building the Songhai into your church's DNA

One of our partnering churches, Living Hope Baptist Church, has taken their partnership with the Songhai seriously & has infiltrated praying for the Songhai into every part of their church. The missions department promotes & send teams to work among the Songhai four times a year, the church as a whole prays for the Songhai, & even the children learn about the Songhai & pray for them, too. 

After one of the church's recent trips to Niger, they had a special day for their children's groups to teach about the Songhai & pray for them. Here are some pictures of that day & a testimony from Dwan, who's been to Niger twice to serve the Songhai & also serves in the church's children's ministry ...

walls were covered with souvenirs from recent trips to Niger

songhai songs were taught to children

recent volunteers gave their testimonies about their trips

the children learned about the Songhai through testimonies & songs

"Our church's commitment to serve and to share the Gospel with the Songhai began many years ago.  In those first years, our church would send teams to do ministry work among the Songhai people from prayer-walking to VBS to C2C to discipleship.  When a team returned there would be opportunities to share testimony of God at Work among the Songhai.  In recent years, our church has worked to build the Songhai into the DNA of the church.  The past few years our Children's Ministry has spent an entire Sunday morning teaching about the Songhai people.  Teams share testimony about past trips.  Also, information is taught to the children about the Songhai people as far as their culture, beliefs, traditions, and so much more.  Children can experience tangible things like beating an African drum, pounding millet, and trying on an African skirt.  Our children and adults worship singing a Songhai song in the Zarma language.  From adults to teens to children, our church strategically shares and incorporates the Songhai people into our congregation in hopes that people will respond in one of three ways:  to pray, to give and/or to go."    - Dwan Graham