10 Mar Update on the Reecks

Roger Reeck, UB endorsed missionary in Honduras, left Honduras a few days ago to attend the funeral of his oldest brother in Michigan. Both he and Marilyn will fly to Trinidad later today–Roger from Michigan, Marilyn from Honduras.

Here is some information from the latest newsletter from Roger and Marilyn Reeck, UB endorsed missionaries living in Honduras.

Now that we are moving in to consultant roles our Wycliffe leaders are asking us to travel to several places. Our last trip was to Mexico. On March 10 we leave for Trinidad/Tobago to help facilitate at a Storying Workshop for people from several Caribbean countries. Yvette from Belize will be joining us as a facilitator also.

After just a few weeks home Roger will travel to Mexico(to the Zapotec town that we used to live in ) and carry on a similar type of workshop. Then we travel to the US where we plan to spend a few weeks at churches in the midwest. At the moment the plan is for Roger to study to improve his Hebrew in Israel during June and July.

Next stop is Africa-Guinea Bissau where Marilyn will meet up with him there. Back home to Honduras in the fall but still be two more trips–to Belize and Brazil.

09 Mar Honduras: Recognizing Francisco Raudales

Francisco Raudales (center) with the plaque presented by Global Ministries.

In January, I was privileged to attend the Honduras National Conference. This was the going-away conference for Francisco Raudales, who had served as superintendent since January 1997.

There were many expressions of appreciation for his ministry over the years. I presented a plaque on behalf of Global Ministries.

Juanita Chavez was elected as the new superintendent. They didn’t announce the vote tally, but her selection definitely pleased the crowd, and people were supportive even if they personally didn’t vote for her.

Praying for Juanita Chavez as she begins her new role as Honduran Superintendent. L-r: Francisco Raudales, Juanita Chavez, Jeff Bleijerveld.

I wasn’t able to stay for the closing service on Saturday night, but Francisco told her 2000 people attended. My last official act was to pray for Juanita Chavez.

Prior to the election, Juanita had been working on a strategic plan for the coming years. It wasn’t a plan with specific outcomes in terms of numbers, but outcomes in relation to healthy church development and healthy conference development. That was exciting to see. They were looking down the road–how do we get there? how do we know when we’ve developed healthy ministries?

It was something their governing council, the junta, put together, and they gave her the lead. It’ll be neat seeing her work through that in the coming years.

03 Mar “We Need to Support Ourselves”

The church at Bo, in Sierra Leone

While attending Sierra Leone Conference, I didn’t sense a strong feeling of expectation in regard to support from North America. In fact, a number of younger pastors–some of the rising young leaders in the conference–came to me and said, “We need to be supporting ourselves. We appreciate everything the US and Canada have done in the past, but it’s time for us to take ownership of the ministry God has given us.”

The church in Bo just completed a new sanctuary that seats 400. It would be an impressive building in the United States. And they never asked the conference or the US for a penny. They built it themselves. They also run a school next door to the church, and it receives no outside funding that I know of.

encountered something similar in Nicaragua. A discussion began about how Central American churches could participate in mission giving. They said, “We’ve been on the receiving end for a long time. We’d like to do something that puts us on the giving side.”

They raised the idea of taking a missions offering and sending it to the United States. I told them about how the Canadians already participate with us in two offerings, Self Denial and Thank Offering.

They jumped all over that, thought it was fantastic. We need to work out the details of how we distribute the funds they send; they wouldn’t want us to send it back to them. But to send money to us, and then it goes somewhere else–that’s something we can do for them, as they seek to reach out to the world.

24 Feb Sierra Leone: Can You Top This?

In the States, UB churches send 3.5% of their income to the national office as a “partnership fee,” to help support the various ministries we do jointly. In Sierra Leone, they have a pledge drive.

They presented the conference budget and what they hoped to accomplish during the coming year. Then individual districts, churches, and members stood to announce their financial pledge for the coming year.

It was a fun time, with some playful taunting, egging each other on. “Our district is committing to half a million leones. What about you?” And it would be up to the next district to do as well or better. Likewise for churches. A number of people plunked down cash on the spot, some sizable chunks of money.

It was quite a lengthy exercise, probably three hours. I was encouraged by what I saw. They were putting their money behind Billy Simbo’s leadership.

23 Feb Sierra Leone: Conference Business

20 Feb Sierra Leone: First Impressions

My visit to Sierra Leone in December was my first trip to Africa (if I don’t count a short visit to Morocco when we lived in Spain). I started the day in Germany, and ended the day late at night in Mattru, far up-country. Here are my memories and impressions of that first day.

The Freetown airport lies on an island. After the plane landed, a tractor pulled up to the plane with a wagon to collect our luggage.Inside the terminal, I encountered a sea of people (which I’ve seen in other countries). Everybody wants to carry your bag. Some guys offered to fly us to the city via helicopter, but I’d heard too many stories about these helicopters. Instead, Billy Simbo and I headed to the car ferry (itself a 20-minute drive). We were jammed in like sardines, standing up the whole way. I didn’t see any lifejackets, and there were no safety drills. We did go to the First Class room, which included some air conditioning and guys selling pirated CDs and DVDs (including some nice Christian CDs).

Freetown featured crowded streets, a lot of commercial businesses, and much hustle and bustle. We found ourselves on Kissy Road stuck in parked traffic for a couple hours. You can do your shopping on Kissy Road while you’re stopped, because vendors come by with fresh eggs, bluejeans–anything you want. They carry everything on their heads. I saw one guy carrying a Honda generator on his head. That was the most impressive thing I saw in Sierra Leone.

Amidst the crowds, I carried my suitcase on my head, too. If you try pulling it behind you, you’ll never make it through the crowds. Plus, it’s more secure on your head. Of course, don’t keep anything valuable in your pockets, or you’ll never see it again.

Billy Simbo and I headed into the interior, taking dusty red dirt roads. It was a 250-km trip to Mattru. We arrived around midnight. With no air conditioning in the van, we kept the windows open the whole way. In the dark, we couldn’t see anything, except for an occasional big farm truck.

When we reached Mattru and opened the car doors, the vehicle light came on. Only then did we realize we were completely covered with red dust. Mattru has no electricity, and the guest house had no generator. We used palm oil lamps, and bathed from a bucket of water. It was a little interesting getting cleaned up for bed, but I was comfortable.

19 Feb Mattru Hospital on the Mind of the First Lady

The Patriotic Vanguard, a Sierra Leone news portal, tells about the nation’s First Lady, Sia Koroma (right), and her interest in upgrading the Mattru Hospital.

“Mrs. Koroma said while there is a medical infrastructure in Mattru Jong, the need to address issues related to the lack of essential equipment, drugs, and trained personnel cannot be overemphasized. [She described her initiative] towards upgrading health care delivery for women and children across the country.

“She made a special commitment to the Mattru Jong Hospital, indicating she would ensure it was upgraded to a modern hospital with the view to enhance its capacity and hence meet the medical needs of the people.”

17 Feb Leadership Change in Honduras

Francisco Raudales, center, with the plaque I presented on behalf of Global Ministries.

Francisco Raudales and I pray over Juanita Chavez, as she begins her new role as superintendent of Honduras Conference.

In January, I was privileged to attend the Honduras National Conference. This was the going-away conference for Francisco Raudales, who had served as superintendent since January 1997.

There were many expressions of appreciation for his ministry over the years. I presented a plaque on behalf of Global Ministries.

Juanita Chavez was elected as the new superintendent. They didn’t announce the vote tally, but her selection definitely pleased the crowd, and people were supportive even if they personally didn’t vote for her.

I wasn’t able to stay for the closing service on Saturday night, but Francisco told her 2000 people attended. My last official act was to pray for Juanita Chavez.

Prior to the election, Juanita had been working on a strategic plan for the coming years. It wasn’t a plan with specific outcomes in terms of numbers, but outcomes in relation to healthy church development and healthy conference development. That was exciting to see. They were looking down the road–how do we get there? how do we know when we’ve developed healthy ministries?

It was something their governing council, the junta, put together, and they gave her the lead. It’ll be neat seeing her work through that in the coming years.

07 Feb Encounter in a Warehouse

Earlier this month, I was among 15-20 people working in a warehouse in Garret, Ind., to pack a container of materials for Sierra Leone.

As two of us hauled hauling trash to a dumpster on the opposite end of the warehouse, a worker stopped us.

“What is everyone doing there?” he wanted to know.

I told him we were shipping medical supplies to Sierra Leone, and that two teams of people would be going.

“Are they getting paid to do this?” he asked.

“No, they are donating their time, and paying the cost of their own trips. Many are using vacation time.”

This man was overwhelmed that people–right there in his neighborhood–would do this.

“What’s the particular reason you’re going?” he asked.

I said because we love the Lord and want to be his servants to other people.

He was blown out of the water. He had heard about this kind of thing, but had never known anybody in his area who did anything like this.