|
September/October 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
What a tremendous blessing it is when a church that you have
started recognizes its own responsibility to start other
churches. This has certainly been our blessing with the opening
of the church in the village of Zanaplédougou.
As I have reported in previous letters, this work came about as
the result of our attending the funeral services for the father
of one of our older members at the Bingerville church in March
of 2008. After two preaching services at this funeral, there
were sixty people who had come to accept Christ. The Muslim
chief of the village instructed us to start a church in the
village to meet their spiritual needs, and he immediately gave
us a large piece of land on which to build the church.
Throughout 2008, we sent several teams consisting of members of
our Bingerville church to encourage the believers and continue
to evangelize in this village of 4,000 people. In January of
this year, we started the Fundamental Baptist Church of
Zanaplédougou through our church in Bingerville. Mr. Coulibaly,
the man whose father had died, went into retirement so that he
could direct this work full time in his own village. Since
January, the church has been meeting in the village elementary
school building.
On October 15, we took three SUV’s filled with 15 people and
supplies to go to Zanaplédougou. I was accompanied by two fellow
missionaries – Danny Flowers and Kristine McLaughlin. In the
group, we had one of my closest friends, Pastor Lucien Kouassi.
We also had two members of Kouassi’s church who publish a
periodic newspaper for all our churches. The rest were members
of our Bingerville church including Bobby, Marylyn, and Pastor
Ouattara with whom I have worked so closely since 2004. It is a
450 mile ride on winding two lane roads often in bad need of
repair and often crowded with truck traffic. It was well after
dark once we finally arrived.
The village greeted us very warmly with a special welcome from
the chief himself. We held five church services with our church
there from Friday to Sunday. The cuisine was exceptional with
the opportunity to try such dishes as Iguana and viper. The
sauces were quite spicy hopefully helping by killing any
bacteria. It was a tremendous time of fellowship and making new
acquaintances.
On Monday, we held a special “ground breaking” ceremony for our
new church building. We had already fabricated all the necessary
cement block and steel reinforcement. In French cultures, they
do not “break ground” for the ceremony. They place the first
block (Pose de la première pierre). A special representative of
the federal government was there to help. Speeches were given by
him as well as the village chief and me. There were nearly 300
people there to celebrate with us. This was a pivotal moment in
the life of this village as there is no other church there. We
are the only one. After the ceremony, we were approached by a
number of other village chiefs in the area asking us to come and
plant a church in their village as well.
The return home the following day was equally difficult, but we
thank the Lord for the safety he provided us. We certainly had
our challenges. Four members of the group fell very ill while we
were there. I woke up Monday morning to find a scorpion ready to
sting my foot. We were not able to accomplish all the
preparations we wanted, yet the Lord blessed greatly, and we all
counted the trip as a great success.
Be in prayer for Mr. Coulibaly as he continues to lead this
church. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is a blessing to see
the Bingerville church, which we started, take the initiative to
start this church in Zanaplédougou. Our prayer is that before
long, the Zanaplédougou church will be able to start churches in
the surrounding villages. All of this is fruit that abounds to
your account for all you have done to help the ministry in Côte
d’Ivoire.
Most sincerely in Christ,
Robert C. Mach
B.P. 551
Bingerville, Côte d’Ivoire
W. Africa
Tel/fax 011-225-22-40-10-26
RobertCMach@cs.com
“The Placing of the First Block” for the Fundamental Baptist
Church of Zanaplédougou. From left to right behind me, a village
member; Mr. Coulibaly who is leading this church; the village
chief; the Sous-préfet who represents the federal government in
the region; and one of our team members from Bingerville (click
photo for a closer look and use your browser's back button to
return).
|
