At least 53 Questions to Ask New Workers to West Africa
re Strategies and Adaption to New Cultures:

Is there a written strategy document?
Do they understand contextualizing the gospel?
Do they understand that not all methods work in all places?  That not all media is appropriate for all situations?
Can they tell Bible stories?  Do they know the seven key characteristics of God useful in SLM evangelism?
Can they do personal witness in another culture setting?
How does their agency train workers for ministry here?  How many months?
What cross-cultural training is done in the home country? 
What training is planned to be done in West Africa?  What cross-cultural orientation will be done?  How often?
Is continuing education encouraged?  Will they be studying while on the field?
What kind of supervision is planned?  What model?  How often? 
Do they have a mentor for spiritual life & growth?  Would they like one?
What kinds of evaluations and debriefing will be conducted?  How often?
How often will they leave the district for conferences and vacation?

Benjie holding a ....... ?

 What language learning method will be used?  Have they had specific training in this method?
Can they learn a language in the field without direct supervision?
Do they understand social structure issues?  Have they had any anthropology courses? 
Do they have any plan for understanding the social structure of the culture in which they’ll work?
Have they considered what effect the discovered social structure will have on their strategy?
Do they understand the stages of culture adaption and culture shock? 
Have they looked at all the possible ways to educate their children?  Would they accept far away MK dorms for their precious ones?

Can they suspend judgment of a culture for the first year or more?
Can they settle beforehand the question of trust in relationships?
Have they studied working on conflict resolution in team relations and also in relations with nationals?
What do they know of spiritual warfare?  Do they practice fasting? 
Have they studied animism and folk Islam?
What is their understanding of revelation, dreams, visions, and God’s healing?
What kind of lifestyle do they expect?  Can they live simply?  What transport?
Do they understand the issues of bonding?  Who will they bond with?
Will they want a village house and also a base house in a larger city? Or just one place?
Have they studied Islam?  Have they studied the varieties of SLM in West Africa?
Have they studied well the concepts of the Trinity, Jesus’ incarnation, God’s grace, inspiration of the Bible, & destiny/fatalism to answer common SLM questions?
Have they read on West African history and current politics?  How many of these 18 countries’ current presidents can they name?  Which ones are French or English?  Which ones are Christian?
Do they have a personal holiness commitment?  Are they intimate with God?  Would there be testimonial references for this available?
Are they able to feed from the Bible and God directly?  What is their practice of study and worship and prayer?
Will they be able to freely worship in other orders of service, sing in other forms, and use other forms of prayer?
Do they practice absolute dependency on Jesus Christ in all areas i.e. relationships, money, protection in bad places, health, travel, family, kid’s education, ministry results, language & cultural ability, etc.?  

Do they understand servant-leadership roles?
Are they comfortable with, do they respect people of other races, languages, education, & economic levels? 
If they are African-American (or African-European), do they understand the special expectations & challenges on them in Africa?
If they are African, do they understand the special challenges on them in Islamic West Africa?
Have they studied issues of poverty and community development? 
Have they worked out concepts & strategies of outreach via development?
Have they studied issues of church dependency?  Are they committed to circumventing it?
Have they worked out how to handle beggars, scammers, the truly needy, and pan handlers in a gracious way?
What skills/jobs/vocations have they trained for?  Business? Farming? Health care? Accounting? Teaching?
How flexible and adaptable are they?  Can they tolerate significant changes in their assignment while on the field?
Do they value networking and partnering with other agencies?
Do they see the value of using the OT in SLM evangelism for redefining God for the Muslim?
Can they tell the difference of a sheep and a goat? 

and here we have two ......  ?

After thirty years in the business, Jenn & I are still learning.  We have some notion of answers on these, and others unasked, but we have yet to answer all fully.  New workers must consider these and set a goal of attempting to answer them as they live and minister among our friends.

prayer updates April 2011

I want to update pray-ers on how things are coming with previous requests.

1/  Digging at the well in Fulani nomad village of Duduya has progressed to 26 yrds deep, but blasting in the very hard rock is slow, and not much more water has been found.  We will stop in a few days and wait until after the coming rainy season. Pray for God's provision of funds to reach 30 yrds deep.  btw:  It is very hot and dry here now, it was over 120 degrees the other day (in shade) with promise that Easter will be celebrated on a very hot day.

2/ Our good friend Hasel Sow, an older Fulani nomad, is very sick with a cancer, and Jim hopes to visit him in Assoum soon with some other Fulani believers to encourage him and to be encouraged in the word and faith.

Hasel on left ready to pour his tea,
Oumar on right, one of the Bile school students

3/ The reconciliation process of the Malian church association, AGEMPEM, is moving, but slowly.  The next meeting, where we expect good progress, is not until June!  It is critical to achieve much more progress before assembly meets again in September.  Pray for wisdom for the reconciliation committee members:  Pastors Dondo and Kalan, Ruth, & Jim.

4/  Some missionary coworkers have been hit by severe challenges of health and culture adaption, pray especially for new workers Andrew, Sherry and Eva.  Andrew spent three months with us in Kayes and is now hosting as Chinese team from Hong Kong in Dakar.  He will return to Canada in June before Mary and he come back to Kayes in September.

5/ Two Fulani brothers are studying in Bible schools: Ousman in Cameroon is writing his final thesis, on polygamy in Senegal, and Oumar is back in Benin for his 2nd year of studies.  UWM is helping partly with their scholarships.

6/ The Malian Malinké pastors will be helping churches in the Nyagala and Bafing areas with evangelism campaigns.  Pray for hosting pastors Toma, Joel, & Yousouf, as they work with Pierre, Sekou, Eli, and Jacques.  Also, Pastors Founeké and Pierre will be conducting a dry season preparatory school for mountain village kids in Kenieba in May.

What we did in 2010: by the numbers

1: woman of the Soninké tribe discipled through weekly Bible studies and baptism preparation. (Jennifer)
1: Christian FM-radio station launched by a Malian Christian NGO with help from UWM (we have provided facilities and electricity, and helped them to find equipment); they currently broadcast about 18 hrs/day.
1: semester served on board of Dakar Academy. (Jennifer)
1: graduate class for education degree. (Jennifer)
1: son graduated from Dakar Academy, with honors.
2: new missionaries recruited for MALI, in a seconding agreement with WEC.
2: evangelism and medical teams to the Moors (about 15 participants all told, to 8 villages altogether).
5: meetings of the Malian Assoc. of Evangelicals attended by Jim, where he is serving on the Committee of Reconciliation to head off a split in the organization.

6: men taught in Bambara language Bible school (in partnership with Norwegian Lutheran Mission).

10: meetings with the local Christian school committee (see pix).
10: ESL teachers whom Jennifer observed and trained in Bamako during 2 weeks in January.
15: meetings in churches last summer, and we were featured at the Missions Night of the Annual Conference of the Church of Christ (Holiness), an African-American denomination, in St. Louis.
22: visits to disciple new Fulani believer in Kayes (who came to Christ through the controversial "Common Ground" method of evangelism). (Jim)
27: women trained in leadership seminars (in partnership with Marcie Harris). (Jennifer)
28: years celebrated married to same spouse!
35: Christian Fulani leaders hosted in MICCAO annual conference in Kayes for one week
30: visits to Fulani villages for outreach and supervision of the well project in Duduya. (Jim)
40: meetings with the Kayes Pastors' Cooperative for prayer and planning of joint evangelistic events. (Jim)
49: shows of original Star Trek watched!
52: beggars helped on our front porch by prayer, food, Bible reading, cash, work, clothing, loans, empathy, medicine, counsel, etc.

75: visits drinking tea to do friendship evangelism among mostly Fulani friends, often playing Bible story cassettes or mp3 players like the Megavoice. (Jim)

150: radio broadcasts managed in the Fulani & Moor languages (on 2 different stations).

12,000: miles traveled June-August in the USA & Canada to facilitate partnerships, raise funds, promote ministry, and keep in touch with supporters including many visits with churches and dear friends.

Mr. Gbagbo or Mr. Ouattera? What changes?

Open letter to Smyrna Ministries in response to their bulletin (below) for prayer:

Dear friends at Smyrna Ministries,
       We appreciate your ministry for the persecuted church, and we especially appreciate that you sent out a special bulletin about the tinder box situation in Cote Ivoire.   I was, however, somewhat surprised at the tone of your recent bulletin for prayer about Cote Ivoire.  I think Miss Kendal whom you quote has little cultural and historical understanding of the situation.  I believe we have no need to fear "Muslim political domination" in this country if Mr. Ouattara actually becomes the President. 

       My family and I live comfortably and safely in a 98% Muslim nation just north of Cote Ivoire as a Protestant missionaries (as members of UWM of Charlotte, NC), and we have as much if not more freedom of religion, press, and speech in this country than in the United States.  Cote Ivoire is already the same, and that would not change radically under a Ouattara government.  West Africa Islam is not Middle East Islam; the folk here, of many, many people groups, are not as deeply rooted in Islam, and their high value of hospitality precludes much argument about religion.  We never hear arguments about a changed Bible, that we Christians have three Gods, that we eat pork, that we drink alcohol, that we are promiscuous, etc.  Most are happy to discuss and listen to Bible stories and the gospel.  Please do not paint a picture of Islam as solely dangerous and radical.  We do realize there is horrible and much illegal persecution of believers in many Muslim lands, but know there is little in the countries of West Africa, except northern Nigeria.  Paint a picture rather that rather Muslims do see a deficit religion and see the need for stability and morality in their lives, that many Muslims are coming to Jesus, and that God is at work in even the Muslim nations of West Africa to build his church and His Kingdom.
. 
      Personally, I am an unrestricted missionary to similar Fulanis of the ones that persecute the church in Nigeria, but they would not do so here.  I’ve said many times over the years, “All my neighbors are Muslims,” and they are very friendly and would protect me and my family during political unrest. Even when our grade school and high school students were in the midst of rebellion in 2003 in Bouake city in the middle of Cote Ivoire they were never in personal danger because of being North American or Christian.  They were indeed evacuated from the war zone, but not because threats against themselves.
      
      The rebellion was over blocked elections and perceived oppression, not religious factions.  Leave it at that.  Don't polarize the situation into what it isn't.  It includes racial distinctions of peoples in the north and south who happen to be of different religions, but religion hasn't been the issue.  The northerners are traumatized too, fearing a return to oppression from the south and no change after years of struggle and much bloodshed.   

      Don't portray CI as a once Christian nation; it has never achieved well over 50% Christian.  Many of those who are named such are very nominal such as the large independent "Harris church" and the Roman Catholic Church which owns that huge, expensive, wasteful, and presumptuous cathedral built by a megalomania President.  It was not built by the hearts of evangelical believers in Jesus.  Evangelical churches are in every corner of CI, not only the south, and have flourishing ministries.  Muslims have flocked to CI from other poor nations around for the economic benefits and jobs, not to take over a "Christian" country.  Many of the immigrant Muslims are now solid members of good churches, PTL.  Many have moved to CI from Liberia and Ghana, too, but you aren't complaining about them also maybe becoming citizens, are you?  
     
      True, Mr. Gbagbo attends a church, from what I hear, a Protestant church in Abidjan, but we don't see a Christian testimony in his actions!  I understand also that he has two wives!   Do you know that Mr. Ouattara earned a doctorate in economics from Univ of Penn in Philadelphia in the 60s?  And he had the trust of CI's famous Christian founding President, as a young government minister in the late 80s to become CI's first Prime Minister?  Did CI suddenly become a majority Muslim nation then?  There was no talk of it then; there's no real talk of it now.  He is well qualified, he is stable; he is not a radical Muslim.  Many of my friends in these nations are returning home from CI because there is no economic hope there now.  Now 12 years of discord and rebellion and political shenanigans, mostly by Mr. Gbagbo, has left the country a shambles that needs unity and rebuilding.  Because of years of discord the cities of other nations such as Bamako, Cotonou, Ouagadougou, Accra, Dakar, even Lomé, etc., have boomed, and Abidjan will never regain its luster and proud place as the star of West Africa.  

      We need to pray for peace.  We need to pray that the churches will be the lighthouses in a dark world.  We need to pray they will be the leaders in mediation of the political standoff.  We need to desperately pray there will not be another bloodbath with who knows who will emerge to lead.  Pray for God to build His church in the midst of constant political crises in the world,.  The gospel is the only hope for Africa.

God bless,
Rev. Jim Bowers

PS: You have two spellings of Mr. Ouattara's name.  BBC uses 'Ouattara'; you may also use 'Wattara' to help Americans say it right!  Put accent on the 1st syllable, not the second.

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 8:20 PM, Smyrna Ministries International <smyrna@smyrnaministries.org> wrote:

Recent elections in the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) have threatened to bring war to the region and could result in Islamic rule.

 From 1960-1993, Muslims from neighboring regions immigrated into the country.  Muslims make up 38.6% of the official population and 70% of the foreign migratory workers.  Elizabeth Kendal of the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin points out that these immigrants comprise approximately 30 to 40% of the total population and, if they are naturalized, would make the country a majority Muslim nation.  In 2002 civil war broke out between the north (where most of the Muslims live) and the South (where most of the Christians live) over whether these immigrants should be naturalized. 

 Presidential elections have been delayed since 2005, but finally took place this October, with a second run-off election in November.  The Independent Electoral Commission announced provisional results in favor of one candidate, but Ivory Coast’s Constitutional Council announced results in favor of the other candidate.  Both candidates alleged fraud.  Although violence during the voting process reportedly led to at least three deaths, the United Nations is declaring the elections to have been free and fair.

 Elizabeth Kendal writes, “Elections were held on 28 November 2010, with both Gbagbo [a Christian from the South] and Ouattara [a Muslim from the North] claiming victory. The US, European Union and African Union have recognized Ouattara as the winner and called for Gbagbo to respect democracy and step down. Russia meanwhile is blocking a UN statement that would recognize Ouatarra, saying that this is not the UN's role. Ivory Coast's non-Muslims are traumatized, fearing that their homeland -- once the most prosperous 'Christian' nation in West Africa, home to the region's largest cathedral, home-base to most of West Africa's regional Christian ministries -- is about to come under Muslim political domination.”

Ask God to strengthen the church in the Ivory Coast and enable Christian ministries to continue to operate there.  Pray also that the millions of Muslims in the country will come to know the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

Smyrna Ministries International
P.O. Box 16474, Washington, DC 20041-6474, 540-554-8188

smyrna@smyrnaministries.org or www.smyrnaministries.org