by Fran Geiger Joslin
People sometimes balk at the idea of spending thousands of dollars on a mission trip. Their thinking? $25,000 could feed a lot of hungry people. In our case, we could print a ton of books with the $25,000 it costs for our trip to Tanzania.
It’s true that we could print a lot of books for $25,000, but we travel with bigger goals in mind. We believe printing books and taking mission trips both prove beneficial and productive.
We can, and do, send thousands of books to African countries. Pastor James, our African director in Tanzania, believes that pastors who meet the authors or the people who send them will more likely read and learn from the books they receive. James desires to change the culture from a non-reading society to a reading and learning one. Our visits and conferences help him accomplish that goal.
Rural African pastors typically receive a junior high level of education. They learn to read in school, though they often lack access to books, especially those with biblical content. Limited access to higher education, including Bible college or seminary, leads to less reading overall. We often enjoy the privilege of gifting pastors with their very first book.
Our visits let pastors and their wives know they’re not alone in their struggles. By sharing our own challenges, we show them that even “rich Americans” face problems too. Our stories and experiences encourage them to feel heard and understood.
This May, Howard and I—along with our pastor and another friend—will travel to Tanzania to teach two four-day conferences on the topic of marriage. Tanzania exists as a patriarchal society. Men often treat their wives as property. We will study biblical passages on God’s plan for marriage. We hope to inspire pastors to break cultural barriers by loving their wives like Christ loves the church. We want to convey a balanced perspective of biblical submission and motivate couples to work as a team. James longs to see pastors working together with their wives in ministry.
We plan to model how to closely observe God’s Word in the way we teach. By asking good questions from the passages we study, we challenge couples to find answers in the Scripture. This method of teaching proves effective in teaching the biblical content and how to study the Bible for themselves.
ABH regularly receives requests for books and teachers. We are building a team of teachers to help us train untrained pastors. We can help these pastors continue growing and learning by sending our teachers once or twice a year. We also gift them with books to encourage them to continue reading and learning on their own throughout the year.
The cost of a mission trip accomplishes much more than just sending a book can accomplish. We believe both work together as a crucial part of training, learning, and growing.
Would you consider helping us embark on this crucial journey where God changes lives?