I've just finished packing my backpack for 40/40. For the next 30 days, my teammate and I will be living in Zambia, learning how to be missionaries in Africa. We'll spend 12 days in Lusaka, learning in an urban context, then we'll travel out to bush camp (no electricity, no running water) where we will live for nine days in tents and learn about serving in a rural context. After that, we will spend three days living with an African family. We will sleep where they sleep, eat what they eat and work alongside them.
The 40/40 training program, 40 days and 40 nights in Africa, teaches missionaries to immerse themselves in the African culture, to truly appreciate the lives of those they want to see come to believe in Christ. Participants prepare for life in Sub-Saharan Africa by observing, interviewing and interacting with Africans in the southern African country of Zambia. They also learn from the experience of seasoned missionaries and African Baptists on the best ways to share the love of Christ.
So, as we were preparing for our trip, we decided that we wanted to share our experiences with people who may never have the opportunity to visit Africa. And for people who might be interested in what it's like to be a missionary.
So, this blog is to inform the masses about how missionaries learn to be missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
As we embark on this journey, we will both be carrying a journal, and a camera. What we won't have is internet.
But when we return, we will post everything to a blog, just as it happened.
That means everything you’re reading is being uploaded after the fact, but it really did happen.
The training is not really 40 days long, but we’re given devotionals for the five days before we left and the five days after we got back, to prepare us for the training and then to help us take what we’ve learned and start thinking about the future.
I’m excited to see what’s going to happen at 40/40. After living in West Africa for two and a half years I can’t wait to experience the culture in this part of Africa. How much is the same? What is different? Will the cultural things I learned in West Africa carry over?
The 40/40 training program, 40 days and 40 nights in Africa, teaches missionaries to immerse themselves in the African culture, to truly appreciate the lives of those they want to see come to believe in Christ. Participants prepare for life in Sub-Saharan Africa by observing, interviewing and interacting with Africans in the southern African country of Zambia. They also learn from the experience of seasoned missionaries and African Baptists on the best ways to share the love of Christ.
So, as we were preparing for our trip, we decided that we wanted to share our experiences with people who may never have the opportunity to visit Africa. And for people who might be interested in what it's like to be a missionary.
So, this blog is to inform the masses about how missionaries learn to be missionaries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
As we embark on this journey, we will both be carrying a journal, and a camera. What we won't have is internet.
But when we return, we will post everything to a blog, just as it happened.
That means everything you’re reading is being uploaded after the fact, but it really did happen.
The training is not really 40 days long, but we’re given devotionals for the five days before we left and the five days after we got back, to prepare us for the training and then to help us take what we’ve learned and start thinking about the future.
I’m excited to see what’s going to happen at 40/40. After living in West Africa for two and a half years I can’t wait to experience the culture in this part of Africa. How much is the same? What is different? Will the cultural things I learned in West Africa carry over?
Jesse, I would be really interested to know what you concluded about differences and similarities between W Africa and Zambia/Kenya. It's likely that Randy and Kittie Trail would be interested as well since they will be working with all the new folks who head to Sub-Saharan Africa.
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