York Alliance in West Africa: A Crazy Story

So I'm here in Libreville, Gabon in West Africa, staying at a guesthouse run by our great friends Steve and Alace Straw, preparing for a two-week whirlwind tour of African churches, medical clinics, an orphanage, and several days in Equatorial Guinea, a small country to the north of Gabon.

Back story may be necessary.

In 2004, my wife Amanda and I took an exploratory trip to El Salvador. Honestly, the intent of that trip was to verify that we did not want to connect with that church through short-term mission teams, but continue with our original plan of establishing a connection in Peru. However, within 36 hours of being in El Salvador, we had met Pastor Mario Gonzalez, Pastor Juan Carlos Dominguez, both of their families, and heard their heart for their church. By the time we actually visited Iglesia Comunidad de Fe y Adoracion that Sunday, we were absolutely positive that God was calling us to connect our church (York Alliance Church in York, PA) with this church in El Salvador. Our values were identical, our hearts connected, and we saw a common vision of what God might do with such a partnership. However, the large, driving question was still there: why El Salvador? It's far from an "unreached" country. Even the public buses proudly display "Jesus es el Senor" (Jesus is Lord), and statistically, the country has a higher percentage of Evangelical Christians than the U.S. One of the top five largest churches in the world is located in the same city. Why there?

We began to send teams, and our connection grew. A significant part of that connection were Steve and Alace Straw, who as part of our staff and youth leadership team, led several trips to El Salvador in order to partner with this church. Another series of events, and Steve and Alace are telling us that they are feeling called to Gabon in order to operate a plane service in support of the Bongolo Hospital, a Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) run hospital in the middle of the Gabonese jungle. Again, this made no sense. While York Alliance (YAC) had connections all over the globe, we had no significant connection in Gabon, and the C&MA was pulling missionaries out of that field except for the hospital and those who served in support of it, due to the health of the national church. Yet, the Straws were deeply connected at YAC and if God was clearly calling them, He was calling us. There must be a reason...

So we fast-forward another year or so. Steve and Alace and their three wonderful kids, Joe, Megan, and Sam, have finished language school in France and have landed in Gabon. As they start to connect there, I get a strange email from Steve: had I ever heard of a little country to the north of Gabon called Equatorial Guinea? Now, West African geography seemed to be a bit of a hole in my otherwise comprehensive public education, so I had to admit that I was unaware such a place existed. It turns out, Steve tells me, that there is a small country about the size of Deleware just north of Gabon, and it's the only Spanish speaking country on the continent of Africa.

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but the pieces were starting to come together. Equatorial Guinea (EG) seems to have been underserved by Western missionaries over the years because if you are training to go to Africa, you learn... hello... French. Who learns Spanish and then heads to West Africa? So the Gabonese C&MA church, now developing, self-sustaining, and sending it's own missionaries, had a vision to reach EG. Could we help?

We began to pray. As if we needed further confirmation, a couple from our church who has had a significant connection with the church in El Salvador over the years immediately began to pray about their role. Within 18 months, Dave and Stacey Pope were headed to the Dominican Republic. Dave's job would allow him to work via the internet from anywhere in the world, and Stacey wanted to lead a Spanish-speaking international school, which she found a great fit for in the DR. They thought they might do this just in case there might be a need someday for a Spanish-speaking international school in EG... since her research indicated that one didn't exist in the entire nation. Could it be the beginning of a church-planting team?

So I approached Pastor Mario. Would he be willing to explore the possibility of either he and his family or others from within the church in El Salvador moving to Equatorial Guinea to work with a church plant? No one had ever heard of a church planting team representing three distinct nations working together to plant a church in a fourth nation... at least no one I've been able to find. However, always up for an adventure, he immediately agreed. The initial steps were underway.

Now we fast-forward to last Thursday, when Pastor Mario arrived in York, PA from El Salvador to meet with our team of eight: a dentist, a retired nurse, an aspiring writer, a ten year old girl, a fourteen year old guy, a small business owner (who happens to be nearly fluent in Spanish and French as well as English), and two pastors from two different countries. We prayed together, rejoiced at the unbelievable work of God, and set out for Africa just a few days later!

So this Thursday, four of us from the U.S., Pastor Mario, Steve Straw, and several Gabonese church leaders will make the 10-12 hour drive to Bata, Equatorial Guinea. We'll meet with a Gabonese missionary who is seeking to start a work there, and we'll ask God what He's doing. Who knows? Maybe we're here to simply be a blessing to this man and the work that he is doing. Maybe all of this was to create the opportunity for Dr. Kruth, our dentist, to be here to do dental work in community clinics and at the orphanage. Or maybe... just maybe... God is sovereignly weaving together a team from three different nations to be a part of the Kingdom of God advancing into Bata, Equatorial Guinea. What a trip that would be.