The last few days!

Posted: 2007-07-04 20:30:03

Family and Friends,

Bon Soir!

The men have finished out the work week, with today, Wednesday, being the last day to continue building the Kpogandzi church! It has been a great time fellowshipping with the believers here, at the work site, they are so welcome and loving.

On Monday our team was finally able to pour the concrete floor, for the finishing of the foundation, and it looks great! They spent the entire day working on it, and smoothing it out. Thankfully God held back the rain for a few days this week, so the men could work to the fullest! The cement is completely dry. One of the men on the team had an imprint made of our home church’s logo, Silverdale Baptist; So as the cement was drying that was imprinted in the floor, for the church to remember us by. That night our team had dinner with some of the local pastors and their wives. We even had cultural food that night, with some of the popular African dishes! It was a great experience to sit down to a nice dinner with them, and hear some of their stories.

Tuesday was a regular full workday for everyone. Some worked really hard mixing the cement and sand, and making the blocks, while others began using the already dry blocks to begin building up the walls of the church! They accomplished quite a bit. That night our team was able to spend some time together watching a movie, and relaxing after the long day of work!

Wednesday was our last day to continue working, so they pushed hard all day today! One of the walls reaches about 10 feet high, with about 3 more to go, and 2 of the other walls are about 4 feet high; which is great for two days work on the walls! The other men will begin working on the interior walls for the classrooms. Since it is the fourth of July, and we are in Africa, we still decided to celebrate together. We grilled food out, and had festive American decorations put up around the house. We were told that there are rarely fireworks around here, because the locals would think that we are firing guns, since fireworks are not something they are familiar with. BUT, here in Togo, there is a tropical bird that actually sounds alot like a firework that goes off all day long, so we at least have sound effects!

On Thursday morning our team leaves Kpalime for Lome, for a day of sightseeing before out flight from Lome to Casablanca, Morocco, early Friday morning. We will then spend the next two days after that in Morocco, before catching our flight Sunday morning back to the states!

We have all agreed that this has been an incredibly memorable trip. It has been a great experience for each of us, and we are so thankful that God has allowed us to be here, it has been a huge blessing!

Thank you for all your support and prayers for us, we look forward to sharing stories and pictures when we get back home!

This Past Week!

Posted: 2007-07-02 18:50:24

Friends and Family,

Bon Jour!

Things are finally really progressing with the building of the Kpogandzi church! The rest of the week went really well. The dirt came a lot faster towards the end of the week, which was awesome, because the foundation was set faster! By Friday evening, after many a wheel barrels full of shoveled dirt, the foundation was set, and ready for the concrete to be poured. The nationals are huge helps! Even the women and children were out every day last week helping shovel dirt, and dumping buckets and wheel barrels; They are incredibly hard workers, and just as strong as the men!

That Friday night was the second night of the conference at the Kpalime church, and it was a great finish! Paul preached again, and thankfully the electricity actually stayed on for the entire service! He spoke this week on the four signs of a healthy church, and we are praying that the message really reached the people, so they can apply it within their churches. We listened to their choir, and worshipped with them again, which is always great, they are quite musically talented here! As a team we sang for the conference; we sang ‘There is a Redeemer’ and ‘Knowing You’.

On Saturday we were finally able to sleep in, which was well needed! Early afternoon we went to the market here in Kpalime. It is a very busy and lively market, with vendors selling everything from bottled gasoline and tires to necklaces and clothing to meat and bread, as well as a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, and fried African foods! Everyone on the team was able to pick up some souvenirs to bring back home! That afternoon we packed a lunch and took it up one of the mountains here. It was a fun trip! From the top we were able to see the entire valley, and it was beautiful. The mountains here are very green with a variety of vegetation, and almost Jungle-like, some of the team members referred to them as a ‘Tarzan Jungle’. It was a great time for our team to relax and talk together, enjoying the sunshine and the surroundings.

On Sunday we got up early for the church service over at the Kpogandzi building site, and it was definitely a special service. It lasted over three hours! The service began with lots of singing from the choir there, which was a treat as usual; they even performed a song that had dancing with it as well, which was really neat to see! The children performed ‘Father Abraham’ and said verses for us as well. Our team sang again, the same previous songs, at this church. Paul preached again, this time on forgiveness and the way God commands us to treat each other as believers; it was a great sermon, and hopefully that reached their hearts as well. Ron Kessler from our team gave his testimony for the service, as well as three of their church members, which was really touching. God saves us by His grace alone! After the service, we had a baptismal service outside the church in a cement baptistry for those same three members that gave their testimonies. In order to fill the baptistry water first had to be brought in buckets and pots from down the street, because the water pump there had broken. Watching those believers get baptized was really special, and we could tell that the other church members were really excited. There was lots of joyous singing and clapping after each member, it was really unique. That afternoon our team went to a restaurant down the road from the Blind Center compound, and it was a real treat! After that we drove out to the missionary hospital in Tsiko for the evening. We received a tour of the hospital, visited newborn babies, and went and prayed with a Pastor whose wife is staying there due to possible cancerous conditions. After the tour we attended evening service there with the other missionaries who live there at the hospital. It was great to fellowship with them, and finally understand an entire service, since it was in English!

We are thankful for your prayers. Everyone, so far, remains healthy and is doing great! God has been faithful in blessing our trip and meeting our needs here. More updates to follow!

We have arrived!

Posted: 2007-06-28 11:01:33

Friends and Family

We made it to Togo safe and sound! After 53 hours of traveling, and minimal sleep in between flights, we arrived here in Kpalimé, Togo!

Besides New York, our first stop was in Casablanca, Morocco, where we spent the day with a Moroccan tour guide who showed us the city. We were able to see the World’s second largest Mosque, the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, the King of Morocco’s Palace, and the heart of the city of Casablanca with fountains and shops, as well as many other important sites. Our tour included lunch at a hotel along the Ocean, with traditional dishes, which was great. Before heading to the airport that evening we had extra free time to roam along the beach, which also included a team member riding a camel on the beach, and us visiting all kinds of vendors lining the beach! We then soon headed back to the airport for another flight, which landed us in Lomé, the capital of Togo. Since we got there in the middle of the night we stayed at a Southern Baptist Guesthouse near the airport, and finally began to get caught up on some rest!

That next morning, the missionaries we are working with, Gib and Marilyn Dickinson, drove us the two hours to Kpalimé where we are staying. The men are at a Monastery just down the road from where the rest of the team is staying at the Blind Center compound with the missionaries. It is beautiful and luscious green here. It is very tropical, warm, and humid here, which includes many exotic birds, bugs, fruits, and trees!

The men’s first day of work on building the church was Tuesday, June 26th, and each day since then, and it has been going really well, minus the fact that we have had some delays getting supplies to keep going. The workday began around 7am, heading to the site. The nationals met them there, and have been incredibly hard workers as well. Even the women here, with babies strapped to their back, carry loads of dirt in containers on their heads to be poured! It has been great working with them, they are very friendly, and have even been teasing our men about how much dirt they can carry in their wheel barrels, and have even been toying with us, putting in extra dirt on already full barrels when our men aren’t looking, and the ‘favor’ is returned to them in their baskets! Every day when our women bring lunch out to the site for the men, the nationals are also more than willing to share their traditional dishes with us, laughing at our reactions to their spicy hot dishes, which are really good!

Monday night Pastor Hill preached at the Kpalimé Church, which went really well. Our team worshipped with the nationals, and listened to their choir perform, which was a really unique experience. It reminded us that our God is a universal God, and hears every song and prayer in every language, and has believers all over the world! During the service, just minutes after Pastor Hill began to preach, the electricity went out! So it took a few minutes of shuffling and flashlight searching to continue the message. The Nationals brought out candle holders and lit them, so we finished our service in the candle light, which made it all the more unique! The power returned just as he was finishing his message This is actually something very common, the power tends to go out here every couple hours, however, on the Blind Center compound they have back up generators, so showers and food have not been interrupted, thankfully! Another commonality that we are getting used to here is the rain, since it is their rainy season. We have nothing, even in the Northwest, that quite compares to the absolute thickening downpour that comes here, its quite amazing how thick, and fast the rain pours here, which often makes all of the local dirt roads all the more ‘fun’ to travel on, and maneuver in! So far, everything has gone quite smoothly, every one is so far safe, sound, and healthy, Praise God! We ask that you continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers for health, strength, and that supplies will continue to come, and at a faster pace, so we can keep moving along with the building. More updates are to come, in the next couple days!

Welcome to the Togo 2007 Blog

Posted: 2007-06-20 00:09:00

You have reached the blog for the 2007 missions trip to Togo. Trip updates will be available as time permits. Thank you for your prayers and support!