By Randal Dick
Superintendent of Missions
In spite of the severe trials our brethren in Africa face, their story is one of joy, commitment and growth.
This month I will give you a report on the Francophone Africa development plan, nearing the completion of the initial three-year commitment. The purpose of this plan was to develop local leaders and strong congregations where a nucleus already existed; plant new churches where we discern Christ wants new people; and build self sufficiency where weakness and subsidy dependence exists.
The areas targeted were primarily Cameroon, Benin and Togo. In 1997 we will shift the focus to Zaire and Burkina Faso.
Cameroon, Benin and Togo are all experiencing a healthy growth rate. The first generation of leaders, mentored by a trainer known as a waterer, are starting to develop more leaders.
The ability to replicate leaders without outside help is a goal of the program. In addition, these countries are largely financially self-sufficient. This is important because subsidy dependency is a barrier to growth.
The Lome and Kpalime, Togo, churches have been involved in service projects and Bible lectures. Our leaders there are involved in pastoring, teaching and counseling, as well as mentoring newer members.
In Benin and Togo we had six Bible lectures with 177 new people attending and five baptisms.
The opportunities for growth are phenomenal in these countries and, perhaps more than ever, our congregations are mobilized for growth, thanks to the dedication of the newly trained leaders.
Serving the community is an important part of African culture. The Cotonou, Benin, church has organized clean-up crews for certain sectors of town and donated food and soap to a prison, visiting prisoners and praying with them.
The churches in Cameroon are also dynamic, growing and serving churches, and are bearing fruit. Olivier Carion, regional pastor for Francophone Africa, reports that all the leaders in Cameroon are involved in cell groups and that this is energizing the congregations.
In Yaounde, capital of Cameroon, Jean-Franìois Omgba and family started to clean their street every Sunday. Now the whole neighborhood (about 40) is helping them. This has caught much public attention.
The Yaounde church donates food and soap to centers that take care of the needy.
The Ebolowa church cleans and takes care of a small part of downtown. Various large-scale public lectures, as well as local Bible studies where the public is invited, are conducted under the auspices of the church and upon the initiative of our leaders.
If you turn on the radio in the two major provinces of Cameroon, you are liable to hear throbbing drums, followed by a voice announcing that you are listening to Tam Tam (a term that signifies African drums used to herald an important event). Church leaders in Cameroon now produce their own weekly radio broadcast. This program includes a 10 minute main message, an interview of the speaker by a journalist, a question and answer session, news of Worldwide Church of God activities in Cameroon and non-commercial advertisement. The advertisements are usually aimed at helping those devoted to helping the poor in Cameroon. The broadcast blankets a good part of Cameroon.
A future "Window on the World" will report on developments in the Anglophone churches in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. A restructuring process has taken place over the past two years, and is bearing fruit.
It couldn't be done...
Five years ago it would have been unbelievable to think that the majority of the churches in Africa would be financially self-sufficient and producing numerous well-equipped leaders. Yet that has occurred in most areas. There is no question that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, not humans.
In fact, the process began with a realization that we were limiting our effectiveness by insisting that Christ work through our patterns instead of us working through his.
We were paralyzed by our idea that we had to maintain certain procedures that cost more money than we had. I will never forget the moment when I realized that we were in effect saying that the Holy Spirit could not convert minds unless we were there first with plenty of working capital.
When a number of us approached the late Joseph Tkach with this realization, he agreed and welcomed a proposal to deal with the problem. We agreed that we would remove all barriers to the Holy Spirit.
Anything we couldn't afford, we would question whether it was necessary. We would ask if there was another way to accomplish the same thing.
One of the first challenges came when we were ready to ordain Jean Jacques Ndoudoumou as the first elder and leader in Cameroon.
In those days, we felt that any leader, especially one who served in a pastoral role, should be Ambassador trained. So, we made plans to bring Jean Jacques to Big Sandy for a year.
Problems immediately began to arise. Jean Jacques has 13 people in his family. We couldn't find a place where 13 people could live under one roof. The cost of 13 round-trip tickets from Africa defied any kind of budgetary reality. How do we school 11 children in a rural school district when they speak French, not English?
But that was just for starters. The real problem was that Jean Jacques was a key member of government, reporting to the president, and the president didn't want Jean Jacques to go.
But this time we did not let money be the determining factor. So we said if we can't bring Jean Jacques to Ambassador, why can't we bring quality training to Jean Jacques.
And if we bring it to him, we can also bring training to others. It was out of this problem that the Planting and Watering program, officially known as the Francophone African Plan, was developed. The plan was given a three- year mandate and funding commitment. The three years conclude officially at the end of June.
Two men have worked tirelessly as the waterers. They do basically what Paul did on his missionary journeys. They go in to an area and teach until leaders begin to emerge.
They then train local leaders, emphasizing that the leaders must in turn help other leaders to emerge. They need our prayers. They leave their families for two or three weeks at a time. They risk their health in places where cholera, yellow fever and sometimes ebola are present.
They face the unpredictable soldier or customs official who may rob them. They are potential targets of street crime in places where poverty is so oppressive that a tourist is a target, not a guest.
I think it is important that we know those who quietly but effectively labor among us.
The first of these waterers is Olivier Carion, pastor of the Geneva, Switzerland, and Lyons, France, churches.
Olivier is about to embark on his eighth training trip. Initially Olivier's training work was done in Cameroon, Benin and Togo--countries that enjoy relative peace and stable governments. This year, Olivier will be focusing much of his effort on helping coalesce an effective leadership team in Zaire. He will need to have the covering of our regular prayers on his behalf.
The second waterer is Jacques Brunet. Jacques' time as a waterer has been relatively short, but highly effective. Jacques was the one Christ used to open the doors and be the first representative of the church in Angola.
In spite of language barriers and other obstacles, Jacques laid a foundation for the miraculous growth rate (nearly 8,000 in a little more than a year) of the church in Angola.
Jacques then turned the watering over to Portuguese-speaking Carlos Tavares. In addition, Jacques Brunet, originally from Quebec, has worked to develop leaders in Madagascar.
Jacques feels that Madagascar is ripe for the preaching of the gospel. He and his wife, Betty, have three children, two of whom are grown. They have been reassigned to Guadeloupe and Martinique.
The mandate given to the waterers was to go in and train. They were asked not to think of themselves as pastors. Instead of counseling, they were asked to find men who were gifted and teach them to counsel. Instead of doing all the speaking, they were asked to mentor those who showed the gifts of teaching and evangelism.
Jan. 21, 1997, Worldwide News, page 7
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