Praising the Lord for Pastor Bouangar’s Performance
The
Plymouth Brethren churches in the country would not gather their
congregations in one single village last year for the Baptismal
ceremonies. Every church will have its ceremony in its own village
instead of moving the Baptismal candidates out of their areas of
dwelling. The reason is that due to hunger that stroke villages in remote villages, there will not be enough food to cater for such a big gathering.
Young Pastor Bouangar, in his capacity of the President of the Regional Committee of churches
had to go to a village called Djanga, together with one elderly Senior
Pastor named Pastor Ali Djogro to baptize the congregation there in
their village.
Since
there was not enough food in the village, the local Pastor was
compelled to kill a goat for the two baptizing pastors. They will eat
without any bread or millet thick porridge. When the village people
overheard that their local Pastor was slaughtering a goat for the
guests, almost all of them came to the Pastors compound. Each of them
expected to leave the place at least with a slice of the goat skin in
order to burn it and make a soup out of it for the family to eat.
The cooked goat meat was ready by 4 a.m. Young Pastor Bouangar and his Senior Pastor Djogro were waked up to eat the meat. By 6 a.m. they started to ride their bicycles back to their village at 21 kilometers
from where they had baptismal service. When they were left with five
kilometers to ride before reaching their home, Pastor Djogro fell very
hard from his bicycle. Pastor Bouangar who was riding behind him
stopped but refrained from touching him. This is the effect of hunger, he told himself as he narrated the event to us. Then he remembered one opportunity they missed, at least the old man missed it:
An
elderly woman in the congregation suggested giving them porridge of a
dried pounded wild oignions so that they could eat. The old man said
that he ate that kind of food during the greatest hunger in the year
30s when he was a mere boy. But he would not allow the young Pastor to
taste it because he would be intoxicated. Accordingly he too did not
take that suggested food. Had the elderly Pastor eaten the porridge,
then he might gain strength.
When
Pastor Djogro gained back his consciousness after his fall; Pastor
Bouangar took his bicycle and dismantled it, then tied it up on his own
bicycle. He then made Pastor Djogro walked in front of him and he,
Pastor Bouangar pushed the loaded bicycle behind his senior Pastor. By
the time they arrived to Bouangar’s house in Bébédjia, it was getting
dark. He immediately ordered some millet porridge for his senior and
elderly pastor. He kept him in his house for three days until the old
man was strong enough to ride the bicycle before he let him ride back
to his village, a location far from Bébédjia.
Who is Pastor Elie Bouangar?
Pastor Elie Bouangar is a young pastor trained in our local language at a village bible school. He was the one to baptize a 90 year old paramount traditional chief I a local village at 47 kilometers
from Moundou, the city where we are having ministry. That is where we
discovered him. That old chief died in 2003, three years after his
legendary baptismal in year 2000 by Young Pastor Bouangar. My wife and
I met Pastor Bouangar when we came back to Chad.
We decided to give him support and sent him back to a Bible school but
this time to study in French, which he did. We paid for three years of
his training at that Bible school in the City of Doba. Now he is assigned as pastor in a church of 300 members in Doba a city where he studied the Bible.
Pastor
Elie Bouangar is a fruit of the support you gave us. We shared our
support with an able bible learner and servant of the Lord. We, my wife
and I, are nothing behind pastor Bouangar’s biblical education. You are
the ones who helped make the difference in his life, in the community
and the country at large. All the credits are for you. We are only your
transmission belt. Be happy for such a training you give to a local
pastor who did not need to go out of his country before serving the
Lord. You equipped him right there on the spot.
Last year (2005), when Pastor Chuck Ballard from Eldersgate Church in Greenville Dallas came to Chad
with the Thompson Chain reference Bible conference for Pastors, we
invited Pastor Bouangar to that conference and he thus has been
equipped by Pastor Chuck Ballard with the best evangelical tool
available in the country. This time, if one of you comes to Chad
to visit with us, we will introduce Pastor Elie Bouangar to him for
contact and also to notice part of the fruit of your partnership.
Prayer needs for Pastor Bouangar:
1 - The Bible school where he was trained is now promoted to The Advanced Bible School. My
wife and I are praying so that the Lord can help us give three more
years support to pastor Elie Bouangar to go to that advance school.
2. Pastor Bouangar needs a Motorcycle for ministry in the bush
as he has to go out regularly to visit churches and conduct baptismal
or communion services in one hand and in the other hand, to encourage
churches to do the work in spite of the rampant adversity in the
country.
Sem & Eunice Beasnael