Benin Bulletin #12
“The Unexpected”
May 6, 2018
Prayer
Requests
1) Kathleen’s
family – Kathleen’s Grandfather passed away unexpectedly this morning. Kathleen and I are leaving Benin to attend
the funeral in New Brunswick. Please
pray for the family during this difficult time.
2) Residence
Cards – Praise the Lord we’ve received residence cards that will allow us to
stay in Benin for the duration of our first term.
3) Car – Pray
for our car. We’ve had a few issues with
it but at the moment is running well.
It’s 15 years old so it’s doing well for its age.
4) French –
Pray for me as I continue in my French language learning. Praise the Lord that people have seen signs
of improvement in my French.
5) Monkolé New
Testament Audio Bible – Praise the Lord that the project I organized to record
the New Testament in Monkolé (a local language spoken in Northern Benin) went
well. Pray that the post production
process would run smoothly and that the finished product would be ready to
distribute by the end of the year.
6) Greece
Conference – Praise the Lord that Kathleen and I were able to visit Greece to
attend a Medical mission conference. We
both had a great time.
7) Our “fit”
– Pray for us as we are struggling to find our fit here in Benin. My role has recently changed from Project
Coordinator to Media Coordinator. Pray
that if the Lord wants us here in Benin, that he would lead and guide us into
where we fit.
Introduction
Greetings to all from Parakou, Benin! It has been quite a while since we’ve written
to you and today seemed to be the day where we needed to let you know what’s
happening. This morning Kathleen
received a disturbing call from New Brunswick to notify her that her
grandfather has unexpectedly passed away.
Both Kathleen and I were close to him so this was very upsetting
news. After discussing things with the
SIM Director here in Benin it was agreed that we would leave for Canada to
attend the funeral. We will be driving
down to the capital of Benin (Cotonou) tomorrow and fly to Paris on
Tuesday. We will arrive in Fredericton,
New Brunswick on Wednesday night. This
is a lot to take in at the moment for us so we’d appreciate your prayers for us
as well as for Kathleen’s family. Our
plan is to stay in Canada for only 1 week but we’ll see how things go. We’ll do our best to update you all as our
plans unfold.
 |
| Kathleen's Grandfather (Boyd Clowater) is on the far right. He will be greatly missed. |
Residence
Cards/Car Issues
On the lighter side of life, Kathleen and I received
our residence cards back in January which was a huge blessing. These cards allow us to stay legally in the
country until November. To get our cards
we needed to drive down to the capital of Benin (Cotonou) which is a difficult
7-hour drive south of Parakou. The drive
down was relatively smooth, but on the way back we ran into some problems with
our car. It all started with a small vibration that eventually became a big vibration. Unbeknownst to us, the 5 lug bolts holding the
front passenger side tire began falling off until there was only 1 left. This left us stranded on the side of the road
without the tools we needed to do the repair.
Thankfully, the Lord had things under control and provided a local
mechanic to come and save us. He
replaced the lug bolts that had broken off and we were back on the road in
about 1.5 hours. We’ve had a few other
issues with the car that has caused us some grief so we’d appreciate you
praying for our car. The car is 15 years
old so it’s starting to show its age.
 |
| 4 of our 5 lug bolts had completely sheared off. We thank the Lord that he held that last one on so we could safely pull over. |
 |
| The friendly mechanic, in the middle of nowhere, that just happened to have exactly what we needed. Thank you Lord! |
Parlez-vous
français?
I (Graham) am continuing to study French for two
hours a week with a local teacher. My
teachers name is Mouni and she has been doing a great job in helping me and
another short-term missionary here with our French. She teaches all the Peace Corps volunteers
that come into the country so she has a lot of experience. Please pray for me as I continue in my French
language learning. Pray also for Mouni
as she has had a difficult two weeks.
Her niece passed away so she was unavailable as she was helping with the
funeral. After that, she was diagnosed
with Malaria so she’s been too sick to teach us. Pray that the Lord would heal her from the
Malaria, and heal the pain caused by the loss of her niece.
Conference
in Greece
In March, Kathleen and I had the privilege of
heading back to Athens, Greece to attend a medical mission conference. For those who don’t remember, Kathleen and I
went to Athens for our honeymoon back in 2016.
One of the reasons we chose Greece for our honeymoon was because we felt
like we would never have the opportunity to go there again. So, our once in a lifetime trip repeated
itself just two years later! We had a
great time at the conference and I had a special surprise waiting for me when
we got there. When I connected to the
wifi at the hotel, Facebook notified me that a friend of mine from Botswana was
also heading to Greece. As it turns out
him and his entire family were also planning to attend the same
conference. So, I had the privilege of
spending two weeks with my good friend Nyerere Obita while Kathleen and
Nyerere’s wife Tonya went to classes at the conference. It was a special time that I thank the Lord
for.
 |
| This is just Greece being it's usual beautiful self. |
 |
| We had a great time with the Obita's while we were at the conference. |
Monkolé
Audio Bible
Earlier this year I was given the responsibility of
planning a recording of the New Testament in a local language spoken here in
Northern Benin called “Monkolé” (Mon-ko-lay).
A technician from Ghana who works with Faith Comes By Hearing came to
Benin in March for a research trip to determine if this would be possible. The plan was to record in a small village called
Pèdè (Ped-ay) about a 3-hour drive north of Parakou. The Faith Comes By Hearing Technician, Sammy,
arrived in Parakou by bus and we travelled together in my car to the village of
Pèdè. We held a meeting at the Monkolé
church there with the local Bible translators, Pastor Samuel and Philemon. About 25 people from the Monkolé congregation
including men, women and children came to the meeting where Sammy had them read
aloud so he could determine who would receive what roles. Everyone did a great job reading and Sammy
chose parts for 15 different people and told them they needed to practice
because at the beginning of April, we would begin recording! As promised, Sammy, along with another
technician, Sylvanus, returned to Pèdè and began recording the Monkolé New
Testament Audio Bible. About 3 weeks
later Sammy contacted me and told me they had finished recording and were now
just listening to the recording to ensure it was correct. Kathleen and I, along with a short-termer
here from Switzerland, Janine, went up to celebrate the end of the
recording. The Monkolé people were very
happy and held a small celebration with food and music and laughter. The technicians were visibly moved by the
relationships they had built with the Monkolé people during the short time they
were with them. Please pray now for the
post-production work that needs to happen to the recording. Pray that by the end of the year, the Monkolé
audio New Testament will be available to the Monkolé people.
 |
| The temporary "studio" that we built out of wood and foam mattresses. |
 |
| Let the recording begin! |
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| The temperature was often over +40C during the 3 weeks of recording. Somehow, Philemon seemed to be unaffected by it. |
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| At the end of the recording we had a celebration and certificates were given to each reader. |
Role
Change/Struggles
One thing that some of you may be aware of but not
all, is the fact that Kathleen and I have both been struggling to “fit” here in
Benin. We have both had some struggles
with our positions and we’ve had some issues fitting into the team here. This has led to a recent change for me. Originally, I had come to Benin to work as
the Project Coordinator. My role has now
changed to the Media Coordinator. I
can’t tell you exactly what that means yet because we haven’t gotten the job
description finished. However, I can
tell you what I know. As I mentioned
earlier, we have been doing audio bible recordings here in Benin. My job at the moment is to collect these
recordings and other digital media (like the Jesus film) in the different
languages here in Benin and find ways to distribute them to the people
here. So far, I can tell you that this
has felt like a better fit for me here in Benin. However, there is still some issues that Kathleen
and I are dealing with. Please continue
to pray for us that if the Lord wants us here that He would make that very
clear. And, if He is leading us
somewhere else that He would make that very clear.
Conclusion
With that said I think it is time to end. Thank you so much for your prayers. It’s been a crazy year! We know that it is your prayers that are
getting us through it. We are looking
forward to seeing some of you on the east side of Canada while we are there.
Blessings,
Graham & Kathleen <><
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The opinions expressed in this letter are our own opinions. They are not necessarily the opinions or
views of Serving In Mission (SIM).
