In French speaking West Africa, my Swahili does me no good. So I’ve been picking up a few French phrases here and there, oui oui mon frere! I just returned from Togo (leading workshop 6 on Mark) and Benin (establishing new relationships, conducting pre-launch conference, etc.) It was a loaded time that started each day around 6am, and didn’t stop till 11pm at night.
The group in Lome, Togo is progressing well, although they need to continue to practice all the tools from the previous workshops and continue passing the trainings on to other pastors. Pastor Samuel served as a gracious host, and working out each evening with his sons was a fun experience. The group is training about 85 other pastors, and within one year they will graduate from the Pathways cycle.
After the training ended, two of the graduates from the Ghana network that ended four years ago made the four hour trip to Togo and I was able to do my dissertation research interviews with them, which was wonderful.
After preaching the next morning and afternoon and evening in services, it was off to explore new relationships in neighboring Benin.
I spent time with Pastor James, who is from Nigeria and has been serving as a missionary in Benin for about 10 years.
In Benin, Pastor James shared with me a well known African proverb. Roughly translated, it says, “If you want to hinder an African (don’t want him to learn) just put it in a book.” The meaning is that Africans are oral learners. If you tell them something orally, they learn and remember it much better than we in the West. However, if it is in a book, he will never find it. The challenge is that God communicated His message for us in written form, the Bible. Now it is our job to study and learn it. In Pathways, we are taking oral learners and equipping them to be literary learners too. At times the learning curve is steep, but their hunger to grow fuels them on.
In addition to building relationships in Cotonou, I cast the vision for Pathways with the leadership team Pastor James has collected, and then conducted a one-day pre-launch conference for interested ministry leaders. Due to microphone issues, and a noisy environment, I had to nearly “yell” for most of the day-long conference. Then James offered that I could pray for anyone wanting special prayer, and before I knew it, a line 35 people long stretched out in front of me. By the time I finished an hour and a half later, my voice was completely gone. I hope it returns before Sunday when I need to teach and preach at a missions festival at a local church, and then lead a local Pathways workshop two days later and preach again two more times the following days. God’s grace is sufficient, and I’m sure He will shine out as strong when I am weak.
