Nakar

Check back here often to read stories of the Nakar church and fellowship with them in the name of Christ.

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We began teaching in Nakar in the spring of 2004 and some 60 or so people were baptized that summer. Since then, God continues to add to their number. There has been one Sunday morning where over 100 people have met in the name of the Lord. Although a man named Yawmbachere has been designated the primary preacher, the largest group of believers are the women (approximately 75% of the congregation). They have struggled with consistency in trying to reach out to other villages. They attempted going to Nakar-bagawn (literally, “Nakar across the creek”) for a while, but when interest waned in Nakar-bagawn they just stopped reaching out anywhere (it seems). Please pray that they will find a way to reach out and bring the love of Christ to their friends and family and perhaps even to strangers in other villages.

April 6
We had a beautiful service this morning with the church in Nakar (11 men, 24 women, 20 children). The special news from this morning is that they have begun a church plant further to the west in the village of V8(vay-wheat). So far at this new preaching point they are gathering crowds between 40 and 80 folks. V8 is quite a ways from Nakar. They are sending a man to spend the night each week so that they can minister in this new area! This church is also working closer with another church in the neighboring village of Naro. Pray for God to bless their relationship as they worship together and encourage one another.

Chad
Posted: 04/17/2008 3:01 pm - GMT

January 31, 2008
All of the glory and none of the headache. That phrase nicely wraps up today. I really loved mission trips as a youth and I know that much good is done by short term trips but logistically handling a trip for 15 visitors can be terribly exhausting. Even beyond meals and lodging there are a host of cultural issues to consider and of course something always changes. A nearby Baptist missionary had put all the work into organizing a medical mission in the area. She had some very ingenious ways of prioritizing people and helping with the in-take. It was a pleasure to serve as a translator for the day. Kyle and Jenny helped with different aspects of the clinic. They mixed medicine, took pictures, ran messages, and helped bring a young girls fever down. They were able to do small surgeries, pull teeth, and clean many wounds (some 3 or 5 years old).

Chad
Posted: 02/16/2008 1:45 pm - GMT

First Village-specific Leadership Seminar
Getting naked three times, being anointed with bird poop and watching a 4 year old eat a chicken\'s head (bones and all). No, not hazing, but all part of my experiences this week in my first attempt at a leadership seminar in Nakar. Just to clarify, I was taking a sponge bath those three times. The second time was because of the bird poop which happened to me during our night time worship in the market. The shower was 4 brick walls all about the height of my belly button, so that I was constantly afraid of showing off my backside when I reached down for the soap. The only reason I didn’t take a fourth shower was that I refused their hospitality as I was getting into my truck to leave and asked to be allowed to take my shower at home. All in all it was a great success. The lessons we learned were basically a review of a lot of what we have already been teaching (the great commission from Mathew 28, expounding on the major themes of Jesus teaching – since the commission is to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I [Jesus] have commanded you, and some of the things it takes to be a leader in the church including the qualities of an Elder from first Timothy, and some advice on how to go about making time and space to study and pray every day, etc.) The teaching was a bit intense for me. I was teaching three guys for two days straight. My prayer is that, with Ƴãwnbacɛrɛ there to re-read the lessons and the scriptures I gave them, they will find plenty of material for growing up into the leadership to which God is calling them and for teaching the church to continue to mature. I pray they do not grow weary, since it may be another 4 months before I get back around to them as I will be repeating this each week in a different village and there are 16 villages at which I must teach. Also pray for Ƴãwnbacɛrɛ who is being asked to repent from selling shots of hard liquor in the market. He had justified by saying that he never drank it. After both I and Vie another one of the leaders confronted him about it, though he agreed that it was not a wise thing for him to be doing. We also had a good discussion about a thing that his mother-in-law tied around his child\'s chest to heal him of his cough. I told him that it looked to me like something that might be contrary to praying and trusting in God. When I asked him, he said that he didn\'t know how it worked. It made me think about how we give medicine to our children even though we may not know how an antihistamine, for example, does what it does. I think the critical difference is that we don\'t see the antihistamine as a spiritual manipulation – something that will make God do something. We prayed about it and I asked him to keep praying for guidance about it and that if he found out that it was being used to try to make God, or the ancestors, or spirits perform healing, then he should get rid of it and trust in God. There is so much spiritual warfare going on with these young leaders. We ask you to pray blessings for them — that they will see all the authority they have over Satan through their position with Christ. May the LORD Bless You and Keep You,

Aaron
Posted: 10/23/2007 9:52 am - GMT

28 September 2007
I had a quick meeting today with Yawmbachere, Vee-ay, and Zaazu about how it\'s going on their tenet questionnaire (a little brochure that we\'re using to check what these new believers actually believe about God, the church, what happens after you die, etc.), and about the upcoming changes in my approach to ministry here (I\'m switching to doing a seminar mentoring program across all Dagara land). It went well.

Aaron
Posted: 09/29/2007 9:12 am - GMT

26 August 2007
In Nakar, this Sunday, no one was meeting when we arrived, although, Vie was waiting in the church meeting place. Shortly after I arrived though people started trickling over. Many meetings have been rained out lately, so, according to Vie, no one had a plan for communion or worship. Also there was a funeral in Nakar-bagawn (across the creek in Nakar). Anyway, we were able to go over several songs that we are trying to nail down the words for that will be in our song book we hope to distribute soon. I also gave Ƴãw-ba-cɛrɛ some work. He\'s going to help us do a final clarity check on one of our \"Train and Multiply\" lessons. I also gave the church there a questionnaire that will help us understand what their core beliefs are about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the church, etc. so that we can see what we\'ve been clear about and perhaps where there is confusion or misunderstanding. By the time I went over what I wanted them to do with the questionnaire there was a good group gathered for worship. I told them that I had to run, because I was not planning on staying there that long. This was in order to make the point to them that they are to meet whether or not a missionary shows up.

Aaron
Posted: 08/28/2007 4:08 pm - GMT

8 June 2007
Nakar is getting more and more organized. They were ready to start when I got there. We\'ve been having the leaders out there keep a prayer journal as a group where they just keep track of prayer requests. They have been keeping it really well, even when we don\'t come. I praise God for how he is making this church grow. We also had our first little test of lesson 23 of Train and Multiply on the organizational structure of a biblical church. We mainly focused on remembering that Christ is the only true head of the Church. In the upcoming weeks we will talk about elders and deacons and we pray that God will raise those whom he wants in these positions.

Aaron
Posted: 06/09/2007 3:41 pm - GMT

25 May 2007
Today was an amazing time of focused prayer for rain. The leaders see the need for rain affecting everything in their lives and especially tempting Christians. The follow up note is that God answered with a yes. For the next two days there were rains! After 22 dry days! (7 is normal at this time of year)

Chad
Posted: 06/09/2007 3:10 pm - GMT

27 April 07
Once again I didn\'t make it out due to a migraine. I think I might have just let myself get dehydrated. I\'m trying to concentrate on that, and I seem to be feeling better, now.

Aaron
Posted: 04/28/2007 10:05 am - GMT

1 April 07
It was truly a marathon church service today. Dagara churches are known for being relatively brief and that made today\'s 3hr service that much more interesting. The church sang vibrantly, they welcomed new comers and they taught several lessons on prayer. Also, Amy had a special lesson on the woman who finds her lost coin. She is teaching this in churches as we rotate around as an example of a way to teach their children. She acts it out in a way that is easily understandable for kids (and equrespect how promptly everyone arrived, the meeting ended at 4:00. I then walked a blind guy home for about 30 minutes and eventually made it to the main road myself. Aaron had mentioned how we are no longer live under the threat of the Dagara to take a certain amount of commitment and responsibility in the church by signing certain people up for the course. It is one of our goals that all Dagara churches 3 years old or older would have elderships. The first Christians in Nakar were baptized 4 years ago, so we are hoping that some of those that sign up for these meetings every Friday, might become elders in the church. However, having a group of elders responsible to Jesus as the head instead of one chief of the church is a counter cultural idea here, so we are going to need some divine help. Please pray for God to call forth faithful elders in the Nakar church.

Aaron
Posted: 03/31/2007 10:23 am - GMT