Picture from leaders meeting

Here is a group picture from day 3 of our leaders meeting.

.

How many of you can recognize me in the photo? (answer below)

From left to right: Senou, Doto, Adrien, Mattias, Janvier, Ege (seated), Gregoire, Fiokuna and Yaovi

.

Please publish a comment to this post if you were correct.

Going Forward

I was encouraged after a visit to the village of Eglime today to know that God's work there is "going forward", a common saying among the Aja. I was involved in the planting of the church in this village several years ago. I spent all morning with Kohoundo, the church leader and governmental Delegate in Eglime. I also visited with Anthony, one of his sons who is actively involved in teaching, both in his village and in others. They both gave good reports regarding the church in Eglime. They told numerous stories about the things that God is doing there and the victories that the Christians have gained over temptations.

They also gave some reports on some of the other churches in the area. As expected, some are strong while others are weak. They same could be said about the individual members and even the leaders.

I am in a unique position to be able to encourage these Christians in some areas that they have encountered difficulties. They were encouraged. Kohoundo said that it was really necessary that I come back and stay for at least 8 months! I tried to explain how difficult that would be, and he insisted that I needed to come back for at least 2-3 months. I told him that I would think about it.

I plan on spending the rest of the day staying at home. I am hoping that a few people will come by to visit me. Tomorrow we plan to worship in the village of Ayinahoue before going to Cotonou. I fly out tomorrow night.

I am very excited about seeing my family! Still, it will difficult to say goodbye to my friends here. I enjoy my ministry here a lot. I hope to come back regularly, Lord willing. Please be praying that God will provide they way. I am encouraged that I can continue to be a part of His mission here. I pray that you too will find your place in the mission of God! Blessings,
----Greg

Loving our Neighbor

Today was the last day of our men’s meeting. Our topic for the day was “How do we love our neighbor?”. We discussed Mark 12:29-31, I John 4:7-21, John 13:34-35 Ephesians 5: 25f and Acts 4:32-35.

The meeting went very well and every one seemed to be really encouraged and challenged. I know that I personally was sad that it was over. We talked about the future and my desire to come back regularly to teach them and give them council.

Praise the Lord!! Randy just came back into the house and said that he had met with Joseph, my best friend that I wrote about in my last post, and that Joseph had confessed his sins and asked for forgiveness! Randy thought that he seemed truly humble and repentant. None of us know yet what the next step will be. There are a lot of people that both Joseph and Randy will need to talk to. Sin is very difficult to untangle! There are long lasting consequences. Regardless, this is a very significant first step! There have been so many prayers offered up on Joseph’s behalf! We praise God for this first step!!! (Kelly, Joseph asked me last night, when we were discussing this meeting and him asking Randy for forgiveness, if he should wait until you returned to talk to you together. He talked about the danger of putting it off, and therefore never doing it. I quickly advised him not to wait!)

On a day when we talked about loving your neighbor, it is so great to see the beginnings of repentance and then forgiveness with Randy’s next door neighbor, Joseph! Join us in praising God on this day! If we are to be like Jesus, we must love our neighbor. That involves not only ministering to them physically, but also Spiritually. We must share God’s word with them and do all that we can to draw our neighbor closer to Him. We love because He first loved us. May you feel God’s love and share it with your neighbor today!
----Greg

Ministers of Reconciliation

On the second day of our leaders meeting (Wednesday, 3-14-07) we talked about sharing God's Word with people. I divided the material into three different areas. The first topic was "Why do we need to share God's Word?". I asked the question and then interacted with the men based on their responses (asking them for Biblical support). They brought up such verses as Matt. 28:19f, John 3:16, II Peter 3:9, John 1, and II Timothy 2:2.

The next section dealt with "What do people need to know?". I prompted them to try and remember how they thought while they were still worshipping other gods. They things they mentioned included: the need for people to know that they are sinners, the account of the fall of man in Genesis, forgiveness in Jesus, God's love, showing our love, giveing our testimony, God is creator, God is all powerful, and a few other subjects. They gave scripture references for these ideas when possible and we discussed them in length.

The third area involved lesson preparation and lesson presentation. These topics were covered using a handout that I had prepared.

I wanted these men to feel confident through these lessons that they really did know quite a bit about evangelization. I am sure that they shocked themselves and felt affirmed as they presented good answers to my questions. I know too that some of the less experienced evangelists (or those who hope to be evangelists) gained some new ideas about the endeavor.

I gave another effort this afternoon at being a minister of reconciliation. I met with a brother who was disfellowshipped from one of the churches a few years ago. Many of you may remember hearing about my best friend among the Aja, Joseph. Joseph was my language teacher, fellow evangelist, Bible translation partner and someone who shared my passion for God and for the Aja people. I also talked with Joseph at length 8 months ago, when I was last here.

I visited with Joseph at length this afternoon. Although his sin was complicated, I urged him to take the first step toward reconciliation with someone that he lied to a few years ago. He has indicated that he will have a meeting with that person tomorrow at 1:30. There is still much to work out, but this could be a very welcomed first step. Please pray for Joseph's courage, for a contrite heart and that he will truly repent. Pray also for Randy and I. We lack the wisdom to know how best to deal with the situation. We want to be true to God's word and to know how to advise both Joesph and the church in this matter.

Thank you for your prayers! May God be glorified!
----Greg

Leaders

Today was the first day of our leaders meeting. There were 8-10 guys there. Randy was a little disappointed that there weren't more. There were several younger guys that would have come if they didn't have school. I told the guys that although they were not many in number, to remember that Jesus spent most of his time working with 12 guys. I also told them that I realized that there were many people behind each one of them. In other words, these guys represent many other Christians who were not present.

We discussed leadership, using I Peter 5, I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 as our texts. These guys are hungry for any word from God! They have not heard much from these passages and they felt like they learned a lot.

I continue to be humbled that I could have much influence in a culture and language so different from my own.

My visit is really a trial run of sorts to help envision how missionary visits will look in the future, when there is no longer a full time missionary presence here. I am so thankful that Randy is here to follow up on my visit! He will be able to help them evaluate how well the meeting met their needs. Hopefully we will be able to plan meetings for the future that can help them continue to grow in their knowledge of and faith in Jesus.

May we seek to grow in these areas as well and may we minister to our families in such a way that they too will grow! Blessings,
----Greg

Busy Day

I had a very busy and great day. The day started out with a surprise visit to my former worker and great friend Christophe. He was totally surprised that I was in the country! I had to go on quite a man hunt to finally locate him, but it was well worth it. We laughed together, got caught up on how everyone is doing and made plans to see each other again.

I was also priveleged to see our other former worker Louise today. She works several days a week for the Vaughns. I was able to present both Christophe and Louise with letters from Melanie, greetings from the girls and a promise from Faith that she is coming back. Louise wanted me to tell Faith that she would wait for her.

This afternoon I visited Jo, former Aja coworker from the village of Avedjin. He has since fallen away. This is the second time in eight months that I have visited him. We had a great time together. He was encouraged by Mattias, another Aja brother, to start meeting together to worship God. Jo acted interested. He also said that he would come to our leaders meeting tomorrow. I am not so naive as to believe evey promise that is made, but I am hopeful. This guy is a charismatic brother who could do great things if he would let God once again have control of his life. (Murphy and Christine, if you are reading this, we spent a lot of time talking about what your family and the Koonces are planning to do in Rwanda. They were encouraged and stated the need to pray for you.)

After that, Mattias and I visited the Christians is Djoumahou. This church also fell apart after our families departure in 2000. I visited them on my last visit and gave them a plan for starting to worship again. They have been faithfully attending church in Ayinahoue (where Mattias lives) since that time. There were plans to have a big evangelistic campaign out there last Saturday, but they were rained out. I am really encouraged by their renewed interest.

After Leaving Djoumahou, Mattias and I went to a village called Kojohoue and met a man called Severin and his wife. They are worshippers of God and would like to have a church in their village, but don't know how to see that happen. Mattias is hoping to evangelize in that village in the not too distant future.

I could tell more stories, but I need to prepare for a leaders meeting that starts tomorrow. I think that all men have been invited. It is suppossed to take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Please pray that God will give me a message and organize my thoughts. I desperately want to give these Christains something that will encourage them in their walk! Blessing until the next time,
----Greg

Safe and Sound

I made it safely to Benin Friday night about 8 PM, Benin time. The trip over was fine, although due to some technical difficulties and a strike, I missed out on some of the funner things on my AA flight (like movies, music and good food). However, the trip was good otherwise. I had a good amount of time for prayer, Bible study and brainstorming for lesson ideas.

It was really great to see my good friends Randy and Kelly Vaughn and their kids once I got here! They are terrific and generous hosts and they made me feel very welcomed.

After the first 24 hours with them Kelly said, well, we've talked about a lot of things, I hope you and Randy can find something else to talk about during the rest of your time (Kelly left tonight to be part of a Come Before Winter conference that ministers to missionary women). We all had a chuckle, but I assured her that we would have no trouble finding things to talk about.

As I write, it is 1:00 AM and Randy has just gone to bed. (I told you we would't have any trouble finding things to talk about Kelly! Ha!) We have been talking about the work among the Aja and what they might need as they continue on their journey with God. It is fun to dream about how God might use us in the future to minister to them. I think we have some fun and exciting ideas. Maybe Ill share more another time.

We are now back at their home in Aplahoue with their 4 kids. I am planning on going out into the villages tomorrow to visit some of the Christians that I know and love. Some of these Christians are still faithful and some are not. Please pray that I might be a "minister of reconciliation" ( II Corinthians 5:11 - 6:2) to help bring these fallen Christians back into relationship with God.

Please pray also for my family at home and for my businesses. I have placed them in God's hands. This has been a time when my faith has grown as I have relinquished these two areas of my life to Him.

May you seek to place your life in God's hands as well. May you live (and pray) as if you had no control over the course of your life and as if everything depended on Him (that's reality you know)! May you be blessed and may your faith increase exponentially!

(You may want to check out the Vaughn's blog at rkvaughn.blogspot.com for some pictures. Randy is better at posting pictures than I am, but he promises to teach me how to do it.)

Through the Wardrobe

I am about to "pass through the wardrobe" once more tomorrow. Each time I pass through the wardrobe, I enter into a world that is vastly different than the one that I left behind.

I'm not sure which is the "real world". Both seem so real when I am there, but are hard to imagine when I am not there. I feel very much at home in both worlds. And yet, I long for certain aspects of my life in the "other world", no matter where I am.

Lately, I have spent most of my time in one world. My family is there. I have a couple of businesses there and activities that keep me far busier than I really care to be. I have some great friends in this world and a very large church family. God has given us meaningful ministry in this world.

The world that I enter tomorrow is also very real and very dear to me. I have a great ministry there. I have wonderful friends there that are consumed with ministry. Most of my friends in this world do not have running water or electricity. They live in mud houses and go to the farm on a daily basis to gather what they need. They often don't have enough money to take their children to the doctor when they are sick, and they struggle with severe health challenges. Despite these challenges, they have a faith that is real. They pray to God first when life's problems are too big for them. They have a vibrant worship style that encourages me greatly and they have a hunger for God's word that is refreshing.

Please pray for me as I pass through the wardrobe tomorrow. Pray that I will be able to bring the Aja Christians in Benin a message from God that will minister to them. Pray also for my family. We have never been this far apart for this long.

I'll try to post from time to time, so check back when you can. Until then, Mawu a yra mi (God bless you)!