Trainee

We are excited to be welcoming a trainee next week! Léa is French, and
she's studying for a Masters in Translation at the Université de
Lorraine. She has to get some work experience as part of her course, and
being a committed Christian, asked the university if she could come
here, to get some out-of-the-ordinary translation experience. They
accepted! We are looking forward to having her work alongside us for a
couple of months.

Butter

After Christmas we spent a few days based in Bembéréké, and had one day
down at the TWR site between Parakou and Bembéréké. Friends we were
meeting there were coming up from Parakou, and I knew they wouldn't mind
bringing up a bit of shopping for me. However, I didn't want to ask for
much, so I just asked for two packs of butter, knowing that we were
running a bit low (and I can't buy it in Kandi).

When we got to Sirarou, however, we discovered that my butter had been
left in Parakou. But someone from Parakou was going to be going up to
Bembéréké ... the day after we were leaving. So I thought I'd ask the
Bembéréké missionaries if anyone had 2 packs of butter to lend me which
could then be replaced by my two (fresher!) packs of butter on the Sunday.

As we were discussing this (and whether it was salted or unsalted
butter), one of our colleagues said something like, "This is such a
missionary conversation!" It's true, in Europe one would never make such
a fuss about two packs of butter!

"But I do like a little bit of butter on my bread...!" (to quote my
grandmother quoting A.A. Milne) and we will enjoy having butter icing on
Benjy's birthday cake later this month!

Why go to church?

I have been finding church-going a bit of a struggle recently. I came home from church on Sunday saying, "When I go to church I want to hear the message 'Praise God because He's worthy!' rather than 'Give your tithe so that God will bless you!'"

Our church has been talking about money more and more. It isn't that I don't like talking about money at church. God should be Lord of our whole lives, and that includes our money. Of course we should give generously, and of course we should be encouraged to do so at church. But we don't need to hear the message all the time, and we shouldn't be encouraged to give for our own personal gain. The Prosperity Gospel is doing well in Africa (as elsewhere) and its principles are very close to biblical ones. Yes, God will bless you if you give generously ... the problem is that you can't assume His blessings will be material ones ... or that material things are necessarily a blessing in your spiritual life.

At church on Sunday the service leader suggested that if you look back over your life with God you'll see that things just get better and better in material terms, that you just get richer and richer. That may be true in this particular man's life. But many Christians around the world would have to disagree. In some countries people lose their belongings, their children and their freedom because they follow Jesus. Which rather seems to disprove what the service leader was saying. I may see if I get the opportunity to talk to him about it, though it will be difficult as he is someone I respect a lot, and who clearly loves God ... I think on this one occasion he just got a little carried away.

Our church leadership has also decided to start writing up on a blackboard at the front of church how much the offering was the Sunday before, and how many people gave how much tithe. They aren't saying who gave how much "yet"! They have also decided to put the offering box at the front of church, and during the offering song everyone has to file up to put their offering in. Personally I think this just encourages deceit, as people feel obliged to go up to the front, and once they are there, they at least have to look as if they're putting something in. So my small rebellion is that I stay in my place while Marc goes up and puts our offering in.

As missionaries it is difficult too to know what our role should be. Church leadership has been successfully handed over to locals ... when is it our responsibility to intervene if we think wrong things are being said, or unhelpful things are being done, especially if our opinion isn't asked for?

Christmas

This year we had a bit of a different Christmas from previous ones. 15km or so to the north of us, there is a village where the Assemblies of God planted a church a few years ago. Over the last year we have become good friends with the Togolese pastor and his family. They are faithful church planters in difficult circumstances, living in a village hostile to the Good News, and having arrived there not speaking the local language.

These friends invited us to come to their church on Christmas Day, and we thought it would be lovely to spend time with them and to encourage their small group of believers.

Here is the church, with the pastor's two small daughters in the doorway:



And the children singing during the service - there were just 16 adults and 26 children present, including us:



We were slightly surprised at the end of the service to be asked to come up to the front to sing something for them. I wasn't entirely sure we knew a Christmas song in English or in French that our whole family knew by heart. But then since very few people in the church speak Monkolé (many are outsiders who are living in the village because of their jobs), we decided to sing a little bit of a Monkolé Christmas song, and so our whole family did manage to sing!

Everyone ate together after the service. Here we are with the pastor and his wife:






Actually not me, the photographer is rarely in the photos! But here I am later in the day, wearing some festive earrings which were sent to me:



We very much appreciated the presents we received from others on Christmas Day. Such a treat!