Reflections of an American-African. By Pastor Tom Peters

It’s been about two weeks since our team from Wooster GBC returned from a great trip to the Central African Republic. Over those two weeks, I’ve been able to share on several occasions some of the things that we learned while in the CAR. I’d like to share a few more here with you.

This was almost a perfect African experience for our team. A lot of things that I remember experiencing either as a kid growing up in the CAR, or as an adult missionary, our team was able to experience in just a few short weeks. From the chaos of arriving at the Bangui airport, to the heavy tropical rains, to the near-impassable roads, to breakdowns on the road, to the incredible expanse of a clear, star-lit night, to the joy of worship of our Pygmy brothers & sisters in Christ, to the somewhat stoic worship of some of our other African brothers & sisters, to the joy of a deaf-mute man seeing some long-lost missionary friends, to seeing some wild elephants, buffalo and monkeys. The only thing that the trip lacked to make it a near-perfect African experience is that we didn’t see any snakes or scorpions! Crikey, that’s too bad!

If you have been following our blog from the beginning, I earlier wrote about taking a picture of Albert (a recently deceased long-time friend and mentor) back to his wife, Anne. At Bata, I was able to present her with the picture and spend some time with her. That was really a neat experience. You see, when you talk after the fact to people in Africa about the funeral of their family member, there are usually some complaints about what should have been done differently or of someone who did not honor the deceased by their words or actions. But in this conversation with Anne, there were none of those negative comments. All she could talk about was that “Albert’s funeral gave joy to God.” What an awesome testimony! Albert left an incredible legacy for his family and friends of a man who loved God and lived daily for Him! It was an amazing few minutes that I was able to spend with Anne. Continue to pray for her and for her family, that they would not forget Albert’s legacy of walking with God.

As some of the other team members have written, we learned first hand about a lot of the work that is going on among orphans in the CAR, both by Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM), and by ICDI. For me, it was really good to experience the difference between the “orphan care” that these two organizations are providing. Through this type of care local people through churches are empowered to care for the orphans among them. This is done through sponsorships from outside the country, which lessens the financial burden of caring for the orphans. But the spiritual and social development of the children is carried out through the people who have agreed to care for them.

This is totally different from “orphanage ministries.” The orphanages we saw in the CAR didn’t seem to provide much individual care to the children because of the shear numbers of orphans that the caregivers were trying to cover. The other problem we saw with orphanages was the fact that the amount of money that comes in to care for a large number of children has been too much for the managers of the orphanages to handle. They don’t seem to be able to keep their hands out of the treasuries of the orphanages, so the children are the ones who suffer. So, I applaud what both GBIM and ICDI are doing through their “Project Hope & Charité” and “Vision Trust” programs to empower local people to provide the care for the orphans. This is really effective and sustainable in the CAR.

One of the hardest things for me on this trip was to see the attitude of some of the people located at Yaloké. Sue, Mike, JP and I had spent the first two years of our ministry at this place and it had been a thriving ministry center. But after the rebellion in 2003, villagers had ransacked the ministry center and now those thriving ministries such as the hospital and the Christian High School are gasping for air. The worst part about it wasn’t the destruction, but the attitude of the local people. Instead of taking ownership of the ministries and really putting some sweat into getting the works back on their feet, the locals were basically standing around with their arms crossed saying, “Once the missionaries come back, then things will be good again.”

In contrast, Bata saw just as much destruction from the rebel troops as Yaloké had from the local people, but at Bata, they wasted no time in getting the Bible Institute and Seminary back on their feet under their own power. It was very easy, then, for GBIM and other churches & individuals to come along side the local leadership at Bata and join them in the ministries. At Bata, local ownership was very evident, so it was a joy to see the work there, although there is still plenty of evidence of destruction. Please be in prayer for the work at Yaloké; that the local people would see that God has given the ministries into their hands and that they need to be good stewards of what He has supplied to them as ways to reach their community for Christ.

I would like to close with a thought about the attitude of humble worship among the Pygmies that was evident to our team. At Bayanga, we were able to experience the joy of the Lord in a whole new way! Upon our arrival with the Swedish missionary, Tomas, the Pygmy widows expressed their praise to God through song and dance for not only getting machetes to help them in their work in the fields, but also for bringing Tomas and his guests safely to Bayanga. A day later, we were able to go to a Pygmy village where a water well had been put in and see their joy in worship at the clean water that was now provided to them.

Later we were able to sit in the Pygmy church that was there and be humbled that, even with only logs for benches, the Pygmy people would faithfully come to hear the Word of God shared with them. It was very convicting to see that church, because many times we here in the U.S. complain about this type of music in our worship service, or the uncomfortable pews that we have to put up with, or that style of dress that we may deem inappropriate for a fellow-worshiper to be wearing. For the Pygmies, take one look at their church and its benches and it becomes obvious that their worship is not about them; it’s about “KOMBA” (GOD in the Bayaka language)!! Perhaps we could learn a few things from our Pygmy believers that would put us in a true attitude of worship that is "in spirit and in truth!"