Six-Month research trip March through August 2000
 

Saturday, March 11, 2000
I had a very pleasant surprise today.  One of my sons-of-the-heart, Tony De Silva and his fiancee, Aquitania came for a visit.  They stayed about two hours, and the conversation was all in the Kriolo language.  We needed help from the Portuguese dictionary at times, and the conversation was slow, but we had a very good visit!  They are planning to be married in May, but have not set the date yet.

Sunday, March 12, 2000
I went to Central Church and was able to bring greetings from us and the Seed of Abraham Church.  It was good to see old friends.
Karen, Dr. Brandão Co and Dr. Julian Lis went to the airport as they had to return home after one week here.  Karen was my room-mate.  It sure was GOOD to be able to spend time with Dr. Brandão!  Dr. Lis is in some of Dr. Brandão's classes at John Hopkins University.
Tony De Silva came over for about a two hour visit.  Again, it was all in Kriolo.  I am getting some good practice.  Tony is working as the secretary for the Minister of Commerce in the São Domingo region, quite a way north of here, not too far from the Senegal border.  He will be leaving tomorrow. 

Monday, March 13, 2000
Pastor Caetano Indami came to visit with me.  We had a long and very good visit.  He sends his greetings to everyone.  Esther, he asked how you are by name.

Tuesday, March 14, 2000
I did my laundry (by hand of course).  When there is no Government electricity, which is a great deal of the time, we have to wash our laundry in a wash tub and hang it on the line to dry.  We do have to make sure the government water is running.  There are times when we have no running water.  There is no well near here from which to get water.  At these times we use the water we have stored in five gallon drums.

Wednesday, March 15, 2000
The Lead team, of which I am a member, went to Sinctaam-Butche where a missionary named Will Brown and his wife, Ilma and baby Tamara live.  It is about a six hour drive from Bissau.  A laptop computer was given to Will by Karen, one of the team who has gone home.  Will has solar powered batteries at the house from which to run the electricity for the whole house and can plug the computer in easily.  This will make it much easier to continue with the translation of the Bible into the Fula language.  The Fula people do not yet have a Bible in their language and not very many read Kriolo.
We had a very good time there and I will be going back on Tuesday and stay for two weeks.  Will does not have a telephone, so I will have to wait until I get back to Bissau to send emails to you.  I will keep notes while I am there.
I met some of the people in the Sinctaam-Butche village.  While there I held a darling baby girl and played with her for some time.  She was looking at me intently with her big almost brown eyes (They had not quite finished turning brown).  Ilma, Brenda and I also visited a tailor who was making dresses for people.  They are beautiful and may be of the quality that would sell internationally.
In the evening we had a Church service at the house.  There were 12 Fula people there.  This is an "unreached people group", which means that under 10%  of this tribe are Christians.  Many of the 26 tribes in this country are unreached.  The Fula are mostly Muslim.

Thursday, March 16, 2000
We returned to the capitol of Bissau, from Sintchaam Bouche.  We went through Gabu, stopped at Bafata where Gene Cherrington, one of the team, was a missionary 20 years ago.  There was no Church there then.  There is now.  The men who had been in his Sunday school class recognized him and still remembered the songs he taught them.  What an emotional and fulfilling time for him and therefore for the team.
We also stopped at N'chumbe where the Bible School is.  The vegetable farm I had seen in 1996 is not presently operating.  There are acres of cashew trees being planted there however.
I am very encouraged to see the progress being made in this country.  Reconstruction is going well and the country seems to be prospering better than when I was here four years ago.  Roads are being repaired both in the city of Bissau and the main road to Gabu had a crew filling in pot holes.  Hallelujah! 

Friday, March 17, 2000
We opened the container that we had loaded in November in the States.  Thank you everyone who contributed to it!!!!!!  We met with several influential people and discussed the documentation and distribution of the contents.
We visited the big building Pastor Bobo Gomes Co is planning to purchase for his Church.  It was a warehouse.  It has three floors and is near the ocean.  What a wonderful place for a church and Bible school!  Please pray for the finances to accomplish this.  It needs a lot of fixing up.

I sincerely hope as many of you as can, will access LEAD's web site at http://www.leadministries.org as there are pictures and news of the team there.
Thank you for your love and prayers.
Love,
Martha Shephard
marthaeij@yahoo.com