A couple pictures
Emmaus always likes to taste all of his Crayons!
This is how Emmaus colors: one or two crayons in his mouth and the rest in his hands.
Oh no! The crayon fell out of my mouth… now what do I do??
This smile is Canaan in a nutshell.
Canaan loves doing puzzles now. =)
More Geocaching
Incase you hadn’t noticed, one of our newest hobbies is geocaching. We’ve been squeezing as much of it in as possible while we are in North America. There are a handful in West Africa but not too many. We had fun geocaching in Canada too, but I have to admit, it’s a bit more pleasant in the Californian weather! It’s also been a great way for us to spend time with Deb’s dad who has been enjoying geocaching with us. Here are a few pictures of our most recent adventures. You can find even more pictures over at our flickr page.
Missions Conference
Last sunday we had a great opportunity to be a part of a missions conference at a church here in Camarillo. We were excited to share with their kids and high schoolers about missions and God’s heart for people everywhere. In the morning we presented to two classes of young kids between the ages of 4 and 8. In the evening we spoke with the church’s youth group. It was so much fun because for most of them the concept of tribal missions was brand new. They had no idea that there are groups of people out there that have never had the chance to hear about Jesus, particularly in their heart language. We talked about the process involved in reaching a remote people group and showed them a new video from NTM called “Awayo”. It recounts the true story of a man named Awayo in Papua and how God reached him. I’ve embedded it below and hope you can take the time to watch it, it’s an excellent video!
AWAYO – Fear to Faith from New Tribes Mission on Vimeo.
Smilie!
Things have been pretty crazy for us lately. But this smile always cheers us up! Thought you might enjoy it, too!
Ministry Update
It’s been a long time since our last update and and a really long time since our last update about our ministry in Guinea. We apologize for the silence on our end, I suppose it has been hard to write when we haven’t had many answers to share. We want to share with you today what we have been praying about and contemplating so that you can be better able to pray for us and be informed.
When we left Conakry, Guinea at the end of October because of the extremely unstable political situation, we bought round trip tickets because of our intention to return soon to Guinea. Everyone we spoke with expected the situation to calm down after a number of months. Since our departure, the situation in Guinea has continued to worsen. Early in December there was an attempt on the life of the president of Guinea. He was evacuated to Morocco for medical care though since then there has been no real concrete news of his condition. No one really knows how events will unroll in Guinea during the coming months or years.
A couple of weeks ago we were contacted by our leadership in Guinea and told that they did not feel that it was safe for us return to Guinea at this time. It was difficult news to hear. We, along with all of our supporters have put so much time and effort into getting us there and setting us up. The Lord comforted us with a few verses reminding us of His control. Jeremiah 29:11 says “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We have no doubt that God did indeed lead us to Guinea. We may not yet understand fully what he was and is doing but we trust fully in His control. We are thankful for the experiences we had (even the difficult ones) and the people we met, particularly pastor Samuel, our host.
So what’s next? When our leadership in Guinea told us that it isn’t safe to go back to Guinea, they also suggested that we move to Senegal to continue our language and culture study. Senegal is a French speaking West African country that borders Guinea to the north. There is A LOT involved in moving from Guinea to Senegal. Right now, we are corresponding with our leadership in Guinea and also the leadership in Senegal about this option. We are discussing the possibility of completing our language and culture study in Senegal and staying there afterward for our full time ministry.
As of right now, it does not look like we are able to change our return tickets from Conakry to Dakar, Senegal. One option is for me (Norm) to fly to Conakry alone on February 13th (it isn’t safe for Deb and the boys to go) and deal with our belongings and home. I will sell what can’t be moved and pack up what we want to take to Dakar. I will try to find a truck that can haul our belongings up to Dakar. Debra and the boys would meet me up with me in Dakar a couple of weeks later. As you can imagine, the idea of Debra flying with the boys by herself isn’t pleasant, but it is an option we have to look at. Please pray with us as we explore this option.
To be clear, we are committed to the work that God has led us to: to be a part of reaching unreached people groups in West Africa with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are pursuing this option of moving to Senegal but there are still questions to be answered. We will be sure to share them with you as we receive them.
Finally, we can not thank you all enough for your love, care and support as we have made this big move to Africa and then gone through the unrest taking place in Guinea. Truthfully, it has been difficult for us but we rest in the infinitely capable hands of our Father. We are excited to see where He leads in the coming months.
If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask them in the comments, on facebook, by email or phone (805-504-8753).
Unexpected Christmas
We are now in Canada and almost daily we do something, see something or someone and I think back to August 4th when we left for Guinea. There were many things and people we thought we wouldn’t see for many years, but here we are! God has had different plans for us and we’ve had to rest in His promises that He is love and that His goal is to use us for His glory. We just want to be used to accomplish that in whatever way He sees fit! We will let you know as soon as possible what our plans are. On January 3rd we will be sharing at Bethel Bible Chapel in Shelburne. If you are in the area, you are welcome to visit! We apologize for the silence lately on our blog. With the situation up in the air in Guinea, it’s been hard to know what to share when we ourselves have no idea how things are going to go, we’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern of the last month. Throughout all of this we have been overwhelmed by words of encouragement and support from our friends and family. Thank you everyone!
Flying to Canada
Well, I thought that it’d be four years before facing the snow once again but here we are! Tomorrow morning we leave for the airport for our flight to Canada. Though we aren’t excited about flying again, a little trip to Canada doesn’t seem so bad! We can’t wait to see our Canadian family again, they’ve only seen Emmaus twice since his birth. We appreciate your prayers as we embark on this trip, hopefully if you are in Canada we will get to see you!
Thank you also for all of the supportive and encouraging comments we’ve received as we pray for the country and our future there. We are thankful that God is in control of the situation!
NTM Guinea Press Release
Below is a press release concerning the recent events in Conakry, Guinea. Thank all of you so much for your support during this time. It hasn’t been easy to leave our home and new Guinean friends but we our confident that the Lord is in control of all of this.
Press release:
On Thursday evening December 3rd, the president of Guinea was shot and was flown to Morocco shortly afterwards to receive medical treatment. He is said to be in stable condition and in intensive care. This incident has
raised the concern of many in Guinea regarding the stability of the country.All of our missionaries were and are removed from this situation and are
safe. We have been in regular communication with contacts in the country, and there are good plans in place should the situation worsen. While we are watching the situation closely there is no immediate cause for concern.Please remember to be praying for our country! 2 Chron 7:14-15.
Geocaching
Today Debra and I went Geocaching for the first time. Geocaching is basically a global scavenger hunt involving GPS. A geocache can be hidden by anybody and can contain about anything. You go to www.geocaching.com, find out if there are any geocaches in your area and then use the GPS coordinates to find it. Some are fairly easy to find, others are hidden quite well. We went in search for six geocaches and eventually found four of them. We had a blast and can’t wait to go again! Our favourite was the geocache named ‘Just deVine’. The container was hidden behind – you guessed it – a wall of vines. Even when we realized that it had to be in the vines, it took a few minutes to find the well camouflaged container. Here are a few pics of our finds:
Welcome to the Copeland Ramblings. Explore our site to learn more about us and our ministry with NTM in West Africa
