Our second stop on our Off Ship Ministry Site Visit was with Jean Claude who is our agriculture trainer. He is training five men from Bethesda in agriculture who will be the trainers in their training program. In addition, they have 5 other men from the local community going through the training. Soon they will start with 30 new participants. You will see below the building they will use as the dormitory for participants and staff.
Off Ship Site Visit 07Aug – Hevie Training Facility
One of my privileges and responsibilities as the Programs Administrator is to plan and host the Off Ship Ministry Site visits for the general crew on a sign-up basis. Our very capable Public Relations department does this for visiting guests, donors, staff from our offices, etc. Though, I am able to offer this for the general crew. On Friday, we drove for about an hour to Hevie where we are partnering with Bethesda, a local Christian non governmental organization in building a training facility / dormitory for agriculture training. The building is near completion and will be occupied as soon as it is finished.
Jardin d’Eden Basketball
Following our time of singing and sharing a Bible story / lesson and craft time, we usually have free play time – this week we brought a basketball. Basketball is not too popular here, as football (soccer is king) though the boy with the ball now has a shirt with ‘Jordan’ printed on it.
Jardin d’Eden with Dorreal 01Aug
In this photo, Dorreal is one of the older boys at the Jarden d’Eden (Garden of Eden) Children’s home here in Cotonou – he is holding on his shoulder ‘Baby girl’ who has just started to walk.
Jardin d’Eden Craft Time 01Aug
At this children’s home – Jardin d’Eden, after sharing the story of Jesus’ first miracle – at the wedding feast – our craft was making our own invitations – I am watching Joel as he glued on cut outs and used stickers to decorate his special invitation. Through a translator, I learned that he remarked that he stacked the cut outs and stickers on his invitation because at his party there would be lots of food.
Jardin d’Eden 01Aug Snack Time
At a local children’s home this past Saturday, we shared the Bible story of the wedding party where Jesus turned the water into wine. It was the same day as Benin Independence Day from France. We followed up the craft time with some cookies (some the ladies in our group made cookies and others we purchased). This little guy is giving you this ‘cookie crumb’ smile.
Jesus Film in Benin
Sharing the Jesus Film in the local languages is part of Mercy Ministry which is part of Programs. The team and other crew volunteers go out on Tuesday and Friday evenings. We are using the film in French, but primarily in Fon, the local language most spoken in this part of the nation.
Deputy Harbor Master DOUNGBE, Pierre, Keith 23Jun09
During our pre-assessment in Lome, Togo, we went out on a tug boat to view the port completely. Our host was the man in the middle, Deputy Harbor Master DOUNGBE. To our benefit, he remembers well when the Anastasis was in Togo in ’03 and he speaks English.
Meeting at Port with ADJEH, Keith, & Pierre
A few weeks ago I was asked to go on the pre-assessment team to Lome, Togo. Togo will be our field service location in 2010. Here in this photo, we are the port office meeting with the General Director and others. We were well received. Two representatives from the Ministry of Health came with us for the initial meetings.
KRB Update 2141 Local Churches/4th of July
KRB Update #2141 July 9, 2009 Local Churches / 4th of July in Benin
Local Churches: Benin has an estimated Christian (Protestant and Catholic) population of 30% of the people in this nation of 8.7 million. The Muslim population here is 25% though primarily focused in the northern parts of the nation. Benin is the birthplace of voodoo with about 18% of the population. Though, regretfully, some have noted that many Christians continue to hold on to their voodoo beliefs.
On Sundays, the ship has an evening Worship Service in our International Lounge at 19:00 and we are permitted to invite visitors to this meeting (limited to only 2 visitors per crew member). The reason we have the service in the evening is so that the crew can be involved in morning worship services in the local community.
I try to assist in this by maintaining the Local Church Sign Up Sheets binder on our table in Town Square where most of the sign up binders are available – we sign up for everything here. I announce at the meeting on Friday, Programs Reporting Time, about those sheets already completed for this coming Sunday and encourage the crew to sign up and join. At the same time, I am encouraging the crew who are taking ship vehicles or are walking, to complete a sheet and invite others to join them. Most of the churches our crew attend are those that offer English translation – some of them are churches and denominations from Ghana and or neighboring Nigeria, both English speaking nations. The one I attended recently had translation from French to English up front but in the back there were two sections that offered translation into Fon (the dominant language in this area) and another local language which I did not recognize. I appreciate greatly my church in Ghana and in Liberia – my relationship with the pastors there has been beneficial for me and for my ministry involvement and for my role in Mercy Ships.
4th of July in Benin: Over here for this past weekend, I have had two special events as the United States celebrated 233 years of independence. On Friday night, some of the leadership of the ship were invited to a Reception at the Residence of the United States Ambassador. There were many officials from other nations and many from the nation of Benin, some I have met before. It was a time of mingling and visiting. They showed a short video from Secretary of State Clinton and speeches were shared (including a message from President Obama) and responses were made. Though, the speeches were in French and so I struggled to understand what was being said. Then on Saturday afternoon, the Embassy hosted a BBQ for all Americans in Benin and so out of the 120 Americans on the
Photo: My final service at my church in Liberia
Africa Mercy right now – about 90 of us attended the BBQ – chicken, potato salad, corn on the cob and so many great desserts. It was casual and enjoyable, but no fireworks in the evening.