| July 6, 2004
Dear Friends,
Greetings. We pray to God for God’s blessing on you. May
peace be upon you.
Since we arrived in Bata more than three months ago we have been
continually learning new things and living through unique and
different experiences. This isn’t surprising to us, given
the fact that Gloria and I, once we decided to come to Africa,
expected to find a universe cultural expressions, included African
spirituality.
Our experience in Central America with Afro-Caribbean peoples
(particularly the costal region of Honduras) has been helpful
in getting to know and appreciate the culture here. We trust it
will also help us to contextualize our work within this culture,
but naturally contextualizing a particular ministry will not be
done in a short time.
Our arrival in Bata was a drastic change: the temperature was
a searing 95 F, the mosquitoes were plentiful, the food was entirely
different from the food we are accustomed to, and, most difficult
of all to adjust to, clean drinking water was scarce. Little by
little we were able to accustom ourselves to the new circumstances,
and the change in season brought more pleasant weather conditions.
Now the most difficult thing continues to be the lack of clean
water. We filter and treat with chlorine all the water we use
for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes. Malaria is a lethal
danger here, so thank goodness we are taking prophylactic “malaria
pills.”
Our work with the Iglesia Reformada Presbiteriana de Guinea Ecuatorial
(Presbyterian Reformed Church of Equatorial Guinea, or IRPGE)
is broadening and getting more interesting. Although IRPGE is
a relatively a small Protestant denomination, it has a long history
¾148 years, in fact. It is the fruit of the first Presbyterian
missionaries to touch ground in the coastal lands of West Central
Africa.
Since the Spanish first colonized this area, the Roman Catholic
church is the largest church. In colonial times, the Spanish opposed
and rejected the presence of Protestant missionaries. When Equatorial
Guinea received its independence from Spain in l968, that changed.
Today there is religious freedom and what we perceive as an overwhelming
need for the gospel everywhere. Unfortunately, this religious
opening is being abused by a new missionary movement of independent
and Pentecostal churches from the United States. The saddest part
of this stream of missionaries to Equatorial Guinea is the sectarianism.
Protestants appear to disagree among themselves, which sows confusion
rather than peace.
Based on our initial analysis of this situation, we think that
our work with IRPGE is happening at a crucial moment when the
church needs to be nourished by leaders with energy, vision, and
commitment. The church also needs to take a look at its facilities.
Right now we’re working hard on three things: the infrastructure
the church has available for education, evangelism programming,
and encouraging leadership development. All of this work is challenging
and there is need of more laborers. We are reminded of the moment
when Jesus stood up and saw the fields that covered the hills
of Galilee and said, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers
are few.” So do we need help here because what we have is
not enough. IRPGE has a secondary school and four elementary educational
centers but no teachers. The church needs at least two more teachers
to join us in this work.
Our other need is transportation. In order to reach churches
in the countryside, we sometimes have to wait hours and hours
at the bus station, without knowing when the bus is going to leave.
Join us in prayer for this necessity and keep our work in your
prayers please.
In fellowship with Christ,
Andres and Gloria
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