Dear Friends,

On the bumpy roads of Makeni the motorbikes are the main means of public transport. Many of their drives are former rebels, retrained child soldiers, just as like in Freetown the taxi drivers. Walking to church sometimes I stepped off the road frightfully when a Honda stopped by me and a teenager like young man offered a lift.

However I have seen that most of the church members are used to that kind of transport. Even my oldest BBI student, Mrs. Sonny in her late sixties was able to get on and off the motorbike. When the ladies of the church understood that I was afraid of sitting on Honda, they laughed at me.

One day the wife of the pastor sent a BBI student to my home that drove a motorbike.

“Sister, Mrs.Zainab would like you to come to a meeting to the Pastoral Center”- he said.

“The Pastoral Center is far and I don’t have transport today” – I answered.

“Would you sit on my Honda, please?” – said he and looked at me as if he asked that I trusted in him and in the Almighty.

I closed the door and managed to climb behind the driver. As we flew through the streets of Makeni I remembered Pastor Monus who used to take me to the railway station at Kiskörös after I preached in his church. That happened about 25 years ago. “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles…” (Is 40:31) – I thought as I grasped tightly the shoulder of the Honda driver.

The meeting at the Pastoral Center was very interesting. The Women Fellowship of the Baptist Convention rented the whole place from the Roman Catholic Church and organized a two days conference for delegates invited from all the churches and mosques of the whole town.

The aim of the Conference was to teach the community how to minimize the incidents of domestic violence and female genital mutilation (cutting of the clitoris, ritual female circumcision). The ladies of Prince of Peace, the church where I joined, worked hard to make the conference a success. The project is sponsored by the Baptist Women Fellowship in Norway. A few weeks after the conference some of their leaders came to Makeni and organized a workshop for the women of the local Baptist Churches to help them to continue the work in the community. The sisters stayed in my home for a few days.

Though I still have problem with water and electricity but besides the BBI students who stay with me every weekend, I was able to lodge many visitors here in the last months.

A group of enthusiastic young men and women from Freetown slept for a whole week in the room of the BBI students. They went from place to place to show films and after that they gave testimonies, evangelizing the audience. A few weeks ago seven people, who were on their way to reach the Susus became “shipwrecked”, to be precise, motorcar-wrecked in Makeni and found safe haven in my home. The Susu is a tribe in Sierra Leone and Guinea that earlier hardly heard the Gospel.

The preparation of the BBI students for the active evangelization is also going very well. Though they didn’t learn yet how to preach they were asked to start the soul winning by practicing personal evangelism. One of the students already was able to bring a total number of 29 people to Christ, while eight other witnessed successfully to individuals and to families who promised to visit the local churches.

However, I myself was surprised by the result of the small effort that I made to help the children in my neighborhood to learn something about God. Every Thursday evening about 25 children are coming to the Bible Study held on my veranda. We study the main stories of the Bible, starting with the Creation. Now we are at the first book of Samuel. A few weeks ago I promised a pack of candy (about one dollar value) to the first three who will able to learn the names of all the 66 books of the Bible. Already after a week one of the boys gained the price. The parents and grandparents of this boy are not Christians. The family of one of my BBI students lives together with them and the boy became the best friend of the six years old child of the BBI student. I am planning to have a few days of VBC for the children in my area.

Two weeks ago I had a very sad experience as well. My night watchman, around 25 years old, had died in my hand. He started to cough then vomited cheesy blood. I could not believe that he was dead, and insisted to take him to the hospital, but it was late. We had to bury him on the same day.

The time of the election of government officials is approaching; in all our churches we say special prayers for the right president of the country. The day of the election is August 11, 2007. It is expected that the political situation will be tensed a little bit in that time but I hope we don’t need to stop the work with the BBI because of that.

Prayer requests:

Gabriella Kamilla Furedi
31 Yiks Rd
Makeni
Sierra Leone

(Some of you already have my address; but it changed from 19 Yiks Rd to 31 Yiks Rd. It was not me who moved but one day the workers of the City Council painted a new number to my house…)

I have a new e-mail address as well, gfuredi@yahoo.com. Please, answer this letter clicking on this address. There is a possibility to read your e-mails on my phone, if I use this address

If you want to support me financially as well not only with prayers please send a check to:

HUNGARIAN BAPTIST CONVENTION OF NORTH AMERICA
MISSION IN SIERRA LEONE
Mr. Louis Drescher Treasurer
2636 EAST 124th Street.
Cleveland, OH 44120

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace."

Yours in Christ,