Today is the day!

Today is the day the Lord has made and we are about to begin our journey. Katie, Rick and Ken will meet us in Paris tomorrow but the rest of the team will gather in Cincinnati to begin our 16+ hour flights to Conakry.

Wednesday night my Bible study sisters gathered around me and prayed over the team, those we are serving, and for God's presence to be with us and visible to all we come in contact with. The amazing thing to me was 2 ladies gave me the same scripture Psalm 91 and one actually recited the verses to me. Lynn Wrightson, one of my co-workers and friend,  often prays for God's wings of protection for those she prays for and now I know where she gets it from.  So I am sharing this with you. God's got us covered!

Psalm 91-Bible Gateway

 ¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
   will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
   my God, in whom I trust.”  ³ Surely he will save you
   from the fowler’s snare
   and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
   and under his wings you will find refuge;
   his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
   nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
   nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
   ten thousand at your right hand,
   but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
   and see the punishment of the wicked.
 ⁹ If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
   and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
   no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
   you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
 ¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
   I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
   I will be with him in trouble,
   I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
   and show him my salvation.”

I can't wait to see God has in store for this group, and I know it will be amazing. We hope to blog throughout the week, but...there may be problems with electricity and we might not get to post daily.

Thank you for keeping this team in your prayers!

Preparing to leave.

In one week we will be in Guinea! As I am preparing my devotions for our time in Guinea I ran across some quotes from John Piper from his book Don't Waste Your Life.

I am praying for Beth and Tim as they prepare for the team, for the church as they prepare and for the hearts of those who will attend the clinics, those who the team's path will cross and for God to be seen by all who we come into contact with.

Crossway, 2003, 189 pp.  ISBN 1-58134-498-8

John Piper is the senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the author of a number of books.  His passion is the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.  This book helps individuals focus on making their lives count in God’s great global purpose. “If you are a Christian, you are not your own.  Christ has bought you at the price of his own death.  You now belong doubly to God: He made you, and he bought you.  That means your life is not your own.  It is God’s.  Therefore, the Bible says, ‘Glorify God in your body.’  God made you for this.  He bought you for this.  This is the meaning of your life.” (9) “Remember, you have one life.  That’s all.  You were made for God.  Don’t waste it.” (10) “You get one pass at life.  That’s all.  Only one.  And the lasting measure of that life is Jesus Christ.” (13)  “The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.” (44)  “Better to lose your life than to waste it.” (79) “Speaking the good news of Christ is part of why God put you in your job.” (151)  “We owe our lives to God’s commitment to missions and mercy.  He came a long way to help us, and his help includes every kind of help we need.  And he got dirty doing it.  In fact he got killed.”  (165)

Prayer Requests from Beth in Guinea

Greetings all,

Just wanted to make everyone aware that we have an eyeglass team that is coming to do clinics with our churches in the Conakry area. If you remember, this was a team that was supposed to come in November. But because we didn't have really enough people, (and because we didn't know it but God knew we'd be traveling home with Tim at that time!!) we cancelled that trip and rescheduled for this coming March. We'd like to ask that you begin praying already for the folks coming and for their time here! The folks coming are:

Debby Suchyta and Chris Scalzo, two representatives from MOST ministries, who are putting this all together.
Ken Jorns- Ken was with us when we did clinics in the Forest Region and Siguiri, so we're blessed to have him back with us!
Gary and Betty Lortscher- a married couple, also were with us on the last eyeglass clinic trip to the Forest and Siguiri. Gary speaks some French,  a huge help!
Helen Krehbiel - Gary and Betty's granddaughter, age 12, is definitely our youngest team member ever! She is homeschooled, and according to her grandpa, has a real missionary heart.
Rick Twenhafel- Rick has been to Guinea before with Tim when we had a TEE team come and teach our leaders. His daughter expressed and interest in coming, so he will also join her.
Katie Twenhafel- Katie is a high school senior who approached us last September with an idea. She is required to do a project this year, a community service project that "pushes us outside our box". She was in 5th grade when her Dad went to Guinea and she said she felt that would be an awesome experience, so she contacted us about coming out. We worked our dates around her Spring Break and she's all set.

So you can see we have quite an amazing team put together here! Lots of experience, some younger folks interested in missions....it should be great! The team will be flying in on March 17th and spend the next week doing clinics in and around Conakry. Please go before us and help prepare the playing field. We ask for safety in all travel. We ask for good health for all. We ask to be a positive witness among those to whom we are ministering. Above all, we ask that God's name be glorified in all we do, and that people will come to know the saving love of Jesus, the One who opens the spiritual eyes of the blind!

I heard that the team will be keeping a blog during their visit since we should have access to the internet more consistently than on past visits. Once that is up and running we'll let you know. Meanwhile, please keep these people covered in prayer as they make their preparations to come out!

More to come!
Love,

beth

Upcoming Meeting

Team 1203 will be meeting Sunday February 26th at the home of Rick & Katie Twenhafel.
It is a real treat to know the entire team will be present for this training.

The team will be trained in how to test, and distribute the eyeglasses. Part of the meeting will cover learning culture and some French for the eyeglass clinic.
We will go over logistic information and travel itineraries and planning. It is a full afternoon of education and preparation.

Please keep the team in your prayers as they meet.

Monday February 20

Are you tired of winter? Click the link below to see what the weather is like in Guinea.
Weather in Guinea