September 2010 Issue No 28

Griffin’s Gazette

Welcome to Griffin’s Gazette #28

Ben’s News

Three weeks after our move from France back to England, the French language mastered, Hannah’s school place assured, and the family’s vaccinations begun, I helped to lead a UFM team of volunteers for 3 weeks in Ivory Coast. The following is a brief summary of some of the highlights…

UFM team to a UEESO camp for young people. Grabo, Ivory Coast, August 2010.

Just before David went off to fight Goliath he said the following words to Saul who was trying to dissuade such a young man from doing what seemed on the surface such a stupid thing: “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine” [1 Samuel 17:37]

I was asked to speak to 140 young people between the ages of 8 and 18, on a Sunday morning, at the end of a youth camp, in an Ivorian village 9kms from the Liberian border, a village called Grabo. As we had been studying the life of David on the camp that week, I chose the above passage.

Five points each beginning with the letters of D A V I D’s name. David was Delivered by God, David was Assured of God’s power, David was Victorious because of God, David did the Impossible because of God, and (because largely I couldn’t find a verb for D) for David, his entire life revolved around God (Dieu). Yet all that David did was to point not to himself but toward somebody far greater: a deliverer from the wages of sin which is death, one who gave the Holy Spirit to assure the Christian of his new, eternal life, forgiven. One who was victorious over Satan and death. One who did the impossible, oh yes the miracles of changing water into wine, but more, rising from the dead, enabling dead condemned sinners to become living, forgiven sinners, and one who is able to do this because he is God the Son. The letters were hung out on a washing line and then at the end reversed to show that the one greater than DAVID was (flipside of David) JESUS.

The trip to Ivory Coast went well, centred on the 5 day camp. The team got on incredibly well with each other, it was like the reverse of Big Brother: 10 people thrown together in a foreign culture, living in each others pockets for 3 weeks, yet not a cross word was spoken. It is possible to write much about the cultural differences alone of visiting the interior of Ivory Coast: the rather basic toileting facilities, the language barrier, the rickety minibuses, the roads uncared for since 2002, disintegrating with each rainfall, the rice and sauce, but that would be to miss the point.

The teaching was done by the Sunday school teachers, trained by the denomination UEESO, with whom UFM work. Each morning the story of David was brought to life, each morning for two sittings, each an hour and a half long, the young people sat mostly enthralled, or at least attentive, and some, granted, asleep (but they were young), whilst the different teachers taught. Then for an hour in the afternoon, revision.

Now this is the point: The teachers were alive with what they taught and each story wound its way to our Lord Jesus Christ, (sometimes via an echoing Goliath precariously balanced on a table), and at the end of the camp the young people sung improvised songs from the memory verses and acted out plays of David’s life. And those songs and those memory verses and those stories, are going to go with them back to their villages some 6 or 7 hours drive away, back to their Sunday Schools, and when somebody talks of fetishes, or witch doctors, they now have resource to Jesus Christ, the one greater than David who has defeated Satan, the one behind these superstitious lies.

It was great, we were told, to have us there, to see that there are Christians in other places. I guess there is a sense of isolation when you are a Sunday school teacher in a village that is a two hour car ride from the next Sunday school, and so to get together with others on a camp is as beneficial for you as it is for the young people. For me, it was great to see God working in such a different culture, and meeting people who do not have the academic background that our team did, some who could barely read and write, but who have done more for these young people than they could begin to know.

Highlight? Saying goodbye to Salomon, a 12 year old who’s favourite character in the Bible is Solomon. Who wanted a camera from me for his family, but never got one. Who made a point of squeezing me as if to say “right, connection made, you are accepted by me, do not forget me”. Who sat one night on the concrete veranda, and listened about Jesus Christ, who is more important than a camera.

Highlight? Thinking that it would be great to come back next year, but with Liz and the children. And then realizing, God willing, I will.

We are in the U.K until January, based in Sandbach, worshipping with our home church Wheelock Heath Baptist Church. Come January 15^th ish we are planning on beginning our first term in Ivory Coast. The next UFM trip to Ivory Coast has been postponed until January, due to the up coming elections in October.

Recently some people have been asking how they can help us financially with the set up cost of moving to Ivory Coast. We have set up a project with UFM for a car. Please mark any gifts: “Car project for Ben and Liz Griffin Ivory Coast.” If you would like to help with our general setting up in the Ivory Coast then please send any gifts to UFM, signalling that they are towards our set up costs. Sorry to end on such a mundane note.

Please phone, write, email, visit. Thank you for welcoming us home, and feeding us.

Liz’s News

It’s great to have Ben back and really strange that the children are back at school as they have been with me ever since we moved back to the UK. We managed to get the home schooling tests done over the summer holidays and hope to have everything set up for the move in January, God willing. I am helping out with the Young People at church as there is a shortage of lady leaders at the moment and would appreciate your prayers as I get to know the young people.

Josh’s News

I was quite nervous about going back to school this time, but I was fine after the first day back. I have enjoyed meeting up with my old friends and I have already made some new ones. Spelling in English is quite hard but maths is the same and I love maths.

Luke’s News

I haven’t yet decided if I like school but it’s great to be home by 3pm because in France we didn’t finish til 5pm. It’s strange to have school on Wednesdays too. I have been learning about Roald Dahl this week and I’m going to be doing a project on the Vikings.

Hannah’s News

I am really enjoying being at school, I am in Reception and I am the oldest in my class. I have made a new friend and we dress up and play princesses. My teacher has taught us some funny songs. We have to wear a school uniform which I think is great; we didn’t have a uniform in France.

Praise

· That the trip to Ivory Coast had few hitches

· For meeting some exceptional Sunday school teachers

· That our children have settled into school

Prayer

· That the elections in Ivory Coast will take place in October

· For our preparation for leaving for Ivory Coast

· That we can be useful here at home

Thank you again for your prayers, letters and support.

Ben, Liz, Josh, Luke and Hannah