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TechnoratiDAPAONG, Togo – Despite the merry gatherings of Thanksgiving in the United States, Burt and Suzanne Schmitz remain in northern Togo of West Africa to spread the gospel to the Moba people.
Doing missions in a relatively newly evangelized population, everyday is filled with insurmountable challenges and reasons to be grateful. The media doesn't embrace their achievement with great interest but God watches and remembers every bead of sweat they have dropped for the sake of his people.
Each day, villagers come to their home, looking for help with problems they face. Burt and Suzanne pray for God's wisdom in discerning which people genuinely need help and are thankful they are able to meet some of the needs because of Southern Baptists' generous giving through the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
"Many times the people want money but they don't in fact really need help," Suzanne said. "That's why we pray over it and make sure God is impressing that person on us."
She explained that most times they help people who cannot afford necessary medical attention elsewhere in the village. If someone brings the Schmitzes his medical record with a prescription included and God has impressed that person on Burt and Suzanne's heart, then they will help the person purchase the appropriate medicine. That same day, the person must return to the gate with a receipt or the actual medicine as proof that he spent the money as intended.
Their main focus in Togo is leadership development among the Moba so that indigenous churches can multiply. Of about 293,000 Moba in the region, less than half are literate. Typically, someone will be designated leader of a new church simply because he can read the Bible.
"We can't get very many people to commit to Christianity," Suzanne said. "Trust is a very hard thing for our people to do. They don't trust one another because everyone wants to be number one, but they don't want their brother to do better than them."
Ancestor worship is dominant among the Moba, and the Schmitzes are challenged to communicate the emptiness of the practice to the people and point them in the direction of God himself through Jesus Christ only. The Moba recognize that there is one God who created everything and is omnipotent, but they believe he is far-removed from the dealings of man. The Moba believe that the way to influence God is to communicate with him through their ancestors, which leads them to believe that anything good that happens is because of the work of their ancestors and not God alone.
"First we tell them it's not biblical," Burt said. "We go to places in the Old Testament that refer to worship and show them that what they're doing is wrong. It's through a conviction of the Holy Spirit that the issue is dealt with. As new Christians learn more about God being a jealous God, they move from a point of worshiping the ancestors to worshiping the one true God. After receiving Christ, they realize they've been tricked by ancestor worship."
Because so few Moba are literate, Chronological Bible Storying is an effective evangelistic tool.
"They love stories. When we do stories, they pass them back and forth throughout their village during the week until we come back and tell them another one," Suzanne said.
Only some portions of the New Testament have been translated into the Moba language, so the Schmitzes rely heavily on storying and on-the-spot translating. They also work through interpreters to convey the Scriptures to the people.
Burt said he hasn't kept a specific count of how many Moba have come to know Christ during their time there, but he knows that when they arrived in 1996 there were four Baptist churches in the region and now there are 11 churches and three "preaching points." Other evangelistic Christians are working in the same area and have also begun churches. The Schmitzes work with other Great Commission Christians to expand the reach of the gospel among the Moba. Continue »
