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.