Baby Gives Birth

Sorry, but I just couldn’t resist the Enquirer-style headline.  In this case, a baby gave birth to a church.  Here’s the story…

Several months ago I visited the Soglogon church in Benin where I worked from 1993 to 2001.  At that time, the church shared with me a situation where a mother had died after giving birth by cesarean section, and the father was unemployed and unable financially to care for the child.  The church had taken it upon itself to do what it could to provide infant formula and medical care for the baby.  We were able to help a little, and a children’s Bible class in America heard about the baby and even sent a contribution to help with the care.

The baby’s family was very touched by the church’s concern, and several family members, including the father, began attending the church.  The baby’s father also led the Christians to his home village of Zounkpa where they began evangelizing.  Yesterday, a church was born in that village.  Nine people from Zounkpa were baptized to Christ, along with to eight others from Soglogon.

It was a big day of celebration.  We drove to the area from Cotonou on Saturday afternoon.  We arrived in Soglogon and helped transport tarp shelters, benches, and audio-visual equipment out to Zounkpa.  We returned to a motel, where we spent the night, while the local Christians showed Christian films in Zounkpa until the wee hours of the morning.  Sunday morning, we left our hotel at 6:15, picked up some more benches and people from Soglogon and drove back out to Zounkpa.  Things were a bit disorganized as we waited on a rented car to bring more Soglogon members and help with transportation for the baptisms.  Finally, we gave up waiting, and about twenty people loaded into our ten-passenger vehicle, ten or so others hopped on motor bikes, and we went the “back way” to the river for the baptisms.  The road was basically a bicycle path in high grass, but it was passable, and the trip was well-worth the thrill of witnessing seventeen baptisms.

We returned to Zounkpa for a three-hour worship service filled with great rejoicing and celebrated the first communion for the new Christians.  We left about 2:00 p.m. for the four hour drive home to Tabligbo.  We arrived exhausted by were filled with strength as we joined our teammates in worship and welcomed the Koonces who just returned from furlough.  We finally made it to the house about 8:00 p.m.

In thinking about the baby who gave birth to a church, I’m reflecting on the motives of the Soglogon church, or that Sunday school class, in helping that baby.  They didn’t start out trying to plant a church, or even to convert a family.  They did it because it was what Jesus would do--and look what He did.