Chris Barr

Africa Recap & Questionnaire

Friday, November 05, 2010

Back in July I was blessed enough to be able to be part of a mission to Togo, West Africa through Mentor Leaders which was amazing experience! During one of our flight delays on the trip back home, a friend of mine go to talking with a man in front of him in line. This man turned out to be the missions pastor of a church in West Virginia! Ever since then the two of them have stayed in touch. It's amazing how God even uses delayed flight to work His will! This pastor and his church are considering supporting Mentor Leaders in future endeavors, but first wanted to get an idea about what this past trip was like for the people who went. So they made a brief questionnaire for us to fill out and return to them. I was surprised at how much I liked what I wrote to them, plus I haven't written anything about my experiences in Africa on my blog yet; so I've included it below.

What drew you to Mentor Leaders and how did you sense or understand God leading you to go?

David Whetstone of Mentor Leaders has become a good friend recently, and upon hearing what his ministry is about plus just getting to see how on-fire David is for the Lord - it just seemed like a huge missed opportunity to not go. It took a while to convince myself, but then I realized that there was nothing holding me back from going; not even the funds for the trip. After I realized this and committed to going, everything just fell into place. I had enough funds saved up to be able to pay for everything myself, but even the vast majority of that was covered by God through gracious friends and family members.

What made the most Spiritual impact on you during or after this trip?

Several things made an impact, but there was one night in particular that stands out in my mind. The second village we went to (I'm not sure how it's spelled, but it's pronounced "Ben-jal") we set up a sound system, a screen, and a projector to show the Jesus film in their native language of Moba. We split up the film across three nights so that it would generate more interest and get more people to come; a plan that turned out to work amazingly well!

On the second night we started playing the film around 7pm and it was already extremely dark to the point where you could look up and actually see the Milky Way galaxy. As soon as the people gathered we turned off the lights and began to play the film. Since we couldn't understand the film, many of us would just hang out until it was over; but that night we immediately noticed small points of light coming from every direction! We soon realized that these were the flashlights and motorcycle headlights of all the other people who were still on their way! It was absolutely incredible to just see all these lights everywhere all headed to the same place. A friend leaned over to me and said "imagine every one of those lights represents a soul." Wow. Hundreds of Africans showed up that night! just to think of all those lights as individual souls coming to be saved was overwhelming.

After the film was over our translator, William, did a quick summary of what happened in the film and what it meant (I assume so anyway, because I don't speak Moba!) and then handed the microphone off to my friend Peter. Peter spoke for a minute or two while William translated, then he wished everyone a goodnight and asked them to come back tomorrow.

No one even moved.
Awkward.

Peter took the microphone again and told them all they could go home. Nothing. He then asked if they wanted to hear a story, and it was a resounding "yes" from the crowd! I'm not 100% certain, but I believe Peter then told the story of Noah and the ark which absolutely captivated the people. After this they were more willing to go home, but even then some people needed convincing. This just stuck with me because I've never seen people anywhere so hungry for the the message of Christ! These people had probably just watched the very first movie in their lives, but they were still drawn in by the message and the power of the Gospel!

Would you go again? If your answer is no, why not?

A few months ago I would have said "no" or "I don't think I'm called to go to Africa." Getting home was a huge hassle with flight cancellations, long airplane rides, nothing going to plan, and some not-so-fun stomach bug that most everyone got. Combine all that with an intense desire to get back to our comfortable ways of life again, and I was happy to never go back to Africa.

But once I got back home and started sharing stories of what we did with my friends, and finally getting to import and review all the photos I took - it all changed for me. Looking at the photos was one of the biggest things for sure. Photography is a huge hobby for me, and I really feel that many of my photos captured what the trip was about and what the people were like. It was amazing to look at photos of the crowds of children that were gathered around me and being able to remember the name or face of a child I interacted with, now thousands of miles away.

So, to answer the question, Yes. I'm already planning on going back for another two weeks in this coming year. Many of my friends who went on this trip are also planning on going back, some for as long as 2 months! For me to go for a full two weeks I have to save up all my vacation days at work, which maxes them out and uses them all at once. If my employer allowed for more than 2 weeks off I would absolutely go for a longer period of time!

What was the most positive and/or negative part of this experience?

The most positive portion of the trip was without a doubt getting to meet the people in these villages. Even though we couldn't speak to each other, there was certainly a connection. We made it very clear that we were there visiting these villages as representatives of Jesus Christ. This made the connection we had with the people so amazing because they knew that everything we did was out of love and it was because of Jesus.

My fondest memories of the trip was being able to take photos of people with my camera and then to turn the camera around and show them their own photo. Without fail, every single time, the people would burst out in laughter at their own photo or a photo of their friend because they had never seen their own photo before! In the very first village when we got off the van, my first experience was being surrounded by about 30 children just staring at me. Not knowing what else to do, I got out my camera and took their photo and showed it to them. One of my biggest regrets of this trip is not having a video of the reaction I got from these kids! They all laughed SO hard and so loud that I literally was taken aback! I was not expecting anything of the sort!

The other memory that stands out in my mind was one hot afternoon when I was tired. I decided to take a quick break in the shade, and a few minutes later I was approached by a woman holding an infant which couldn't have been more 6 weeks old. I had never even seen this woman before, but she came up to me and then just handed me her baby! I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I was extremely humbled as she just sat down and watched me hold her child. So I did exactly that for about half an hour as she just watched me. The baby slept the whole time, which was a huge blessing to me because I'm not very good with babies! I honestly have no idea why this woman did what she did, but my best guess is that she was humbled by us, the white people, coming to her village. Many children would come up to you and simply want to shake your hand because you were white, and I feel like this woman might have just wanted her baby to be held by a white man. I can't be sure but regardless of the reason behind it, I was humbled.

As for the most negative part of the trip, I would certainly have to say it was the the traveling and the sickness. I was lucky enough to only get a temporary stomach bug, but one friend got an intestinal parasite and two other friends contacted malaria (which is a blood parasite that stays with you for life!) So the sickness was not fun, but it certainly was not as bad for me as it was for my friends who had to be hospitalized and learn how to deal with their new life-long disease.

Did you have any opportunity to share Christ directly?

Due to the language barrier, no, not really. It's easy to show love and play sports and have fun with these people, but the hard part was just hanging around later because there was nothing really to say. There's only so many translators and once you involve a third person in your discussion it seems very impersonal. It was still an amazing experience to be involved in showing love to these people in any way at all, which eventually leads to hundreds of hands being raised when asked whether they wanted to have a personal relationship with Jesus himself. I can't wait to go back next year and see how much God has moved in these villages and to see the progress of the churches that have been planted!