One of the themes to be heard throughout the church in West Africa is "building from centers of strength". It is easy to send missionaries out to the remote villages away from the larger cities where members can be baptised easily, but retention is poor because the strength of the church is not there. The new member finds little support in holding onto his faith: sometimes because he cannot read the scriptures as he knows no English and for others the distances are too far to get to a church, which also makes it difficult for them to renew their covenants by taking the sacrament, study the gospel in Sunday School, RS, Primary and Priesthood meetings, and to be home taught and visit taught. The new members faith is like a seed not planted on good ground and therefore shrivals up and dies.
So one of my jobs has been to map all our buildings on Google Earth. Africa has few maps and most of them that we have are not accurate, so Google Earth has been a real blessing. I have located almost 400 buildings church owned and also rented throughout Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria. One mission president called me yesterday so excited that he could see where his wards and branches were! Here in West Africa there are few street names...to find your way to a church or a business or a home you are given landmarks. The church is down the road that is across the street from the large Evangelical Church that has not been finished. Or the church is next to the large Ebony tree. Look for the Shell station, turn right till you reach the pink house..... So until now the mission presidents have known the towns the churches are in, but never had the exact location pointed out to them on a map.
I love working on projects like this. During the last year people were sent out to get GPS co-ordinates. There is a temple missionary who gathered all the data and organized it. My job was the easy one and I had fun doing it. It helped me become familiar with all the wards, branches and stakes in the nine missions. Now when a stake president calls I recognize immediately the name of his stake and know what country it is in. So the blessings worked both ways!
6 comments:
That is a great idea! Those mission presidents' are going to love you!
I got the coordinates off of your picture and went right to it on Google Earth. Next, you need to learn how to post photos on Google Earth (click one of the light-blue dots on the map to see a photo), and then everyone who looks at Accra on Google Earth can access a picture of the temple. I clicked on a dot to the NE of the temple with the title "strip mall" and came up with a picture of a pizza place with MaxMart in the back. Now I know where that is also. I'll try to learn how to post photos also so as to get the temple picture up.
Modern technology and blogs are a wonderful asset to missions. Thanks for sharing.
It is such a pleasure to read your blog. You both are doing such great work. I feel like I'm right there with you at least in Spirit.
wow that's pretty sweet!
lol that's exactly how i give my directions though x3 i am NO GOOD when it comes to street names =3
that is a pretty amazing job! You are a great blessing in the lives of those mission presidents. (if you google earth us, we are still a big field on a hill . . .)
Post a Comment