Making Lemonade

Our granddaughters, Zoe and Mykah Bontrager-Thomas,
with their lemonade stand in their own living room,
because outside is winter.

We are not really making literal lemonade, although it would taste good to have a glass. I am thinking about the saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Just for fun, I added a picture of our granddaughters and their lemonade stand. 

We were invited to attend the bishops’ missions workshops the last few days of January (see the previous blog post). The main purpose for the workshop was to build vision and ownership among the bishops for missions outreach, and then they will share the material with their pastors. We were asked to put the proceedings and presentations together in a format that the bishops can use it as a manual to present to their leaders.

Now for the lemons. During the workshop, we were told that our residence permits for Tanzania had not yet been applied for (we have been here 4 months already) because some documentation was still needed, and that we should not begin leading seminars in Tanzania while we are in the country on a tourist visa. We won’t go into detail about the missing documents, just to say that we had submitted them but they apparently got misplaced.

We had scheduled 2 training seminars for the 2 weeks following, so suddenly we had 2 weeks unscheduled, available for whatever. As it turned out, we decided to go to Nairobi, where we needed to check in with a couple people anyway and we would have a quiet place to work on the missions manual.  So that is what we did. By Wednesday of the second week, we had finished the manual and took it to a local copy center to make bound copies for the bishops. It includes the presentations, and we wrote and added a study guide to help with presenting the materials to others.  So the manual was the “lemonade” that came from the “lemons” of our permits being delayed.

Workshop participants gather for prayer.

The presentations included biblical foundations for missions, Anabaptist perspectives on missions, the role of African churches in missions, and practical pointers on engaging in cross-cultural missions. Our prayer is that the workshop and the manual will energize the churches to follow Jesus’ command to “preach the gospel to all peoples.”

Another bit of "lemon" came after we printed the manual. I took the finished product on a flash drive for them to copy. When I got back, I discovered a virus had gotten into the flash drive and corrupted all the files. Apparently, the virus came from the copy center. But at least, I had the hard copy. However, I did a Google search and found a way to recover the lost files, and it worked. So grateful!

IMMEA Workshop 2013

Richard Showalter presenting to the workshop

IMMEA stands for "International Mennonite Missions of Eastern Africa," an African Mennonite mission agency formed about a year and a half ago by Mennonite bishops from Kenya and Tanzania Mennonite churches in a joint meeting. The purpose is to build awareness and carry out cross-cultural missions on behalf of the African Mennonite churches.

Bishops in discussion: Dominic Opondo, Stephen Mang'ana,
Moses Otieno, John Nyagwegwe

We just returned from attending a 3-day workshop on missions for the bishops. We met in Mwanza, the second largest city  in Tanzania, located on the southern end of Lake Victoria. Eight bishops attended the workshop with presenters Reuben Ezemadu, a Nigerian church leader and mission administrator, and Richard Showalter, American mission administrator and international missions consultant. Other attendees were Aram DiGennaro, EMM's regional representative in Eastern Africa, and we, Joe & Gloria Bontrager as theological education consultants. We were invited to attend as "observers," but after arriving we learned that means more than just being there and watching. We were asked to lead reflection sessions and to develop the workshop material into a "handbook" for the bishops to use in sharing the material to their local pastors.

Bishops Philip Okeyo and Christopher Ndege 

Aram DiGennaro and Bishop Hellon Ogwada  

Even the chairs felt the "weight" of the issues!

It was stimulating to reflect on the information given, and then to sense the enthusiasm of the bishops for reaching out to places "least-reached" with the gospel, defined as those where less than 2% are evangelical Christians. This includes areas within their reach throughout Kenya and Tanzania. According to the information provided, there are 36 "least-reached" groups in Kenya totaling nearly 4 million people. In Tanzania, there are 39 "least-reached" groups, totaling nearly 56 million people. Besides these, we heard reports of nearby villages that have no Christian witness and where many of the people have not heard the biblical story, but are open and seem ready to commit themselves to follow Jesus when they hear the gospel message. It seems God has prepared them and opened their hearts.

Participants gather in a circle for prayer at the end of the workshop.
From left: Bishop Moses Otieno, Pastor Eli Wang'ombe, Bishop John Nyagwegwe,
Bishop Philip Okeyo, Bishop Dominic Opondo, Presenter Reuben Ezemadu

The bishops expressed eagerness to return to their regions and present the vision to their pastors and congregations. One of their highest priorities is prayer as they discern the best way to move forward. They have limited financial resources, but willing people and open opportunities, and they are seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit in finding the best way to move forward.