Mentored by Giants

By Vicki Shaw Ivester

"What in the world am I doing here, working alongside these 'giants'?" I asked, as a brand-new first-termer trying to find my niche, surrounded by busy, can-do-everything coworkers. My fears were soon put to rest as my colleagues helped me learn how to help in accomplishing what God had brought all of us to do.

By showing me how to do things they could have done more quickly themselves, giving cultural insights and advice, providing opportunities to gain experience (and pushing me to take the plunge when fear of failure caused me to hesitate), listening, and sharing from their own experiences, my mentors helped shape my missionary service.

Some of the results are obvious. Lynn Silvernale taught me Bible translation work when my interest and enthusiasm were high, but my experience minimal. As a result, God allowed me to help with Bible translation projects in Peru, India, Ghana, Chad, The Gambia and Togo.

Jeannie Lockerbie led me through the maze of literature production and distribution. Having established the Bible Literature Center in the Far East, she was able to guide me as we worked together producing tracts, booklets, correspondence courses, and other materials. Because of what Jeannie allowed me to learn by doing, we now have a literature ministry in Togo, my current field of service.

As I began my missionary work in Togo, I had only two rather dull tracts in French, the national language, and none in the tribal languages most commonly spoken. I longed to provide evangelistic and discipleship materials, but Christian literature was too expensive where it existed at all. My longing inspired the idea of duplicating the basic concept of the literature ministry in the Far East, adapting it for Togo. Thus was born the Communications Resource Center, located on the hospital property near the small village of Tsiko.

As the idea for the center began to take shape and I started writing specific objectives, I sought counsel from my mentor, Jeannie. One of her suggestions was a conference to find and train Togolese with writing ability. She even led that first conference in June 1994. Twenty-four men and women from our churches attended, learning the basics of writing and actually trying their hands at producing an evangelistic tract.

At that first writing seminar, Pastor Laurent Amedome was voted by his fellow trainees as the writer of the best tract. This tract, "High Treason," was the CRC's first production, and all 18,000 copies were quickly distributed. Because of its popularity, it was reprinted and translated into other languages. When the opportunity arose for Pastor Laurent to attend another writing seminar, he again won a prize for the article he produced. It is apparent God gifted Pastor Laurent and placed him in our midst as the national "spark plug" of the literature ministry. Through seminars taught by Pastor Laurent in various parts of Togo, we have begun to find and develop local talent.

What began as a simple plan to make materials available to local churches has mushroomed into an ever-expanding network of ministries. CRC's literature ministry includes not only locating and distributing literature at prices the Togolese can afford, but also training writers, translating, producing, printing and distributing throughout Togo and Ghana. With the goal of making this ministry truly Togolese, national workers are being trained in each area.

We opened a multi-faceted reading room at the hospital:

• A counselor meets with visitors, patients and employees, to answer questions and suggest materials to be read there or taken home.
• Tracts, booklets, books, and cassettes in many of Togo's tribal languages, filmstrips, and correspondence courses are available.
• A lending library provides Bible stories, Sunday school lessons and other teaching materials for use in local churches.
• A reference library/study area stocked with French materials (difficult to find and expensive to buy) is available for pastors and church leaders.

Other CRC ministries include producing literacy materials and establishing literacy programs through the local churches, distributing audio-visual materials and equipment, writing and teaching English as a Second Language courses, preparing Bible correspondence courses, translating literature into local tribal languages, and training Sunday school teachers to use the teaching helps.

A literature ministry has its exciting moments. Soon after we received a shipment of French Scofield Bibles, our household worker was able to purchase-for the first time in her life-a study Bible. She was so enthralled that she stayed up all night reading and studying God's Word. We have seen others walk away hugging their newly purchased Bibles.

I have maintained close contact with Jeannie, seeking ideas in directing this work and planning for future growth. Resource people with field experience and networking contacts in Third World countries are few and far between, and I appreciate the words of wisdom that she shares from her years of experience.

And the mentoring cycle does not stop there. In order to plan, organize and begin the CRC ministry in Togo, God provided co-worker Judy Bowen. Judy came to Togo in 1992 as what she describes "a generic missionary"-not a nurse, not a teacher. Judy's natural ability and interest made our decision to join forces an obvious one. She was a first-term missionary then, seeking her niche in the church planting ministry of Togo. We first co-taught an ESL course for Bible Institute students in Lomé and from there have worked together to develop the CRC. So I have become a mentor, continuing the legacy of sharing and training new missionaries as we work together.

Vicki Shaw joined ABWE in 1980 and was assigned to the Far East where she served with distinction until her transfer to Togo in 1994. Vicki followed in Jeannie's footsteps one more time. In August 1996 Jeannie married Wally Stephenson, and in January 1998 Vicki married Bill Ivester.

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