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Dore Family Update – March 2012

SURVEY TRIP

We are thankful for Dan’s safe trip to Guinea Bissau this past weekend (Friday through Sunday) to do surveys of some unreached people groups in northwestern Guinea, and eastern Guinea Bissau. The trip by motorcycle took five hours to the border area, then two and a half hours the next day into the town in Bissau they needed to visit. Twice on this trip they had to load the motos onto a large canoe to paddle across a tidal estuary. Praise God for good, clear information to help determine which groups need (and would be open to) a missionary team working with them.

Will two motorcycles, four paddlers, and two passengers fit in this boat?

I guess so! A twenty-minute crossing and they were on their way again.

This time the canoe was smaller, but only had one motorcycle, one paddler, and one passenger.

A thirty-minute crossing, this time. A bit slower than with four paddlers!

Thank you for praying for safety in travels around West Africa. Your Friends in Guinea, Dan and Michelle Dore

How would you like to have no books available in your language? How would you like to depend on books in French or Susu for getting your information? Or for getting your spiritual food daily? How we thank God for the English Bible! We are reading and memorizing scripture in three languages: Susu, French and English. When you read the verses below, which one speaks to your heart? Try to imagine a West African trying to survive on English or French scriptures. Just as you breathe a sigh of relief when you read the English version, they react the same for the Susu scriptures.

The previous post did not show the Bible verse in two of the three languages, so I will try again. Here goes:

“N noma fe birin na, nMarigi sabui ra, naxan senbe fima nma.” (Bible verse from the Susu New Testament.)

“Je puis tout par Christ qui me fortifie.” (Same verse in French.)

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. “ (Now you recognize this from our English Bible, Philippians 4:13.)

Here is a picture of the Susu New Testament. Pray for the printing of the Old Testament, which is scheduled for next year!

The Church in Town

We have been enjoying the fellowship of the local church in the town we now live in. We have a cell group from the church that meets in our neighborhood each Thursday evening. The location changes each week. We hosted it last week, and had 12 men, women, and children come out. It was a great time of singing, prayer, Bible study, and fellowship.

Here is a picture of an elder in the church who asked us for a study Bible in French. With the help of Parable Bible Bookstore and the missions committee of our home church in the U.S., we were able to purchase a Schofield Study Bible in French for him. He was so thrilled. A big thank you to all who helped make this gift possible!

We would like to be able to assist local, urban churches start their own libraries of good Christian books and films—in French and in some African languages. There is so much available to us in English that we really do take it for granted. I am finding some good things available in French, but they are not available in-country, and they are too expensive for most here to afford. Please pray with us about this need.

Our Morning Schedule

We have two built-in alarm clocks in our neighborhood. One is the local man who yells out the call to prayer at the local mosque (about 200 yards away.) Each day from 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. (off and on) he uses some type of handheld, battery operated megaphone to wake up the neighborhood to come for the first of the five daily prayers. Then at 6:00 a.m. the military camp (about a half-mile away) trumpets their wake up call. This makes it hard to sleep in and easy to get up. It also motivates us to early morning prayer and Bible reading! (Not saying that we don’t sometimes just close our eyes and fall back to sleep!)

Speaking of morning devotions, we have been memorizing verses in English, French, and Susu. This helps us keep up with the three languages we speak most often here.

Then the chores begin. Dan fills the 5-gallon water jugs, either from the town water pipe, or from the well, if the water is not running. These are used to fill our buckets in the house (for hand washing and toilet flushing) and also to fill our water filter for drinking and cooking. Michelle makes breakfast (usually oatmeal, or eggs and toast) and dusts, sweeps and mops.

Last week we experienced the Harmattan dust winds that come each February all the way from the Sahara desert. The sun was covered five days in a row, like a thick fog, which not only covers everything in the house with dust, but also keeps the solar panels from fully charging the batteries. (See a recent Reuters.com article entitled: “Giant Dust Cloud Chokes West Africa.”)

Since last writing we have installed our solar panels and batteries, and Dan is wiring the lights and 12 volt plug-ins, a couple rooms each day. We also have an inverter so we can have 110 volts for laptop computers, TV and DVD player, CD player and radio, and computer printer. This saves money in buying candles, matches, and batteries for flashlights and battery-operated lamps. It is also much brighter at night than last month (and not so hot!) This really is a blessing and we thank God for LIGHT!

Pray for us to be diligent in our prayer time and Bible reading and memorization.

Pray for our cell group, as we attempt to reach out to others in the community who do not know about the Good News of forgiveness of sins found in Jesus Christ.

Pray for a church plant that is planned for the next town to the west of us. We have been praying for this large center for many years. There is now a Christian family living and working there who are interested in hosting a Bible study/prayer meeting, for outreach into the community.

Pray for several trips we are planning this dry season to do research among unreached people groups in Guinea and neighboring countries.

Pray for our son Michael and his family who are now at a point where they are ready to purchase tickets for Africa, and firm up plans for studying French in Dakar, Senegal.

Pray for our daughter Danielle, and her husband Nathaniel, who are praying about where the Lord would have them serve in reaching unreached people groups.

Pray for our daughter Rochelle, and her husband Seth (and baby Manny) who will finish their missionary training in May and return to New York state. From there they will be in partnership development for their church planting ministry in Papua New Guinea.

Pray for our daughter Janelle, who is currently filling out the application forms for entering the Bible Institute in August.

Thank you for your interst in our lives!

Dan and Michelle Dore

<> (Bible verse from the Susu New Testament.)

<> (Same verse in French.)

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. “ (Now you recognize this from our English Bible, Philippians 4:13.)

We finally moved in!

What does it take to move into a rental house in a small African city? We hope this photo digest will give you a small glimpse of what we have been up against these past few weeks.

First of all there was bat patrol. These two friends from our village location came out to help. Removing two garbage bags of bat droppings from the attic was a requirement for Michelle to agree to move in. Mission accomplished! (Rackets? Don’t ask.) Paint and caulking had to be applied to keep the bugs and dust out, and the walls clean. All the windows had to be screened in, to keep the mosquitoes, flies, and spiders out. Two screen doors had to be hung, to add to the existing metal exterior doors. Water had to be brought up from the well until we could get the plumbing work finished. Thankfully it is good, clean water! While Michelle was unpacking boxes of stored kitchen supplies, I was doing plumbing! …and making sure the kerosene refrigerator still worked. (Praise God it does!) Next project? Installing our solar system. But the candles are cozy for now (although much too hot!) How hot is it? Since we are now in the hot, dry season, Monday we decided to see how hot it was: Inside the house, 8:00 a.m.: 72 degrees. Inside, 1:00 p.m.: 84 degrees. Outside, in the shade, 1:15 p.m.: 98 degrees. Outside, in full sun, 1:30 p.m.: 122 degrees.

No wonder we feel like we are dragging around all afternoon! This dry season heat just saps the energy from you. But we are thankful for the cool nights. Soon they will stop, and the dreaded months of April and May, with hot days, and hot nights, will be upon us. Nevertheless, we still count it a privilege to be your missionaries in Africa.

Keep praying for the church planting team we wrote about last time. They are now meeting two days a week with those still interested in studying God’s Word. Pray for the team to have discernment in knowing who has understood the message, and which ones still need more clarification.

Thank you for praying for the opportunity I had to preach the Christmas message at the city church that invited me. I was sick all week with a cold, but I didn’t lose my voice. Then, on Saturday evening, I was sick with vomitting and diarrhea, which only lasted 12 hours. On a normal day I would have stayed home, but we went out that Christmas Sunday and the Lord gave me strength to share His good news. Jesus is the Light of the World—just as the angels announced to the Shepherds over 2000 years ago! I was able to announce it on Christmas day, in French, which was immediately translated into Susu. Praise God for the almost 200 men, women and children who attended that service.

Thank you for your interest in our ministry in Africa,

Dan and Michelle Dore

We are doing our Bible memory in three languages.

This will give you a small glimpse of what it looks like to memorize verses in three languages:

Susu: N noma fe birin na n Marigi saabui ra, naxan senbe fima n ma.

French: Je puis tout par Christ qui me fortifie.

Do you have any clue what this verse is?

English: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

Please pray for our diligence in this essential spiritual discipline! God’s Word is our spiritual nourishment. (Matthew 4:4.)

A very Merry Christmas to you all! Here in Guinea, there is not much that reminds us that Christmas is in the air. Life goes on here as usual, with the hot days and cool nights of the beginning of dry season. Most folks here are talking about the poor rice harvest this year, and how they can compensate for it. Many have planted manioc or sweet potatoes to help during this crisis. Please pray for those who are suffering from a bad harvest, that other food items will help them through the lean times. One reminder that Christmas is around the corner came when the pastor in town asked me if I would preach the Christmas sermon this Sunday. Pray that the service would be a blessing to God’s people, that I would be sensitive to the Spirit in my preparations, and that visitors who come would be drawn to Christ! I will speak in French, and it will be translated into Susu. (Pray for my voice, I am fighting a cold.) We are thankful that the Lord provided work for our daughter Janelle at the Parable Bible Bookstore. One part of the job was learning how to use the laser engraver on keychains, pens, pocketknives, plaques, and picture frames. I decided to buy some pens and have them engraved as gifts for some officials here in town. Janelle engraved pens for the Gouverneur, Prefet, Sous-Prefet, Maire, Commissaire, etc. Our week of conference went well, with some encouraging Bible messages from a New York pastor, and reports from our village ministries. One church planting team told how they spent the last ten weeks teaching the Creation to Christ lessons to any villagers who came out to hear. Attendance was good throughout, but the last night surpassed all the others. Everyone was anticipating the end of the story, not knowing it was going to be the death, burial, and resurrection of the One God had been promising all along He would send to be the Savior of the world. It was not only the best attended class, it was also the quietest. Everyone was intent on The Story! Then our missionary team gave the villagers two weeks to think over what they had heard. When the teaching continues there will be some who will declare their faith, some who will have further questions, and probably some who will oppose the teaching. Please pray for this team to know how to proceed, and for the villagers to see their need for a relationship with God through a personal savior. We have been working on our rental house in town, and hope to move in soon. Some priorities are to have the solar system up and working, the water tower up, two screen doors installed, and our kerosene refrigerator restarted. We also need to verify that our old gas stove still works! There are other things as well, but they will need to wait until we get moved in. Thanks for praying, Dan and Michelle

Hello Friends, Here we are in Guinea, West Africa, once again. In these two days we made is safely through one bus ride, three plane trips, and one long, dusty, hot taxi ride! The 78 degree temp in Dakar, early Sunday morning, was pleasant. But the mid afternoon heat of Conakry (92) was quite a shock to the system. Michelle was feeling dizzy and nauseated, and certainly not up for a five hour dusty taxi ride; but we really had no choice! When we arrived it was a “cool” 81 degrees at about 9:45 last night. Thank you for praying for this trip. Everything worked like clockwork, and we even had our four suitcases arrive at the same time we did–no small feat for international travel. Our annual field conference just started today, so we will be here at the center for this week. We will hear a first-hand update from all our village ministries, which is always a highlight of the conference. We will also hear a report from the city church that is closest to us, as well as a few French songs from their choir! In Christ, Dan and Michelle

After three weeks in Guinea, Dan has flown to Senegal for three more weeks in West Africa, before coming back to NH for Danielle’s wedding.

Praises: -Three safe flights from: Boston to Paris, Paris to Dakar, Dakar to Conakry, on May 31 and June 1. -Safe trips to all of the villages where our church planting teams work (most were made by motorcycle—only got rained on once.) -Good opportunities to preach (in French) in a small tribal church, and in the larger church in the town of B. -Safe flight from Conakry to Dakar.

Prayer requests: -Pray for presidential run-off in Guinea this Sunday, June 27. Pray for peace, and for a leader to emerge that will be good for the country, and who will continue to uphold freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, etc. -For the time in Senegal to be profitable. Three days of leadership meetings for the West African Field Leadership Team, four days of church planting seminars, one week of village visits. -For Michelle as she is working with Danielle on wedding plans in NH. -For Dan to not be delayed on his return flight from Dakar to NY on July 12 (the wedding is July 17!)

Thank you for praying for us.