Village Visit Journal 2001 – pt. 1

This isn’t the post on the giving seminar I promised in our e-newsletter. I’m still organizing my thoughts on that. In the meantime, I hope you find this interesting.

The other day I came across a little notebook I used in our first years here to write down new vocabulary words and phrases I learned while out in the villages. As I flipped through it, I came across some journal entries I had written down during a 4-day, 3-night stay in the village of N’Djei.

I didn’t write down the dates, but I think it was sometime in late May/early June 2001.

Anyways, I thought I’d share with you what I thought about life in the village at this time. Keep in mind, we’d been in Togo for less than a year and that my Kabiye speaking skills were very limited. (Which is why I did the extended village stay in the first place!)

Here’s the first day’s entry…

Day 1 – Monday

Lots & lots & lots of sitting around. And I thought life in Kara was slow! I didn’t get here until about 10:30 – too late to start working in a field, so I sat and watched the ladies cook. Lunch was fine.

Afterwards – I lazed around under the trees, shelled peanuts. Then, everyone – sauf moi [except me] – went to work in the fields. I don’t have a translator yet, so that may be part of the problem. Also, I think they don’t believe I can do the work. Maybe I can’t, but I’m not afraid to try.

Anyways, I got tired of sitting around with the kids, so I went & swept out the hut. It should be a good place to stay.

I am working tomorrow. Hopefully I can hook up with someone who will help me with language. I also reviewed some old language lessons. I need to study more…

The quiet has been good for my thinking/praying time. I will continue to pray, though, that my idle mind will not become the devil’s playground. I am especially praying for pure thoughts. – That’s it for now.

Taking the Lord’s Name

They call me Essowedeu. In Kabiye, this name literally means “God is good”. I’d say it’s a pretty good name to be remembered by.

Now, I couldn’t tell you what meaning lies behind my given name (I’m sure Bryan means something), but here in Kabiyeland, the meaning of everyone’s name plain as day, for better or worse.

God names are especially popular. We know people named:

Essowe – “God is”

Essosinam – “God helps me”

Essosimna – “God knows”

Essodrong – “God’s strength”

Essohanam – “God gives to me”

Essoyamewe – “God calls and I am”

Essodeke – “God only”

Akiliesso – “Who is greater than God?”

and Mansimaesso – “I know God”

We even have a friend whose name is just plain Esso, “God”.

One of my favorite God names, in the Old Testament prophetic tradition, is Essodizinawe – “God destroys them.” A name like that will make people pause before crossing you. I’m glad the guy is one of our night guardians!

Just about everyone on our team has a God name, which can be a bit confusing at times. Dave is called Essolaba, “God did it”. Matt’s Kabiye name is Essolaki, or “God does it”. Maybe they should have named me Essogalabo which means “God will do it”!

While God names are abundant, they aren’t the only type of name given. We’ve had visitors named for their appearance. For instance, Abalokisemo – “Red Man” – was so named for his red hair and complexion (not because he chewed tobacco.) We’ve also had fun introducing friends with a humorous name like Palolamtombolo, which means “I was born naked.”

Apparently, names are often given to children so as to send messages to others or to mark a recent event. Patamesam, “They can’t hide from me”, was named during a family feud. So were Pewelesinam, “They listen to me” and Taawelesi, “Don’t listen”. (These two names faced off when the former went to the latter’s house to preach the Gospel. Sadly, Taawelesi held true to his name.)

I don’t know the circumstances behind the naming of Aninam, “Who understands me?” and Powokinamle, “Where are they taking me?”, but I bet it is a good story. As a former youth minister, I like to think that it is possible they took these names for themselves when they were teenagers.

Manchasiba, “My father died” was probably named when her grandfather died around the same time as her birth. Sim, or” Death”, was so named because when he was born, a bunch of people had died. (No, he does not wear a black cloak and carry a sickle!)

Still, none of these names are as bad as they could have been. I know a man named Mankpafeye which literally means “I am ashamed”. Yikes!

Like I said before, I’m not sure what Bryan means. So maybe I’m not one to pass judgement.

Still, here’s hoping that Bryan isn’t in the same class as Mankpafeye!

Birth in the Pre-Modern World

On Christmas Eve, after my regular Saturday meeting with the Soumdina Po Wayi church, I was asked to give a young lady who was in labor a ride to a “medical clinic” in the nearby village.

 

This wasn’’t an unusual request, but after the last time I transported a woman in labor to the hospital and came thisclose to having the child being born in my truck, I made sure we didn’’t waste anytime getting on our way! Once we were quickly, but carefully, negotiating the rough path which occasionally doubles as a road, a number of thoughts crossed my mind.

 

The first was how I didn’’t believe that the clinic was much of a step up from the home where we picked up the woman. Sure the building was made of cement brick, had windows, real doors and a tin roof, but it couldn’’t be much more sterile. What’’s more, the ““doctor”” at the clinic was sure to have only a very limited supply of meds and knowledge should any complications arrive during the birth.

 

I thought, too, how there was no way I’’d consider allowing any of my children to be born under those conditions. For instance, we didn’’t even stay on the continent when Owen was born. (How unbelievably privileged we are to actually have a choice in the matter!)

 

But then I began to think about Joseph and Mary and what they must have been going through on the eve of Jesus’’ birth. Noting the urgency I felt to get this woman somewhere safe (and remember feeling that even more intensely when Tracey was in that situation), I tried to imagine how Joseph felt. I’’m sure that donkey — – if they even had a donkey –– couldn’’t move fast enough! And the animals in the stable… He was probably shooing them off constantly.

 

With sounds of the young Kabiye woman struggling with labor pains, I wondered what thoughts must have been going through young Mary’’s mind. For one, since was Jesus her first child, Mary had to have been scared and nervous. (That is what I read in the Kabiye lady’s face so I assumed it was her first child too. Turns out it was her fourth!) And she was definitely feeling some physical pain. And, to top it all off, she had do wrestle with the idea of giving birth to the Son of God!

 

Well, we got to the clinic without a hitch and I left the expectant family and their friends to head home. On the way back, I reflected on the two big reminders the Lord gave me through the experience.

 

First, our Lord and Savior’’s birth was physical. It is an integral part of the story of redemption and while I celebrate Christ’s birth this time of year, I tend to forget the ugly parts of that birth. Jesus came into the world with all the pain, blood, fluid and anxious emotions of any other human birth. He truly came in the flesh! 100%.

 

 

Second, I was floored by the tremendous risk God took in coming to this earth in the flesh. Think about it. Jesus Christ born into a world before antibiotics, incubators, oxygen masks and anti-bacterial soap (just to name a few medical advances in the past 2000 years)! Consider that he was born in one of the dirtiest places one could think of – a living place for farm animals, too!

 

God Almighty allowed His son to be born in even worse conditions than a village clinic in Africa. Conditions worse than those which I have deemed unacceptable for my own kids.

 

That is incredible! Unthinkable! Yet, absolutely true. And it was all done “at just the right time.”

 

No wonder the angels sang and kings bowed down. “”God is with us”” had arrived safe and sound.

My Cool Job

In its September 2005 issue, Outside magazine featured 20 ‘dream jobs’ which were meant to inspire readers “to evolve into the fully balanced life-explorer [they] were meant to be.” As I read about the exciting lives of an adventure filmmaker, climbing ranger, tea purveyor and brew meister (among others) I couldn’t help but think, “Man, I’ve got a pretty sweet gig myself!”

So, I thought I’d write up a profile of my job as a missionary (modeled after the ones in Outside) to add to the list of dream jobs. Here it is:

 

Missionary
Bryan Ries
31, TOGO, W. AFRICA

JOB DESCRIPTION: Employed by the Preston Road Church of Christ (Dallas, TX), Ries works among the Kabiye people in rural Togo, W. Africa as an evangelist, church planter and leadership trainer. Speaking the native Kabiye language, he tries to communicate the Good News to animist non-believers and to help new believers make disciples of others and to work out what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in their own culture.

WHY THIS WORK RULES: Over the past 5 years, Ries has found that there is nothing more fulfilling than helping those who may have otherwise never heard the Gospel come to the simple understanding that belief in Jesus brings the forgiveness of sins. “When I start teaching in a new village somewhere out in the boonies and the people there first hear me teaching in Kabiye, the response is incredible,” says Ries. “First they are amazed, flabbergasted really, that a foreigner from America can speak their language and then they start to say stuff like, ‘God speaks our language too!’” Ries is also involved in helping place mission teams among other people groups in W. Africa, having taken teams of university students on survey trips to Burkina Faso and Mali. “Traveling across West Africa, experiencing the different cultures and seeing things most people in the world may never get a glimpse of as a part of your job can’t be beat. Plus, there are a number of game parks to visit along the way!”

TURNING POINT: While studying physics at Harding University (a small Church of Christ school in Searcy, AR), Ries became interested in overseas missions. He spent one summer in Slovakia before spending the next summer as a missions intern under the supervision of teams in Uganda and Togo. “I fell in love with Africa,” Ries says. “Once I realized that there wasn’t anything the missionaries were doing that I couldn’t do, even learning a second or third language, I knew I had found my calling.” Ries finished out his undergraduate degree in mathematics, earned an M.A. in Missions at the university’s graduate school of religion and began looking for a people group in Africa to work with and teammates to go with him. He, his wife Tracey, and their two sons moved to Togo in August 2000 with four other couples. Since that time, another son had been added to their family and hundreds of Kabiye people have come to Christ.

THE BALANCED LIFE: The slow pace of life and premium put on relationships in Africa allow Ries to spend quality time with his family and friends. “Even during a really busy week, I get to take the kids to school and I’m home every night before they go to bed,” he says. “Sometimes I even take one of the boys out on a village visit with me.” Ries enjoys mountain biking and hiking in the nearby mountains for exercise, and sometimes has to bike or hike just to get out to a village teaching point. As a getaway, the family enjoys the beach in Ghana and safari trips. “Just this past weekend, I went on a camping/safari trip with my two oldest boys, Isaac and Graham. We saw all kinds of antelope, hippos, an elephant and lions. Not bad for a weekend trip!”

REALITY CHECK: Living in a foreign culture take some getting used to… at least 2 years worth. Also, because of the poor medical care in Togo, medical issues – even ‘regular’ sickness – cause a great amount of stress. Finally, there is the issue of living so far away from family. “I have 2 nephews and a niece that I’ve yet to meet,” states Ries. “And, another will be born before we are back in the States.”

THE BOTTOM LINE: You won’t amass earthly wealth being a missionary (not that that is what our lives should be about anyways – see Matthew 6:33), but you can make a living and gain blessings that will last beyond a lifetime. What is more, you’ll get to see and do some pretty cool things along the way.