V2

Check back here often to read stories of the V2 church and fellowship with them in the name of Christ.

The church in Nyinyime began teaching in V2 in June 2006 and by August of the same year there were over 30 Christians. It is amazing to see the community of the faithful spreading the gospel in the power of the Spirit.

April 12-13
I went and spent the night in the village of V2. It is about a good hours drive from Dano and I prepared to do some seminar teaching over the weekend. We worked through the material from the recent leaders meeting in Nawile (V2 was unable to send any leaders to that meeting) and we spent time discussing issues facing their church. Through out the two days of meeting (including Sunday worship) we had attendance from about 20 men, 40 women, and 40 children. Saturday evening, after sun-down, we showed the Jesus film on the villages soccer field. Over 350 people showed up to watch the videos presentation of the life of Jesus.

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

2 March 2008
When I got to the meeting place for Sunday worship, two of the leaders of the church came riding up in their bikes. They had not met, weren\'t planning on meeting. They had been meeting the last few weeks with V1 (church plant from another mission). They said, \"they\'re Christians, right?\" I told them that I didn\'t think that was the issue. I said it is good to worship with other Christians, but then I drew a map in the dirt and we talked about the 5 or so villages in their immediate vicinity. There WERE only 2 churches in the five villages. We want there to be churches in every village. I showed them how they were making 2 out of 5 and making it 1 out of 5 . . . not really the direction we\'re wanting to head. I tried to be as nice about it as possible, but at the same time stress to them the urgency that they should feel. I reminded them that they had first heard the gospel from other Africans (they are a church plant of the Nyinyime church). They didn\'t need an American to come and give them permission to do God\'s work. Then I told them how disappointed I was that they were letting things go like this, but reminded them that it was nothing to how Jesus would feel when he comes back, if he doesn\'t see them doing his work. On the drive home, I had to remind myself that the LORD\'s work is more than meeting on Sunday morning and I need to remember next time to find out what folks are doing to help those around them not only hear but also see and feel the good news.

Aaron
Posted: 03/04/2008 8:58 am - GMT

27 September 2007
Today was my last day in V2 as a weekly scheduled teacher. I\'m switching to doing a seminar mentoring program across all Dagara land. They are the only ones that I\'ve found that have actually started to respond to our 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.). So far their answers are very basic, but good. I was sad about it being my last time there on a weekly basis, but I\'m looking forward to this new mentoring program we\'re starting also.

Aaron
Posted: 09/29/2007 9:14 am - GMT

14 June 2007
We had a really good meeting out in V2 this time we went over the lesson on the greatest commandment (love). The Dagara have written a song about the greatest commandment. It normally goes, \"We pray to God only, We love him with all we got, We love our neighbors as ourselves, Praise to God alone, Aleluia.\" However, in V2 it has morphed from \"we love our neighbors as ourselves\" to \"we love God like we love our neighbors.\" I tried to teach them the way it is sung in most of our churches (the way that actually follows the love command in the Bible). After about 20 minutes working on it they finally got that change only to change the first part from \"We pray to God alone, we love him with all we\'ve got\" to \"We love our neighbors, we love him with all we got.\" Despite all the confusion I think they got the point and I can\'t wait to see how God moves in this village. They have a nice wide demographic and lots of potential.

Aaron
Posted: 06/15/2007 12:58 pm - GMT

7 June 2007
V2 once again has had difficulty getting organized enough to expect that I\'m coming when we have a scheduled meeting. We had a good meeting though with plenty of singing and going over the pentecost story enough times until it seemed that there were several people there who could explain the meaning of Baptism to non-Christians. I also had a good session of explaining to the literate in V2 again how to fill out the attendance booklet we gave them so that we could keep more accurate statistics on what God is doing here. He had no idea how to fill it out and had never asked. I pray that I can exude a gentle enough spirit that other issues like that can come to light.

Aaron
Posted: 06/09/2007 3:40 pm - GMT

17 May 2007
My visits have been so sporadic out to V2 because of either sickness or travel that they weren\'t really expecting me this Thursday. We had a small crowd, so rather than go over the lesson again, I decided to try to do a round robin prayer to see what I would get. Prayer is not something many Dagara are comfortable with and when they start some will start giggling, etc. Also, as one lady prayed, she threw in a prayer to Mary as well. So I had a good teaching moment about prayer with the small crowd at V2. I won\'t be there next week either, because I\'m picking up interns, so I encouraged them to try to get everybody together each week at this time to practice praying. We\'ll see in a couple of weeks how it went.

Aaron
Posted: 05/18/2007 9:18 am - GMT

29 April 07
Sunday worship went fantastic in V2. They sang for almost 1 1/2 hrs before I needed to say that I had a lesson and then needed to leave for Dano. Even after my departure service was in full swing. There were almost 30 women and 7 men with almost 20 teenagers and children.

Chad
Posted: 05/02/2007 11:56 am - GMT

26 April 07
This afternoon I played taxi on my way back and forth to V2 (Taking Nakar people from gueguere to Nakar on the way and taking Nyinyime people from V2 to Bouni [the village on the main road closest to Nyinyime] on the way back). This is the farthest village I have ever gone to on a weekly basis. It’s over an hour of driving each way. They weren’t expecting me since I missed last week due to sickness. So it was taking a while for them to gather. I also discovered that part of the reason for this was that the government cotton seed trucks had delivered V2’s portion of seed. Each person has their particular number of 100 lb. sacks which they were hauling on the back of their bicycle’s one at a time to the storage place. A storm was gathering and the rain would have ruined a bunch of the seed. So, since I was waiting on these guys to get done anyway and since I could help them with my truck. I loaded up the truck and went from house to house in the village delivering seed. It just took two truck loads, and about 30 minutes, what would have taken them the rest of the afternoon and many bike trips. And as a bonus they all had the extra time to sit down with us, worship, and listen to a lesson. We just reviewed the lesson from two weeks ago since no one really remembered their assignment.

Aaron
Posted: 04/27/2007 9:31 am - GMT

12 April 07
I began teaching the \"following Jesus\" series of lessons this afternoon. First, I tried to find the shortcut to V2. I knew there would be one. If your only definition for a short cut is that it covers less distance then I found it. If your definition is that it takes less time, then . . . sorry there is no short cut. It takes an hour whether you blaze down the good road, or whether you take bike trails to get there the back way. Anyway, they were singing and ready to meet when I got there. There are about 13 men and 22 women that have signed up for this church maturation series. The first lesson on believing in Christ and not doubting went well. I had the first instance ever that a Dagara Christian admitted to using traditional religious icons in their lives and this old lady asked for prayers about that. Also there was a young man (looked to be about 10 years old) who, according to their description \"can see fine in the daylight but can\'t see in the dark.\" He has been like this his whole life. I prayed for him, and I told them that I would ask my brothers and sisters in the states to pray for him too. So please remember him in your prayers.

Aaron
Posted: 04/13/2007 10:31 am - GMT

4/5/2007
Yesterday I finally made it out to V2, with a new set of tires. I stopped off in Nyinyime to talk to them about what I was trying to do and to see if they were on board with it.and V2's meeting. I told him I was going to go out there and start some maturation lessons and inform V2 Christians that they needed to start doing Sunday worship on their own. He told me he was excited that this would open up the door for them to go back to Di-doro.
I finally arrived at V2 exactly when this huge storm came in. It was very humbling and humorous the amount of care the folks out in V2 were trying to give me to make sure I wasn\'t getting too wet in this huge down poor. Two ladies were wiping my forearms with rags while the roof of the little millet reed structure was letting in all sorts of rain. Then some old men sent this other woman to run through the rain to get a bench so that they could put it in the one spot where the millet reeds overhead where thicker and it was leaking less, but, by the time she arrived, they changed their plan