Cl S

THE LION'S
See the Lion of the tribe of Judah .. . has triumphed"

IN

ZAIRE
AFRICA

BOB & DAWN BAIRD

Elizabeth, Rachel & Joshua

im

July 1989

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The

friend who attends the bridegroom waits and
listens for him and is full of ioy when he hears
the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and
it is now complete. He must become greater; I
must become less."

John 3:29-30

When I read about John the Baptist I feel that here is a

Christian man who really knows himself and what he is
about. He had a job and he did it. There were no identity
problems for him or trying to be more than what he could be.
He wasn't influenced by what other people thought he
should be. He was the friend of the Bridegroom with its
privileges and responsibilities. He knew that to do his job
properly it meant that his place would always decrease as
Christ's place increased.
We want to be "friends" of the Bridegroom here in Zaire
also. As we have planned ourTEE program it has been to the
end that the Christians here would take more and more

responsibilities, in fact the program itself will develope those

abilities for them to take over more of the job. We want to be
resources for their development. We must decrease while
Christ increases.

This is not an easy task for us in Zaire, because of the

customs that we come in contact with.

The culture here

looks for a central authority figure. A chief, Bwana, Patron,

or Baba, who can lead them and protect them and provide for
ail their needs. They are willing to give that figure full
allegiance. In the extreme they even allow that figure to
decide life or death for them.

Just recently we had an example of this in the Church here

in Bafwasende. Mike Walton is in the process of building a
house and a church building. The area where the church will
be is the side of a hill.

Mike and I took the transit and shot

three different places on the hillside to see what It

would take to build in each location.

When we

Centers and Schools. The Center is where we

hold the seminars and distribute material. The

Schools are where the TEE Book is actually

were done he presented it to the Elders and the

Pastor explaining the pros and cons of each
place. Their desire was to build the church atthe
top of the hill, but our people had already filled
the top of the hill with their homes. The Elders
decided to move one family and tear down their
house for the church building. We agreed with
their decision. A week or two passed, no one

studied. In our province we have 2 Centers and

16 Schools. We also have what we call Cells,
which are Schools that do not have enough
students, but function as an appendage of
another School. The reason they are not a
regular part of that School is usually due to

moved and the house still stood so we started to

198 students. In the whole TEE program we have

wonder what was going on. After the beginning

of the third week, Mike was approached by the
Pastor and asked why we had not started. Mike
told him we were waiting on the Elders to move
the family. The Pastor told us that we were to do
it because we were building the church. We said
that that was the Elders -esponsibility. Well, the
church will not be built on the top of the hill. We
have gone to an alternative position where no

15 Centers, 76 Schools, and 908 Students.

homes have to be removed. The Elders would not

take the lead to complete their own plan and they

have explained the new position by saying that
we, Mike and I, did not like the other position.
They want us to be the Chief.
We find this attitude in many areas, but we
cannot accept it. If we become the Chief then we
cannot be the Friend. Instead of making the way
straight we will in fact be blocking it altogether.
We want to be no more and no less than the

Friend of the Bridegroom. We want the bride to

be prepared for the wedding and to be wholly
acceptable to the Bridegroom.
When the
Bridegroom comes we want the bride to know
Him. We must become less, while He becomes
greater.

distance. We have 4 Cells. In this area we have

Last time you received the Lion's Line I

explained about writing the Teacher's Guide for
book 2 of the program. The purpose of the book
on Salvation was to have the student learn the

book with the appropriate scriptures and then

teach the book to someone else. The results are

really quite good. We had a total of 201 students

started in the 2nd book. 121 students actually
completed the course by teaching it to someone
else, a non-Christian. In response to their work
we had 85 people baptized into the Lord. This
happened over a nine week period. These results
of course are just for our area. If we use what
happened here as a guide, we could have as
many as 350 new Christians as a result of this part
of our TEE program.
I want to thank you for your prayers
concerning this. I was worried about what 1 had
prepared like a father over his small child. When I
shared with you, you prayed and we can see the
results of "our" work in the Lord. Keep praying
for TEE. We are still struggling with problems.
We have 62 new students for book 3, but we had

to close 2 Schools because of leadership

problems. Please stay with us in the task as we
continue to need your help.

TEE
On February 28th Ron Butler and I flew into
Bomiii to do the follow-up on book number 2,

TEE The New Frontier

"Doctrines of the Church: Salvation," and hold

Preachers. We spent a week there and then flew

into Bafwasende with the MAF pilot, from
Nebobongo, to complete the program here.

The TEE program is for people who read. That

of course goes without saying. But a segment of
our Christians here are illiterate. Every church
has people in it who are unable to read. What can
TEE do forthem? As it is, nothing: but it will soon

Since at that time not all the schools had finished

be different.

their work, I returned to Bomiii on the 12th of

April to collect those tests and results which had

that will follow the TEE structure, but use

seminars for both the Bible Institute and the

been lacking and to distributethe new book. I did

all this at Bafwasende on the 13th.

Just to refresh your memory and to give you an

over view of the TEE program, I will lay out some

facts and figures.

We have in our program.

Ron Butler has begun developing a program

pictures to teach the lesson. The TEE book is
broken down into 10 weeks of studies. Each day
has a lesson and a verse and the whole week

builds together. The TEE for the Illiterate will be a

daily lesson plan with pictures for the main

Long promised photo of the Waltons.

Mike, Tracy. Andrew and David

points. The one teaching will be a literate TEE

student and this will be his homework project.
They will discuss the pictures and the student will
memorize the verse for that day with the help of
his teacher. When the TEE class meets together
for the week, the illiterate will be able to attend

because he will have learned everything that will

be discussed.

In May when we met with the TEE leaders we

tested the material with some illiterates both in

Bomili and Bafwasende to see how it worked. We

also wanted to expose our leaders to it for their

input. We were very pleased with the results In
both cases. We are stilt far from putting it into the
system, but we have made a start.
What we need now is to have an artist to do the

drawing for the books. The TEE program will

need additional finances for the supplies and
printing that will make this possible. We need
you to add these needs to your prayers for these
your brothers and sisters here who cannot read.

went in trips to Nairobi for the orthondontist,

trips to Bukavu for meetings, trips to Kisingani
for buying and trips to Rethy to see our children.
They went in a sea of problems, handled, passed
on, lived with, or forgotten. They went in missing
our children and rejoicing in their time at home.
They went in taking care of the daily running of
the house, education of children, and keeping a
lid on inflation by bargaining like an African.
They went like a snail sometimes and sometimes
like a fast freight, but they are gone now.
Now we start to plan for next term. Next term
will present some major changes for our family.
The biggest being that we will be moving to
Bukavu when we return to Zaire. We are moving
for two reasons. The first and most important is
for Elizabeth's sake. Being a special child she
needs more of the daily stimulation of speaking
and playing with other children for her to mature.
In Bafwasende she has not gotten what she
needs. In Bukavu she will be able to go to the
Bukavu Academy and have all that daily
interaction with other children.

NEXT TERM

The first reason was painfully apparent and

when our eyes were opened in the search for an

Where did 3 years go anyway? Well, they went

in TEE safaris, seminars, planning meetings,
writing and proofreading new material. They

answer we saw another need that we could fill.

ACM desperately needs a support family In

Bukavu. Up to this date that job has been either

shared around and not done well or done solely

by a family that then were not able to do what
they came for. You remember that we came to

Zaire as a support team. Now, orratherlnJulyof

'90, we will start to do that job completely.
You might ask what is going to happen to my
work in the TEE and Bible Institute?
It will
increase because I will be able to work in more

areas out of Bukavu using the flight program. I

will be more closely involved in the area of writing
new material and up-grading the old.
If I will be travelling to more places and doing
more in TEE, how can I do the support work?
Remember the word "team." Thesupport job will
be primarily Dawn's job. She will receive orders,
handle funds, and coordinate the buying and
shipping. I will be her assistant in that if things
are ordered such as fuel or plumbing, carpentry
or electrical supplies, I will specifically handle
those. In this job of support, Dawn will also be
overseeing the ACM guest house for the outstation missionaries.

Will living in Bukavu require us to raise

additional funds? This is a question we are still
looking at. When we move to Bukavu we will be
eliminating all the shipping expenses we now
have and all the flights to Bukavu for meetings.
Joshua will be going to the Bukavu Academy
which will eliminate room and board and flights
back and forth, but tuition will remain. Rachel

will have to go to Nairobi for high school so all of

her expenses will increase.
Our housing

rent will increase from $14 a month here to $500

there. TEE expenses will Increase in travel
because I'll be flying out to more areas. Although
Elizabeth is now through with the orthodontist,
Joshua will be starting. Because we will be the
full-time support team for all the out station
missionaries, we will need additional funds in

that area also. Halfway thru next term Rachel will

graduate and be going to America to start college
so we will have an extra trans-Atlantictrip. Dawn
and I estimate that we will need an additional

$500 a month work funds for our next term in

Bukavu.

Now we have something else for you to pray

about. We are already packing and sending
things down to Bukavu on the back sides of
flights. We are thinking about furlough and
already about next term. Please help us in this
with your continued prayer support. Thank you!

PRAYERS &

PRAISES

1. TEE Program its growth and the program

for illiterates.

2. Finishing out everything in Zaire by July 17th.

3. For Elizabeth, Rachel, and Joshua to fit back
into American culture and schools.

4. The right house at the right price to rent.

5. Praises for the Morris Church purchasing a
van for us to use on furlough. (1986 Window
Van, 4 benches, plus front buckets)

Before you move, please send the mailing label with a copy of your new address to
MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION, PO Box 2427, Knoxville, TN 37901-2427.

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Mission Services

PO Box 2427

Knoxville, TN 37901-2427

Non Profit Org.

37950-9998

U.S. Postage Paid

Knoxville, TN

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ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED