What's In an e-Mail?

A few months ago I received an e-mail from asking me to accept an invitation to come and represent the Association of Grace Brethren Ministers in Africa at their 50th anniversary of beginning their own ministerium. Wow! I was honored or course, but this would also be a major undertaking at several levels. I would be representing the FGBC pastors in America, speaking to our brother pastors in the Central African Republic, going to a place I have never been and being a part of helping to shape the future in the African church.

Dear pastor

I send you my warmest greetings from CAR in the precious name of our Lord Jesus-Christ. I am Pastor Andre Mboi, the Executive Secretary of the Union of Churches here in CAR. We will have our national Conference of the pastors in November 2008 here in Bangui. I invite you to attend that conference. You will be one of the speakers in that conference. Please, let me know your thought and I will send you the official invitation that will allow you to get visa.
Thank you very much for your disposal to say "yes" to this invitation. God bless you.
Your coworker in the Gospel,
Pastor Andre Mboi

Not long after that invitation Dave Guiles, head of Grace Brethren International Missions, called me and encouraged me to go. Additionally, he asked if I would consider staying an extra week and teaching a class in the seminary at Bangui. Wow again. I was getting very excited about all this but there were still some obstacles.

The first obstacle we usually think of is the cost. At our national conference the AGBM Board of Directors agreed that this is something I should do and that our association should support it financially. An estimate figure of the cost was given to me and the AGBM moved to accept that amount. Oops, did I say estimated. Yes I did. The amount of this trip went over the estimate by more than $500. Well guess what, I have received some unsolicited gifts from people at La Loma Grace and the $500 has been covered as well. And if that isn’t enough, God has provided extra money to be used at my discretion in support of this trip.

Once the decision was made to go and the funding taken care of the obstacles I have encountered have been few. And, all of them have been dealt with. One of the obstacles I didn’t think of was the language barrier. I received an e-mail giving me a dead line for my syllabus on Old Testament survey. Guess what, it was needed so they could translate it in into French. Duh! That also means that my half hour lesson will be cut in half because as my friend says, “You are going to have an interrupter.” Interrupter is French for interpreter!

Well now I am well on my way.