Now jump ahead 35 years. I've been living in Gambia for five years.
In
December 2016 the longtime president of Gambia finally lost a
presidential election. At first he accepted defeat then changed his
mind and decided he wasn't going to step down after all. The chief of
the army backed him and the group of West African nations (ECOWAS)
threatened military action. Suddenly war was staring us in the face.
Thousands of Gambians fled in fear. Up to 46,000 went to Senegal and
beyond, others moved as far as possible into the inland villages away
from the capital, Banjul, on the coast.
What
about Jehovah's people? We had regular instructions from the branch,
a good reminder not to miss meetings. Some decided to leave the
country, others moved away from Banjul. Those who decided to stay were
advised to stockpile food, water and candles. We had nearly 200 litres of water stored. In the end we didn't lose any services, even Internet. But the point is we were obediently prepared. ;)
The
first weeks midweek meeting was cancelled. Originally East were going
to meet with us as ours was earlier in the week but as the situation
developed it was decided it was too unsafe to be out of the house after
dark. A curfew was put in place later that day reinforcing the elders
decision.
We prayed a
lot about the situation, both for ourselves and our brothers and
sisters. We opened our home and took in 7 "refugees", single sisters and
children who lived in the more dangerous areas. (Eight females and
Terry, haha. And for the record I didn't have to queue for the bathroom
once!) What a blessing it turned out to be. There were none of the
anxieties that others were feeling. With the prayers of our families and
friends around the world we truly felt "the peace of God" in our home.
Php 4:7. We so appreciated the encouragement and thoughts of all of
you. I opened a Whatsapp group to let people know quickly how things
were going. These comments were some of my favorites. But I really
treasured
everything that came to us because every comment was made with true love
for us and for Jehovah.
Prepare for the worst but expect the best.
Keep your heads down and your hopes up.
Dad
and Janet, hopefully it will end sometime today. Thank you for being a
great example of putting our brothers and sisters first. I must admit I
just wanted you both out so I knew you were safe. But you are safe
either way. Jehovah has seen your self sacrificing spirit. He will
reward you both. It's been wonderful to see all the words of
encouragement you've been receiving. Keeping you in my prayers. Stay
safe. Love you both. 
And as the situation improved:
Thank you for taking care of our dear sisters,you have really shown what loving one's neighbor means!
I hope so called normal life will start now.
Thank
you for keeping us all updated with your situation during the crisis, I
feel that it brought us all closer together as one family, and praying
for brothers and sisters we know personally in that crisis certainly
brought me even closer to our heavenly father Jehovah. xxx 
So
happy to know you're all safe, Janet. And I subscribe to all
expressions of gratitude you receive for keeping us up to date and
putting our minds at peace. We'll keep you in our prayers anyway.
To everyone who reads this, I haven't met most of you but I feel privileged to have such a beautiful spiritual family!
Have a great Sunday xxx
We
kept up our spiritual routine which included Morning Worship (Examining
the Scriptures Daily, Bible reading and discussion and singing). We
also took the opportunity for Family Worship. We watched the new movie
'Oh Jehovah, I Trust In You'. We love the part where the angel comes
and destroys the Assyrian army overnight and we had a parallel here in
Gambia when the army chief suddenly announced his army would not fight.
That meant no war! I just wished he'd made that decision back in
December instead of waiting for the Ecowas army to arrive on the
doorstep.
However, the situation still wasn't stable as negotiations
continued. What did we do to pass the long days?
One
blessing was a study who lives nearby called. I understood she had
traveled but she was at home with her daughter and they decided that the
best way to avoid sitting and worrying was to study so they asked me to
go round.
We cooked and ate of course.
Gambians eat from one plate, on the floor, using their hands.
Terry helped Ellen to repair her laptop.
With
four young children in the house, plus others who were staying with
neighbours in the compound we didn't have chance to get bored. Thanks to
a sister, Elizabeth, who sent face paints. I'd had them a few weeks, I was saving them for emergencies. I wasn't too successful at first then I realized the paints are for white skin so I had to paint the area white first then paint on top.
This is Mariama as a rabbit and her sister Colostine as a pig.
Ben chose Mr Fox
A swarm of butterflies
Not sure what the collective noun for Hello Kitties is.
Another
sister, Carole, had sent a case of clothes which somehow managed to
arrive on the same day as the sisters moved in with us. We threw them
all in a pile in the middle if the living room and we all dived in.
Everyone came out with a respectable pile of clothes. We were very
happy. Thanks so much to everyone who donated clothes for the case.
The
kids watched movies which led to a conversation I never thought could
happen. Remember when you used to complain at having to eat sprouts or
other horror veggies and your mum used to say "Just think of the
children in Africa who would be glad to eat food like that!" One
afternoon we were feeling tired but the kids were running wild so to
calm them down I put The Lion King on. It was so nice to have peace for
a while so when it finished I let them watch Dinosaur. When that
finished they wanted to watch Winnie the Pooh. I decided two movies was
enough for one day so I sent them outside. When they protested I found
myself saying "Just think of the poor children in England who would love
to play out on a sunny day like this."
As I write we're waiting for news that the new President has arrived in Gambia. We know that the hopes of so many are resting on this man. But whatever relief he brings is nothing compared to the relief God's Kingdom will bring which will truly put an end to all the problems we see today.
We met with East this morning as so many had left. The talk was the most appropriate-for-the-time talk I've ever heard. I forget the title but it was to do with having love and faith. The brother asked how we had done over the last week. Had we been obedient to the directions from the branch and the elders? He pointed out the love the elders had shown by opening their homes or arranging accommodation for the brothers and sisters. He likened our situation to the series at the convention where the brothers were in the basement during the tribulation. He really got us to think about the idea that IF what we had just been through had been the great tribulation, how did we cope? It gave us so much strength and faith that Jehovah has been with us all the time and always will be if we remain faithful. He also reminded us of the point in the Watchtower not to spend too much time thinking how it will be, but the best way to prepare is to meditate on how others have coped in similar situations and imitate them. He read some experiences and all of them said that keeping up a good spiritual routine was the most important thing.
I hope you've been encouraged by this, my dear brothers and sisters. It has been one of the most faith strengthening experiences of my life and I thank Jehovah that we were here and able to help others to experience Jehovah's love and the love of our worldwide brotherhood.
