Dear Prayer Warriors,

The “think tank” went extremely well. We had invited almost 20 individuals from pastors, lay leaders, and denominational leaders to participate. 12 ended up coming to the 2 day event. We discussed important faith issues, organizational structures, and the Benin culture that influences that. We had lively discussions and we gained many cultural insights into what can hinder the work. We were able to set out some guidelines and have asked for some further study on some pertinent issues: church autonomy, pastoral authority, and decentralizing the organization.

Please continue to pray for the group as we will be following up and meeting again. These are key issues that if we come up with good solutions, will free the church and our Benin Union to better function and fulfill their mandate to evangelize, plant churches, and make disciples.

Barbara and I will be traveling on Thursday, Oct 11. We will stop in Togo to meet with 2 people before continuing on to Accra, Ghana. There we will spend 2 days discussing the work of the Convention team with our team leaders, Mike and Wanda Walker. Then after church on Sunday we will drive 5-6 hours towards Cote d’Ivoire. We will spend the night and continue on to Abidjan on Monday, the 15th.

We will be staying in Cote D’Ivoire 4 months to work in orientation with a new missionary couple coming to West Africa and to work among our Baptist convention leaders. Remember, we are not moving! The orientation is a temporary job!

Love in Christ,

Jeff and Barbara