market ministry and other matters

Well we started our market ministry today! For the first lesson, I think it went very well. Because the outreach is for women, we are doing a study of women in the Bible, starting today with Eve. We had a good handful of women who were actually attentive, as well as many children, so that was encouraging. However, as our Krio has improved, we are able to understand much of what others are saying, and we noticed that our translator was leaving out some important things which were said, but I'm sure we will be able to work around that. Please pray for these precious ladies we are trying to reach out to. As in many African cultures, women here are considered much lower than men and aren't always treated very well. We actually had some national pastors here tell us that God did not create women equal to men, because Adam was the only one God really created, and then Eve just came out of him. They also have some very strange ideas about every woman today being made from the rib of another man, and their job is to find the man whose rib they have and that is who they should marry, but that's another story completely. It is very sad and troubling, though, to hear of all the false teachings (and this is only one of them), which are being taught to the people here. We have been noticing that some men who come for our Sunday services have really started to question these false beliefs, and truly have a desire to learn more about what Scripture teaches, so that has been such a huge blessing. Mr. Owens has been doing discipleship lessons with many of them, and it is our prayer that they would grow in the Lord and be able to share that with other members of the community.

On another note, I would ask you to please be in prayer for safety and stability within the city. Before I explain any further, please know that this situation is most likely quite minor and will amount to nothing, so please do not be worried, just pray that nothing more will come of it. On Sunday, the vice president closed down the radio station for the political party which he is not a member of. That caused quite a bit of quarelling between the two parties. Yesterday, there was a "demonstration" by the offended political party, which was peaceful, but took a strong police force to dispel. Today we received emails from the embassy urging American citizens to stay away from Freetown proper (the busy, "downtown" area), for the next 48 hours. As of now, it appears that nothing will come from the situation, because neither political party has any financial backing, but I would just encourage everyone to pray that it would be resolved peacefully. Thanks again!