This trip (after our initial week of vacation in France) is an official partnership visit between St Jacobs Mennonite Church (SJMC) and the Benin Bible Institute (BBI).
St Jacobs' relationship with BBI dates back to 1994 when Nancy Frey, a member of SJMC, traveled to Benin to do an internship. In 2003, Augustin Ahoga, a board member from BBI visited Canada and planted the idea of considering a formalized partnership between our church (SJMC) and BBI. We worked together to identify what is important to each party in the relationship, and drafted a formal partnership agreement that was signed in Cotonou, Benin in February 2017. To keep this from getting too long and tedious, I'll simply list three highlights of our partnership agreement:
A major feature of our partnership are the exchange visits. Over the years probably close to twenty people from SJMC have traveled to Benin. These visits happen every 2 - 3 years. In between these trips, SJMC has hosted guests from Benin to visit us here in Waterloo Region. It is worth noting that Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana, also has a formal partnership relationship with BBI and so when our guests from BBI come to visit us, they also are hosted in Indiana for part of the trip. During the final segment of our family's trip to Benin while we are hosted by BBI, we will be joined by three members of the Waterford congregation. While in Benin, we will also be spending a week at La Casa Grande (LCG), which is a children's home in Allada. SJMC's connection with LCG also goes back many years. Our family met the director and his family while they were studying in Canada a few years ago, and our boys are especially looking forward to reconnecting with their children and seeing what school and life is like for children in Benin.
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AuthorWe are a family of four from Kitchener, ON, headed on a short adventure to France and Benin (West Africa). We'd like to share some of our stories and reflections with you. ArchivesCategories |