Steve and Casey Cretsinger Experiencing Tribal Missions in Guinea, W. Africa 
It’s hard to try and think of everything that has happened in this past month and I keep saying that I need to do a better job of keeping up on the website, but life is a little crazy these days. So, I’ll just have sum up some of our feelings over the past month. We continue to build a relationship with the family next door, but sometimes it can be very difficult. It’s hard to sometimes understand how a family that can be so gracious to us and for our host to say that he is a believer, but still be so immeshed in a culture of lying, abuse and neglect. There are days when the sin is so overwhelming around us. People build relationships by getting things from each other later, so we never know if people want to truly be our friends or just want something from us – most of the time it’s the later.
While there are many times of frustrations and sadness, there are also times of fun and fellowship with the people around us. Our host family has a son that recently celebrated his birthday, so we had a party here for him. His parents were excited that he would have a party like kids in the States! We made a cake, sang Happy Birthday and had him open a few presents. Then they all stayed for popcorn and to watch a movie. We enjoy these times where things are a bit more relaxed.
Steve loves the special rice and sauce that is made for special occassions. In fact, he loves it so much that he has asked our neighbor several times to make it for him. He gives her the funds to purchase all the ingredients since it was quite a bit more expensive than your average rice and sauce and she does all the work. She seems happy that he enjoys something that she makes so much and doesn’t seem to mind the extra time that goes into it. And it’s good for me to get the chance to sit with her and talk while she makes the food.
We have several people in town that we are getting to know well. We enjoy hearing their different perspectives about life here in Africa. It’s funny how no one here has any concept about life outside of Guinea. While it can be annoying to be asked to charge EVERYONE’S cell phones in our house and they seem to ask for A LOT of things, we do enjoy the glimpses into Guinean culture. But, we know that they do not believe in our God and we pray that as they watch our lives and we share our hearts with them that we will plant some seeds here!
Tags: host family
