Bakwe' MissionPastor Firmain has moved his family to the Bakwé Translation and Literacy Center. Alexis and Perez and their families are doing well. The northern army has taken possession of the whole area, and so far, there has been very little looting in the Bakwé area. However, Firmain’s parents, living in another town, had to flee their home. Keep praying for protection and a peaceful resolution to the remaining conflict. Most of the fighting at this time is in Abidjan.
Please Pray
Please pray for Côte d’Ivoire and specifically for the Bakwé. The northern army is working their way from town to town, with the goal of taking the port city of San-Pédro in the west and Abidjan, the economic capital. To get to San-Pédro they will have to go right through our village. Needless to say, there is much tension and uncertainty. The other day Pastor Firmain was given a death threat by one of his non-christian neighbors who is from the north and loyal to the northern president. I chatted with Pastor Firmain online and I asked him what their needs were. He asked for prayer for safety. He also said that they could use some money to be able to stock up on food in case they have to hole up in their homes for days. We are looking into a way to do this. Since both the north and the south are using mercenaries, if fighting comes to the village, it is likely that everyone’s houses (including ours and the Bakwé Translation-Literacy-Community Center) will get looted. Please pray for the protection of their families, and everyone’s homes and property. Also pray for God to be glorified in the final resolution to the conflict. Pastor Firmain said that the seven denominations in the area are closely working together and meeting for joint prayer for the country. They also have been visiting all the mosques in the nearby large town, assuring the Muslim northerners that they will not harm them.
Happy News
A lot has happened since our last post. The most exciting thing has been Lisa’s being restored to full health and Hans’ engagement and upcoming marriage!
(Lisa writes): A lot has been happening with us this year. Hans graduated from the University of Idaho with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering this past June. He then became engaged in August to a lovely girl from our church named Justine. Now this is the tough part. Hans then left for Boise to take his new job with Hewlett-Packard in September. He now drives up to Moscow twice a month (5 1/2 hours drive) to visit his fiancée. Both are eagerly awaiting January, when they can finally be together and married in Montana, her home state. The rest of the kids aren’t changing quite as drastically. Noai is working in the office of a local Christian ministry and enjoying life after graduating from NSA –our church’s college. Andreas is now in his third year at the same college. He just got a new camera and has been enjoying taking picture of the fall colors. Jeremiah just finished up his cross-country season and a good season. It was a joy to see him run again after a major injury last spring.
Finally, the other amazing change in our family is that, as far as I know, I am now healed! In less than one week I went from doing still poorly, but functioning lightly, to completely normal. It was pretty amazing and so simple a fix too. We just didn’t see it, nor could we put together the many small clues that were there, until we went camping in July. Email us if you would like the longer version. The short story is that we just recently found out that I was suffering from severe obstructive sleep apnea all this time. Now I sleep with a CPAP machine and get all the oxygen and REM sleep that I need! We are very thankful and praising God! Thank you for your prayers!
(Csaba writes):For more specific news on the Bakwé work and prayer requests, please login to the “private” part of this website. To get there, you will need to email us for the password. When you get the password, you get to the private area by clicking on the word “login”, which is barely visible on the top right-hand corner of the web page, just above the words “Bringing the Word to the Bakwé”. My email address is on the footer of the Bakwé Mission web page.
Solar power
Solar panels
Scott and Benjamin installed a solar backup power system for the office when the city power goes off. The solar panels charge four 12 volt batteries. An inverter converts the 12 volts from the batteries to 110 volts, allowing the office to keep on working for several days if needed.
Small business seminar 2009
Kjell finished up teaching the small business seminar today at noon. He said that it was just great! This morning, as the class went over the data for a small corn growing business, they were really getting into it and starting to see what kinds of questions they need to ask before launching into such a business activity. Kjell said it was quite animated. I (Csaba) will have to ask Kjell to write up something to post here soon. But for now, here is a picture of Kjell with the participants on the last day with their certificates of participation in the seminar.
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