by Wim
Whenever someone asks what I do for a living, I’m tempted to hand them a flowchart. My days bounce between meetings, travel plans, trainings, and an occasional hand-pump repair in West Africa. But when the dust settles, my job is essentially three words:
- MENTOR – God directs us to the servant-hearted people and we pour into them.
- EQUIP – We give them the training and resources they need to thrive.
- DEPLOY – We release them to lead in their own communities so the Kingdom expands.
Let me tell the story of Konan—an example of those three words in action:
Our Sub-Saharan Africa team recently co-hosted training in Ivory Coast with a ministry called Friends in Action.
We invited Reach Beyond partner ministries from around West Africa to send two people to learn well-pump repair, well assessment, and basic community development outreach—nuts-and-bolts skills for village water projects.
Konan was a volunteer from Foundation Emmanuel. He arrived an hour early each day, swept the room, lined up the tools, and volunteered for every task. While others checked their phones, he was elbow-deep in pump parts, asking smart questions and jotting notes.
Mark from Friends In Action whispered, “I want him on my team.” I whispered back, “So do I—but he already has a team.” The two of us sat down with Pastor Kra (Konan’s boss) and sketched out a solution:
- MENTOR – Konan would intern with Friends in Action’s well-drilling crew for intensive, on-the-job mentoring.
- EQUIP – Reach Beyond would cover his expenses during those training months so he could focus on learning.
- DEPLOY – After the internship, Foundation Emmanuel would hire him to run water projects in the country’s underserved northwest.
The arrangement cost all three organizations a slice of their budget, but it multiplied everyone’s reach:
- FRIENDS IN ACTION gains a trusted ally in the north of the country.
- FOUNDATION EMMANUEL gets a fully trained technician who already loves their mission.
- REACH BEYOND advances local church-planting efforts among the unreached through clean-water ministry without adding staff to our payroll.
And Konan? He walks away with a career, a calling, and tools to serve his people.
Even though our logo won’t be on Konan’s shirt, we know that clean water will flow and that the Gospel will travel with it. And that’s what really matters! •
*Wim is a Reach Beyond missionary from the Netherlands who coordinates our community development ministries in West Africa.
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