School, BBI and Getting Back on the Road

The first couple weeks of September have gotten us into the regular routine of the fall schedule.  Deborah is in her second week of CE1 (2nd grade more or less I think in North America) at the local French school and Jeremiah’s first day of year four at the English International School was today.  Deborah was a bit nervous about which teacher she would have but is quite pleased now with how things turned out.  She is liking school and glad to be back.  Jeremiah was pleased this morning to find out that his teacher is the same one he had last year, so he seems to be off to a good start too.

Nancy is busy again as classes are back in session at BBI with the seminar that started this past weekend and which continues until Thursday.  Pastor Codjo is teaching that one, Biblical Theology.  Pastor François spent the weekend in Parakou teaching Church and Culture to the new group of students there.  Other activities include the evaluation of the full-time students’ mini thesis projects which needs to be done before the upcoming fall graduation and the preparations for the new “module” format for the full-time program.  That is to start in mid October, and we hope the six-week intensive courses will be more manageable than the other semester-long format for the students.  Many couldn’t participate because of time constraints but have said that shorter, more intensive courses would be easier to commit to.  So we are hoping that this will be a positive change.

Fall means the start of my travel schedule again.  Friday I leave for Abuja, Nigeria where the Mennonite Church NIgeria will have a youth convention (“youth” in that context includes those whom we in North America would label “young adults”).  They haven’t had one for a few years and are hoping for a good turnout.  The last time the youth got together for a convention they planted a church, so I’m kind of wondering what might come out of this gathering.  After the weekend in Abuja I’ll head to Accra, Ghana for the annual conference of the Ghana Mennonite Church.  So there will be a lot of travel during the next 12 days.

Pray for a good start to the school year for Deborah and Jeremiah, for lots of student interest in the new full-time program format at BBI and for safe travels for me as well as for successful gatherings in Abuja and Accra.

Back from Vacation

Well we are back from vacation and into the day to day life here in Cotonou again. Vacation was in Burkina Faso for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s far from Cotonou and work related responsibilities. Second, Burkina Faso is one of the places that might be a future ministry site for us. So we figured it was best to at least make a visit to get a first impression feel.

One activity was a visit to the Ouagadougou International School with Jeremiah and Deborah. They liked what they saw, and Jeremiah was especially impressed that there seems to be a baseball team there. Here in Cotonou he does tennis, soccer, swimming, cricket and table tennis at school but would really like to try his hand at baseball. If at some point we ended up in Ouagadougou and they were to go to that school, they would be pleased.

We also were able to worship with congregations in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso as well as touch base with a number of folks who are in ministry there, both expatriate missionaries and local leaders. It seems like there would be places for us to participate in the area of theological education, which is the area that interests us most. So that was good to see.

Since it was vacation we spent some time at the pool and ate pizza almost every day, those being among Jeremiah and Deborah’s favorite vacation activities. Mom and Dad also had time to read some detective novels and generally just relax a bit.

The entire drive to Ouagadougou from Cotonou takes about 14 hours, so we overnighted just south of the Burkina border at Tanguita. There we were just outside of the Penjari game park. It being the rainy season and not having a 4WD vehicle we didn’t go into the park to see the sites. We did, however, see monkeys and chimpanzees a number times crossing the road in front of us. So I guess that counts for something.

Continue to remember us in your prayers as we get back into the routine of Cotonou. Nancy will be back to work at IBB next week, and I am preparing to speak at the Mennonite Church Nigeria youth convention on the weekend of Sept. 12 – 14. Jeremiah and Deborah start back to school on Sept. 8.

Apostolic and Pentecostal

Between traveling and power outages that we are experiencing the new content here has been quite low. But today I’m at a cyber cafe so will share some reflections from a recent seminar with Mennonite Church Nigeria (MCN).

Most of the teaching that I have done with MCN has been part of a program that they call the Mennonite Bible College, an ongoing series of classes that meet a few times a week during the evening hours. However, because of the wide geographical area covered by the church, many congregations are too far from the Bible College site for their leaders to participate regularly in the classes. To remedy that situation the College has started to organize “Ministers’ Refresher” seminars. These are held over a three day period and classes go all day long. Many who can’t attend evening classes because of distance can manage to come and stay overnight for these intensive training opportunities.

While one of the advantages is that more people can attend, another plus is that it gives leaders from all over the church a chance to get together to discuss issues and exchange ideas about ministry. This past Ministers’ Refresher was attended by 60 pastors, evangelists, preachers, deacons, and other church leaders. One of the topics that was discussed in a plenary session was whether or not to join one of the federations of denominations that exist in Nigeria. One is called the “Christian Association of Nigeria,” (CAN) another is the “Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria,” (PFN) and there are others.

A number of the congregations and/or dioceses of the MCN have joined such groups and others are considering joining. The question that was raised was which group to join. A number of opinions and supporting reasons were shared, but participants finally arrived at a general consensus. It is best to join the PFN, but membership in other groups is also ok. Why? Because, they argued, MCN is “Apostolic and Pentecostal,” which means for them that MCN is modeled on the New Testament church. The things that happened in the church as told in the Acts of the Apostles should be part of what happens in the church today; healing, miracles, visions, and spiritual experiences of God’s presence. The presence of all that in the church shows that it is biblically faithful. Its absence suggests that things are not as they should be.

That corresponds with what Andrew Walls, an expert on the history of the church in Africa, writes about in an article that I recently read. He wrote about the challenge of understanding the witness of the early church and the documents that we have recovered from that period. His point was that the African and Asian churches can be an important resource for the rest of the Body of Christ because they are similar in many ways to the church of the first centuries.  He wrote,

“But we now have better resources for understanding the patchwork of fragments of Christian literature that survive from before the age of the great councils by examining the recent histories of the churches in Africa and Asia than the Bodleian or the Vatican libraries can yield.”

Hence understanding the African church can be a step towards better comprehending the New Testament witness. And furthermore, the African church likely understands better than we in the West the issues and context of the New Testament writers. In that sense they can help us towards a fuller appreciation of the biblical story. Certainly we have much to learn from our Apostolic and Pentecostal brothers and sisters!

Bishop Nsasak giving an inspiring exhortation.

Lunchtime!

Participants

Following the seminar outline

Stepping Between Cultures

On April 29, Bonaventure Akowanou, administrator of the Benin Bible Institute, and I (Nancy) left Toronto at a chilly 6 degrees (42 F) and landed in Cotonou at 9:30 the following evening where it was a balmy 29 degrees (88 F). Traveling between Benin and North America, one is aware of constant contrasts. Aside from the hot/cold divide, there are so many differences between the two places. The longer I live in Benin, the more I find myself feeling out of sync in North America.
The differences really hit me again on this last trip to Canada during the month of April! Perhaps traveling with an African colleague made those differences more apparent. Or perhaps spending a few days in Montreal before landing in my own backyard, Waterloo County, highlighted aspects of Canadian life that I had previously ignored. Whatever the reason, I felt a heavy ache as I noted the incredible neediness of Canadians. Yes, you read that word correctly! Yet my last few days in Ontario filled me with hope.
Now of course I realize that in many ways Benin is the needy place: people in Benin suffer from lack of adequate health care, educational opportunities, sufficient income, and so on. So of course, Benin is a very needy place. In spite of those obvious challenges, however, the Beninese by and large seem to be a very hopeful people, filled with optimism, and strongly attached to life. They appear to have resources to face the challenges of life, resources that we North Americans do not understand. That is why when people from North America visit Benin they are often most struck by the joy and happiness of the people they meet. This joy becomes especially pronounced in the exuberant forms of worship that are characteristic of Beninese churches. We wonder how they can be so happy in spite of what we would consider great suffering.
It strikes me that in contrast many North Americans are unhappy. Perhaps before I go any further I should carefully state that I am not sitting in judgment here. I am not suggesting that the Beninese are perfect (for they are far from that) or that I prefer living in Benin to living in North America because I can’t say I prefer one place to the other. My remarks are meant to show that there are problems in North America that need to be addressed and that perhaps the strengths of the Beninese can help us to address that suffering.
Some of our greatest needs cannot be met by material resources: the need to belong, to be loved, to feel hope, to feel secure. These needs are met in the Beninese context by their communal and spiritual resources. When we try to meet these needs with only material and physical resources, we fail. Our best efforts at eating right and getting exercise do not keep us from falling ill. Our attempts to create community where none existed before are often unable to provide solid connections with others. Our attempts to make meaning out of our existence, if left only to what we can achieve in this world by our own efforts, often leave us feeling hopeless and dissatisfied.
A long time ago, I read an African myth (I think possibly from Uganda). I forget some of the details, but I will try to relay the underlying lesson it contained. The myth in question explained that when the world was created, the Creator made the rain and the sun, the earth and a human being. Inside the human being, the Creator placed a heart. After finishing the work of creation, the Creator went away. The rest of creation carried on, happy in simply being, but the human being’s heart went crying in search of the Creator. Ever since, humans have been on a quest to satisfy their heart’s true desire. As someone, (St Augustine maybe?) put it, “our hearts are restless until we rest in you.” Or as St Paul wrote, “[God is the one] in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28, but actually Paul was quoting a Greek poet!)
This need to be at peace with our Creator is at the heart of our search for all the rest: love, security, meaning, truth, etc. When this need remains unfulfilled, we try to fill it with all sorts of other things. Yet none of these other things can satisfy our deep longing for oneness with God. So we live broken lives with emptiness at our core. We live lives of constant getting that never seems satisfied. I was struck by how many people in North America are searching for something more: a quest for a genuine spirituality and a real community. Yet I was also struck by how many people are looking everywhere except the Christian faith.
Christianity teaches that Christ has reconciled us to God, 2 Cor 5:18, we can live in peaceful communion with God – and Christ has reconciled us with one another (Eph 2:14) – so that we can live peacefully together. Yet this teaching has not been faithfully lived out and in some cases the church has been more interested in preserving itself and its traditions than in living out the good news. So in North America, where the message has become worn-out, people are ready to look for God every where BUT in the church. In Africa, where the old forms of spirituality are breaking down in the face of modernism, Christianity seems to bring helpful answers to their spiritual questions. This makes it very exciting to work at Bible teaching here. In West Africa, people ardently desire to know what the biblical text says. But when I return to Canada, I find another language is needed.
I was delighted, therefore, to attend the MCEC sessions at the end of April. (MCEC is the eastern district of the Mennonite Church of Canada, covering the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.) MCEC has planned for 8 new church plants, some already begun, others about to begin, all of them finding new ways of being God’s people. These attempts at using a new language and of finding new forms for sharing the good news are very encouraging to me. I am not ready to do away with church as I have known it, nor are many other people who still find the church a good place to meet God. (Church being the people of God or the community of faith and not the building in which they meet!) However, I am so glad that there are people stepping out of the familiar ways of doing things in order to encounter people who need to hear about God’s love in a new language. I went away from those meetings with the heaviness gone and a renewed hope.
It is hard to reduce my thoughts and feelings to a page and a half. It is difficult to put into words what came as waves of impressions as often very different encounters shaped my thinking. I do not presume to have summed it all up adequately, but I share it in the hopes that others may be inspired to pursue their reflections on what it means to be human and how to live lives of wholeness.

International Day

Here in Cotonou Jeremiah and Deborah are blessed to attend “International” schools. That is they go to school with children from all over the world and hence interact regularly with customs and traditions of many different cultures. In Jeremiah’s class there are students from the U.S., Canada, Benin, Cameroon, Germany, England, India, Nigeria, Palestine, Peru, Liberia, Togo, Mexico and Holland. Deborah has friends from Benin, the U.S., Canada, France, China, Thailand, Lebanon, Switzerland, Spain Burkina Faso, Italy and Togo.

At the International English School, where Jeremiah attends, they had their annual “International Day” celebration yesterday. The students dressed in traditional garb from their home countries and parents brought typical dishes to share for lunch. Students performed songs, skits and other entertainment for parents and friends. We heard and saw everything from North American hip hop to African dances.

Just one of the many advantages to living in Cotonou!

Flags from all over!

Now just what is typical garb from North America!?!

Pastor Houngbedji’s Funeral Sermon

On May 24 a former BBI student and pastor of the Assemblies Disciples of Christ church was buried. He was a youngish man, in his 40th year, with a young family. His oldest of three sons is ten and his youngest looks to be not more than three. How do we make sense of such sadness: a father, husband, pastor in his prime who dies suddenly and unexpectedly (in this case of an asthma attack!)? The national pastor of the ADC church, Pastor Theodore Houngbedji, preached the eulogy. I was impressed with his attempt to make sense of something so tragic and to comfort those of us present. I thought maybe some of the rest of you would enjoy reading a summary of this sermon as well. It may given you an idea of how an African, Beninese, Christian approaches the age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people?

Perhaps it would be helpful for you to know that in the Beninese context an untimely death is usually attributed to sorcery. That means that a person who possesses witchcraft powers has chosen to attack and kill the pastor through supernatural means in order to increase his or her own power. This explanation is troublesome for Christians who believe that in Jesus they are liberated from the oppression of witchcraft and sorcery. Another explanation is that the pastor sinned and is being punished for his sins. Of course, this is more familiar to those of us raised in the “Christian” west, but it has its troubling aspects as well. How bad were his sins? Were they worse then mine? And what about all those other evil persons who live to a ripe old age? A third explanation is that it was simply the pastor’s fate. The problem with fatalism is that it encourages lethargy and an unhealthy acceptance of circumstances instead of encouraging people to improve their lives by making changes for the better.

Pastor Houngbedji read two passages from the Bible. The first is in Luke 12:16-21, the parable of the rich fool. This is the story of a rich man who seeing his storehouses are too small tears them down to build bigger ones. Having done this, he determines to “eat, drink and be merry”. However, God has a different plan. “But God said to him,’You fool! This very night your life (soul) is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Then Pastor Houngbedji read Ecclesiastes 8:8a “No one has power over one’s breath to retain it, or power over the day of death,” (according to the French version).

From these two readings, the pastor drew three conclusions:

1) The life of a man does not depend on his possessions. A person can be the owner of everything except his/her life. The Bible tells us that our life does not depend on what we own. (Here he told a story about a rich, Beninese man who became ill and, money being no object, spent enormous sums traveling even to France to seek treatment. In France, the doctors told him to go back home; all his money would not be able to buy him the good health he was seeking.)

2) A man is not master of this breath. (Keep in mind that the deceased died of an asthma attack!) When someone dies, we can say things like: “He is no longer breathing.” Or “She has stopped breathing.” When the pastor was a young boy, he heard that said about his own father. He resolved to never, never stop breathing and even took to practicing breathing. From time to time as a boy he would take deep breaths. However, when the time comes and our breathing stops, we have no power to keep on breathing. A man cannot retain his breath nor put off death.

3) Your soul will be demanded of you. (You will be asked to return your soul.) There is One who has all the power; this is the One who created us and put our soul within. We cannot resist this One who will one day ask for our soul again. Our soul does not belong to us, but does belong to God.

The pastor, having made these three points, then suggested three ways to live as a consequence.

1) Do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear the One who has power over our soul and who can reclaim it at any time. (Read Luke 12: 4-5) Return to God for fear that God reclaim your soul in order to cast it into the fire. If you belong to God, God will keep you.

2) Psalm 90:12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Pray this prayer: “Lord teach me to count my days and to seek wisdom.” Proverbs teaches us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Pray for the grace to please and honor God.

3) James warns us not to make bold claims about what we will do tomorrow. 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” 4:14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 4:15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”

We should put our trust in the Lord and acknowledge God’s sovereign claim on our lives, saying “If it pleases God, tomorrow I will do such and such.” We should entrust our plans to God and seek God’s direction in all our decisions.

Partnership

Partnership is the current paradigm for our mission involvement in West Africa. That means that whether it is community health, theological training, or any number of other ministry initiatives, we collaborate with partners who are working in those areas instead of working unilaterally. The vision of what should happen and how is shared between the different partners who work together to implement that vision. In a very practical sense partnership makes for more efficient ministry. Partners with a long history in a specific context are inevitably better equipped to carry out objectives than those of us who are foreigners. Working together also builds relationships, an important benefit of the partnership paradigm.

North American congregations are also participating in this way of doing missions. For the last number of years Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen, In. has been developing a partnership with the Benin Bible Institute. They share topics of prayer and praise with each other, host each other in yearly visits back and forth, learn from each other’s different cultural and religious perspectives and occasionally share resources in the form of teaching personnel or funding.

St. Jacobs Mennonite Church in St. Jacobs, ON is also partnering with the Benin Bible Institute. In 2003 they sent a group to train Beninese church leaders in the skills necessary to implement what in the North American church tradition is Vacation Bible School. Many of the Christians in Benin are first generation believers and perhaps haven’t yet thought through what it means to cultivate belief in those generations that follow. So a group of church leaders who are responsible for, or who work with, children’s ministry spent a week at the Bible Institute leaning the hows and whys behind Vacation Bible School. It is of course impossible, and would be ill advised, for them to simply copy North American models for their context here in Benin. Yet they were exposed to methods and educational philosophy that impact positively their continuing work with Beninese youngsters in their respective churches. In addition, the involvement by St. Jacobs Mennonite has developed into an ongoing partnership that is building relationships between the congregation and the Bible Institute through reciprocal visits and exchanges.

This past week representatives from University Mennonite Church in State College, Pa. and Maple Grove Mennonite Church in Belleville, Pa. made the first steps toward partnership with Good News Theological College and Seminary and the Ghana Mennonite Church. A group representing both congregations spent 10 days in Ghana at Good News getting to know the staff, the students and the ministry that happens there. They developed new relationships by accepting and offering hospitality in a new place among a new people. And they started to ask, “What does it mean to be the church together, we from the heartland of Pennsylvania and our Ghanaian brothers and sisters from the coastal plains of West Africa?” That, it seems to me, will be a fruitful question to keep asking, not only among ourselves but also with our African partners.

How might God be calling you and/or your congregation toward partnership? Let us hear from you about how partnering with brothers and sisters in West Africa might fit into your faith journey!

David Miller from University Mennonite presents a peace flag to the Ghana Mennonite Church.

Nancy Kauffman from Maple Grove Mennonite sharing resources for children with Ghana Mennonite Church leaders.

A Time to Celebrate

Pastor Mesmen Gbaguidi opened the inauguration ceremony for the new Casa Grande center with the passage from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 For everything there is season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Today, he said, was a time to celebrate, and it certainly was.

In August 2000 Paco and Annette Castillo were sent by the Mennonite Church in Burgos, Spain to work with orphans and abandoned children in Cotonou. They started out small in a house not far from ours and welcomed, one by one, abandoned and orphaned children into their home. The idea was to provide a family centered environment where they would have a second chance to develop into well rounded, mature young adults. That focus hasn’t changed, but Casa Grande has certainly grown beyond those humble beginnings.

They soon outgrew the house here in Cotonou and moved to a larger place in Allada, about 40 kilometers north of the city. There the “family” has grown to include 25 youngsters between the ages of 1 and 17. Paco and Annette returned to Spain because of health concerns but left the household in the capable hands of Paulin and Easter Boko. Before leaving they oversaw the acquisition of a plot of land where they envisioned building a center that would quadruple the number of children they could welcome. This week that vision became a reality when the first phase of that center was inaugurated.

Named Fifatin, the center will eventually house 96 children in 8 different housing units. This first phase included digging a well, building 2 of the housing units for children and one staff unit, connecting electricity and phone lines, and putting up about half of the enclosure wall. This month everyone will move from the rented house to the new facilities.

The inauguration was a celebration that focused on God’s faithfulness to the ministry since its inception 8 years ago. Pray for continued blessings on the Casa Grande children and for a rapid completion of the following phases of construction. A school, workshop, sports field and more housing units are in the plans.

Check out Casa Grande’s web site http://www.lacasagrandebenin.org/enghome.html

Staff house, partially funded by donations from Canadian volonteers to Casa Grande.

A local group sings the praises of Casa Grande’s ministry.

A number of visitors from Burgos, Spain attended the celebrations.

See more photos of the inauguration here.

Perceptions About Nigeria

A recent article about Nigeria reminded me once again of how our perceptions about the world “out there” are formed. Here in Benin when I tell people that I am preparing to travel to Nigeria they often express surprise that I would do such a thing. At one time banditry and general lawlessness made travel there inadvisable. While there may still be some of that, things have changed and I feel like I can travel freely there as long as I don’t get too far off the beaten path. But the perception that it is a dangerous place to visit is still prevalent here and around the world. Note for example the advice from the US State Department and the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

Looking over the headlines from international news sources one might be inclined to understand the pessimism. Some of today’s headlines were Six Killed in Tribal Mayhem, Fuel Scarcity Worsens (this in a country that is the eleventh largest producer of crude oil in the world), Tackling Nigeria’s Violent Oil Swamps (where armed gangs seeming abduct people for ransom at will), and Abducted Oil Workers Released. Yet when I travel to Nigeria I find that there is a significant amount of good news, not the least of which is embodied by Nigerian Christians as they strive to provide a sane, hospitable, incarnational presence in the midst of insecurity. A while back I wrote a Prayer Letter about this very thing which you can see here.

Another thing one hears about is the problem of religious violence in Nigeria. Unfortunately there have been instances of Christian/Muslim violence that have included killings and destruction of property. Yet even in the midst of the violence there are those who are being witnesses of the Prince of Peace. Mennonite Central Committee is working in Jos, Plateau State, to decrease religious related violence. See their article Peacemakers help to save a Nigerian city from violence. A recent piece in The Atlantic Monthly gives a feel for the complexities of Christian/Muslim dynamic in Nigeria, God’s Country. The article highlights the work of two peacemakers, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye, who were recently keynote speakers at the Inter-Collegiate Peace Fellowship Conference at Conrad Grebel University College. Their ongoing work is an inspiration to us all.

Thank God for those working for peace in Nigeria and pray for the Mennonite Church Nigeria and all Nigerian Christians as they strive to incarnate God’s love in sometimes difficult situations.

A Bit of History from Benin

Mennonites in Benin

As Bruce and I begin to plan for a 2009 departure from Benin (after 10 years of life in mission), I have also been looking back to the beginnings of Mennonite involvement in Benin. Many people are not aware that there are no Mennonite churches in Benin. Others do not understand how Mennonite missionaries could have been living in Benin for over 20 years (since 1987) and not have planted any Mennonite churches. If we look at the history, however, we can see how significant Mennonite involvement has been in Benin. We can also see how Mennonites have been “salt of the earth” here in Benin and how it only takes a little salt to flavor the sauce! (I hope you will pardon the expression and the obvious pride I take in the work of Mennonites.)

The initial contacts between Mennonite missionaries (working for Mennonite Board of Missions, one of the predecessor agencies of Mennonite Mission Network) and Benin began in 1969. (At that time Benin was known as Dahomey.) Edwin and Irene Weaver had left Nigeria two year earlier due to the Biafra War and were looking for other places where their unique approach to missions might be welcome. That unique approach included working with non-mission planted churches known as African Initiated Churches (AIC’s) providing biblical and leadership training to those churches, while at the same time forging links between the AIC’s and the mission-planted churches who at that time looked down their noses at AIC’s!

At a conference in Abidjan, Edwin Weaver encountered a Methodist pastor, Harry Henry, from Dahomey who embraced Weaver’s vision and invited the Weavers to visit. This visit took place later that year in November and included Marlin Miller who was then working for MBM in Paris.

This initial meeting arranged by pastor Harry between Mennonite missionaries and local AIC leaders led to a Bible seminar the following April. Thus in April, 1970, the first Bible seminar was held. There were two classes. the morning class taught by Edwin Weaver covered the first chapters of Genesis. The evening class, taught by Marlin Miller, covered the book of Mark. Approximately 7 churches participated in the classes with an attendance that fluctuated between 8 and 25 students.

The relationship continued sporadically for another year or two, but then was cut off due to political events within the country of Dahomey. The relationship was not picked up again until 1983 when the new head of MBM, Ron Yoder, joined missionaries David and Wilma Shank in Ivory Coast and traveled overland to Benin. They made contact with Pastor Harry who gathered together church leaders for a meeting. The number of denominations, especially AIC’s, had grown significantly since the 70’s. Shank and Yoder shared the original vision of a place where AIC’s and missionary-planted churches could gather and study the Bible together. The church leaders were enthusiastic in months after this initial meeting.

For several years (from 1983-1989) Dr. Shank came every year to teach a Bible seminar. The church leaders, however, were not satisfied and requested someone on the ground to provide a more systematic training program. The request included not only Bible teachers, but also workers who could help develop programs in health and agriculture. The church leaders in Benin invited the Mennonite mission to provide resource people who would work alongside them without planting Mennonite churches. The Mennonite missionaries would be at the service of all the churches without being seen as competition.

When there are lots of motorbikes in front of BBI you know that it must be seminar week.

Work Still to be Done

As I look back over this history, I see that the Benin Bible Institute has grown out of these early beginnings. Today we have a systematic Bible training program for pastors and lay people to know the word of God better. We have also initiated projects in health (the Bethesda Health Center, Development in 4 Dimensions, Organization for Balanced Development in the Hills region of Benin) and Micro finance. In many ways we have satisfied the initial request of the church leaders.

There is one piece missing, unfortunately, as Papa Dossou, an elderly pastor who was part of the initial group who invited MBM in 1983, never ceases to remind me. While we have had many missionaries participate in many aspects of development in Benin, we have not as yet initiated agricultural programs. My prayer is that as Bruce and I leave Benin knowing that the health and Bible programs are in good hands, God will raise up workers to come and help develop agricultural programs in Benin. Please join me in that prayer. Who knows what God will do next?

Prayer Items

1. Pray for new workers in Benin who would have a vision for working in the area of agricultural development.
2. Pray for a new initiative as BBI moves out of Cotonou to teach seminars in Parakou, a town 400 km north of Cotonou. Pray that God would bless this effort and that it would bear much fruit.
3. Pray for Bonaventure Akowanou, Administrator of BBI, and Nancy as they travel to Montreal and Waterloo county for church contacts in the month of April. Pray for fruitful sharing about the work in Benin and for good health for the travelers.