A Model for the Faithful

Two weeks have flown by for me. As you may perceive there is never a lack of responsibilities here, but these past weeks have been particularly full. It’s the kind of time when you are excited for it to happen but cannot wait until it is over. I cannot remember if I had mentioned it before but the team here decided to do a youth initiation program for the youth of the Natitingou church. The church members really wanted this as well. It is often the case that when Christianity comes in a replaces a former religion (especially if it is animist), that there are many holes that need to be filled. Unfortunately the life of a fetisheur (or Satan worshipper) is usually more filled with spirituality than when that person becomes a Christian, but that does not mean it should stay that way. Every part of an animists life is filled with spiritual things, at birth, marriage, harvest, and the rest. In the North American world, being a Christian is a title and usually prayer is a last resort before marriage, if a birth is going wrong, etc. (Dale Goodson is the one that did a lot of research on this, he works at AFM.) So as missionaries we want to fill those holes with Christ and Christian acceptable replacements. One big part of the Ottamari culture, and really any culture around the world is youth induction. Thus we sought to do something that the church can do every two or three years to replace the traditional ceremonies in the villages. Since a lot of our young people do not have Christian parents, the pressures are great upon them to do the ceremonies, some have, some have not, and some have not faced the choice yet. Our initiation will be a way for them to counteract those pressures, as well as help them learn what it means to be a Christ Follower and Adventist, as well as bring to a place of greater responsibility in the church. The program certainly is not meant to replace baptism, that is still held as the Biblical way to become a member of the church as well repent of sins and receive the Holy Spirit.
Well then what did happen? The preparations were really almost a nightmare. Because we did not leave much time to prepare we were all in a semi-panic getting it all together. The biggest issue was that we planned the time for the only vacation the students get between now and exams, meaning lots of catch-up, unfortunately teachers with classes of 90+ can’t get all they want done, so during breaks they have extra classes, especially the classes that have big exams for to enter high school or finish it. Four of our youth are in exam classes, one is in grade 12 which is extremely intensive, he was not able to join us, the other two missed parts when they had to be at school, and one from another village missed also because of classes. We had planned four days of teaching on a variety of subjects (spiritual warfare, prayer, stewardship with time and money, marriage, dating, health, being a good citizen, etc.) and then having two days that we deemed, the Rolling Fire (the only phrase I could find akin to Running the Gauntlet in French), a time of team building activities as well more physical training. But with the school we changed it to have the Rolling Fire before teaching, then there was a mix up and we changed it back, obviously creating some headaches.
We all knew the great importance of the program and that Satan surely would not wish it to succeed. Much prayer was poured over it. The week went very well in the end. There were difficulties with the food, it was usually late. We asked a church lady to cook, and one day it rained which made it late, another day she ran out of something so we gave some more money, but in the end it worked out. I saw amazing miracles. I realized that we were disadvantaged; we wanted to take the youth through a quite intense week of teaching and training during their vacation. We had to ask them to do it, sometimes really almost beg. That meant they would be less willing to do some of the tougher challenges, than if they had signed up for it. Also this was the first go for the program meaning that while the church wanted it to be successful; it really is not established as a church institution you could say. But despite my doubts, God brought the youth each day, and some who I was very skeptical about were devout listeners. I can honestly say that during 4 days of at least 6 hours of classes a day, no one had to quiet them or tell them to stop talking to each other. It was a struggle to get them to start class again when they took breaks, but that’s no surprise for any group.
They did almost mutiny when we started the Rolling Fire. Perhaps I thought at first it might be a little too hot, but they pulled through. The first activity was a sort of amazing race. They had to go all through town doing different tasks. I was stationed at the third place, and when they arrived half of them were fed up. They did not understand why they were perusing through town doing “useless” activities, and in the sun as well. Well we had a good discussion for 10 minutes or so and finally by God’s grace, they were convinced to continue. The rest of the weekend there were some complaints, but they pushed through and did very well. I see they learned lots about conflict resolution, teamwork, and their own personal struggles. I learned much about myself as well. In the end we were tired, but I was especially happy, that it was a success.
Sabbath afternoon we had a Consecration service at the church. Each youth signed a commitment to maintain a pure life and be an active member of the church. They also were each assigned a member of the church to be their spiritual mentor, and these mentors also signed the commitment paper agreeing to spend time in prayer and discussion together at least twice a month and whenever else it was needed. We ate some great rice and fish afterwards to celebrate. After all this the youth wanted to watch the rest of the pics, since we could not show all the pics to everyone, the Rolling Fire, is the secret part. I almost shed a tear as I watched the pictures. Just to see how far we’d all come together, was really inspiring. And to know that I was helped to set a lasting program at the church that will surely be an aid to many young people in the future makes me sing praises to God!