The last frontier: Kawalke 

Kwong tribal territory is shaped like a kidney bean with Chageen roughly at the outside “corner” of the bean. One lobe stretches 35 miles to the east to the village of Mobou which we wrote about in February, while another lobe stretches some 50 miles north to the village of Kawalke, deep in the bush. Virtually the entirety of this area has some kind of Christian witness. However, there is no church in Kawalke, and only two people who profess to be Christians – an old woman, and a handicapped fellow. The village is beyond the range of our FM radio station.

Efforts by Chadian evangelists to bring the gospel to this village over the last 25 years have been a sad commentary on the ineptitude which poorly trained and unmotivated national evangelists can bring to these efforts. The initial evangelist, a fellow who spoke the language and was appreciated by the village, was by all accounts an effective witness back in the 80’s. But he got mixed up in village politics and was forced out by a rival faction. Successive efforts to pick up the pieces have failed miserably. The most recent evangelist, a fellow by the name of Aaron, was representative of these efforts: after 4 futile years he still could not (or more likely, would not) make a proper greeting in the Kwong language. Meanwhile the chief and virtually every elder in the village has become a Muslim.

It was against this backdrop that we again made a trip up to Kawalke in March along with a couple of our disciples. We had finally persuaded the ecclesiastical powers-that-be to get Aaron out of there, and we wanted to see the situation for ourselves. Remarkably, the chief was pleased with our visit, and encouraged us to send another evangelist. But he was categoric that he wanted no more half-hearted ethnocentric fellows like Aaron.

This situation is still evolving, but suffice it to say that it looks like the Lord has sovereignly orchestrated that Laurent – who up until 6 years ago was our main Kwong translator before going to missionary training school and serving among a Muslim tribe 100 miles to our east – will be the new evangelist to the village of Kawalke. He is the perfect man for the job. Please pray that we are able to seize this unique opportunity. We are facing considerable apathy on the part of  the Kwong Christians who are supposed to go up to Kawalke and build a house for Laurent. Also, rainy season is closing in on us and is limiting our travel options.

Adult Sunday School

For most busy westerners, sitting down with a good book is a coveted luxury. For your average Kwong man or woman who has all the time in the world however, reading is a chore. Even for the most literate, it is an arduous, tiresome task. Rarely do you see a Kwong person doing so unless some pressing need compels him. You can imagine the implications that such an outlook has on progress of the Kwong church. However, in a burst of innovation and initiative which warmed our hearts, our translator Joseph  organized an adult Sunday school class which meets after the main worship service to help the church people learn to read better and less painfully.  Joseph himself teaches a class for those who are still beginners. One of us works with the intermediate class, and David, our radio guy, has been working through the gospel of Luke with the advanced class. We are quite simply thrilled.

Kwong church in N’Djamena

It is an undeniable reality that Chageen, for all its charms as a rural African village, doesn’t have much to offer the best and brightest of its young men and women. As surely as the herons which roost in the kapok tree in front of our house migrate north at the end of each rainy season, the best sons and a few daughters of Chageen disappear each year to the bright lights of the capital city of N’Djamena. One of those, a young fellow whose parents optimistically named him Captain Moses, got it into his head that there were enough Kwong in N’Djamena to make a church. It turns out he was right, and in the space of a mere 2 months upwards of  80 of them were meeting on Sunday mornings at the home of a Kwong gentleman who is an officer in the Chadian army. Perhaps the most interesting facet of this phenomenon is that numerous young men whose most remarkable trait back in Chageen was their apathy towards the things of God are showing leadership, initiative and enthusiasm for this new enterprise in the big city. It seems that being free of the stultifying traditions and low expectations of a rural backwater, they are spreading their wings and flying. This one congregation has, for example, purchased more Kwong Christian literature from us during the last 2 months than the entire rest of the tribe has over the past 6 months. They still have a long way to go, though. None of them are qualified to teach, and some of them have “baggage” such as multiple wives. Nevertheless, they are something refreshingly new and unexpected in the ever-changing complexion of the Kwong church.

Mark with the main chief of Kawalke during our visit in March.

Diane with the intermediate class of readers at the adult Sunday School in Chageen. 

The Kwong church in N’Djamena meets in an improvised “sanctuary” of cement blocks in the courtyard of a Chadian army officer’s compound.

This new cell tower, seen here from our front yard in Chageen, has brought the world to our doorsteps with both voice and very slow internet service. Our phone number from the USA and Canada is 011-235-66-47-92-32.

A vacation in April to see Mark’s parents in Ethiopia and Diane’s brother and his family in Kenya was a refreshing break from the rigors of life in Chad.