CONAKRY, Guinea (BP)–After calling for “20 days of prayer for Guinea,” Southern Baptist missionaries there are expressing thanks for the intercession of fellow Christians.
Violent protests and a strike shut down most of the African country’s businesses and schools and left more than 100 people dead in February.
Two missionary families were evacuated and others were confined to their homes after the country’s president declared martial law in response to protests against his leadership.
Since then the country has stabilized, the strike has been suspended and businesses and schools have reopened. One of the couples evacuated has returned to the field and the other family will return after stateside assignment. More importantly, missionaries report that church attendance in and around the capital city of Conakry appears to be growing.
Missionaries credit the progress to prayer in the country where 85 percent of its 9.6 million people are Muslim.
“Gone is the gloom in people’s faces, they are happy and hopeful again,” one missionary reported in a prayer letter. “Thank you so much for praying with us…. We continue to be amazed with the response for our call of ‘20 days of prayer for Guinea.’
“We received so many e-mails that it would be very difficult to answer all individually. There are many praying for Guinea, literally around the world and around the clock, and God is answering your prayers. We have felt God’s presence giving us peace and protection, not just for us but also for local believers.”
One of the missionaries who recently returned to the country was thankful for safety and a smooth trip back to her home.
“Our drive back up country was uneventful -– praise the Lord,” she wrote. “[God] was, and still is, with us. We arrived at our house … and found it was not looted. Everything seemed to be in order.”
The mission worker also reported people in the country were showing signs of a renewed response to the Gospel and “flocking to churches in the forest region and Conakry by the droves.
“Apparently, they are searching for a closer relationship with God,” she said. “Pray that hearts will be touched with the Gospel at these churches and [the Gospel] will spread to all peoples in Guinea. Pray for the church leaders and laypeople to have the Lord’s wisdom in how to reach out to their Muslim neighbors.
“There’s much change that still needs to take place and many more souls to be reached.”
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For more information about ministry opportunities in West Africa or other regions of the world, call the International Mission Board at (800) 999-3113 or go online at imb.org or going.imb.org.
