http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/01/30/community/doc5108a4d84cf33667948096.txt

 

A Learning Experience

Exchange Pastor Makes Most Of Time In Gayville

By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net

A pastor from Cameroon is wrapping up a three month long learning experience in Gayville today (Wednesday).

Tim Sodea, who is the pastor at seven Lutheran churches in Cameroon, has been visiting the Gayville Lutheran Church as part of a pastoral exchange. The purpose of the exchange is so each pastor can learn from each other about the church life in each place.

“Each evangelical Lutheran church in the United States is related to another church in a different part of the world, and we’re related to the churches in Cameroon,” said Ralph Egbert, pastor of Gayville Lutheran Church. “It’s mostly people from the United States going over there to put roofs on churches and support the education system they have in Cameroon.”

While in Gayville, Sodea has lived with Egbert and has spent time traveling around South Dakota meeting people. He has also been to Rapid City, Mitchell, Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Springfield, Canton and Pierre, among others.

“While he’s here in Gayville, he does pretty much everything that I do,” Egbert said. “He comes with me when I do funerals, hospital visits and make calls, along with attending meetings that I go to at church.”

Sodea said this is the first time he’s been in the United States and that he is lucky to live with Egbert, whom he had met in Cameroon previously.

“I had a lot of culture shock when I first arrived,” Sodea said. “The first town I came to was Chicago, which is a big city with big buildings, so I had some confusion as to how big the town I’d be staying in would be.”

However, Gayville has been different because he can meet people and sometimes ask them questions about living here. He said that he’s happy to be here and share information with the members of the church because oftentimes Christians send money to Cameroon but never actually see or meet anyone from there.

“It’s a good thing for me to come here so people in America know more about Cameroon,” Sodea said. “I see how Ralph (Egbert) is working here and how he can help me do some things in Africa. When he goes there, he will see what is good and what’s not good, and we can share that information together.”

Egbert will spend three months in Cameroon beginning in March.

Sodea said he has learned a lot from being in the United States.

“People can express their opinion during Bible study which sometimes helps the pastor with the sermon for Sunday,” he said. “I also see how the churches here take care of the youth. Back in Africa, the children’s program is done separately, outside of the church, so I appreciate the sense of community that takes place here.”

Sodea added that churches here are also more organized than they are in Cameroon.

“In Africa, time isn’t that big of a deal to people, so it even takes a lot of time to do announcements and when people want to speak during the service, they just raise their hands and talk,” he said. “When programs are more focused, it’s faster and better because it allows us to control how the service is going and how long the program will last for.”

Another big difference, Sodea said, is that in Cameroon, people often visit the pastor at their house after the service, whereas here sometimes people just greet the pastor right after church then go their separate ways.

“Just being in church here, I find the community of being together in a place that we can all exchange conversation and a sense of community,” he said. “In small group bible study here, we share with each other our thoughts about something we’re all learning about together.”

One of the big things that Egbert has been amazing for Sodea has been the connections he’s seen people have to Africa in places like Menard’s or the grocery store.

“These connections have been there probably about a dozen times and it’s really been amazing to see doors get opened and have people interested in what’s going on,” he said.

Sodea said one of the things that fascinated him was the November elections, which took place shortly after he arrived in Gayville.

“The elections in Cameroon sometimes have trouble afterwards,” he said. “The loser of the election in Cameroon sometimes disappears, while here, people do not divide after the election — they walk together. I have to bring back the message that living in peace in Cameroon will help the country.”

Sodea added that when he goes home, the first thing he has to teach people is how to be free.

“I need to teach people how to have a dialogue with one another — a good dialogue is to tell the truth to someone, and if you have a problem it’s good to share it with other people,” he said. “In Africa, if you have a problem, you usually keep it to yourself.”

Egbert said the time he has spent with Sodea has been amazing.

“He’s coming from a place where the people are more patient, time is different and issues of authority are also different,” Egbert said.

He said one of the things that shocked Sodea was the concept of leftovers.

“Tim got here in November, so one of the first things we’re cooking was turkey,” Egbert said. “We put some turkey back in the refrigerator and ate it again. In Cameroon, you sit at the table and eat everything that’s there. A person who puts leftovers away for another meal is considered selfish.”

When Egbert travels to Cameroon in March, he said he is looking forward to seeing how people live there and how church is run.

“Some of the things they do there are similar to here, but others are not,” he said. “Most of the Lutheran churches there are in French-speaking areas, and I have a very limited knowledge of that language. I’m also interested in seeing how people react to me as an American, because most people there have not had much contact with American people.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal