Guinea

Thank you for helping us preach the Gospel to Muslims in Guinea!

Crusade in Guéckédou, Guinea

After a successful crusade in Foya, Liberia, we packed up our platform and sound system and moved it across a river on canoes for a campaign in Guéckédou, Guinea. When I planned to do two crusades back-to-back, I looked at Google maps and I thought it would be easy to cross the border. But it turned out that the roads between the two nations do not connect. So, we had to cross a river on boats. But we don’t let anything stop us from preaching the Gospel.

We moved from Liberia to Guinea, from English to French, from a majority Christian nation, to a majority Muslim nation. A delegation of pastors Liberia sent us off and a delegation of pastors from Guinea greeted us as we crossed the river.

The campaign in Guéckédou took place on a soccer field (named Stade Tchendenan Dembadouno) in the center of the city right next to the marketplace. So, everyone in the city knew about the event.

We had two translators. The first translator translated my English into French, and the second translator translated French into the Kesi language. It took three times as much time to say one sentence. So, I had to choose each sentence with care. I preached on the Father of Hugs and Kisses. You probably know the story as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The son walked far away from his father, but the father eagerly awaited his return. In the same way, God is looking for all of His sons and daughters so He can save them from their lives of sin.

Miracles for Muslims

We witnessed lots of miracles. A blind eye was opened. A deaf ear was able to hear. Back problems and stomach problems and headaches were all healed by the power of Jesus.

The Iman’s (Religious Leaders) in all the Mosques of Guéckédou preached against our Gospel campaign on Friday night. They told the Muslims, “Don’t go to the meeting at the soccer field. They will send you to hell.”  One Iman’s blind eye was healed but he did not come to testify because he was scared. But the sermons against our event actually worked to our advantage because it made people want to come. On Saturday night, the size of the crowd swelled.

The Testimony of Oury Saw

The largest unreached people group in Guinea is the Fulani tribe. Most of the Fulani tribe is Muslim. The Muslim identity is so engrained in the Fulani identity that most of the Fulani people believe that it is impossible for someone in their tribe to be anything other than Muslim.

But in Guinea we met a Fulani man whose life has been changed by Jesus. His name is Oury Saw and he helped organize our crusade.

Oury Saw was born into a Muslim family. But he became dissatisfied with his religion. He says, “I was really thirsty for God and I was saying to myself, God is greater than the religion.”

One day he heard some singing and out of curiosity he stopped. It was a group of Christians singing. One of the Christians gave him a French Bible. He started reading John 1 and became fascinated with God’s Word. He read through the New Testament seven times in two days.

He asked a Christian man, “Who is Jesus?” The Christian replied, “Jesus is God Almighty.” That night when Oury went to bed, he prayed, “Jesus, if you are God the creator of the universe, I want to see you.” In the middle of the night, he had a vision of Jesus.

Oury became a follower of Jesus. He has suffered great persecution and even been attacked by his own family. He still dresses like a Fulani man and he is doing everything he can to introduce other Fulani people to Jesus. 

Oury Saw and Billy Bimba Reconnect

As a new believer Oury Saw felt rejected. The Muslims wanted nothing to do with him and he did not feel welcomed into the Christian community. Twenty years ago, Oury heard Evangelist Billy Bimba preach when he was in Guinea fleeing from the war in Liberia. But as a refugee Bimba continued to preach the Gospel. When Bimba was finished preaching, he came over and greeted Oury, hugged him, and ministered to him. Oury Saw felt welcomed by a Christian for the first time. Then he lost contact with Billy Bimba. Twenty years later, we were invited to do a festival in Guinea. Oury Saw was the festival organizer. We needed a sound system so we brought Billy Bimba’s sound system over from Liberia. After twenty years, Billy Bimba and Oury Saw were reconnected. They were so happy to see one another and to find that both are still serving the Lord.

A Good Report

After the campaign in Guéckédou was over, we received this testimony report from one of our co-evangelists: “When our campaign director arrived in Gueckedou three weeks before the campaign the pastors had a lot of splits between them. Some of them did not want to be in the same room. But the campaign has united them. And now they are so happy to do this together. They are also very thankful for our visit. The pastors discussed with each other how many new believers they welcomed to their services Sunday morning. Turns out that the 20 churches that worked with us had over 800 new believers that attended on Sunday morning! And the follow up work has not even started!”

Your Missionary Evangelist,

Daniel King