November Prayer Update

 

September Prayer Update

Hello from Hope Clinic in N’zao.   The last couple weeks have been busy.   Katie and Matthew left for school August 15^th.   We returned home along with Jeff Amstutz, the CAMA Regional Medical Coordinator.  We were encouraged by his visit and he was able to give us many helpful suggestions.   Immediately following his visit, we began moving into our permanent home.   The house was not quite finished, so we have spent many hours varnishing and finishing up details in the midst of moving.   We are very happy to be one step closer to settled.  We are also thankful to be a bit closer to the clinic and Stephen’s office.

 

One of the highlights of being in N’zao has been getting to know Moise and Nowei, our Guinean colleagues.   We lived right next door to them until we moved last week.   They are both gifted people with a heart for the Lord and a deep desire to impact the Mano people for Jesus.   Moise is Stephen’s assistant administrator.  He does most of the shopping in town, hiring (and sometimes firing) employees, and a myriad of other details.   Nowei volunteers full time at the clinic teaching health lessons, doing evangelism and praying with patients.  Besides their work at the clinic, Moise is the Mano District church president.   He also runs a Christian school, supervises the translation project, and is heavily involved in the local church.   I am attaching Moise’s testimony to this letter.  It is a bit long, but worth reading.

 

Ramadan – the Muslim month of fasting – begins this week.  This year will be a bit different for us, as we are not living in a predominately Muslim setting.  However, the majority of the country will begin fasting.   Please remember to pray for the believers in Mamou, and all over the country.  That God would encourage and protect them, and allow them many opportunities to talk about the one true sacrifice.

 

Please visit us at our family blogspot:  http://www.hopeclink.blogspot.com.  We attempt to keep it current each week with a small section letting you know what we are doing each week and how you can pray.   We also try to highlight various patients and their progress.       You can also learn more about the clinic at http://www.hopeguinea.org.

 

Here are some ways to pray for us in September:

 

SUNDAY:   Pray for Moise and Nowei as they minister in so many ways each day.    Pray that God will give them wisdom for each situation that they encounter.  Pray for God’s hedge of protection around their family.  

 

MONDAY:  Pray for many opportunities to talk with our Muslim house helper this month.  Pray that God will begin to soften his heart and open his eyes to His truth.    Also pray that we will be able to get his wife and children moved down here in the near future.

 

TUESDAY:   Pray for Koh, one of our patients.   She looks about 9 months pregnant – unfortunately, she isn’t.  Rather, her abdomen is filled with fluid that her body cannot expel because her kidneys and liver are not functioning correctly.     Every couple days, the nurses stick a tube into her, and drain about 2 liters of fluid.  She seems to be responding to the medications she is on to some degree, but it would be great to see faster progress.  Pray that God will touch her body in a miraculous way.   Pray that she will understand how to take her medications correctly and be faithful in taking them.  Despite being quite critically ill, she is walking around each, helping to cook, with a smile on her face.  Above all, pray that she would accept Jesus.   

 

WEDNESDAY:   Continue to pray for the many details surrounding the arrival of Jairus and Adeline Bohimbo .  Pray for visas, tickets, and all the details involved in saying good-bye in Gabon.  Pray for preparations for their arrival here – including finding a house that will meet their needs and be situated near the school for their children

 

THURSDAY:  Pray for our family.  Pray for wisdom and strength for us as we minister here at Hope.  Pray that we will keep our focus on God despite the busy days and many distractions.  Pray for Katie and Matthew at school.  Pray that God will give them each Godly friends and mentors.  

 

FRIDAY:  Many of our team are in transition this month:   Please pray for each one:   Halls begin language study in France.   Vaughns are finishing up their time in Gabon and joining us in early October.  Dr. Bob and Elaine Greene will be arriving in mid-October.   Yeida Mamy (Moise and Nowei’s son) has completed his training (nursing and lab) in Gabon and will be arriving mid-September. Jordan Stull will be coming for 3 months to help out with building projects.  Pray that God will ground our team in love and unity

 

 SATURDAY:   Continue to pray that God will provide the necessary funds to complete the current projects at the clinic.   These include the duplex, and a wall around the property and some remaining debt on the well.    Please also pray with us regarding funds to replace our current vehicle.

 

 •If you would like to contribute to a vehicle, please send your donations to CAMA Services, PO Box 3500, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500.   Please mark your donation: CAMA STEPHEN ALBRIGHT VEHICLE SPECIAL

 

•Most CAMA Services funds are raised outside of the Great Commission Fund. Contributions toward the costs of keeping us on the field and gifts for the general support of CAMA Services are tax deductible and can be sent to: CAMA Services, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500.

       

 

 

Moise Mamy Testimony

MOISE MAMY TESTIMONY

 

I come from a pagan family.  In this family, we worship the “gris-gris” and the ancestor’s tombs.  So I grew up learning to believe in these things.

 

In 1968, when I was 10 years old, my parents enrolled me in N’zao school.  I pursued my studies until 1974 thus reaching the 7^th grade.  I was my grandmother’s favorite grandson and since the teacher was strict, she advised me to quit school.

 

At that time, I thought about getting married.  So, behind my family’s back, I got engaged.  Only my friends knew about it.  Some time later, my uncle entrusted me to a truck driver to learn how to drive.  Since this driver was a Muslim, I followed his religion in order to eat and sleep in his home.  If I hadn’t done that, he would have treated me as a CAFRI, which means an unclean person, unworthy to sit at his table.

 

While I was learning how to drive, my fiancée had an accident with one of her eyes.  Her parents took her to the hospital (7 km away) and the Chinese who were in charge of it at the time kept her for two months.  When I realized that by being a driver, I couldn’t see my fiancée anymore, I decided to become a mechanic as this profession doesn’t require so much traveling.  This would allow me to see her most of the time.  When my fiancée was healed, her parents asked her to leave for Liberia to live with her older sister.  I accepted this situation and promised her to do the impossible to meet her again.  A week after she left, I quite my job and told my uncle that I wanted to go to Liberia to continue my apprenticeship over there.  My uncle agreed and looked for someone I could stay with in Liberia.     F\or two months, I lived with him in Yalensou.  Then, he came with me to Liberia and entrusted me to his brother-in-law who worked for the LAMCO Company.  There, I continued to work as a mechanic and I looked for an opportunity to learn English.  Three months later, I was speaking commercial English.  At last I was near my fiancée.

 

After 18 months, I found a contract for four years, so I got married; my fiancée Nowei Male became my wife.  The first year of our married life, we had our first daughter who died three days after her birth. We did not really realize what was happening to us;  we were  too young and did not have a plan for our lives.

 

I MALTREATED MY WIFE           

 

When I started working, I was earning $75 for every two weeks of work.  So every time I would get my salary, I bought one bag of rice and gave 14 dollars to my wife to feed the family.  After that, I would leave with all the rest of the money to go and live with other women.  Often, I stayed away from home several nights in a row.

 

In 1977, we had our second child, a boy.  Since my wife was nursing him, I was absent more often.  Often, I would drop by at home during the day and I would spend the night somewhere else.  My wife did not even know where I was sleeping and when she would ask about it, I would answer her, “You are nursing, you are not supposed to know where I am sleeping.“   What you need to know is that a woman who is nursing is not allowed to sleep in the same room with her husband, because, as we say in our customs, if a nursing mother has sexual intercourse, the child will die.  So I used this believe to justify the presence of more than 5 woman around me.  When my wife was telling me that that this was not how married life should be lived, I would answer her, “You are jealous, you shouldn’t tell me that! You have a bag of rice and the price of sauce on top of it.”  Then she would say, “Take your bag of rice and you money, I did not get married with these things, it is you that I want.”  I would reply, “You are really very jealous.”  I did not care about her advice, and I continued my wanderings about.  Sometimes, I even brought some women home and slept with them in the same room where my wife was sleeping.  She was forced to accept it because I was very strict with her.

 

When the four years contract was over, I did not find another job, so I sent my wife to the village and stayed in Monrovia to look for work.  Since I was alone, I had even more freedom to go after the girls.  This is when I started to go to church.  In fact, I was going to different churches to find girls and to go out with them.  When the pastor was preaching the Word of God, I listened by did not understand what he was saying.  Yet, God started to look for me and a voice started speaking into my heart, “Moise, Moise, I need your life.”  I was confused and did not know what I was supposed to do.  I moved to another city hoping I would find peace, but it was impossible.  One day, I met a friend called Cesco.  He gave me a pocket Bible and I started reading it. Little by little, even if I did not understand anything I was  reading and even if I did not have peace,  my heart was warm and I could still hear this voice that was telling me, “ I need your life.”  I thought about going to a church, but in which church should I go?  Then this voice inside said, “Go to your village- back to your family.”  My thoughts were confused and I did not know what to do.  I was restless.  I did not have any money to pay for my transport, so I had to sell my radio to go home.

 

When I arrived in the village, I was happy, but the peace wasn’t there.  I bought two candles and that evening, I lit them and told my wife, “Come, let us pray.”  She started laughing and asked me if this is what I was doing while I traveled.  I told her, “No, but there is something that speaks into my heart and tells me to pray.  I have seen people do that in churches, so come.  We will do the same.”   That is how we started.  She would sit down next to me and I would read the Bible.  I did not understand anything and did not know how to pray either.  One day I told my wife, “Come, let us go enroll in a Catholic church.”  She accepted, but I did not have time to go to church that day.

 

GOD’S SPIRIT AT WORK

 

One day, I lost a relative in a small village behind mine.  I left to go visit the family and while on my way there, I met a man by the side of the road in the village of Bipa.  I greeted him and he shook my hand.  At that moment, I heard a clear word in my heart saying, “Ask this man what he does.”  He told me he was an evangelist and asked me if I was a believer.  I told him no, I wasn’t.   Then I asked him how much I should pay to become a Christian.  He told me it would cost a lot, but it wouldn’t be money I would have to give, it would be my whole life. The he told me that God loves me.  This was the first time I had heard someone say that God loves me.  I spoke with him for a long time and he asked me if I was ready to give my life to Jesus.  Since I had promised my wife to enroll in the church, which for me would mean becoming a Christian, I told him to come home so that we could discuss it with my wife.  A few days later, he came to my home with another evangelist and I was very happy to welcome them.  That evening, he asked me to go with him to preach the gospel in the open air.  This was the first time for me.  He asked me to invite people to come to hear the word of God, but I lied to him and said that I had a headache.  He started singing and a lot of people came to listen to him.  When he finished preaching, he invited people to make the decision to follow Jesus, but nobody came.  After the meeting, he asked me why I did not go forward.  I did not tell him why, but actually, I was ashamed, so I told him, “You came for me, so let us go home.” My wife and myself became Christians that day, August 11, 1984 at 11:30 PM.   That day, I received a New Testament in Mano (my mother tongue).  For the first time I had a book that spoke about my life.

 

IT IS GOD ALONE WHO CHANGES A MAN’S LIFE

 

Since I now had a New Testament in Mano, I stared reading it.  I read a passage in 1 John 1:9 which says that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”   But after reading this verse, I did not know how to confess my many sins.  The, I asked the leader of the first Christian conference if I could confess my sins in front of everybody.  He answered, “Yes, this will help a lot of people.”

 

CONFESSION OF JESUS

 

In front of the whole assembly united, I stood up and confessed:  “I am a great sinner.  My sins were to commit adultery with the wives of other men.  Every time I saw a woman, my face would change and my body would not let me be at rest.”  Then I told them how many times I had maltreated my wife.  In the audience, some people were laughing, others were looking at me attentively.  After I shared these things, a different joy came over me.  At the end of the meeting, several people asked why I said these things in front of everybody.  For them, this was very shameful and everyone has their problems.  But I told them that for me, it was a burden too heavy to carry and saying it had freed me.

 

TEMPTATION

 

1 Peter 5:8 – “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

 

After one and a half years of Christian life, the devil started to tempt me.  One day, my relatives got together to decide to send their daughters into the forest to go through initiation.  I told them that my wife and myself would not take part in these things because we had become Christians and the Bible tells us not to do this.  At the beginning, they did not understand what I was talking about.  So the initiation began.  Since we were not participating, the devil used them to tempt us.  My sisters spent two months in the sacred forest and every day, someone needed to bring them bundles of firewood and some meat.  But we refused to participate in it.  This was the beginning of great discords with my family.  My mother threw me out, telling me that she had not prayed God to win me.  The other people tried to discourage us from following God’s way.  The day when my sisters came out of the sacred forest, my wife and I did not stay with the family.  We went to the fields to work.  Then the devil changed his tactic and sent illness.

 

At 8:00 in the morning, I begin having extreme stomach pain and could not get up.  For one hour, I was in agony while my wife sent word to the village to inform my father about what was happening.  When my father came, he had a piece of Caolin in his pocket.  He told me, “It is your ancestors who have taken your stomach.  You need to eat the Caolin to take the pain away.”  I told him, “God lives in me and the ancestors have no more power over me.”  My father, seeing me suffer, was discouraged and said that I was denying the truth.  He went to the village to get a wheelbarrow and some young boys to carry me.  When they got back, I couldn’t see anymore.  They took me in the wheelbarrow and brought me back to the village.  There, everybody came to see me as if I was a criminal.  My mother started to cry, saying that I had disobeyed their god and that is why their god was taking me back.  My family members asked me to ask forgiveness to my ancestors and said that they would do everything so that I could be freed.  I answered them, “Let me die, I will go to my God, but I will never ask forgiveness to the ancestors. I am now following GOD.”  Everybody started to cry.  There was a man in the village called Nicodeme who was a Christian.  I told my wife to go and ask him to come and pray for me.  So he did.  After that I asked my wife to go find a nurse so he could give me some medication.  Thank God, the medication was efficient.  From 8 AM until 4 PM I could not either get up or sit down, but at 4 PM, god saved me from the illness.  And today I praise the Lord because my father and my mother have become Christians.

 

Dear readers, all you have just read did not happen with my own strength, but it is the power of god that brought these miracles in my life.  For you also, if you listen to His voice, God will do great things in you life.  You need to listen to HIS WORD and follow what HE says.  He is the only one who can change a man’s life.  Jesus is both our shepherd and our life. (John 10:27-28)  Answer to His call.  May god bless you and help you to understand His ways and to receive Him as your Savior and Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

August Prayer Update

Hello from the rain forest of Guinea . . . where we are in the middle of rainy season.    Practically speaking, this means that:

 

• If you wash your hair at 7 am, it might still be damp at 5 pm
• Clothes take an average of 3 days to dry, even if you take them in and out of the rain 4 times each day
• Shoes, Bible covers, and anything else made of leather can and does mold
• You take your umbrella with you everywhere you go.   Even if you are only going for 15 minutes and the sun is shining when you leave.
• Mud, mud, everywhere.   I thought the market was a mess in the “dry” season.   It’s about ten times worse now.

 

We leave to take Katie and Matthew back to school August 11^th.   We are taking Sandy and Sharon with us to show them a bit of the country, and will spend 2 days in Dalaba on our way to Conakry.   Once we return, we would like to get moved and settled in our permanent house.   Starting in September, we will have quite a bit of new personnel arriving for the clinic.  We are hoping to be settled in by then so that we can help get everyone else settled.

 

Katie has put together a family web site.   We’d love to have you visit us at http://www.hopeclink.blogspot.com.    The name comes from Hannah, who always says that “Daddy is at the ‘clink’”.   You can also learn more about the clinic at http://www.hopeguinea.org.

 

Here are some ways to pray for us in August:

 

SUNDAY:   Praise the Lord for the seven who prayed with Nowei last week.   Pray that the seeds that were planted will sprout, and they will grow in their faith.   Continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for our nurses.   They see many difficult cases each day.   Last week two of our patients died:  one from liver failure and one who was referred to the hospital in town for surgery.  She died because she needed blood during surgery and it was not available.  

 

MONDAY:   Pray that God will provide the necessary funds to complete the current projects at the clinic.   These include the duplex, and a wall around the property and some remaining debt on the well.    Please also pray with us regarding funds to replace our current vehicle.

 

TUESDAY:   We are so thrilled with the personnel God has provided:  Dr. Bob and Elaine Greene will be arriving sometime in October as a short term doctor.    Bob is an orthopedic surgeon. Robert (surgical RN) and Tracey (expanded duties dental hygienist) Vaughan arrive October 1^st.   Dr. Drew and Lindsay Hall – our long term doctor – leave for language study in France August 26^th.    Pray for Greenes and Halls as they pack up in the US and say good-byes.  Pray that Halls visas for France will arrive soon.   Pray for Vaughans as they are gaining some practical experience at Bongolo Hospital in Gabon before they join us. 

 

WEDNESDAY:   Jairus and Adeline Bohimbo are joining us as tent making missionaries sent by the Gabonese church.  They will be coming with their 4 teenage children.  Both come from unbelieving families, and they have already faced much opposition from their families.  Pray that God will provide the finances necessary for their move and smooth out the many details.  They would like to arrive in time for their children to begin school in October.

 

THURSDAY:  As mentioned above, Katie and Matt are returning to Dakar August 14.   Both have new dorm parents this year.   Pray for a smooth adjustment, and for God’s hedge of protection around them.  Pray for a godly mentor for each one.

 

FRIDAY:  Pray that God will ground our team in love and unity.   While we are thrilled with all the staff joining us, we know that often growing pains accompanies growth.  Pray God’s protection against any seed of division.

 

 SATURDAY:  We are beginning to work out our schedule of visiting teams for the next year.  Pray for wisdom for the many details involved, and that God would guide the teams here that we need.

 

•If you would like to contribute to a vehicle, please send your donations to CAMA Services, PO Box 3500, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500.   Please mark your donation: CAMA STEPHEN ALBRIGHT VEHICLE SPECIAL

 

•Most CAMA Services funds are raised outside of the Great Commission Fund. Contributions toward the costs of keeping us on the field and gifts for the general support of CAMA Services are tax deductible and can be sent to: CAMA Services, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500.

       

 

 

June Prayer Update

Thank you for praying for the opening day of the Clinic.  It went relatively smoothly.  The Minister of Health arrived 5 hours EARLY!!   (When does anything in Africa ever happen early?!)  Her visit was a bit hectic, but went well.  She was very impressed with the clinic and would like to use some aspects of it as a model for other clinics in Guinea.  While we still do not have paperwork in hand, we were very encouraged that it will be forthcoming.

 

June was an incredibly busy month at Hope.   We hosted 5 teams – all doing something different.   They were wonderful, and we are so thankful for what was accomplished.   Thank you for praying for them and for us during the month.  See attached pictures of some of the teams at work.    Here is a short list of what was accomplished:

 

• Dan Christenson:  completed wiring in the clinic, shop and most of the duplex, plus hooked up the pump.
• Anco and Ewien:  Improved our solar system, set us up to broadcast the internet to the various sites, plus helping with various computer/software problems.
• Robin Dirks:  set us up on bookkeeping, helped us organize filing, and did some bookkeeping training.   The rest of his team helped out with many small maintenance projects.
• Dr. Larry Verhage helped the nurses through the first two weeks of clinic.   Thanks to him they are much more confident.
• John Lundeen trained a lab tech – even extending his stay an extra week to make sure we were prepare
• German Baptist Cabinet Team:   built beautiful cupboards for one side of duplex and left the plans for the other side.

 

Praise the Lord for providing abundant water!   We were initially told that the well we had dug in May would not be adequate, then it was tested and we were told that it would be adequate at least for the next few years.  However, when the pipes were installed, it became evident that it was not going to provide the amounts of water we will need.   The company agreed to dig a new well for minimal charge.   Praise the Lord that we have much more water and that it tested very clean.

 

We just returned from Conakry and taking the last of the teams to the airport, followed by a few days vacation as a family.  We returned to N’zao on Friday and Saturday.  The trip took 17 hours as we were pulling a trailer.   We praise the Lord for protecting us along the way.  The trip reminded us of a specific need that we would like to bring to your attention.  That is the need to replace our vehicle.  Our current vehicle is 9 years old and it getting tired and worn out.  It has been telling us this for the past year as we have had several mechanical problems which easily could have caused severe accidents had they happened on paved roads.   While it was adequate for Mamou and the relatively short trips to Conakry, it is not going to hold out long term here in N’zao.  A round trip to Conakry is 1800 kilometers (1100 miles).    Because Katie and Matthew are now in boarding school, we will be making this trip about every two months – either taking them to school, picking them up from school or going to visit them at school.    We will also be transporting many short term teams in the years ahead.  We would like to purchase a vehicle which will hold up long term on the roads, but also be a little bit comfortable, and have enough seats to accommodate teams.    Please be praying for this need.

 

Please visit us at:  http://www.hopeguinea.org

 

Here are some ways to pray for us in July:

 

SUNDAY:   Pray for Jon, Moise, Nowei and Se as they share the gospel with patients each day.   Pray that God will open the eyes of the patients and that they will be receptive to the truth of His word. 

 

MONDAY:  Pray for a short term lab tech to come help us for the next 3 months.  Jon Erickson is filling in at the moment, but has many other things that need his attention.

 

TUESDAY:  Pray for Sandy and Sharon as treat patients each day.  Most people will not pay for medical help until they are desperate, so the patients they see are often critically ill.   Pray for clear understanding between the nurses, translators and patients, and for discernment to make the correct diagnosis.  They see a wide variety of patients.   This past month they have seen a wide variety of  patients including one  whose liver was not functioning, one with a leg that looked liked elephantitis, someone who needed a blood transfusion, and a girl who is demon possessed. 

 

WEDNESDAY:  We now have two cleft palate babies:  Samuel and Abubacar.   Both of them have surgery dates on the Mercy Ship.   Samuel is taking formula and growing.  However, Abubacar is really struggling.   At one month old, he weighs less than 4 pounds.   Pray for their families as taking care of babies with special needs out here is very labor intensive and they do not get much emotional support from friends and family.

 

THURSDAY:  Thank you for praying for the teams during June.  It was a hectic month, but we are praising the Lord for all that was accomplished by the teams.   Praise the Lord for safety in the many miles of travel, protection while working, and for good health.   While all the baggage did not arrive on time, it did arrive eventually, and did not slow down the progress of the work. 

 

FRIDAY:  We are thrilled to have Katie and Matthew home.   The summer is flying by way to fast.   Pray that God will give us special times as a family, and help us to prepare Katie and Matthew for their next year at Dakar Academy.  

 

 SATURDAY:  The duplex was not ready for the building team.  However, this was of the Lord as they were able to build off site.   Since the team was not able to install the cabinets, they had more time to build and were able to complete the cabinets for one entire side of the duplex.    Continue to pray that work will progress on the duplex.

 

•We are continuing to work on our prayer update address list.  If you are getting this twice, or would prefer not to be receiving it, or know of someone else that would like to receive it, please let us know. 

 

•If you would like to contribute to a vehicle, please send your donations to CAMA Services, PO Box 3500, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500.   Please mark your donation: CAMA STEPHEN ALBRIGHT VEHICLE SPECIAL

 

•Most CAMA Services funds are raised outside of the Great Commission Fund. Contributions toward the costs of keeping us on the field and gifts for the general support of CAMA Services are tax deductible and can be sent to: CAMA Services, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935-3500.

       

 

 

 

Explaining the Blog

Welcome to the Albright blog! It's here to show our supporters, friends, and family a little slice of life around here. It's just getting started, but hopefully it will soon have pictures and lots of posts to keep you guys updated. To explain the link (http:://hopeclink.blogspot.com): Our youngest daughter Hannah, cannot pronounce "clinic" correctly, and you can guess what she says instead. :-)

We are working at Hope Clinic which is in N'Zao, Guinea.