“Go to Goonga!”
The Monthly Prayer Letter from Dave and Joyce Campbell in West Africa

We’ve got to tell you about this one. Even though it’s only the beginning of a story, we’re not going to keep you waiting to be encouraged as we’ve been.

Last week Tues. morning Dave took one of the believers out to John Dardai’s village to help his family with their fonio harvest. When greeting the family, Dave saw a strange face there, a man in his 50s or so, carrying a sickle for harvesting fonio (a local grain). Dave assumed it was the man that had told JD he might come and help him for day-labor’s wages, but JD said, no, it was a man from a neighboring village who hadn’t been to Goonga since JD became a Christian and had been shunning the family at every opportunity on that account.

The next day when we arrived in Goonga for our weekly Bible study visit, JD was all excited. He sat us down with the family to tell us what God had done. This man had come with a story. Around three weeks previously, he’d had a dream in which a voice told him three times, “Go to Goonga and follow Nene Haja Binta.” The man didn’t do anything about it and three weeks later, the night before Dave saw him when he arrived in Goonga, the man dreamed again and this time the voice said, “You haven’t gone yet, have you? Why not? Go to Goonga and follow Nene Hajah Binta and tell all your family to do the same!”

JD himself – as you may recall from seeing his conversion story on our last home service – became a Christian partly as a result of angels appearing to him in dreams. He interpreted this story as God working in a similar way with this man, and he was delighted that God chose one of their “enemies” to call to Himself. Hajah Binta, a small woman of sound mind and body and with a Calvinist work ethic to boot (at 87, she milks their four cows every morning by hand), was just as excited and said that when the harvest is over not only will this man come to their village to learn about Jesus but they’ll go there and tell his whole extended family, that is, the whole village.

We raised our hands and clapped to the Lord and then JD led us in singing several songs of joy and thankfulness. It’s a documented fact that God is using dreams throughout the Muslim world to bring people to Christ, and we’re more than happy to see Him doing it here as well.

Pray for JD and Hajah Binta’s witness to this man and his family and pray that he and his household will come to faith in Christ. Thank you for persevering in prayer with us and for us and the Fulbé believers through the dry times. Be encouraged, as we’ve been, that God is answering!

Yes, it’s been 20 years since Sept. of 1989 when Clara was 3, we landed in Guinea and her first question was, “Where’s my cat?” She’d been asking for a cat for several months and we’d told her that when we got here, she could have one.

Several cats and dogs later, we’re still here but she’s not – being married and living in Manhattan. But way more than pets have happened in these 20 years:
· our faith has grown
· hundreds of radio programs have been broadcast
· thousands of Scripture tapes have been distributed
· Christ’s church has been planted and is growing among the Fulbé.

While God has used us to play a small role in the building of his church in Guinea, we want to thank YOU for your role in making it happen: your prayers, financial support and encouragement. Thank you!

Dave & Joyce Campbell

Christian Reformed World Missions
B.P. 34, Dalaba
Rep. of GUINEA, West Africa

[email protected]