Great in the Kingdom

This morning I had the pleasure of spending time with two servant-leaders.  These are a couple of guys who help with the proofreading of the Train & Multiply materials that we are translating into the Ewe language.  Their names are Ankou and Sassou.  We were meeting to go over their corrections to a couple of the training booklets that had been translated.  A pretty dull task, huh? 

 

That’s my point.  These guys serve thanklessly to make these materials possible to others in the churches.  I mention them whenever I can, but I don’t think they get many strokes for it.  I pay them a little, but not enough to justify the time it takes. 

 

They are always there, always on time.  If you have ever spent any time in Africa, you know  how rare that is.  They are well prepared.  They have no agendas to push or axes to grind.  They cooperate with one another to find solutions when they disagree. 

 

Ankou is an elder – a young one – in the Tabligbo church.  At the leaders meeting this week, we were stuck without any transportation back to Tabligbo where I also live.  The taxi that we had arranged to pick us up had not come.  We were 20 kilometers from home, I had slept on the ground for three nights, and I was getting pretty bummed because I hadn’t driven my car.  I was trying to set a good example that these meetings are worth coming to even without easy transportation, but I wasn’t feeling like being a very good example.  Ankou sees the problem and starts out walking.  Unknown to me, there was a taxi station in town.  Ankou found it and was soon back with a rusted out van that, although we had to push start it, did get us home in a little under and hour.

 

Sassou had ridden to the meeting in a car.  This car belonged to one of the members of his church who used to drive a motorcycle taxi, but had saved his money for a car to be used as – what else? – a taxi.  I don’t know the guys’ name.  But he gave up four days of income to come to the men’s meeting.  He used his car to transport Sassou, a generator, and sound equipment to the meeting.  Sassou had shown up voluntarily a half-day early to get everything set up for the meeting.  It all went off without a hitch.

 

These are the kinds of guys that I have an honor to work alongside.  They humble me.  With my car, my computer, and my salary, I may be able to get a little more work done than they do – but their hearts are so much bigger than mine.  Thank you, God, for letting me know them.