirit because i wont make it without Him. I find myself literaly never being at the point where i've been more relient on God, then right now. I find my self being ever more aware of the spiritual battle going on here in Niger and Guinea. Today we talked about Anamism and how it is engrained into the culture here in West Africa. 

 

600 years ago the people of West and Northern Africa were told convert or die by the muslims so they chose islam. Anamism has been rooted in for centuries so Anamism is what goes on behind the scenes. Vodo originated here, was spread through slavery and down to the Caribbean. We got into the nitty gritty of their beliefs.

 

Basicaly Atheism is a joke here in West Africa. To them the creator God created the universe and man. Their are spirits in everything trees, grass, clouds, and other various objects. These spirits and man were left by God to fend for themselves. God is somewhere far off. The spirits are constantly harrasing the people with sickness, poverty, and any kind of bad thing that could ever happen. The pharse "wrong place, wrong time" is none existent here, there is always some kind of evil force behind it all. 

 

Power over these forces are highly valued here. This forces the people to turn to those with "spiritual powers" (witchdoctors). These witches over charge the people for rediculous remedys that never cure squat. They also render their services by casting spells and such on people. I don't know enough to write a doctoral thesis but I do know enough to know that they are enslaved by the devil. They live their lives in fear of the spirits and will do whatever the witches tell them to ward them off. 

I was very sad and upset but their is Hope and it's Jesus. At the name of Jesus demons shutter and tremble, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead arise. By Him, through Him, and for Him were all things created. Amen all Glory and Honor be unto our Savior Christ Jesus!

prayer request:

-We abide in Him clinging daily and every blessing that comes from that

-Walking in the Power and Confidence of the Spirit. The warfare is different here.

-Comfort during times of homes sickness, missing our families, friends, and also we both have girlfriends ;)

-Africa is extremely different from Hawaii so pray for cultural adjustments and climates. This seems. This and the one before this seems panzy but its real request. 

-God would reveal Himself in dreams and visions (very common with muslims).

-Stir up the Hearts of Conakry (especially university students)

-Unity between Matt and I, we would be binded together in grace and love.

rocky

Orientation...

After much travel we have arrived in Niamey, Niger safely. We are here for orientation. We are extremely exhausted from traveling half way around the world. We have not completely caught up yet. Well today was our first day and we had a guy come in and talk about folk islam (islam mixed with cultural animism). He was very passionate, emphasizing the Love of Christ, the Power of the Word of God, and The Power of the Living God. Right after that an Imam (leader of mosque) came over and we were able to ask him a bunch of questions. Some were pretty basic anwers we expected but out of respect we never got answers for the questions that he felt would "offend" us, question like what does he personally think of christians, the teaching of isa (jesus). Throughout the whole time he felt really uneasy. Anyway after we were done we asked him if he'd like to ask us some questions. He then asked us since we were christians what has that done for us? 

Bingo door opened for the Gospel. People started sharing about how they have peace, joy, a plan for their life, comfort, all the awesome  blessings romans 5 talks about. It was really crazy, I was praying Lord give me your words. So i told the Imam The greatest thing is knowing that waking up every morning knowing in confidence that i am right before the Living God because of the work of Jesus on the cross. It was crazy I got to share our sin problem and the wrath against us and the propitiation on the cross. The blessing of grace. Matt followed me with the same thing.

"praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that i may make it clear in the way i ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders making the most of the oppertunity. Let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with  salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person."

  This was my devo that in my devo today. i was stoked because i felt God totally did what the word says above in the situation.

Please pray for this Imam that God will reveal Himself. We then had a church planting presentation and had a taxi scavenger hunt. We had to catch taxis and take pictures of certain things. Our guide Zachaery was an awesome help. He is a beliver here in Niamey. Continue to pray for the culture adjustment these next couple weeks will be the hardest adjusting and missing home. I can feel it already. Shoots guys i love you keep us in prayer. We head out to Conarky on the 16th.

NYC!

It is 2:18pm NY time. 9:18am hawaii time. We got here this morning and have a lay over for 12 hours. I'm at a samsung store so i can't write much. This has been awesome some of our friends have met up with us, we were able to store our four luggage bags at my auntys house and ride around with Dave Sumida! Its pretty amazing how this worked out. We have already seen the statue of liberty, madison sqaure garden, times square, central park. I gotta go but just wanted to check in. Love you guys. I'll keep you posted we head to MOrrocco 2pm hawaii time. then will be there for 14 hours. ITS SNOWING here!

OOh! OOh! OOh! no never mind.

So I got an email on Monday basicaly saying that the Niger consulant has still not release our visas and passports. Being that our flight was rescheduled for Wednesday, they (international mission board) then proceeded to ask us if we wanted to cancel our assignment or change our location! well we told them no, we needed to go to Conakry b/c that's where God has called us. So we were in waiting....

That night I was getting really anxious about the trip. I started second guessing the Lords call and even searching for hidden sin. I realized that was stupid and started to openly rebuke all those doubts in my car ride home. I also started to give adoration to our Father, praising Him for the situation know that He will be glorified and magnified through this. The next morning I got a call from Matt saying the consulant released our visas and passports and our flights were on for wednesday! I hung up and started praising God. He is so fatihful to His callings!

I was all packed up this morning ready to leave when I arrived at Emily's house I got a call from Matt. He said that the FedEx plane carrying our visas/passports got snowed-in in Tennessee! So we are waiting for word form our travel agent to see when were flying out.

All i can do is praise God sincerely. Here's a little video i made...i just wanted to try a video file out :)

This is OUR mission trip...

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the openin of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Eph6:18-20

This is your mission trip guys too! It's like when you're praying, your on the field with us. When were walking down a street,  sitting in a courtyard with a clan, or ministering to individuals, or whatever, its as if you guys are right there with us in spirit praying over that exact situation begging for His annointing of power,  for Him to move and accomplish His will through us. I really believe this is something the Lord has shown me through past mission trips in West Africa and Northern China. On top of that, whatever the Lord accomplishes through us is also fruit of your labor in prayer. God will recieve even more honor and praise from us as we see Him work So thank you, we really feel it there too especially on those bad days.

I really appreciate all of you who are dedicated to praying for Matt and I. The verse I put up here pretty much says it all. That is that, we would be on alert, to go before the Lord constantly at any moment bringing petition led by the Holy Spirit's prompting. We really need the words and the faith to go out and share/live the Gospel in Conakry, so please pray for that. 

Minor Setbacks...

I got back to Oahu two days ago on friday and was ready to leave paradise but recieved news that the Niger Consulant did not send both matt and I our visa or passports. He was supposed to send them to our travel agent, Brian, last week. We are to go to Niamey, Niger for orientation before heading out to the actual field which is Conarky, Guinea. Now we had to change our flights from monday afternoon to wednesday depending on whether the consulant honors their word and sends out the visas and passports. Sorry if that was confusing. 

On top of that i found out that the military dictator that ran Guinea with an iron fist for the past 24 years had passed away. The Military set up a coup in Conakry in hopes of starting a true democracy. They first said in 6 months they'll have the election and now their saying 2 years. Hopefully this General will honor the peoples request for elections and not be swayed by the power. This article gives good insight to what's going down in Conakry:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081224/ap_on_re_af/af_guinea_coup

With all this going on I was kinda dissapointed that we weren't able to leave tomorrow but then God reminded me about His perfect timing. You see on friday i missed my 7am flight out of Maui, i was bummed out but caught the next one out. As I was sitting waiting for the rest to get on board an old friend from highschool along with her boyfriend sat next to me. She went on to say how she would never pictured me in ministry, which opened the door to share my testimony and the full Gospel with her and her boyfriend. 

Prov 16:9 says "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

Just wanted to share what God has been up too. I'll continue to keep you updated. As of now just pray that we can get our visas for niger and our passports back. Thanks, love you guys. 

rocky

maui no ka oi...

Just set up this blog. It's officially my last night on maui. I had a great time hanging out with my family and friends before heading back to oahu. I must now get ready to leave for africa for 5 months. The purpose of this blog is to give updates on what the Lord will be doing with us in Conakry, Guinea. I'm really excited to go but also nervous and alittle afraid. I get home sick very easily, after being in San Jose for half a week i was sick of the mainland and wanted to go back home to Hawaii. So i'll be trusting the Lord to get me through. Shoots i'll see how this blog works out.