Marlin and Sue Weaver both serve on staff here at Grace Church. Previously, the Weavers were missionaries in France supported strongly by our church. Recently we received word that a man named Dadje Samuel passed away. Samuel was a key player in seeing Grace Brethren Churches started in Africa. Through the ministry of Marlin and Sue Weaver, Grace Church also had an impact in the church planting ministry of Dadje Samuel in the Chad. Marlin wrote me this:
I wanted to share the following story with you. I met Samuel at the Chateau in 1998 when he was a part of the first African theological training session at the Chateau. He and I hit it off right away due to our many shared interests. I was later able to visit Samuel in the Chad when I was part of a work team in 2001. He proudly showed me his Chadian Chateau and talked about his ministry of training Chadian evangelists. Samuel again returned to our France Chateau in 2005 for further training. Samuel was responsible for starting some 400 churches since his initial training at the Chateau. He opened up several mission fields in neighboring African countries. For Sue and I having the Africans at the Chateau was a fun cultural time and provided us with many stories, but God had a great plan in progress. He used those times to begin a great work in a man’s live which lead to the salvation of thousands. God used Lititz Grace in the support of the Chateau ministry of many years and can rightly rejoice in having shared in this great work. Please pray for the Chadian church. This man’s loss will be felt throughout the African church.
Below is a description of Dadje Samuel’s life:
Dadje Samuel died on Sunday, April 25, 2010. Dadje was married to Christine and had 8 daughters, 2 sons and several grandchildren. He was 47. Dadje was a businessman, an evangelist, and a trainer of church planters. He cared deeply that people who were lost would have an opportunity to hear the Gospel. This passion moved him to invest his life in personal evangelism and in starting a movement of African church planters. Dadje Samuel grew up in the Bassao area of southern Chad where he came to Christ as a young boy. His father rejected his faith and him. Forced to leave home, he climbed a nearby hill and there dedicated his life to God and asked God to be his Father. At 16 he went to Nigeria to work as a mason. By 18, he was a foreman. Later he moved to Cameroon where he gained more training as a mason and then began his own business. Dadje was asked by the Chadian fellowship of churches to return to Chad to assist in the many church building projects. He moved to Moundou where he started a successful construction company. He took classes at the Bassao Bible Institute and invested much time in evangelism and church planting. In 1998, at the Chateau in France, Dadje encountered the ACT Strategy of church planting. He came back to Chad and built his own "chateau" at Kou Bethanie and began the Summer School of Evangelism. Over the last 12 years hundreds of men were trained to minister either as evangelists/church-planters or as leaders in the new church plants. Due to his apostolic vision there are Chadian missionaries working in 4 countries and with unreached people groups with over 400 new churches and Points of Light started. It was on an exploratory trip to develop church planting in a new country that Dadje became ill. He was hospitalized, but died a few days later.
I wanted to share the following story with you. I met Samuel at the Chateau in 1998 when he was a part of the first African theological training session at the Chateau. He and I hit it off right away due to our many shared interests. I was later able to visit Samuel in the Chad when I was part of a work team in 2001. He proudly showed me his Chadian Chateau and talked about his ministry of training Chadian evangelists. Samuel again returned to our France Chateau in 2005 for further training. Samuel was responsible for starting some 400 churches since his initial training at the Chateau. He opened up several mission fields in neighboring African countries. For Sue and I having the Africans at the Chateau was a fun cultural time and provided us with many stories, but God had a great plan in progress. He used those times to begin a great work in a man’s live which lead to the salvation of thousands. God used Lititz Grace in the support of the Chateau ministry of many years and can rightly rejoice in having shared in this great work. Please pray for the Chadian church. This man’s loss will be felt throughout the African church.
Below is a description of Dadje Samuel’s life:
Dadje Samuel died on Sunday, April 25, 2010. Dadje was married to Christine and had 8 daughters, 2 sons and several grandchildren. He was 47. Dadje was a businessman, an evangelist, and a trainer of church planters. He cared deeply that people who were lost would have an opportunity to hear the Gospel. This passion moved him to invest his life in personal evangelism and in starting a movement of African church planters. Dadje Samuel grew up in the Bassao area of southern Chad where he came to Christ as a young boy. His father rejected his faith and him. Forced to leave home, he climbed a nearby hill and there dedicated his life to God and asked God to be his Father. At 16 he went to Nigeria to work as a mason. By 18, he was a foreman. Later he moved to Cameroon where he gained more training as a mason and then began his own business. Dadje was asked by the Chadian fellowship of churches to return to Chad to assist in the many church building projects. He moved to Moundou where he started a successful construction company. He took classes at the Bassao Bible Institute and invested much time in evangelism and church planting. In 1998, at the Chateau in France, Dadje encountered the ACT Strategy of church planting. He came back to Chad and built his own "chateau" at Kou Bethanie and began the Summer School of Evangelism. Over the last 12 years hundreds of men were trained to minister either as evangelists/church-planters or as leaders in the new church plants. Due to his apostolic vision there are Chadian missionaries working in 4 countries and with unreached people groups with over 400 new churches and Points of Light started. It was on an exploratory trip to develop church planting in a new country that Dadje became ill. He was hospitalized, but died a few days later.
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