We participated in a three day evangelism event with the church we are attending here. It was so much fun and such an experience! Hundreds got to hear the gospel proclaimed through drama, video & speech. God is moving fast here in Benin! The people here were so into the dramas, clapping & cheering like crazy at certain parts in the dramas. Many, many people gathered during the weekend & many came to know the Lord! Praise God! It was really neat to see DRIME happen in Benin too, just to see how it worked there, and the differences from Canada. During all of the dramas, someone was narrating and translating everything that was happening, which gathers HUGE crowds & creates crowd involvement which is really awesome! Definitely cool to perform with & be a part of the Beninese team!
We performed in this big open sandy/dirt field area in the middle of a like market square area just off of the main road. It was actually so much fun performing in the sand/dirt, definitely quite the experience! Although, being all hot & sweaty and being roles in the drama that require me to get thrown all over the ground caused for sand to get stuck to me in layers! Haha. I’m pretty sure if someone did not see the beginning of the drama and only came and saw the end, they would scream “SAND MONSTER! RUN!”... haha. So much fun though!
There were of course the casual challenges though. One thing was the heat factor! Us being in our DRIME black, with the sun beating down on us, man, felt like I was swimming in a pool of my own sweat! The children were so much fun and awesome, but sometimes I found myself trying to run for safety! Of course, being Yovo’s, all the children come running and gather around us and just follow us which is totally fun, but the second we took out our camera, riots I tell you! Every kid wanted to be in the front of the picture so they would start pushing and shoving and eventually start like rioting and mauling each other...definitely a bad idea to take out the camera, we didn’t do so very often all weekend after that experience, unless we secretly took it out to take a few stealthy pictures! Haha.
Being a part of two evangelism events here in Benin has definitely been quite the experience, just observing & seeing how different evangelism is here. In Benin, God is very present in this community. Even though some people worship other gods and partake in voodoo, everyone here is aware of God & believe in higher beings. So they are very open to everything to do with God & Jesus, because religion & believing in a God is part of life here. Now, it’s our job to proclaim the message & to share Jesus Christ with them so they know the truth and who is the truth! It’s crazy how different cultures vary so much! In Canada, as we all know, you have to be very careful and ease into sharing the gospel, not in a hostile way. Here in Benin on the other hand, you are more than welcome to get right into “do you know Jesus as your personal saviour” right after you say hello. It’s definitely a very evangelistic community here! Evangelists here are so passionate that I even find getting the evangelism message said to me every once in a while, them knowing I am christian! Haha. It has already happened a couple times so far, even at church! I will be talking to someone at church, then one thing leads to another and I am find myself listening to the gospel! It is awesome how passionate people are here; they just can’t get enough of sharing the gospel. Amen!
thats awesome! :)
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