July 15, 2003
FSM 348 CM/FM
04/00
Copyright © 2000 by The Family
See FSM 336, Liberia: Bringing Peace to a Land of War for the story about the beginning of this CTP project, in which Family members were given the responsibility of setting up schools in the bush for needy children in this country recovering from long-term civil war. The project involved hiring and training teachers, counselors, and principals. The team also started an outreach to university students and held daily classes for them, resulting in a catacomb ministry.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep (Jn.21:15-17).
From Aaron, Dan, Rima, Lisa, Carol, and Joy
After a four-month break, we returned to Liberia in January of 1999 for the second part of the school year. Our team was quite different this time. It consisted of six of us: Dan and me—Aaron (who were both in Liberia for the first part of the project), and four wonder-working women—Rima, Lisa, Carol, and Joy. The girls took up the challenge of pouring into the children and teachers in the schools that we had set up in the first part of the project [see FSM 336]. In addition to the CTP project in the schools, we picked up where we left off with our catacomb work, which, as we'll share with you later in this FSM (pg. 11), is changing us completely and opening up an area of the African work that has yet to be tapped!
The first part of the project last year was successful in setting up the structure for four schools and offering free education to many needy children in this country. However, while we have been involved with many CTP projects in Africa, we have learned a lot about the other side of the coin, the more important side—that of feeding His sheep.
With so many physical CTP projects to get involved with, we often have to remind ourselves what our real job for the Lord is here on the mission field. We found that after being wrapped up in lots of aid work for a while, our teams would become drained and visionless, taking care of the never-ending work of caring for the poor and needy. When we prayed earnestly about it, the Lord reminded us of our real job: getting out the Word and feeding the sheep spiritually. He said that if we did that, then He would supply the people's other needs better than we ever could.
This is so well expressed in the Letter Consider the Poor (ML #2755:22, 25, Vol.20):
Our Main Job Is to Minister Spiritually!
Witnessing is our job and we shouldn't get into anything that's going to distract us from that! But some of our people may be able to visit the missions and shelters and minister there to the homeless. Of course, we have to do what we can to help people physically, if that's their need, but our main job is to minister to them spiritually. The Lord can take care of them after that; we don't have to do it for them. It's like the quote, Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. But teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for life! The Social Gospel gives the fish to the people, but what we're doing is we're teaching them to fish by getting them saved right then and there and dispensing with all the physical stuff and all the things that the Lord will take care of immediately when someone finds Him. Then He'll supply all their material needs automatically! He'll do that! He can do that easily! But He needs us to do the job that we have to do, which is to really feed their souls and help them to find the Lord!
We in the Family are so rich in materials to feed people with spiritually! As we face such needy situations on the mission field, we see again and again what a difference the Word can make in someone's life—giving them food that will satisfy them forever. As Jesus said in Jn.6:35, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
When we arrived at the airport this time our hearts broke for this special land. When we got off the airplane, we were met by airport workers who remembered us from four months before. They asked where my children were, and requested more posters to give to their friends. Then the head of the airport met us [see testimony about M. in FSM 336] and worked out our entry into the country, like an angel coming to our rescue in what can always be a rough process in Africa.
The Lord miraculously worked out accommodations for our team, so we got settled and ready to work.
Visiting the schools and seeing how the principals did on their own
For the most part NGOs (non-governmental organizations—of which there are many doing social work in Africa) have the attitude that an expatriate must be the one in charge of any kind of project like ours. The general consensus is that the African national cannot be trusted with the decision-making responsibility that comes with project leadership.
Well, we challenged this thought, as we thought we could trust nationals with the responsibility of running and caring for the schools and the children in their care. The Lord led us to put trust in the different principals that we hired and have been training. We've let them learn as they work, and we expected mistakes as they struggle for solutions in their situation; solving problems within the community through discussion, prayer and a lot of hard work; convincing people to help make the world around them a better place. In the Liberian world where money talks and all are very desperate for it, convincing folks to do something to help others for no material benefit is a real miracle.
We'd like to refer to the quote, I shall find a way, or make one, to describe the attitude displayed by the principals of each of the schools. We have seen an outstanding degree of accomplishment in their problem solving. The grant they receive takes care of supplies, wages, and structural maintenance cost. However, the struggles that the principals are faced with daily are monumental, involving community disputes, child-parent relationships, and other assorted conflicts within the community. We can only applaud the perseverance and determination that these nationals have demonstrated.
Where do we begin?
When we came back this time, we prayed desperately about what direction we should take, and the Lord was very clear about the need to feed the children spiritually and feed them well, to give them something that no one could ever take away from them. Secondly, He impressed upon us the need to be the touch of love that they so needed in their lives. We prayed that the Lord would give us the compassion and the gentle love for the job.
Our team sought unity through prayer when working on the research for the job at hand. As we put together material for the project, we realized it was more fruitful not to rely on things that we'd done in the past. It's so easy to think, Well, some of us have been in Rwanda. Some of us have been in other CTP projects where we've been able to feed people the Word. We should just do what worked over there. Instead, we had to keep ourselves open and pray that the Lord would keep us yielded and receptive to new material that He wanted us to use, new Word that He wanted us to share that would help strengthen the children and teachers.
Feeding the children
The Lord led our team of teachers to focus on appropriate Christian themes, those which apply to the children and their experiences in the war such as forgiveness, faith and trust, obedience, God's protection, prayer, freedom from fear. We used ideas and stories from Family material that would give the children these kind of messages, as well as other material that the children could understand and relate to.
This was not an easy task. We experimented a lot, trying different approaches while teaching, seeing what worked and what didn't, what they responded to and what went over their heads. Some of the stories that we tried did not go over well while others drove the point home in a successful way, so our being willing to make mistakes and learn from them was a big part of our team's success.
We found that character development was the greatest asset we could give to these war-torn children. Because of things they'd seen, their whole idea of morals is messed up, and many don't know what's right or wrong anymore. For example, the way people in some villages would solve their problems was by taking a machete and attacking their clan elders, burning down villages, stealing crops, etc. Their parents and communities used to instill positive character traits and encourage moral development in their children, but because of the war, the parents were often no longer there. Even the community structure wasn't there, and it became the norm to see death, thievery, brutish ruffianism, cheating, rape, assault, murder, arson, and so on. Much of the killing was done by preteens. Though the younger children (ages 7-9) would be spies for the rebels, the older ones (ages 10-13) would carry big guns and use them.
So in this second phase of the project we took the time necessary to invest in the children directly—having daily classes and sharing basic principles of character development. We did this along with the teachers, through seminars and other teacher training, sharing with the teachers the need to develop and strengthen the children's moral fiber through faith and a closer walk with the Lord.
Feeding the teachers
We spent time with the teachers, discussing how they can bring Jesus into the classroom in more understandable and practical ways. The tendency in many schools is to go through the motions, praying their little prayer in the morning and having a bit of memory work—very dry religious tradition. Our team introduced praise time and new ways to pray, which brought a revolution to the children's school life.
In our recent teachers' seminars we addressed topics such as communication and teacher-student relationships, raising positive kids in a negative world, creating values and a solid moral base, creating positive classroom environments. We also held classes on motivation. We gave them the vision for long-term investment, and the need to have an eye on the future as to what these little children will one day become.
Our last seminar was called Teaching Children Joy, and included methods for giving encouragement and reinforcement of positive behavior. Other topics included preserving the joy of interest and curiosity, of imagination and creativity, the joy of obedience and decision-making, priorities and goals, trust and confidence, individual confidence and uniqueness, honesty and communication, and sharing and service. We set basic objectives, and then we charted the implementation of these classes throughout the remainder of the school year.
We felt that our investment in the teachers was fundamental, as it would be magnified in the schools and in the children's lives. In the seminars and meetings we held question and answer sessions, where we were able to answer the teachers' questions with the Word. We shared stories like Change the World and lessons and classes on forgiveness, such as the stories from the Good Thots about other people who went through war experiences. We told them about Corrie Ten Boom and others who had a struggle forgiving those who had wronged them, but did so and found freedom from bitterness.
It was very liberating and helpful to the teachers, who in their own lives have had to come to grips with forgiving and forgetting. For an eight-year period the war came in waves, so often people would begin their lives anew only to lose everything once more the moment the war flared up again. Many of them are starting from scratch for the third or fourth time.
We also gave classes on Romans 8:28 and talked about seeing difficulties through positive eyes, learning how to see even hard times or events as a blessing from God in the long run. We shared Good Thots stories about how the Lord tests and brings His people through difficulties as a sign of His love for them, and as training for the future.
As we were feeding the teachers, for the first time in any of our projects we were able to talk directly about the Millennium. We shared how important their training is by giving them the vision for how much they will be used then as Christian teachers, educators and people-handlers, based on what they are learning now on how to work with these little ones. This was very real for them.
The teachers' responses were incredible. They came to life, seeing and believing that Jesus' Millennial Reign is right around the corner. They understood that the things they were learning are not just for a dead-end job they'd be doing in the bush for the rest of their lives. Rather, this responsibility is a steppingstone to the future, where they will be used in an even more meaningful and important way because of their faithfulness and the lessons they learn now with the children in their care.
PTAs and community development
One of the most exciting parts of the project this time was PTA meetings with the parents or guardians of the children. (Though quite a few of the children are orphans, there are other adults or relatives taking responsibility for them.) This was so exciting because it opened our eyes again to our future job in the Millennium of loving persuasion and interchange with communities and community leaders on how to better the world around them. Stories like Change the World meant a lot to the parents—simple illustrations that challenged them to be more dedicated and sharing, or more responsible for making the world around them a better place. You could see smiles and emotional responses.
These are very simple, very poor people, for whom it is more important to do something good to earn the respect of others in the community than to make a lot of money or be a success. After going through the problems of war, they long to regain their self-respect; they value it when we present opportunities for them to win respect, or to feel self-respect once again, after having lost it or having had it taken away from them.
Respect is everything in Liberia. In the war when killing was rampant and was done by these pre-teen fighters, if someone had been a teacher before the war or had helped others in that way, his life was spared.
In our present project, the communities showed their dedication to the projects by going above and beyond their duty in building houses for the principals to live in, digging wells, and actually building the school palava huts (giant structures that look like two playing cards leaning against each other) that were used for some of the classrooms—all for free.
One of the other major challenges we took up at this time was setting up an Adult Literacy Class. Considering the huge numbers of illiterate people in Liberia, this is a very important need. We were able to offer this class to parents who cannot read, write or spell. Some of the parents were so sweet, asking if it would be okay if grandparents who did not know how to read, write or spell could also come along, and if 95 years old was too old to learn.
These classes, which we organized three days a week till the end of the school year and on through next year, were not only for the parents, but also for the older brothers and sisters who were 17 and up and therefore did not attend regular school. These young people had been through eight years of war, during which time they had no schooling.
Two of our team members—Dan and Carole— went up to Lofa, in the north of the country. Carole concentrated on the development of one of the schools herself, going from class to class teaching the children and training the teachers. Even while they were up there, there was the threat of fighting between two tribes.
Carole: We were giving the same classes in each classroom, adapting them for the younger ones on kindergarten level, and then changing other parts to bring the material up to the level of the older kids. I held various seminars for the teachers after school. In one we explained our classes on Adult Literacy. Then we had a seminar on praise and the importance of encouragement for the children, and another one on the importance of prayer in the children's lives.
One morning we heard that there had been some fires in the next village. Some people had burned down some houses and killed a few people in a clan fight between the Lomas and the Mandingos. The next morning when I went to get bread, I walked to the center of the town and there were the two different tribes gathered, one on each side, starting to argue and push each other around. I got out of there fast! The Lord really protected us.
Factoid: The Compulsory Education Act of 1912 [in Liberia] provides for compulsory, free education for children between the ages of 6 and 16. However, government attempts to implement this law are hindered by a scarcity of educational facilities, and only a minority of children receive an education. Only about 40 percent of the population of Liberia was literate in the early 1990s (Encarta 98 Encyclopedia).
Giving them something that will last
One thing we realized during our last project was that with the possibility of war always imminent, anything that we spent time building up in the physical could be destroyed in a moment. We saw how easily all our supplies could be looted, even buildings burned. In this atmosphere, we realized that giving the children, young people, and parents something that will last is definitely the most fruitful and important investment we could make.
The Word won't return void; it will accomplish the purpose whereunto it's sent, so giving them the Word is giving them the most that we have to offer! Many of the young people that we spent time with already knew Jesus and were saved, but lacked the depth and knowledge of His Word to solve their own problems and cope with the difficulties they had gone through.
A university explosion
We gathered together the young people we had spent time with on our last visit and started going witnessing at the university with them. In daily afternoon classes, we would have groups of 70 to 150 students for our studies on basic topics—prayer, discipleship, the Endtime. The response was fantastic.
We had a core team of students that continued to come daily, plus other students coming in and out of the classes depending on their availability and the times of their school classes. But some, whether they had other classes or not, made sure not to miss ours.
We started meeting with the more faithful ones in the evening, reading through Treasures. Their response and excitement over the Word was just incredible! They longed to know more and to do more. In their free time they began going witnessing every day, taking responsibility for every person they met and continuing to try to win them for the Lord.
For all of us, this university outreach was a monumental change in our way of thinking and working in Africa. We found a door that we hadn't really knocked on before was opening before us. Behind that door, we realized, there are multitudes of students and young labor leaders in virtually every African country who, given the opportunity, can go such a long way with the Lord! We met so many dedicated young people who really love the Lord and want to do something for Him, and are not interested in the churches. They want a chance to serve Him with all their hearts, and they are flocking to us. (For more on the work with these students, please see the article, African University Witnessing, pg. 11.)
The leader of the Liberian catacombers is a precious young man named King, whom we met on our first visit to Liberia a year and half ago. He is really coming along, so please keep him in your prayers!
Giving and giving and giving some more
Our schedule changed daily, but one thing was for sure—we continued to pour out, over and over again! We had school with the young ones, their teachers and principals in the morning; university witnessing and classes in the afternoon; and school prep in the evening. Looking for every opportunity to give was our team's strength.
Though we were only there for a six-week period, the effect that the team had on the kids and the schools was amazing. Seeing the light in the children's eyes when the team drove up was enough to tell you that the children were getting fed emotionally and they were hungry for more. The children in all the schools fell in love with our teachers—our ministers of love. Holding hands, putting our arms around them, giving looks of genuine love, doing things to help them, always being there to make Jesus and His love a reality for them—these were things the children were starving for.
Our team growing as teachers for the Lord
Our team learned a lot this time from the different aspects of our work in Liberia, as many of them had not taught children or witnessing classes much before this. They received hands-on training, and it was faith-building for them to see all that the Lord could do through them in feeding and shepherding both the children, the teachers, and the committed catacombers.
After we'd been working in the school for a few weeks and having a very fruitful time teaching Christian themes to the children and holding teachers' seminars, etc., the Lord challenged the team to go further. The idea, as we mentioned earlier, was to experiment with Family material that could help us pour into the children in different ways, teaching them more about forgiveness and other needed topics.
The members of the team slowed down at this point, looking to be led by one of the team members in what to do next. Then the realization dawned that that was not the right direction to go. For real progress, each of the team members needed to be leaders in his or her own right, going to the Lord desperately themselves, asking Him for guidance, and searching for solutions and new ideas that would help these little ones.
It's so easy to go according to others' faith, and not everyone has to be a pioneer. But everyone should have that desperation to find out what the Lord wants them to do and how to do it! We all realized as a team that there is a great need for leadership within the Family at the grassroots level. It's not that people need to come to the mission field with the goal of being leaders, but each missionary needs to realize that being a Christian leader is the job they are already called to do. And the sooner we understand that point, the better.
When working on pioneer projects such as this one, the tendency is to do things one way and then be content with what has been attained—to settle for what we are doing or what we've done up to then. We can have the idea that asking how we could do things better or differently is a negative approach, a negative way of looking at things. But on the contrary, we found it healthy to critique each other, to make suggestions about each other's teaching, and to be straightforward and honest about areas that we need to grow in as disciples and witnesses.
Being a tightly knit team that desires honest, straightforward, and loving critiques from each other and the Lord was a strong point of our team. We pray that your missionary teams will find the same strength.
Conclusion
As of now, September 1999, there is a permanent team in Liberia. The goal and what the Lord seems to be opening up for this work is to have Family members who are interested, who have educational experience, or who are just wholehearted dedicated missionaries to come and commit themselves for a period of six months to a year of going to the more rural areas to work there.
This would be ideal, as it fulfills several purposes: It provides experience in working with communities, as we shared above. It also gives an opportunity for team members to grow and make progress as Christian educators and missionaries to the spiritually hungry children and adults in this war-torn country. We are looking for Family members who are interested—young and old, YA on up. You can send us your résumés—what you have done, where you have been, your experience in working with kids. Please send them to:
fcwa@nova.net.ngfcwa@nova.net.ng
The Lord opened a door for some of our people to work alongside a trauma counselor, someone who has had quite a bit of experience working with traumatized children from war-torn countries. We went into this association prayerfully, as we believe that we also have a lot to offer, knowing and loving the Lord and having His Spirit in us. The woman we were working with is a very precious woman with a lot of love for the children and a very strong connection with Jesus. This experience was thought-provoking, and opened up many possibilities for future work in caring for children who have been through war and other situations where trauma counseling would be needed. She commended our team, and encouraged them by saying that from what she saw of our love for the Lord, she felt she had a lot to learn from us.
So we end this article by thanking Jesus for all that He's done to rescue, heal, and most importantly, feed His children. Please pray for the permanent team in Liberia, for their strength and health on this very difficult mission field.
With much love from Liberia,
Aaron, Dan, Rima, Lisa, Carol, and Joy
By Aaron, Africa
Most of our outreach in Africa has focused on CTPs, kings, and reaching the business community. But when we talk about reaching the youth in African countries, we venture into an area that for us has been the most rewarding and challenging—winning and working with new disciples!
In both Nigeria and Liberia we've done extensive witnessing and working with catacombers and outside witnessers at the universities, and we've learned a lot.
Finding time to go witnessing at the university is the first step. Sounds easy? Well, when your Home has other things to think about (which most Homes do), it takes a big push to get your people and energies focused enough to do the job justice. So getting everyone excited about going to the university is important. If you sit down and go over all the possibilities for a university witness in your area, then review the reasons you're a missionary to the particular country you're in, you'll often feel compelled to go, full of a desire to win those new disciples that are waiting for you at the university.
Take an honest look at your work, review the fruit you have, and imagine leaving the country. Would you leave an indigenous church that could stand on its own and survive if your team had to go? Well, after our many years in one African country, we had to say no, we did not. We had kings that took care of us, we had many friends, and we had some very close sheep that we had fed. These sheep had grown to a degree, but there was no one really solid—no labor leaders. Dad said:
The most lasting missionary works in the world have continued on in countries even now closed to the Gospel, where the natives themselves were taught to carry on by themselves, after the missionary was gone—a procedure the apostle Paul practiced, and which resulted in the evangelizing of all Asia, and most of Europe before his death, by means of his own single-handed efforts and that of a few of his friends—by training his converts to witness and carry on after he was gone! (Quality or Quantity, ML #23:20, Vol.1).
The classes
In the beginning, the Lord led us to go on witnessing outings and approach as many people as we could. We'd get out the Word and invite them right away to a class being held within the next hour, located near to where we were giving out the posters. We invited anybody who would come, and the Word itself separated the quantity from the quality.
After the first class we'd tell everybody who had attended to come back the following day, and we'd continue giving classes every day. With this group, we found having classes only once a week was often not enough because we would lose momentum. From our experience, the African youth often need to learn constancy and the discipline of coming to class daily. So having a class every day (lasting 30 or 40 minutes) was much better than one big class once a week. Giving them homework in studying over the Scriptures that we shared with them in class has been fruitful as well.
At the beginning we gave one class a day, but as things developed we had different types of people coming, and they generally divided into veterans and new folks. So after a while we split the class up and held two classes a day. Being straightforward and honest in the classes and not holding back on some controversial subjects (such as discipleship standards and what God expects from Christians) divided the wholehearted from the halfhearted.
There were new students that dropped in on our series of classes after the classes were already underway, and thus they missed out on some of the important initial ones. So we asked the students that we had already been feeding to turn around and give the new students the classes they'd missed. This worked great, and helped train our veteran students as well.
Skits to go along with the classes are very effective, and music is a key as well. (It helps to have song sheets for the music, so newcomers can sing along.)
Here is a list of our basic beginning classes:
Salvation by Grace
The Holy Spirit
The Endtime (Mat.24; Dan.2,7,9,11-12; the Antichrist)
Memorization
Witnessing
Our Job
Prayer
Prophecy
After that we would move into reading Mountain Streams, then Treasures and Word Basics.
We usually gave memory classes right away, in which we expected that each student memorize one or more verses every day or he would not be allowed to come to the next day's class. We found that for the students to learn to discipline themselves in this way was always fruitful. It helped each student to count the cost and decide whether he would pay the price and invest the time that it would take to get this kind of discipleship training.
Scripture memorization was always one of our most important courses in the early days.—And it's still supposed to be!
Even in our early 'Soul Clinic' Bible Schools, we used to require our members—what we called students in those days—to memorize the important Bible verses which we felt were essential—primarily verses on salvation, a few of the most helpful Psalms, Isaiah 53 and some Messianic prophecies, etc. We required them to learn them by heart and quote them from memory, and it was very good for them. We considered Scripture memorization virtually our most important course, and it was probably the course for which our schools became the most famous! (The Memorization Revolution, ML #2467:2,4-5; Vol.8 and DB8.)
Tools of the trade
We got a small portable whiteboard, which was very effective. We also had a flannelgraph board for Endtime classes, which was great for the job. The simpler the better, as then we didn't have to carry a heavy load of equipment with us.
Who should teach?
When deciding who of the Home members would teach the classes, we found it advisable to choose at least two different teachers to prevent the students getting too stuck on one person. That also gave us a chance to alternate and not be overly dependent on one person to do the job.
It's helpful if the teacher shows a high level of inspiration, because without it we could end up making icicle disciples that have little life to them. So on one hand, putting your best foot forward is important. On the other hand, it's beneficial to offer a training ground to new teachers on your team who would like to learn to give classes. Most of our team to Liberia was made up of YAs, and though some of them had had experience with witnessing, actually giving classes was something new and challenging.
Teaching tips
What we found speaks louder about your dedication than anything else is being on time—being there when we say we're going to be there. It's so easy to let important things steal us away from our daily classes, but these classes were the lifeblood of our new disciples' development and growth for the Lord. We realized that what we poured into them during these early beginnings would provide their Christian foundation for the future.
Sticking to our standard with the memory work also held the students' respect, as other Christian teaching that they've been introduced to hasn't required much from them at all.
We also gave a prize at the end of the class session (a Treasures or Word Basics book) for the faithful ones that came to all the classes, and this taught constancy. We required regular attendance for two to three weeks to receive this prize.
Another important key for our teachers was to repeat, repeat, repeat, but at the same time make it fun and exciting, not leaving any room for them to get bored. We asked the students questions and quizzed them to make sure they were grasping the class. Of course for our second round of classes this changed, as by then we were reading Mountain Streams or Treasures together, and we could then expect the students to get more serious in their Christian studies.
At the end of every class it was important to have a question-and-answer period because, though we were speaking in English and they might speak English, we still found that they might misunderstand or miss some of what we were saying.
We also found it helpful at a certain point to divide the classes up, separating the more serious students from the ones that were coming just because there was an expatriate teaching. Thus a team of more dedicated students was created. We were able to do this by personally interviewing the students, casually asking what they were learning from the classes and listening to what they were getting out of them. Talking with them this way also gave us many more ideas for our next classes.
Witnessing classes
After you've given the witnessing classes, taking them out—a veteran with a trainee side by side—is most effective. We've found it important to require them not only to witness alongside one of our team, but also on their own if they were to continue in the classes. (We gave them a witnessing stats sheet to fill out for that purpose.)
The reason we required this is that we've found many young people in Africa will come and sit and be interested, just because it's something new that they haven't experienced before. You'll often have what seem to be very receptive people, but if you're not mindful that they may just be curious, you'll end up with a lot of bumps on the log, folks who are dull in spirit and who are not going to do anything with what you give them. So these types of disciplines and expectations (memory work, witnessing sheets, attendance requirements, etc.) help to weed out the halfhearted.
Advanced classes
After the first round of basic classes, in the second round we go on to studying Mountain Streams, and then Treasures and Word Basics classes. At this time, as mentioned earlier, the Lord led us to divide the groups into smaller units. This helped us to see how people were really doing and where they needed strengthening.
We decided that it was not necessary to take them to our house. As in other third world countries, in some cases our standard is far above theirs and would have only distracted them. Getting them hooked on the Word is most important, and giving them a chance to do something with the Word is the priority. If we did this, we knew we'd be accomplishing our job.
After a six-month to one-year period, we plan to re-evaluate each person. We have learned that a year is a good period of time to really get to know someone and for them to get to know us. Last year we jumped the gun and had a new disciple join our ranks very early. We realized that it is much better to go slow with African nationals, as they come from a totally different culture. On the other hand, it's important to be led of the Lord about each and every person. Generally, however, we're finding that the slow-but-steady approach with these potential new disciples is the best.
With the African youth you can expect different degrees of receptivity. There are those who have had a lot of western influence, some have had quite a bit of education, and then there are others who seem very simple and a bit backward. Some have lived in the bush their whole lives up to now and even being in the city is new to them. But one thing you'll find in all who are interested is a deep sincerity. Keeping this in mind will help you understand that though your students are growing at different speeds, you're investing in them both for now and for the future, and your investment will pay off. Sometimes as you look around your class you may catch a glimpse of what they can be, as you can picture these same ones working with you all the way into the Millennium. The big job they have ahead of them will be possible because of your faithfulness.
Evening meetings
The African students that we've been pouring into are not interested in anything but the Word and getting out the Word! There would never be enough time to get into the Word together and get it out as much as they would like to. So in addition to the public daytime meetings, we started evening classes where we jumped right into more serious study. Our catacombers carry their Treasures everywhere they go; it is their Bible. If we give them an Endtime class, they turn around and give an Endtime class to people they know. They are so responsive and alive, but how they grow depends on our fire and our desire to give them the Word and teach them the basics.
We love you so much! Let this challenge from Dad spur you on: We are followed by radical, fanatical, totally dedicated, devoted, and inspired young believers, who have followed me and their God to the ends of the Earth with their unconquerable message of God's love, which no one will ever be able to stop! (ML #593:26, Vol.4).
Much love from Africa,
Aaron
From new YA teachers starting from scratch
The main thing is to just jump in and do it! It's nerve-racking at the beginning, but then the Lord takes over and does the job.
The people in the class will appreciate your teaching no matter what, so you can't really fail.
Most of us don't have a lot of confidence that we can get up and teach a class, but the best training is just doing it and learning from our own mistakes.
Treating it like a discussion moves the class along and helps it not to get boring.
Asking questions brings the audience into it, and makes the class more fluid and fun.
Getting full of the subject beforehand gives the new teacher more confidence and faith.
It's important to speak loudly enough and clearly enough that all can understand. Ask a team member to sit in the audience to let you know how you're coming across and whether you need to adjust your volume level or any other aspect of your presentation.
An honest critique of your teaching by members of the team gives helpful insight for improvement.
Don't ever expect to be perfect.
Have fun! If we enjoy it, they'll enjoy it. If we're not inspired, they will not be inspired.
Keep an eye on the time. It's better to have a shorter class and leave them wanting more than to tire them out so that they're looking forward to the end!
By Aaron Actor
Africa, my home, I commit my life, all that is left, to thee.
Thy hardships I embrace, thy nakedness I clothe,
thy peril I experience, thy tribulation I endure,
thy sword I receive.
This land of the future is where My King will bring a light
so bright it will change everything.
The spirits of the people in this land speak to me.
They tell me of the things that have been and will be.
From beginning to end it's a land that needs love
with an unquenchable thirst to fill.
So few in past, so few in future will lay down their lives and will.
It takes men and women who love not their lives,
to see what only they can see.
Weak in themselves, but strong in Me is the call from Jesus
that they must hear.
A call to all who love Africa most:
Come be one with her now.
She longs, she waits.
Don't hesitate, for her love is here and now.
Tomorrow will be another time when her borders will be closed.
So invest your all in this land that is warmed by the sun.
Your tears will not be wasted nor labors be in vain,
For as you plant His seeds they'll blossom,
And bring forth fruit that is forever!
The saints of the past long to help thee to bring fresh thought and strength,
to cause you to soar to this distant land.
Upon these shores lay I my life,
For Heaven above, for souls below.
I spend what's left of my time on Earth,
To win Africa's lost until I've died.
Whether in peace or in war, it does not count,
for the truth must be shared with these people.
No matter the state of these lands, their sins or their crimes,
there are still receptive hearts deep within.
I bury my soul here. I plant it deep,
With no recourse or thought of change.
I will not disappear or run away,
for in this land I'm destined to be.
By Aaron Actor
In the latter part of 1999, we revisited Sierra Leone with ten people from different Homes in West and East Africa. (See FAR 104, Rebuilding Paradise: In the Aftermath of Civil War in Sierra Leone, about this team's first visit to Sierra Leone.) Our goal was not only to help the Sierra Leonean people through their difficulties after years of political turmoil, coups, and civil disorder, but also to unite some of our teams in Western Africa in a common goal. Through working on this exciting project, we learned many lessons together, which we'd like to share in this article.
An update on the political situation in Sierra Leone: This time the atmosphere was much more tense than during the previous projects we had worked on there. Various factions were on the verge of rebelling against the main body of the government. The UN had a mandate to collect all weapons from the rebels, but only 500 out of 45,000 rebels turned their weapons in. The rest were up in the mountains and in the bush where most of the diamond mines are, not wanting to yield or turn in their weapons.
Most of the expatriates and Sierra Leoneans that we know were very pessimistic about the situation improving, feeling that things would get worse or explode again. This was driving many of them to move their families and businesses to other countries. Most who lived there through the last eight years had suffered a great deal through each of the coups, with many expatriate wives being raped and many families terrorized by the vandals and rebels.
NEWS CLIPS about SIERRA LEONE at the time of this project
In Sierra Leone, a recently signed peace pact is holding after an eight-year war that killed a half million people and created more than 2 million refugees. But rebels of the Revolutionary United Front have been slow to disarm (Holger Jensen, Scripps Howard News Service, 9/99).
The UN Security Council authorizes 6,000 troops to help wind down Sierra Leone's civil war [UNAMSIL]. (Reuters, 10/99).
Rehabilitation of child and teen soldiers
During this visit to Sierra Leone, we worked with an organization helping ex-combatants, 8 to 17 years old, who had been rebel fighters. They had given up their weapons and our job was to rehabilitate them at the center where they were now living. We brought the Lord and the Word to them in different ways such as skits and stories. We helped them regain a sense of conscience and also experience the Lord's forgiveness for the things that they had been a part of.
These were some of the roughest kids we'd ever met. Many of them had named themselves or had been named after what they regularly participated in, like Axe Man, Death with No Blood, Kill Fast, and other names that described some of the horrible things they had done in the war.
When we first met them, they wanted to confess all their crimes right away, to get them off their hearts. They'd want us to know all the details of how bad they had been, hoping that if we would forgive them, the Lord could forgive them, too, and then they would be able to forgive themselves.
Most of them had been heavily involved with drugs or had been given drugs, and this had added to their inability to discern right from wrong when participating in the acts of violence that they had been a part of.
These young boys had leaders amongst themselves, some self-proclaimed and some respected because of their actual leadership ability for their age. We found in them a deep hunger and vacuum for the Word and the Lord. Though some of them had committed heinous war crimes, we found them very receptive to our message and to the love that Jesus gave us for them. We got them New Testaments and tried to bring them through this transition in their lives while we were there, while they were being changed by the Lord. We prayed that they would continue on to know Jesus better, get closer to Him, and be changed, more and more.
Lessons learned by our team
As in any project where we work with groups of people, the Lord engineers who participates and also what areas He would like to help us grow in. During this time in Sierra Leone, lesson learning seemed to be one of His major goals.
On the team we had people who were new to Africa. They had come with many dreams and aspirations, and wanted to accomplish them very quickly. One evening we had a discussion about not being discouraged if your dreams don't materialize immediately. In any new situation, pioneer field, or new mission field, it takes time to see your dreams become reality. So many people get discouraged after a short time on the mission field, instead of just putting their nose to the grindstone and going about winning souls and remembering the main reasons why they came to the field in the first place.
There's a tendency for some to get caught up with the illusion that they will achieve fame and success, and they fall into a hunger for accomplishment. Some think they will arrive and achieve so much so fast and then it's difficult for them when they don't. This can be an acid test that many of our young missionaries fail, but if they would stick and continue on in their missionary work, in the long run they could accomplish so much for the Lord on these fields.
Some of the people on our team whose dedication to the Lord and to being a sold-out disciple had been hanging in the balances before coming on this exciting mission thought that everything would change during our time in Sierra Leone. They thought somehow their lives, their service, and their dedication would be renewed by being involved with this project. Instead they encountered a lot of hard work and physical sacrifices and felt that they didn't change in the ways they had expected or hoped for. What it boiled down to was that their reason for preaching the Gospel, their reason for following the Lord and loving Him, their dedication and love for the Lord was rather weak. Because of this, they were confronted and defeated daily by the doubts the Enemy was firing at them.
We finally agreed that one of the biggest answers to the problem was to have a mature attitude and look at success and failure basically the same way. We also saw that what was important and most effective was obedience to the Word, following the Lord, and loving Him enough to want to reach out and feed people and take good care of them, not being overly concerned with whether your work seemed is a success or a failure to yourself or to others. The frame of mind of just obeying the Lord day by day in the things He tells us to do translates into real success—a success that we can value and that will also be honored and blessed by Him. Obedience will keep us close to Him, hearing from Him and using His new weapons to find out His will.
Time management
For many of the team members it was new to work together so closely with others. In our group there were also different standards of time management that needed to be evaluated and critiqued. Being honest about it with ourselves and with those around us and being able to see many of our work skills as they really were helped us learn to redeem the time.
We realized that in many of us our basic time management skills were not up to par and that there was a great need for training in this area. Self-discipline—which many of us lack—is something to pray for and develop, as it can help us be more efficient and effective in the Lord's work. Living in close proximity made it clear that this was something our entire team needed to get a handle on during this trip, as we tended to waste a lot of time during our quiet times and evenings. Sometimes it was a blessing to use the evenings to rest and recuperate from a hard day. But we also saw we could use the time to better ourselves in the areas of our relationship with the Lord, memory work, learning our Bibles better so that we could use them in witnessing. We also used this time to go over skits and classes and lessons that we would be using in our daily classes with the children, etc.
The need for teachers of the Word
Again, as in the Liberian project, we saw the great need for teachers of the Word, who can be one of the most important assets to any team or any mission for the Lord. The most important person we can have on a team is someone who's willing to make the sacrifices needed to study the Word and teach the Word, and not worry about the mistakes they might make in their presentation as they learn to be a Bible teacher. We need to present the facts and doctrine of the Bible accurately, but it's good when someone can start teaching even if they feel they are not perfect in their style or presentation. It's such a blessing when someone is willing to learn from their mistakes and grow and learn how to share their faith, not only in a simple way with the rudiments of salvation, but actually giving the real meat of the Word to faithfully feed the believers.
Those young people on our team who took up the challenge were able to learn and start teaching and did great. Many of them felt that they couldn't even teach a Daniel 2 class or didn't know where to start with an Endtime class, but they were just willing and determined and wanting to feed people.
Two of our team, Andy and Angel, were able to start a catacomb ministry while in Sierra Leone, witnessing to Muslim high school students who they met with regularly. What won these students was the book Dare to Be Different. Through studying this book, they fell in love with Dad's Letters right away and were very excited about giving their lives to preach the Gospel amongst their own in the high school.
Putting the witness first
The first time we went to Sierra Leone and also on this return trip, we invested a lot of time in some people to win them as friends. This approach based on friendship, while well meaning and providing help for us which we appreciated, never really helped our friends develop their relationship with the Lord. On the other hand, there were people that we started out preaching the Gospel to and who became our friends because the Word was preached to them. Their vacuum continued to grow and they continued to be close to us for the right reasons.
The people who were just our friends for the sake of friendship, but not for the sake of the Word, didn't continue with us. They never really helped us preach the Gospel themselves, and our relationship with them didn't bring forth the kind of fruit that we were hoping for or expecting. On our first visit to Sierra Leone, they were so interested in all we had to offer, but sad to say we compromised for gain and a place to stay, instead of feeding them as we should have at the beginning and getting them hooked on the Lord.
So again, a major lesson for all of our team members was to see ourselves as shepherds to the people that the Lord led us to. We saw that, at least in this country, bringing the Gospel to them immediately, not wasting time, but bringing Jesus into the picture as much as we can in our conversations and relationships was the key to a deeper, more meaningful connection with outsiders. This led to stronger contacts that could be strengthened by the Word and fellowship.
Sickness
Throughout the trip we were attacked with various sicknesses. Some with us experienced typhoid for the first time, very serious cases of malaria or dysentery that resulted in severe weight loss with a very lengthy recovery period.
On the team we had many different types of personalities—some were accomplishment-oriented and had the tendency to be not so appreciative of those around them. After praying for needed changes and progress, it was very interesting to see how the Lord went about working in their lives. Some lacked the consideration and kindness that is expected from Family members, but in sickness they saw their need for others. Being like an invalid made some depend completely upon some of the very people that had been looked down on and belittled before. This seemed to be a very special touch of the Lord's love, to bring home the concept of how important each and every Family member is, and how much we really need each other.
Oftentimes with our idealistic mindset, we get so excited about helping outsiders and feeling that their care is so important. Yet then we can look upon those around us and their weaknesses with contempt, not thinking about our colleagues as the Lord does, as disciples who've given up everything to serve Him.
Personal lessons as a team leader
Although I consider all that we did in Sierra Leone very valuable, I went through a lot of tests on this trip as well. One lesson that concerned me the most was the lack of compassion I sometimes showed for my own brothers and sisters. We had a lot of sickness, as I said before. Several suffered from dysentery and some of the boys lost a lot of weight and were very ill. Though we prayed desperately, took them to the doctor, and technically went through all the correct steps to handle the situation, I look back and know that I could have done much more to give them the extra bit of comfort they needed and the extra bit of love that the Lord expected me to.
In Africa I've always tended to have the attitude that it's good for people to toughen up to the harsh realities of our field, because if they can't take it, chances are they won't be able to make it in the long run. I've always felt that that type of training was valuable and have often seen the Lord take each person through those experiences to one degree or another to help them be a little more able to withstand the sacrifices and the difficulties that Africa presents. Nevertheless, that doesn't excuse me for my lack of compassion and understanding, and more importantly, not taking the opportunity that the Lord laid before me to be His touch of love to my own brothers and sisters who were sick.
If we go so out of our way to comfort those that are outside the Family, how much more should we be thinking of each individual within the Family and their needs? Lord helping me, I am willing to let the Lord can change on this one, to mold me and make me different. These lessons, I believe, are the instruments that the Lord is using to help us know what He experienced in His Own ministry on Earth, the compassion He felt that moved Him to do the miracles of love that He performed. My prayer (I'm sure the heart's request of every one of our team members) is that the Lord will help us come to grips with our lack of love and cause us to be desperately determined to let ourselves be brokenhearted for those in our own ranks as well as those precious sheep that He brings us to, so that He can work the miracles of love through us.
Why can't we be the David Livingstones of today?
We had one discussion about the difference between us and our lives of dedication and the lives of other missionaries in the past who suffered so much more than we do now. We were pondering why some of us sometimes struggle with the dedication and do-or-die spirit, as expressed in the well-known verse: Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's (Romans 14:8). We found lessons and keys to victory in the lives of these missionaries that helped us learn from their experiences.
One point that we all agreed on was that it's important to be desperate to be all that we can be. We found a thread running through the lives of many of these men and women who loved the Lord so much: All were individuals who were never satisfied with how close they were to the Lord or how much they loved the Lord or what they had done for Him. They were always desperately looking for how to love Him more, determined to sacrifice more for Him, and convinced in their minds and their hearts that loving the Lord and others was an area to be constantly growing in. They were never satisfied with how far they had come.
When reading over the short biographies of some of these people, we saw that while we often remember what these men said, it's their lives and how much they loved lost souls that really convicts us. (See the study on great soul-winners of the past on pg. 22.)
In conclusion
By the end of this month in Sierra Leone, our lives were deeply changed. We'd all been through ups and downs and difficulties, and had learned so much about each other and how much we need the Lord in order to accomplish anything worthwhile for Him. All the projects that we worked on were successful, and many lives that we touched were changed greatly.
Sierra Leone has so many special treasures—not in the diamond mines in the mountains, but in people's hearts! Pray with us that the right Family members will heed the Lord's call to come to this land and continue taking care of its precious people. Please pray with us that the Lord will bring peace and stability to this troubled land that has suffered so much.
Notes on the Lives of Great Missionaries and Soul-winners for Good Thots
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
English Baptist preacher who got saved at 15, became a pastor at 17, and by 21 was known as the boy wonder of England. He founded a college for preachers, an orphanage, and even a Gospel paper. His sermons were even published by American newspapers and many believe him to have been the greatest preacher since the apostle Paul. He organized his church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle of London, into the greatest soul-winning church of his time. No other preacher has had more messages published in the English language, numbering about 100 volumes, plus many tracts and leaflets.
A few years before the death of Charles Spurgeon, an American lecture bureau tried to hire him to come to America to deliver 50 lectures, speaking in all the large cities of America. As compensation, the bureau offered to pay all expenses of Spurgeon, his wife, and private secretary, and to pay $1,000 per night for each of 50 lectures. But Spurgeon promptly declined to make $50,000 in 50 days, saying, I can do better. I will stay in London and try to save 50 souls.
Even if I were utterly selfish and had no care for anything but my own happiness, I would choose if I might, under God, to be a soul-winner, for never did I know perfect overflowing, unutterable happiness of the purest and most ennobling order, till I first heard of one who had sought and found the Savior through my means. No young mother ever so rejoiced over her first-born child, no warrior was so exultant over a hard-won victory.—C. H. Spurgeon
A Christian of discernment had the privilege of hearing Dr. Talmage. When asked his opinion of the preacher, he remarked, A wonderful preacher. The same man went to hear C.H. Spurgeon, and when asked concerning him, he said, What a wonderful Savior! The man had not been impressed so much by Spurgeon's oratory as by the Savior Whom he preached (1Cor.1:23-24; 2Cor.4:5; 1Thess.1:5).
More flies are caught with honey than with vinegar. Preach much on the love of God.—C. H. Spurgeon
Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932)
One of Britain's greatest preachers. At the age of eight he went to work in the cotton mills, and developed the discipline of early rising, a practice he continued throughout his life. He got saved at the age of 10 and became convicted to serve the Lord at the age of 15. He often worked up to 12 hours daily in the cotton mills before returning home to spend four to five hours studying the Bible.
After several years he was ordained and sent to a chapel in Leeds, where he started tremendous revivals. There was a strong agnostic movement in Britain at that time, with Secularist Societies springing up in almost every city. One night the entire Secularist Society of Leeds filled the gallery of Chadwick's church, hoping to disrupt the service. But that night their leader was converted, and within the next few weeks every single officer in the group was also saved. Chadwick later became principal of a Methodist college, where for 20 years he taught students how to pray, preach and win souls.
Giving a tenth is nothing to brag about.—Samuel Chadwick
William Booth (1829-1912)
English evangelist. He got saved at 15, and preached his first sermon on a street corner at 17, while working as a pawnbroker. He had a great burden for the poor of his country and on Sundays he would round up ragtag groups of drunkards and wife-beaters and bring them to the chapel, often leading many of them forward for prayer and repentance. But the elders of the chapel, repelled by the sight and smell of the products of his street evangelism, expelled him.
Booth then tried the Methodists, but ended up dropping out of the Methodists to found the Salvation Army. He organized his mission on military lines, with himself as general. He suffered a great deal of persecution because of his militant image, and in one year alone more than 640 of his Salvation Army officers were assaulted and 60 of his buildings damaged.
About him, Dad said: General Booth was not any bum himself, but he had a great burden to reach the poor of London in that day when things were in a horrible mess. He started going down preaching to the bums and opening missions and found out that music would attract people to hear the Gospel out on the streets and the street corners. So there was a tremendous wave of revival under the Salvation Army in London in those days. (See the full story of the beginning of the Salvation Army in ML #1648:25-30. See also Dad's story about Booth in ML #143A:138.—A man with conviction!) When Booth died in 1912, the Salvation Army had ministries in 58 countries and was preaching the Gospel in 34 languages.
Unless I go about my business of saving the souls of men with an energy and a zeal almost amounting to madness, nobody will take any notice of me, much less believe what I say and make everlasting profit out of it.—William Booth
Some men's passion is for gold. Some men's passion is for art. Some men's passion is for fame. My passion is for souls.—William Booth
William Carey (1761-1834)
An English Baptist, William Carey devoted most of his life to taking the Gospel to India. Starting life as a poor shoemaker, he later became a pastor. From reading the Bible, he became convinced that foreign missions were the main responsibility of the church. This was a radical concept at the time (and still is!), since most 18th-century, churchmen believed the Great Commission was given only to the apostles and that converting the heathen was no concern of theirs.
Carey was determined to become a missionary, even though his wife at first refused to come, but relented when he threatened to go with or without her! They sailed for India when Carey was 31. It took him seven years to baptize his first convert, but his motto was Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.—And he did! In the over 40 years he spent in India, he translated the New Testament into Bengali and supervised 6 complete and 24 partial translations of the Bible, as well as publishing several dictionaries and other books. Besides this, he was the key figure in setting up 126 mission schools.
He and his missionaries lived together and kept all things in common, like the apostles in the Book of Acts, and had a respect for the Indian culture. His goal was always to try to build an indigenous church by means of native preachers and getting out the Scriptures in the native tongue, and it was to this he dedicated his life.
One day an old minister in England walked into his churchyard and, sitting down on a tombstone, began to weep. He wept because his church officers had just notified him that he was getting old and that he ought to resign and let a younger man take his place. As he sat there disconsolate, he saw a boy, with sunshine in his face and joy in his heart, coming down the street beyond the cemetery fence.
The old preacher called this boy to him and had him sit down beside him on the tombstone. There he forgot his sorrow as he talked with the boy about the meaning of life and told him about Christ and his salvation. Presently the boy left him and went on his happy way down the street. The old preacher went back to his manse and his sorrow. Not long afterward he was called to his eternal Home.
Since it is permitted for the redeemed in the life to come to behold what transpires on Earth, this is what that old preacher has since seen: He has seen that boy with whom he talked become a lay preacher, a teacher, and a cobbler. In his schoolroom and cobbler shop he has fashioned a large leather globe; scholars in his class and customers who came in for their shoes have seen the face of the teacher-cobbler suffused with emotion as he pointed to land after land on that globe and said, And these are pagan! After a few years that boy to whom he had talked in the cemetery became the pioneer missionary to India, who translated the Scriptures into the dialects of the East.
That boy was William G. Carey!
William Carey had high hopes that his son Felix would become a missionary. Official honors in Burma caused the young man's soul to shrivel toward divine things. The disappointed father requested prayer for his son, saying, Pray for Felix. He has degenerated into an ambassador of the British government!
A prepared messenger is more important than a prepared message.—William Carey
In Western Africa, it was fourteen years before one convert was received into the church. In East Africa, ten; in New Zealand, nine years before one baptism; in Tahiti, it was sixteen years before the first harvest.
William Carey labored seven years before the first Hindu convert was baptized. In Burma, Adoniram Judson toiled for seven years before he had one, once writing England:
Beg the churches to have patience. If a ship were here to carry me to any part of the world, I would not leave my field. Tell the brethren success is as certain as the promise of a faithful God can make it.
(For more on famous missionaries to Africa, see the biographies of C.T. Studd and Mary Slessor in the famous characters section of Good Thots.)
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