We arrived in Guinea-Bissau in May 2021 and quickly settled into a place loaned to us by a Muslim friend. Six months later, we moved to a small house downtown with just one bedroom. We moved again. The new house was big, but when the rainy season started, we discovered many problems, including waking up sometimes to a lot of water inside the house. We moved again. We found another house that seemed good. There were no problems with rain leaks or flooding. You could almost say we had no water problems, but the water was the problem — the house frequently had no water. We soon went ten days without water. You know what came next. We moved again!

While all these housing issues and constant moving may seem unfortunate, after I thought about it for a while, I realized that God gave us the opportunity to make friends in each place, sharing the gospel with some. As missionaries, it is a great privilege to see God working in what we could often consider bad situations. Because often, were it not for these difficulties, we would not meet some people.

Finally, we moved closer to our Center of Influence (Casa Novo Tempo) and are making new friends. We have developed a blessed relationship with Bassiro, our Muslim neighbor who lives to the left of our house. His children sometimes attend our Sabbath services. Occasionally, Bassiro agrees to come. At other times, he does not. We are nurturing the relationship with patience and love.

A few days ago, Bassiro gave me a huge papaya. My wife loves papaya. He said, “God is One. You are my brother. Your family is my family.” At that moment, I understood once again that these situations are working to lead us to people of peace, children of God who need to know the truth about Jesus, the Way and the Life. The changes in our lives can become good opportunities to share the Bible’s message through new relationships.

We thank God for that opportunity and pray for Him to use us as a channel of blessing to people in Guinea-Bissau, especially our dear Muslim friends. Pray for us. Pray for Guinea-Bissau!

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