On the edge of West Africa, Guinea’s flat coastal plains melt into mountains. Neighboring six other nations, Guinea not only shares geographical boarders but conflicts as well. Instability in Sierra Leone and Liberia brought nearly one half million refugees to Guinea’s boarders in 2000, but the plight of neighboring nations is only a small portion of the trials Guinea has faced.

The product of French colonization, Guinea has faced many challenges since gaining independence in 1958. For nearly three decades, Marxist rule plundered Guinea of its economical resources. Poverty and increasing anger culminated in multiple coups, which led Guinea further from freedom than before with the suspension of the constitution and basic human rights. Finally in 2010, after protests and the demise of an oppressive regime, Guineans conducted their first free and fair election. The political history has proven fatal for the nation’s economic state, and today Guinea is one of the poorest countries in West Africa. Though it exports a high amount of bauxite annually, the majority of inhabitants live on less than a dollar per day.

Spiritually poor as well as fiscally, Evangelical Christians compose less than 1% of Guineans, trailing far behind the 88% who follow Islam. And sadly, that 1% is diminishing. Church attendance has been in the decline since the late 1990’s as many nominal Christians have fallen away. The lukewarmness of many has also hindered church planting as well as evangelism. There is great need for Guinean leaders who are well equipped and passionate for the advancement of the Gospel. The Guinean church is similarly in need of such passion, so that leaders and laymen alike might engage in evangelistic and missional efforts, reaching millions with the Gospel.