Steve and Casey Cretsinger Experiencing Tribal Missions in Guinea, W. Africa 
it can be about impossible to get a group of Africans to smile for the camera! Our group has grown a little since this photo, but these are our guys!
A few months ago Steve and I started talking about wanting to do a Bible Study with the group of teenage guys who spend most of their afternoons at our home. It’s a little scary at first to think about doing public Bible teaching in a group. We never forget that Christianity goes against their religion and their beliefs. Their religion (and I can’t use the specific title here) affects every aspect of their life…so, openly teaching about Christ is a big deal. Of course, we share about our personal faith with people on a one-on-one basis, but a group Bible study is a much different story. We spent a lot of time praying about it and in the end decided that we just couldn’t go on NOT teaching them. We needed to be faithful to speak up and see where it led us.
It has been such a great experience for our entire family. Our boys love Thursday nights when the whole group comes over to eat. They hang out for a while when they first get here – playing foosball with Micah or coloring with Ephraim are the big hits! Then it’s eating all together…let me tell you, those boys can eat! One of their moms is the woman who does the cooking for us and when she first told us how much rice she would need each week I couldn’t believe it was true. But, each week not a drop of food is left over.
Steve is going through the book, “The Lamb”, with the guys right now. We wanted to start with something that wasn’t extremely threatening to them. This book is one we’ve used with our own boys to clearly explain creation, sin, sacrifice and our need for a Savior. Much of the story the teenagers are familiar with – it’s the details that have been changed to suit their religion. We want to start at the beginning and lay the right foundation so they clearly see where the differences started and what affect it has. After Steve goes through the chapter he asks questions to see if they are following him…yes, we are using candy as incentive for getting the answer right (hey, whatever works!). They are asking good questions themselves and we are so thankful that we are taking these relationships deeper.
Keep praying for this group of young men. Pray that they would see the truth of God’s Word. Pray that they would have the courage to seek this truth. Pray that we would communicate in a clear way that brings God glory!
