Language Legacy

I hated it!

I was only twelve’s years old, but I my parents’ idea that I should start taking French lessons was not something I wanted to do AT ALL.  And it didn’t help that my sister, who was three years younger, and my grandmother, who was a whole lot older, consistently outperformed me on every single “dictée” and “examen.” Furthermore, I thought, I was being raised in Portugal and already knew how to speak Portuguese, why did I need to know French as well?

Little did I know that one day, I would be spending two days in Dakar, Senegal, where everyone only speaks French, mentoring a young ministry leader from Guinea-Bissau, who only speaks Portuguese, and try to write a blog about it to folks who only speak English!

Miguel Indibe, is the director of the Projeto Tradução de Guinea-Bissau (PTGB) an initiative to reorganize efforts to finish translations of the Bible in the remaining unwritten languages of his country. After completing several years of seminary training in Brazil he returned to his native land just two years ago to take on his new duties not realizing how challenging it would be for him to fully launch this new national effort. Thanks to Wycliffe Associate CEO, Bruce Smith, I was asked to extend my Nigeria trip for a couple of days and meet with Miguel to offer help him do some strategic planning and figure out just how to develop his new organization.

That’s why the last two days have been a delightful time of sitting together with Miguel here at the WEC guesthouse in downtown Dakar getting to know this enthusiastic young leader and discussing everything from board governance to cash-flow spreadsheets. The side benefit for me has been learning a ton about his tiny, mostly forgotten country on the west coast of Africa.

Guinea-Bissau was a former Portuguese colony that along with Angola, Mozambique and the Cabo Verde islands, still use that language. Even though it is a tiny country, however, it still has around fifteen native languages that have never been put into written form.  That also means there are no Bibles in those languages that people can read in their heart language. Miguel wants to do something about that.

Receiving some help from the national Evangelical Church, the primary Protestant presence in the country, PTGB has had some generous support from a group called One Book, a group out of Canada that encourages indigenous translation effort. Nevertheless, to achieve his goal, Miguel will need to connect with other key partners in the future and to do that, he must first make some major organizational changes in order to build some needed stability and credibility.

If the openness and teachability I’ve witnessed during the past 48 hours is any indication of his leadership capability, Miguel is well on his way. It’s been a privilege to pass on my thoughts, ideas and experience in mission leadership to him and even look forward to a possible follow-up trip to Guinea-Bissau sometime later on.

I guess I do have to admit that if all those years as a kid learning French and Portuguese meant that I would get a chance to do something like this, it was definitely worth it after all!

Standing Amazed

“A real eye-opener! A paradigm shift! Has given me a whole new perspective on how I should live my Christian life!"

These were typical statements written on the evaluation forms at the end of the two workshops I’ve gave this past week in both Jos and Abuja, Nigeria. To be honest, I’m more than slightly amazed by such strong reaction. What started out to be some basic instruction on biblical fundraising principles has certainly ended up becoming much more for virtually all of the seventy-plus participants in the two seminars.

My training event was divided into two days with one main subject each day. First, I attempted to lay a solid foundation on a theology of stewardship. Then, I showed how best practices of fundraising for ministries could be built on that foundation. Using what I’ve been learning myself during the past year from Tim Keller’s messages and the writings of my friend, Scott Rodin, I attempted to show how differently a steward mindset is from one that believes we get to control what we possess. Everyone appreciated the practical examples of fundraising methods, but it was really Day One that impacted folks the most. As I’ve reflected on it, I see at least three possible reasons.

1.       Prosperity Gospel--Nigerian churches are rampant with this false teaching. Many pastors are using it as a means of draining what little financial resources their parishioners have in order to pad their own pockets. Nigeria has the richest Christian churches in all of Africa, if not the entire Global South. Limousines and private biz jets are openly flaunted by Nigerian mega-church pastors as evidence of God’s blessing.  In contrast, my seminar friends immediately saw how a theology of stewardship directly counters a “name it—claim it” thinking. If everything we own belongs to God in the first place, managing it as a steward looks very different than greedily chasing after more material stuff.

2.       Gate-Keepers—African culture in general and in Nigeria specifically, anyone in leadership is venerated, especially pastors who are viewed as being the mouthpiece of God. As a result, pastors tend to become little monarchs who tightly control their ecclesiastic kingdoms. One fall-out of this is that few churches will open their doors to have a mission organization share about its ministry let alone consider financial support for anyone outside of the church. That’s why there was immediate interest in the transformational model I presented in the workshop of approaching churches as partners in the Great Commission as opposed to “begging” for a charitable donation.

3.       Harvesters vs. Sowers—Thanks to Scott Rodin’s insightful little book, The Sower, I explained the difference between a Harvester fundraising mindset that seeks to reap as much support income as quickly as possible with a Sower’s mindset of investing into people’s life-long journey of becoming a godly steward and letting God’s Spirit do the motivating for giving. This truly was a paradigm shift for most workshop participants and many pledged they would immediately change the way they interact with supporters.

Everyone at the workshops agreed that the people they wished could be challenged by this seminar were Nigerian pastors. So, several of them are already brainstorming on how we might be able to put together a more nationwide event a year from now that would specifically target the gatekeeper church leaders of this country. It will be exciting to see what happens.

There are a few times in my ministry career when I felt like I was simply doing something regular and normal, only to be blown away by how God unexpectedly used it as a channel of His blessing for others. Presenting these two workshops this past week in Nigeria has definitely been one of those times.

Nigeria--The Untold Story

As I write this blog, I’ve now been in Nigeria for a full week.  My workshops and seminars have gone great—a subject for my next blog post. But what has overshadowed everything else on this trip has, of course, been the news story of the kidnapped girls of Chibok.  Even as I write, the CNN channel in my hotel room is broadcasting a live report being made just a few miles away here in Abuja, an interview with a Major General of the Nigerian Army. It’s clear that this story is finally making its impact on the world, as it should have weeks ago right after the kidnapping happened.

But what has been most interesting to me is to listen to the comments of my local Nigerian friends and contrast them to the international news stories I’m seeing on TV. That contrast can be summed up in one missing word: Christian!

Absent from virtually every broadcast I’ve seen is the element that concerns local citizens the most—the fact that the Boko Haram has again and again specifically targeted Christian populations of Nigeria. Do you ever hear it reported that the school where the girls were taken from was specifically a Christian school? Or that a similar Islamic school not far away was not touched at all?  Or that several girls who were able (allowed?) to escape were all Muslim? Why is it that these facts never seem particularly relevant to the international media?  I can tell you these and other key facts about recent Boko Haram attacks on Christian villages, churches and schools have certainly not been missed by the population here in Nigeria.

One reason for this is the backdrop of growing frustration Christian populations in the middle of the country have about the slow by steady progression of Muslim Fulani tribal people moving down from the north. During the past several years, these nomadic cattle people have slowly, but surely, taken over traditional farming areas, pushing the non-Muslim farmers farther south. I’ve heard reports that sometimes the Fulani intentionally set fire to farmers’ fields as a tactic to dominate the land for their herds. As their numbers expand in a given area, they get key Imams elected to government offices who, in turn, support legislation that favor further Fulani expansion.

Now, they have moved into the rich, fertile Plateau State and in just the past year and people report seeing herds of their cattle on the outskirts of the city of Jos. Increasing civil disturbances and “incidents” in the city’s outlying areas have caused Christians to fear for their safety and therefore move out of those areas which are immediately back-filled by newly arriving Muslim Fulani. All of this has made many of the Christian ministry leaders I’ve been speaking with this past week more and more concerned and nervous about the future stability of their country. “The Fulani may not be as radical as Boko Haram,” said one friend, “but their ultimate intention is definitely the same—rid Nigeria of all Christian presence and turn it into an Islamic State.”

With 170 million Nigerians in this country, more than half of which are Christian, that is probably not going to happen anytime soon. But what could certainly happen is a bloody civil conflict not unlike what caused Sudan to be split up into two competing nations.

Is it any wonder that these local Nigerians are more than concerned when they perceive that the full story of Christian persecution does not get reported about the kidnapped Chibok girls?