“He wants to see our papers,” I muttered to Marc Coleman as I got back into the car.

A policeman at a road checkpoint outside of Natitingou had just asked me to get out of the car to open the trunk. Our car is a hatchback, and there was nothing in the back of the car, so a quick sweep with his flashlight would have been enough unless the policeman wanted more than just to stop us. And it seemed he did want more.

From my experience in other African countries, I was used to being stopped often and hassled by police. However, this was only the third or fourth time I had been stopped in Benin in our own car (riding in taxis, I have been stopped dozens of times). It seems that foreign people driving private cars are not usually a big concern for the many police checkpoints we pass through outside of Natitingou. Unless it is dark, I guess. And the sun had already set that evening. A stop by a hungry police officer was the last thing I wanted to have, since we still had things to do that evening.

Normally at this checkpoint, we just drive through the two metal barriers, waving at the police sitting in the shade of their little tin shelter a dozen yards from the road. These roadblocks are never very substantial. If someone wanted to zoom through at high speed, the little police car parked near the shelter couldn’t give effective chase, but that’s probably why policemen carry assault rifles of varying vintage and condition.

As I got back into the car and opened the glove compartment, Marc began to speak to the young man glowering outside my open door.

“What is the problem?” he asked politely but directly. “All the papers are in order. This man is from Natitingou. We are together. He has no problems. We just went to Djougou to check on taxis. We are together, friend.”

“I don’t know him, though,” the policeman replied, obviously caught off guard and starting to realize a bribe would not be forthcoming. “I do not recognize the car.”

“He is from here. We are together,” Marc repeated.

“Okay,” the policeman said sheepishly, closing my door. “Have a good night.”

As we drove away, I was relieved that the episode had ended so easily. My experience is that when the police are hungry for bribes, they always find something wrong with the car or the papers. A small “tip” gets you waved through, but I have made it a matter of principle (and probably some pride) not to pay such tips. My normal method involves doggedly pleading lack of money until the official realizes I am a waste of time and sends me on. This evening, thanks to Marc’s intervention, I learned that the process can go much more quickly.

Marc was completing his first Africa supervisory visit since our arrival in Natitingou. He had been with our team for several days, going over practical issues, giving us advice and counsel, and helping us formulate plans for where the Otammari Project would go in the future. He had met with our entire team and each person individually, and we all considered the visit to have been a blessing and a success.

Marc spent a lot of time helping me better understand the place and culture we have been called to. It would be hard to imagine a person better suited to be an AFM Field Director than Marc, who spent a decade serving as a missionary to the Susu people of Guinea, West Africa. Although there are some significant differences between Guinea and Benin, much of the underlying worldview is the same. Marc is fluent in French, the main language in Benin, so he was able to help me improve my French as we interacted with various people.

Marc was able to communicate directly with local people, letting his pastoral care shine through. He preached twice while he was here, giving much-needed spiritual input to churches that do not often have visiting pastors, or any pastor for that matter, since the district pastor is only able to get to this region every other month or so.

Marc and his wife Cathy are planning to move from the States to Ghana so we will be able to have more contact with them, gaining from their experience and wisdom. As a rookie missionary, I crave the help of a godly mentor like Marc. His few days with us ended all too soon.

As we drove away from the checkpoint, Marc gave me another gem of cultural insight. “There is one thing I said to that policeman that you would do well to learn. Did you notice how I kept telling him, ‘We are together?’ In this culture of relationships, that means everything. When you say that, you are telling the person that we are all on the same side, and it becomes very hard for him to try to extort anything from you.”

“Nous sommes ensemble. Nous sommes ensemble.” I practiced the words aloud in French.

Marc corrected my pronunciation and then continued. “Another thing I said is also very important. I told him that you are from here, which implies further contact in the future, a potential to build on the relationship you have just started, which will potentially be worth much more to him than whatever he could get from you tonight. Life here is built around relationships, and leaving the door open to a future relationship is an offer better than any bribe.” I thanked Marc for his advice and thanked God for such a helpful Field Director.

If Marc had never lived in Africa before, he could still help us in countless ways. He could minister to our souls, our marriages and our struggles. He could connect us to AFM’s home office. He could keep us accountable and redirect us when necessary. He could help us with our personal development, making sure we get the further education and training we need to move forward in our work. In fact, Marc does all of these things and more. Because he is a missionary himself, we know that he is our advocate in a very deep sense, somebody who understands the struggles of life in the mission field. He inspires us with stories from Guinea so we can see a model of how church-planting can work here in Africa. He also helps us better understand the stresses and challenges of all of our teammates working back in the AFM home office in Michigan.

So, from the mission field, I would like to thank all of you who support Marc and Cathy as they prepare to launch back to the mission field to direct AFM’s Africa projects. We are looking forward to having them much closer to us.

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