Nyinyime

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

A group of about 30 Christians from a previous mission were in Nyinyime. Another missionary introduced us to them in the fall of 2004. Yawnbachere from Nakar came and encouraged them by teaching them the evangelism series we had taught in Nakar. As we continue to try and teach and encourage the Christians in Nyinyime, the also teach us. They have grown to probably our largest church (over 120 Christians). By his own initiative, inspired by the Holy Spirit, one of the main leaders, Domanyuora, donated a large portion of his fields to the church. On any given Sunday, the church may go to the field early to work the field before starting their worship time. The church has also, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gone to the neighboring village of V2 and in 2006 31 people took on Christ in baptism.

I picked up Kpe-zuo in Nyikpier and Rebecca in Dano-pari so that they could teach the "evangelizing your friends and neigbors" lesson in Nyinyime. This was their first time to Nyinyime. They hadn\'t ever gone that far out before. I was able to spend the extra time that I wasn\'t at Nyinyime teaching to prepare the next round of lessons on putting Christian love into action.

Aaron
Posted: 04/26/2008 10:08 am - GMT

Winchebe - 15 March 2008
When we got back from the fishing trip, Andy had recieved a call that the wife of Domanyuora, Winchebe, was very sick. Domanyuora is the main leader of the Nyinyime church. As much as we try to avoid the church chief mentality and emphasize a multiplicity of elders, etc., there are natural de facto \"chiefs\" in some of our churches. Domanyuora would be that. He has been instrumental in not only leading many to Christ in his home town, but in leading church plants in V2 and Di-doro. When I heard that his wife was sick, I felt that it was just as much my duty to take care of him as one of our teammates. That is why I went to pick her up Friday morning, the day after I got back from being gone from my family for three days. It takes a little over an hour to get out to Domanyuora\'s village. The sheet of paper they showed me told me that he had gone to the nurse\'s station in v5 where they guessed that her abdominal pain was a hernia and suggested she needed surgery in Dano. So I brought them into Dano. After I dropped them off at the hospital in Dano, he came back by and told me the Doctor said we needed to go to Diebougou (about 30 minutes away, mainly because it\'s all on paved roads. I told him, reluctantly - because I had not spent time with my family in days, that I would do it, but then he said that he needed to go back to Nyinyime first to get money. That would have involved my driving for 3 hours more, not to mention what else might happen along the way, so I told him no. I suggested that I would find him a bicycle so he could go back and get the money and come back and that in the morning I would take them. The doctor seemed to be fine with the plan. However, the next morning, I went to pick them up, and Winchebe couldn\'t even sit up anymore. I had to take the kids car seats out so she would have a place to lie down. So, I brought the seats to my house, about 1/4 mile from the hospital. In that 1/4 mile, she stopped breathing. I dumped the seats quickly and rushed back to the hospital. The doctor said we had not taken proper care with her IV and he resituated it. She started breathing again and for a while we thought she would be o.k. I drove like crazy to Diebougou, but as we were pulling into the Hospital she gasped her last few breaths. Her husband wouldn\'t speak much the whole way home (he had lost his mother just a few weeks ago), and her mom was holding her and wailing the whole 45 minute drive through back trails on the way back to Nyinyime. We picked up her 18 year old son on the road. He had been biking out to Diebougou to see his mom at the hospital. When I brought her and they started preparing for the funeral and said goodbye to me, I felt guilty for having put off taking her to the other hospital one day. For what it\'s worth, the doctor in Diebougou didn\'t blame me, but was mad that the Dano hospital didn\'t send her on an ambulance Friday night. Please pray for me. I keep trying to remind myself that it is not my fault, but it\'s difficult. Please pray for Winchebe\'s family.

Aaron
Posted: 03/16/2008 9:18 pm - GMT

Small group Leadership Seminar - 7-8 February 2008
We had a good small group leadership seminar in Nyinyime this week. There were 6 who attended. The two day lesson was, I think, an essential step in the Dagara coming up to the front seat of this movement. They have recently obtained the gospel of Mark and the book of Acts in Dagara (in their dialect – Wile [pronounced wheel-lay). They also have the entire New Testament in a dialect that is very close to their own (lobr). These are great blessings and just being able to read God\'s word to their congregation is a great service the literates in the churches can provide. However, in this seminar we are trying to get them to take the next two steps: 1) to come to understand and explain biblical passages in context, and 2) be able to apply it. We are also working with Dagara who can\'t read to be able to witness what God has done for them in this way (to not only tell the stories, but apply them to the lives of others in the congregation). Domanyuora and Eric the two who can read were able to grow in the first step of being able to explain the passage, but still struggle with applying it. The same is true of Kuunbele in telling a story of how God provided food for him once when he was unsure if he was going to be able to provide for his family. However, just making that step of turning it into a lesson of God\'s providence or faithful perseverance etc is a struggle. One other thing to be praying about. It seems that the chief of Booni has pocketed some of the money that the community raised for a new water well and is asking his subjects to contribute again so that there is enough to pay for the well. Pray that there will be justice and God\'s provision in this.

Aaron
Posted: 02/13/2008 9:52 am - GMT

28 September 2007
I had a quick meeting today with Domanyuora and Konika 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 9:13 am - GMT

04 May 2007
Ever been so wrapped up in worship that it went all night long? Well that was the case this week with Nyinyime. On thursday Aaron found the town in the midst of a large baptism celebration. Two ladies who were baptized a few years ago were throwing a party because of God\'s blessings in their lives. They had invited area churches and at least 4 congregations were represented. Little did we know how the church defines a party. When I showed up at 3pm all but one of the leaders was asleep. They quickly got together but the fact was that they had just finished their worship / party a few hours earlier. There was a large meal hosted by the two ladies and then a church service that went all through the night. We had a great time of prayer. This church is beginning to consider the appointment of deacons who might grow into elders soon.

Chad
Posted: 05/11/2007 8:20 pm - GMT

20 April 07
I decided to go ahead and leave this visit off my schedule as well after missing all the other village visits this week due to illness. I was feeling a little better, but Andrea advised me to wait until I was feeling all better. Thank God for a wife who takes good care of me.

Aaron
Posted: 04/21/2007 1:22 pm - GMT

Aaron
Posted: 04/21/2007 1:20 pm - GMT

13 April 07
[16 people from the village of Nyinyime were baptized on April 7th] The leaders discussed the prayer of Solomon from the beginning of 2 Chronicles today. I just want to share two of their requests with you. 1) They are praying for safe drinking water for their town. There is so clean water and their seasonal wells are drying up. This church is praying for a need for their whole community. 2) The have identified two sins which are rampant in their village: jealousy and adultery. They are asking God to remove these things from their village and heal their town. They made quite a few requests today but those two stood out to me.

Chad
Posted: 04/17/2007 9:28 am - GMT

06 April 2007
We had a great first, honest to goodness, leaders meeting in Nyinyime. When I arrived the whole church was meeting under a tree and singing. My first thought was, \"oh no, they didn\'t understand that we were wanting to havea prayer journal as a group. We also did a lot of talking about people\'s family situation. Of all the men and women in the group there are few that can say that their spouse is also a Christian and their adult children. There are some who had multiple wives before becoming Christians and perhaps only one wife is a Christian. There are some that are co-wives and perhaps their co-wife is not a Christian and neither is their husband. There are many things that are going to take many many years to and much prayer to work out. We ask you to join us in these prayers.

Aaron
Posted: 04/07/2007 9:43 am - GMT

Sunday Worship – 18 March, 2007
The Carters and we blazed down the road to Sa-were this Sunday where there was supposed to be a western cluster worship time. Sa-were was thought to be a good halfway point between Nakar, Nyinyime, and V2. However, after we worshipped with them for a couple of hours and there were a good 60 people or so from Nyinyime, but none from Nakar or V2, we decided to go on back to Dano. We were encouraged by the Nyinyime’s efforts.

Aaron
Posted: 03/23/2007 11:03 am - GMT