Easter in the village

I celebrated Easter with a new group of believers this year. Our local church here in Niamey has been working on developing a relationship with a village an hour outside of town. While they are not the first to present the gospel in this village they have been hoping to start a new church there. Last fall one young man in the church took it on himself to move out to the village in order to be a witness there and in the surrounding region.  In the last month or so he’s moved on to some other villages but the church continues to maintain a relationship with the people of that first village.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take a few young men out to the village to celebrate with them. We brought along some homemade “biscuit” (basically a timbit) and some frozen juice packages. We listened to them sing songs of praise in French and in their mother tongue. I was hoping to see what they did to listen to the Scriptures together but unfortunately white man often translates into preacher in these circumstances and so I ended up sharing about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Tomorrow I am having a meeting with the board of the Niamey church. Even though they have elected boards in the past they have struggled to figure out what is their role and as result the board have not functioned beyond a few meetings. Nevertheless, the church has good intentions and desires to move ahead but requires the necessary organization and administration to capitalize on the work that they are already undertaking. Please pray that the board will come together to identify the mission that God is giving the church and to see it accomplished by his grace.