Discover Benin Team 2015

John and co-leader Jacques in 2013

Preparing for John’s 16th Discover experience has been interesting as yet again we have a trip that not only looks quite different from all of our previous ones… it also continues to change and require flexibility on our part the closer we get to his departure. Some of its unique distinctions include:

   A side trip: John will travel to Ghana before heading to Benin to lead the 2015 team. It turned out that flying to Ghana was actually cheaper than flying to Benin, so it seemed like this would be a good opportunity to return there (our last Discover trip to Ghana was in 2012).  John will be able to have some face time with some of the administrators of the national Bible translation organization that has sponsored our trips there in the past as well as meet with some of our Ghanaian Discover alumni who keep asking us when Discover is coming back to Ghana. 

   Size of team: In our last prayer letter, we mentioned that we had five applicants; however two of  them wound up postponing their trips until next year. And then on May 22nd another applicant cancelled; this has never happened in Discover before!  Now we have only two westerners going to Benin who will hopefully be joined by two Beninois teammates (Wycliffe Benin currently has one candidate and is looking for one more Discoverer). Although the team will  be smaller than any other team John has led, he will still have two co-leaders: Kate, (a current Discoverer who has been in Benin for almost one year as a media intern) along with Jacques Wella (a member of Wycliffe Benin who co-led the 2013 Benin team.)

   A different orientation: Before John even leaves California, his two Western Discover participants will have already arrived in Benin! These young men needed longer internships then the other three who were originally going to go as well, so their orientation has been/is looking quite different than anything we have done previously. Shevawn helped John and the other leaders slice and dice the curriculum; John and Kate have done some of the orientation with Christoph and Matt online before their departure, while Jacques will finish up their orientation and send them out to their language project after they arrive in Benin. When John arrives, he will have a couple of days to meet with his co-leaders before the second orientation for this team will begin which will consist of the 2 Beninois participants  (after their school year finishes).

    After both the orientations are completed, we expect things to go much more like they usually do: participants out in the language projects while John stays mostly in Cotonou (the largest city of Benin). The whole team will come together for debrief and, after the participants depart, John will spend a couple more days in Cotonou to have a second debrief with his co-leaders.

   Although Shevawn will not be present physically on this trip, she has been and will continue to support and interact with the leaders throughout (as she did for the previous Discover trip to Benin) thanks to the wonders of technology. Together we’ll do our best to post trip updates here on our blog and  on our Facebook wall.  Meanwhile, we would love to have you pray along with us about our current concerns:

• For continued joy and peace as our flexibility muscles are stretched!
• For the coming together of details and people during John’s time in Ghana; for wisdom and fun as well as he interacts with alumni, administrators and friends.
• For discussions John hopes to have regarding the possibility of sending longer term interns to Ghana to work in vernacular media and other ministries in the future.
• For Jacques as he recruits and prepares the Beninois participants and leads the on-site orientation for Matt and Christoph.
• For the other Discover teams that are going to PNG from June 8th– August 1st and to SE Asia June 7th- August 10th.
• For each Discoverer on all the teams and individual trips this year; for openness and courage for what God has for them and that many of them will go on to further involvement with Wycliffe.
• For John and Shevawn as they live in different continents for 8 weeks .