“As Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we seek to work in harmonious cooperation with the Adventist Church and its leadership as well as other organizations to advance the kingdom of God” (AFM’s fourth core value).

Before joining AFM in 2006, I was happy to learn of their dedication to working alongside the Adventist Church at large. But how do I do that here in Benin when my mission project is 130 miles from the nearest Adventist church? How do I cooperate with church headquarters when we live 400 miles apart? Very quickly, I learned that exchanging a few emails once in a while was not enough. I also learned they weren’t very interested in updates on my language-learning and cultural-study progress. How could I forge a connection with Benin’s church leaders and convince them we were effectively supporting their work?

The first thing that seemed to help was our regular reports of tithes and offering to the nearest church. The district pastor was the first to express his appreciation and desire to visit us. Later, the mission president came for a visit, too. As God inspired us, we made considerable efforts to attend workers meetings, women’s conventions and camp meetings. My presence at the Parakou camp meetings in September 2009 was an important step in building teamwork with church leaders. I met many members from our region, and they had the chance to see the AFM missionary they had heard about for the past two years. I was asked to make a presentation about our approach to Islam, which I did with joy. From the comments of the mission president and five other pastors present, I believe a veil has lifted, and my mission in Kandi is more clearly understood.

Mrs. White wrote, “To every man God has assigned some special line of service.” I strongly believe God has assigned to AFM a special line of service for the church. The more closely we can work with the church in our distinctive role, the more we can together glorify our Lord. Thanks for your prayers.

• Twitter