After ten days away and then a visitor, it is reassuring to get back to blogging! We went down to Parakou at the beginning of the month for the SIM Benin-Togo Spiritual Life Conference. We were half looking forward to it, half apprehensive. We only managed two days of last year's conference, as Benjy decided to go on sleep strike! But he is a year older now, and the conference was being held in Parakou, which meant we were sleeping in our “usual” Guesthouse room, so we thought we could count on it being a bit better than last year.
And it was! Another bonus this year was that we had Esther looking after the boys for us again. Not only do they like her, but we know she won't let them get away with too much, so we really can concentrate on the meetings we go to. The boys came with us to the worship meetings, and then stayed with Esther during the teaching and report sessions. They did go to a couple of the kids' meetings, but are still a bit young for group stuff, especially organised games.
There were 72 of us at the conference, including 22 kids. It's actually SIM plus other smaller missions, giving us a chance to catch up with far-flung missionaries we wouldn't otherwise see very much of. The teaching was challenging, refreshing and very honest. Our speaker was the brother-in-law of our director, and he came from Canada with his wife, cousin and cousin's wife, the three of whom led the children's work together. We even had a guest worship leader, the sister of a TWR missionary, and she came all the way from the USA to bless us!
All the missionaries present gave short reports of their work. It is easy to give in to the temptation to compare one's own work unfavourably with all that others are doing … but it is far better to rejoice that we are all serving one God together in many ways with our diverse gifts! And it was encouraging to hear other language-learning missionaries who have been going through similar experiences to our own.
We also had fun times – games and a barbecue one afternoon, a Fun Night with sketches, and a bonfire on the final evening, which just happened to be November 5th (remember, remember!). It's the first Nov 5th bonfire I've been at for years!!
Of course, as parents of small children, we don't quite manage to talk at length to everyone we'd like to, but there are other blessings. When we arrived on the Monday the boys were quite shy and avoided talking to people. By the Friday they were even playing with other kids and holding long conversations with some of the adults.
So all in all, it was a week of blessing and growth!
And it was! Another bonus this year was that we had Esther looking after the boys for us again. Not only do they like her, but we know she won't let them get away with too much, so we really can concentrate on the meetings we go to. The boys came with us to the worship meetings, and then stayed with Esther during the teaching and report sessions. They did go to a couple of the kids' meetings, but are still a bit young for group stuff, especially organised games.
There were 72 of us at the conference, including 22 kids. It's actually SIM plus other smaller missions, giving us a chance to catch up with far-flung missionaries we wouldn't otherwise see very much of. The teaching was challenging, refreshing and very honest. Our speaker was the brother-in-law of our director, and he came from Canada with his wife, cousin and cousin's wife, the three of whom led the children's work together. We even had a guest worship leader, the sister of a TWR missionary, and she came all the way from the USA to bless us!
All the missionaries present gave short reports of their work. It is easy to give in to the temptation to compare one's own work unfavourably with all that others are doing … but it is far better to rejoice that we are all serving one God together in many ways with our diverse gifts! And it was encouraging to hear other language-learning missionaries who have been going through similar experiences to our own.
We also had fun times – games and a barbecue one afternoon, a Fun Night with sketches, and a bonfire on the final evening, which just happened to be November 5th (remember, remember!). It's the first Nov 5th bonfire I've been at for years!!
Of course, as parents of small children, we don't quite manage to talk at length to everyone we'd like to, but there are other blessings. When we arrived on the Monday the boys were quite shy and avoided talking to people. By the Friday they were even playing with other kids and holding long conversations with some of the adults.
So all in all, it was a week of blessing and growth!
1 comment:
Merci beaucoup Hilary pour tous ces détails ! Nous sommes heureux de pouvoir ainsi vous "suivre " !
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