The Copeland Ramblings/

Important Announcement

Dear Friends and Family

Greetings from Guinea! Many of you have probably heard about recent events that have taken place in Guinea. On September 28th, a march and rally organized by those in opposition to the current government were held in Conakry. Government security forces responded with force against the assembled crowd, resulting in a large number of deaths and injuries. While there have not been any serious or violent events since September 28th, political and ethnic tensions have risen. Many embassies have sent their personnel home as well as many other missions operating within Guinea. Elections are scheduled for next January and the situation is not likely to improve before that date. We have spent a lot of time watching the situation, talking to our leadership and praying. We did not want to decide to leave out of fear of danger, but to simply do what God wants. After much discussion and prayer we along with our mission and church leadership have decided that it would be wise to leave Guinea for a number of months to monitor the situation before returning early next year. While we are saddened to leave Guinea so soon but want to follow the Lord’s leading in this. We hope to buy tickets in the next day or two and depart as soon as possible (likely in a weeks time). We are buying round trip tickets with a return date of mid February.

Because we will be purchasing round trip tickets, we obviously need to arrive at and depart from same city in North America. Though we are not yet completely sure, it is likely that we will fly into Los Angeles, spend a few weeks there before flying to Canada for six or seven weeks. Mid January we will fly back to California and spend a few more weeks there before boarding a plane mid February for our return to Guinea.

Over the last three months God has allowed us to develop very close relationships with our Guinean neighbours, host family and host church. We are saddened to be leaving them and have seen the sadness on their faces as we shared our news. We encouraged them by reminding them that we will be returning soon. It is hard to leave friends who do not have the choice to leave or not.

Though this is not what we would have ever planned, we are excited to see what God does with this and how He will teach us.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, encouragement and support! It has been an interesting year as we prepared for our journey to Guinea, have been learning French, battled malaria and dealt with political instability. Please pray for us as we return home for this brief period. Pray also for the country and people of Guinea. We pray for a stable nation that will be receptive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We hope to see you soon!

In Summary:
• We will be leaving Guinea in the next week or so.
• We will spend time in California and Canada.
• We plan to be returning to Guinea in February, 2010.
• We need to be praying for the nation of Guinea.
• We are still active missionaries and members of New Tribes Mission and the field of Guinea, West Africa.

Merci Beaucoup!

On this day..

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• The Almighty.... Canadian Dollar? - 2007
• A Couple Things to Note - 2005