shannon's shenanigans: 16 days in Benin

So here i am on the ship in Togo, West Africa, I have been here for a week now. I am sorry i didn't posted a blog earlier but this new environment is a bit overwhelming, so i thought it would be better to wait a little while before i wrote any thing and i will fill you all in on ship life and my new job and everything in between but not in this blog...hehe....as you have read this about 16 days in Benin.

Benin is a small country in West Africa, it was colonized by the French so their main language is French but depending on where you are there will be different dialects or tribal languages. The only reason i know that is because my Gateway team just did the field portion of our training there. we were there for, lets take a guess....16 DAYS!!!! haha

While in Benin we stayed in a city called Abomey at the motel D'Abomey. You know how you usually you look for a hotel or motel based on the amount of stars, like a 5 five star would be the best. This was def a no star motel by american standards but by Benin standards it was a nice motel. There was no consistent electricity not just at the motel but in the entire country of Benin, many business had there own generators to power what ever they needed. many times when there was no electricity there would also not be any running water. which we later found out was because the pumps don't work without electricity.DUH!!! so it was very interesting to live in conditions like that. i learned to conserve water and how to shower out of a bucket and how to flush the toilet with the same bucket of water so we really did need to conserve haha.

our main ministry was working with an orphanage better known as a children's home because some of the children's parents are alive but are in cases or ill so they are unable to care for them. My team had several projects that we completed at the children's home, we built shelves or cubby holes for the children's belongings to be stored in, we built a swing set that they loved and so did it and we fixed their clothing lines so they wouldn't have to hang there clothes on the fence. almost everyday that we were there we did a skit with a bible lesson for them, and my "transit missions team" should be happy to hear to hear that we did sin chair for them and then they tried too reenact it for us. The most important thing we did while we were there with those beautiful precious children was that we LOVED them unconditionally as much as humanly possible.One my favorite memories from there is when a little 5 year old boy named frank fell asleep on me and i had to do was to cuddle and love him....and then of course i fell asleep as well.

We also helped start up a prison ministry with 3 pastors from the area. The prison that we worked with was built to house 400 people and is currently housing over 1,000 people. That was the most heartbreaking thing to see. There were already some people in our group that didnt like the idea of us doing prison ministry, but we were told to remember "what you do for the least of these you do for me" and it is easy to work with a children's they are so cute and lovable but prisons, some of our group didnt like the idea. i have done a little bit of prison ministry meaning Ive done it once in a prison in Mississippi and i felt safe and had a great experience, so i was expecting the same kind of situation. We were blessed to be given permission to work with the juvenile group. in order to get to the were the were kept we had to walk through the main portion of the prison, in the us you would expect them to be behind bars, in cells or at least behind some kind of barrier but that was not the case for us. We walked a path straight through were the 1000 men lived there we able to reach out to shake our hands, call out to us, or walk directly in front of us, this was a scary experience for me not only did i not feel safe but the conditions that these men were kept in where inhumane, disgusting, just plain awful. that is why i say we were blessed to work with the juvenile group that consisted of   22 boys and 2 girls with ages between 12-20, it would have been much more difficult if not impossible for my small group to work with all of those men. the juveniles much to our surprise were very attentive they sat and listened and responded and even shared when it was appropriate.we did skits for them as well and they made up their own skits to do for us that were very relevant to their society and how God works. we also sang a song to them in french one day and when we came back the next day they all stood and sang the song along with the hand motions back to us! Since we have left we have had some communication with one of the pastors and they have kept up the ministry and since we have left there have been many answered prayers. While in the prison we prayed for God's will to be evident to these young boys and girls and we prayed that justice would be provided. Many of them had been in prison for years and never had a court date. Since we have left a few of them have been given court dates, one guy in particular had been in prison for 10 years and never saw a judge and he now has an upcoming court date and his fines are only 100 us dollars. it awesome that they can see how God works and they can learn to trust God not man.

Benin is heavily saturated in voodoo and before i came here i would not have known what that meant. A dear friend of mine wrote me a letter and in that she said something about Africa being very spiritual and i thought what the heck does that mean?...am i not spiritual? i was totally confused until i got to Benin and i realized what she meant. i am sorry i do not know how to describe it besides  it is very spiritual almost unbelievably spiritual. now i have always known the devil existed but had never heard or learner about bad/ evil spirits i thought it was kind of silly just a joke really. But here in West Africa it is no joke the devil has these people in his strong hold and continues to tell them lies about God.

the overall trip was really amazing definitely a growing experience for me personally, i feel like i learned a lot about my self , others and about this culture. i hope you didnt mind reading this i know it is quite long but i wanted to share what has been happening with you all!

Prayer request:
* for the children that they will always be completely provided for and that will see and learn about Gods love as they grow.
*for the prisoners that they will continue to grow in their knowledge and faith of God. that they will be light to other prisoners and that Gods will for there life will be evident to each and everyone of them.
*for the pastors that will have strength through God to continue working with this ministry and that it will grow.
*please pray for all of West Africa that God light will shine!
* For my team to keep the bonds that it has made and for them to grow stronger and for the friendships to continue to grow!
* for me personally pray that i adjust, to the ship each day has gotten better and better but please pray that continues, pray that i have grace to live in community and i make friendships that are up lifting to God. and that i continue to learn my new job position!!

thanks for all of your continued love and support!!
here are some pics please enjoy!!

this is what our motel looked like these huts where split into 3 rooms and two of us stayed in each room