Une petite vision de notre Église en Guinée. Notre église nous manque! J'espère que nous pouvons revenir bientôt.

Une petite vision de notre Église en Guinée. Notre église nous manque! J'espère que nous pouvons revenir bientôt.

I thought that it'd be a long time before I was boarding another
airplane, but here we are again. We have been here in Guinea for
almost three months now. It's difficult to leave after that amount of
time because we feel like we are just getting started and at the same
time enough time has passed that we are really beginning to form
strong relationships with our Guinean friends and neighbours. It's
been tough to get the house ready for our departure so soon after
getting everything unpacked. Thankfully, we didn't have to pack
everything for a big move, but just to protect it from the dust. Most
of our belongings will just be covered with a blanket. We had a 'thank
you' dinner on Wednesday for all of our friends who have been so
welcoming and so helpful. We will put up some pics and video of that
next week when we are settled into the land of good internet! The fact
that we are returning soon has definitely made this an easier time of
change. We've made sure Canaan understands that we are just going for
a visit and then coming home to his 'Africa house' as he calls it. His
bed is here and his toys are here which helps affirm to him that this
is indeed home. He's happily accepted all of this and is doing quite
well, a little emotional at times but that is to be expected. We leave
at 2:40pm PST and will arrive Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles. I
will try to send twitter and facebook updates while we are travelling
so keep an eye on that.

Thank you all for your support, love and encouragement. We are excited
to represent you in Guinea and can't wait to come back to continue the
work that God has given us. Thank you for being a part of reaching the
people of Guinea for Jesus Christ.

http://www.twitter.com/normc
http://www.facebook.com/norman

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Guinea! Many of you have probably heard about recent
events that have taken place in Guinea. On September 28th, a march and
rally organized by those in opposition to the current government were
held in Conakry. Government security forces responded with force
against the assembled crowd, resulting in a large number of deaths
and injuries. While there have not been any serious or violent events
since September 28th, political and ethnic tensions have risen. Many
embassies have sent their personnel home as well as many other
missions operating within Guinea. Elections are scheduled for next
January and the situation is not likely to improve before that date.
We have spent a lot of time watching the situation, talking to our
leadership and praying. We did not want to decide to leave out of fear
of danger, but to simply do what God wants. After much discussion and
prayer we along with our mission and church leadership have decided
that it would be wise to leave Guinea for a number of months to
monitor the situation before returning early next year. While we are
saddened to leave Guinea so soon but want to follow the Lord’s leading
in this. We hope to buy tickets in the next day or two and depart as
soon as possible (likely in a weeks time). We are buying round trip
tickets with a return date of mid February.

Because we will be purchasing round trip tickets, we obviously need to
arrive at and depart from same city in North America. Though we are
not yet completely sure, it is likely that we will fly into Los
Angeles, spend a few weeks there before flying to Canada for six or
seven weeks. Mid January we will fly back to California and spend a
few more weeks there before boarding a plane mid February for our
return to Guinea.

Over the last three months God has allowed us to develop very close
relationships with our Guinean neighbours, host family and host
church. We are saddened to be leaving them and have seen the sadness
on their faces as we shared our news. We encouraged them by reminding
them that we will be returning soon. It is hard to leave friends who
do not have the choice to leave or not.

Though this is not what we would have ever planned, we are excited to
see what God does with this and what He will teach us.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, encouragement and support!
It has been an interesting year as we prepared for our journey to
Guinea, have been learning French, battled malaria and dealt with
political instability. Please pray for us as we return home for this
brief period. Pray also for the country and people of Guinea. We pray
for a stable nation that will be receptive to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.

We hope to see you soon!

In Summary:
• We will be leaving Guinea in the next week or so.
• We will spend time in California and Canada.
• We plan to be returning to Guinea in February, 2010.
• We need to be praying for the nation of Guinea.
• We are still active missionaries and members of New Tribes Mission
and the field of Guinea, West Africa.

Merci Beaucoup!

Norm, Debra, Canaan & Emmaus Copeland