Journeys

We left Pèdè last Sunday morning and drove to Parakou. We spent two nights there so that we could have our "End of Term" appointment with our Personnel Coordinator (and friend, Lee) and so that Marc could meet up with a mechanic to talk about getting our car properly fixed at last while we're away.

Tuesday we had a taxi drive us down to Cotonou. Unfortunately the A/C wasn't working, but otherwise all went smoothly. We saw the usual aftermath of accidents like this one on the way into Cotonou, with the lorry blocking 3 of 4 lanes:

As always we wonder how on earth they managed to end up like that!

We then had one and a half nights in Cotonou, getting up in the middle of the second night to be at the airport by 3:35am. We then flew to Morocco, where our airline paid for a hotel for 24 hours because they'd changed our flight times (fortunately ahead of time so we knew it was going to happen).

Enjoying the hotel ... and watching "Casablanca" in Casablanca!

We finally arrived in Manchester yesterday (Good Friday) afternoon, and were very happy to at last get to my mum and dad's. It's a treat to be able to celebrate Easter here.

Finishing up...

Our last month at home in Pèdè was very busy! Full but fun! We're leaving for a Home Assignment of 4 months, and so lots of people wanted to see us before we left. We also had Léa (our short-termer) with us, and other missionary visits, plus the Ladies' Bible study I'd taken on for our last 4 Sundays.

Léa's time with us was rich and rewarding, both for her (she says!) and for us. She came at everything with such enthusiasm that together we got a lot of work done. She also got on very well with our kids, and even did some dance lessons for Benjy and Eve. Benjy had to for school, and did it reluctantly, but Eve loved it so much she asked for extra lessons once the obligatory ones were over!

Léa is staying in Bénin for a couple of weeks longer than us. She'll be visiting other translation teams and helping out with some more English-French translation for the SIM Benin-Togo office, so we hope all of that goes well for her!

February

It has been a weird month. It opened with the news that missionary
friends of ours had lost their 5 year old son in a tragic accident. We
then had a week of checking, still reeling from the news. Then we were
down in Parakou the week after, giving us the opportunity to see our
friends (who are coping well and trusting God), and Marc and I led the
kids' programme for the SIM Benin-Togo Day of Prayer. That was
exhausting but fun!

I thought last week would be "back to normal life" ... but of course
normal life here is anything but predictable, and last week brought some
surprises.

And in the middle of all of this, I was asked to start teaching the
church ladies' group. This isn't something I have sought - I don't
really feel it's my priority - but it is hard to refuse people saying
they want to study the Bible. Though when I asked them yesterday why it
was that they are so insistent that they want me teaching them instead
of going to the church Bible study, the answer of "we got used to having
a woman missionary teaching us" was not the most inspirational! (And
it's been over 8 years since they had a woman missionary teaching them,
so it shows the strength of tradition!) Still, I think there is
something about being among women which they like, and I'm going to make
an effort to give them spiritual food they can digest. If I could also
make it possible for them to see that the group could continue after our
departure in 2020, that would be even better!

Mind you, I'm not sure how yesterday's meeting would have been able to
take place without the help of my placement student, Léa. She's here as
part of an obligatory work placement for her Masters in Translation, but
she chose to come here, and she very much wanted the experience of
missionary life too. So she helped me clean out the "paillotte" - an
open air structure - and looked after my kids during the meeting, since
Marc was in Kandi-Fô leading *his* Bible study. She's a real blessing to
have here!

And this morning I have finished what has been the majority of my work
over the last six and a half years, checking our Monkolé translation
against the Hebrew text, with the help of various resources. I finished
with Psalm 150, whose last verse seemed a fitting conclusion:

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Hallelujah." Psalm 150:6

Of course, my work is far from finished, but this feels like a big
milestone to have reached! Praise God for His faithfulness in getting us
this far!

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!