It is hard to remember just how and when Project Africa got started. It seemed to have so many starting points all over the world. I like to think that one of those small beginnings occurred over ten years ago when Mel and I cracked a few dozen live oysters up in the French Alps before setting off for one of the summits.

The contstant challenge the Project Africa team faced together -- even though it was not always so well-defined in our thinking -- was how to crack open the cultural encasement of our North American-based Christian, Reformed ministerial tradition and offer a pearl of great price to so many functionally illiterate church leaders ministering in places best known for their violence, corruption, sickness, chaos, exploitation, poverty, shame, and injustice.

What helped make this dream possible was that those who made up the team had already worked on that challenge during the long years of their own teaching and ministry. Yet, with all that accumulated experience, how much we learned together!

One of the greatest joys of these past years was to meet so many gifted and dedicated African brothers and sisters with whom it is a continued honor to collaborate.

Our biggest surprise was that Project Africa actually works! The training workshops are bringing about far more significant results than any of us ever expected.

I think of pastor André ministering in Mopti, Mali, halfway up the river to Timbouctou. Andre', an unassuming fellow, always seemed more interested in the tea breaks than in the actual training. During the last workshop in September, sitting out under the stars tending his favorite brew over the coals, he said to me: "This Excelsis training has changed my personality." I replied, "How is that?" He answered: "Before, I though that the earth and the human race were cursed. Now, I know that despite whatever goes wrong, both are still blessed by God. That changed my life and ministry." It would, wouldn't it!

I also think of pastor Jérémie from Macenta, Guinea, who returned home from the first workshop to a civil war. The thought that stayed with him during the next terrifying year was that a good shepherd does not abandon the flock. Today, the diocese of which he is president, made up of 100 congregations, is experiencing unprecedented economic and spiritual renewal. For the first time in the 100 year history of that church, their diocese sent the official message to evangelical Western missions in that area: "We don't want your money anymore. Just continue to help us train our leaders."

Every year in Conakry, Guinea, the woman's union leads one worship service. I attended that service last year when Anne Kamano, who had coordinated the women's training workshops, was preaching. She chose a text from Exodus 1 and 2. With a half-rolled up Bible in her left hand and her right reaching to the sky and to the saints, she told first of the two courageous midwives who defied Pharaoh. Next, she spoke of the audacity of Moses' mother and of this sister and finally that of Pharaoh's daughter. The atmosphere was electric. Then she delivered the punch line: "Pharaoh was so scared of God's baby boys. He should have been more worried about the women!" The 800 saints packed into the church stoop up and screamed with delight.

After the service, Anne asked me, "Did you catch the three keys for effective preaching?" "Of course," I said, "You hit every one right on the head."

May it please God that our successors say long after we are gone, "What a small beginning it was back there in 2004!"