EXPANDING MINISTRY..............................

Dad and I did many things together in ministry in Burkina.  We worked at planting churches together, we taught in short term schools together, when he was director, I helped by entertaining hordes of people, our paths often converged in our ministries.

At the same time, there were many ministries that we were involved in separately. Dad was a church planter and started many new churches among the Bobo people. He started the radio ministry in Bobo.  He was also a builder: several of the Maranatha Institute buildings, the downtown Bobo church, the Ouezzinville Sud church and many church buildings (big and small) throughout our district were constructed by him and his building crew.  Early in his building career, he hired on Yakuba, a terific Muslim mason. Other missionaries also used this man. He was a staunch Muslim, had his allowed quota of wives, heard the Gospel many times, both from individuals and in church service.  But to our knowledge he never turned to Christ.  I wonder if he is still living.

My gifts and aptitudes were more in the realm of teaching of all kinds, writing textbooks in a couple different languages, translation and language work, entertaining and witnessing through friendships with local people.  My teaching took me to many countries of West Africa. I often served on committees and boards of international organizations - all of this was a terrific education. I learned much through my contacts with Africans of various nationalities and through contacts with missionaries of many missions.  I had many opportunities of being an encourager to African leaders in various countries where I taught and/or served on committees.

One of Dad's challenges for about seven years was to be the Alliance representative, appointed by Colorado Springs, to the country of Nigeria.  What an interesting and challenging assignment!  He was to visit the Nigerian Alliance church leaders at least twice a year. He also accompanied Alliance leadership there to see the work.

Nigeria is not a country - it is an experience!  And what an experience. Dad took me with him on two trips and I saw and learned a lot.  The first time we went, Dad took me to the beautiful Sheraton Hotel in Lagos, and we were housed there.  The place was clean, the food abundant and American, it was like being in a high class hotel in the U.S.  But we did not stay in Lagos, that was just a stopping off place. The Alliance churches are on the other side of the country, so we had to board another plane to get to Alliance territory.  Boarding a plane in inland Nigeria is a life changing experience in itself!  The terminal looks modern, there are even boarding cards, that look just like those in American airports.  The men were dressed in beautiful business suits and the women all wore flowing Nigerian robes and beautiful high heeled shoes.  As boarding time drew near (the terminal was full by then), Dad said "Now get ready to run when they call our plane so that we can get a seat." I indicated to him that we already had seats assigned - right there they were on our boarding passes.  "Oh no," said Dad, "that has nothing to do with a seat on the plane - you run to the plane (quite a distance out on the field) and grab the first empty seat inside." If there were no seats left, I guess you just waited for the next flight!  And so we ran - and got seats and were off for the interior.

The return flight to Abidjan  was even funnier. We got on the plane and got seats but the aisles were full of unseated women passengers.  Most of them had all kinds of cloth and other items for sale under their clothes to take to Abidjan to sell, so their clothes were voluminous.  The airline personnel got most of them seated, but it was a circus watching the purser physically pushing one lady (on her well padded seat with both his hands!) out of the plane and down the stairs as there was no seat for her.  There is only one Nigeria in the world and it is a good thing!  We enjoyed most of our time there.

We always kept our papers with us (passports, etc.) and one days we were physically stopped on the street by some tough looking police who took us into an office to search us and take our papers. They had some reason, they thought, to stop us, but did not tell us what it was. There was a very important government chief associated with our Alliance church in Nigeria and we invoked his name, Chief Okeke.  When we told them he was our friend, their demeanor changed and they let us go. But it was not a fun few minutes to be detained in a strange country! 

One evening the church leaders had prepared a beautiful meal in one member's home. As we sat at the table, they wanted to ask us questions about Burkina - as if it were on another planet! They asked if we could sing a song and wanted us to quote John 3:16 in our languages.  They got a kick our of our answers, and it almost felt like being on tour in the States, with the questions they asked!  We enjoyed the people of Nigeria, but were also glad to go back home to our own people in Burkina!

We were both in Nigeria to meet the Schaeffer family when they arrived, with the children and her folks all in tow!  Plus a huge cartload of baggage.  We went to the airport, Dad had to pay his way through  ( as Nigerian custom demanded) and we got them all through and into a big van loaned to us by some Baptist missionaries in Lagos.  Dad had been looking for a place for all of us to stay the night they arrived, and he chose a rundown hotel where he and Ben deJesus from Phillipines had stayed one night. So we signed in there for a night of trial before the Schaeffer crowd arrived.  I have never had an experience like that in my life.  The bed was narrow and lumpy and had brown wrinkled sheets on it - you wondered how many other people had used those sheets before you!  The water was just a tiny trickle in the rusted out bathtub. The prostitutes ran the halls all night, knocking on doors and calling out their wares. Outside the open windows it was chaos on the streets!  Wow - what a night. My verdict in the morning was that the Schaeffers would turn right around and go back to the USA if we took them to that hotel.

So we looked for another place and came across an old SIM mission station, now occupied by the church. They gave us a large mission house which we could rent, where there were some chairs and tables and also beds, as well as the basics of dishes, cookware and silverware.  There was a Baptist couple also living on the compound who offered us their van to pick up our family from the airport and take us later on to the smaller airport for the up country flight!  It seemed like a gift from Heaven and we were grateful.  Ah yes, Nigeria!  Dad made many trips there - sleeping in a saggy double bed with Bob Fetherlin one time, with Ben DeJesus another, and with me in a barely three quarters size bed another time - another place where the prostitutes shrieked in the halls at night. Dad's head was at the top and mine at the bottom and we sort of fit ourselves together like that to get a night's sleep! 

Life was never boring for us and if variety is the spice of life, our lives were pretty spicy.  Dad also flew to Nairobi for inter-mission meetings.  And another time I was flown to Nairobi for an educational conference which Bamiky and I attended together. No wonder we had some boring days when we returned to settle in Toccoa, Georgia, which in the meantime, has become home to us.  And wherever we have lived, we have always found work to do for God.