Flying for the Local Church
One of our flights last week was for a missionary here in N'Djamena who flew to the south of Chad for a week of teaching at the missionary training school, here is his story from the week:
This past week a colleague and I had the privilege of being served by MAF as we went for a week-long visit to the remote town in southern Chad. Located on the outskirts of the town is a small missionary training school run by the Eglise Evangélique du Tchad. I had been invited down by the school’s director to teach a week-long intensive course. Having served for two years previously at this missionary training school I was looking forward to going back down and having another opportunity to pour into future national missionaries who would be reaching the unreached peoples of this country.
now since the rains have ended and the roads are dry, I was informed prior to our trip that the roads were really bad and that I should plan on a lot of time to reach the town by vehicle. My problem is that my role for our mission organization does not allow for a lot of extra time – there’s always a need for me to be somewhere doing something. In this particular situation, I needed to be at the school by a Saturday evening (though I had meetings all Saturday morning long), and I needed to be back to the capital by the following Saturday morning (though I would be teaching up until early Friday afternoon). By car, there’s no way I could have made this work. MAF graciously accommodated our needs and enabled my colleague and I to make it to the town in time to worship with the church on Sunday morning, and back to the capital in time to welcome our sons who were just returning from their first term at boarding school outside of the country.
I ended up having a wonderful week down in the south – teaching the ten eager students in the classroom, eating large portions of millet paste and rice with various sauces, walking the sandy paths into market to greet old friends, and looking at the countless stars that only seem visible when in the African bush.
As I reflect upon my trip down and the role that MAF played, I’m reminded of one of the truths that I taught my students this past week – “Good leaders enable others to do the work as well”. This is the work that I see MAF doing – helping enable others to do the work – the same work that ultimately drives all of us who are in various fields around the world to say goodbye to family and friends and launch out – the work of making disciples of Jesus Christ.
