|
Interns, Visitors, and Friends!
August and September have been full of blessings for us. We have been encouraged by time spent with visitors and friends.
(Kimberly stopping for a photo with the children in the Vo-Asso Church)
(Kimberly helping with our merit sale at the end of the school year)
First of all, Kimberly was our intern in the Christian School this summer. She helped teach English to our school children during the month of June until they were released in July. She also helped with Adult English classes during her stay and continued these throughout her summer. Kimberly was a real go-getter and was ready to jump in and help in any part of the mission. We enjoyed having her help in the village work, helping our medical staff pass out deworming medications to our school children, and many other areas of the mission. We were blessed by her upbeat spirit and she really made herself at home here in the culture. We will continue to pray for God’s direction on her life and look forward to staying in touch and seeing how God will use her in the future.
(Tim training local Church leaders and Church planters from Nehemiah)
Secondly, in September we were blessed to have a visit from Tim Turner, the lead preaching minister at Christ’s Church of Greenville (NC). Tim came to us after visiting and teaching a leadership training in Rwanda. When he was traveling in Rwanda he had become sick, but praise God that shortly after his arrival he was able to feel well enough to begin preaching and visiting with the Vogan church and several village churches. Later in his stay he also spent a few days investing and training in our local Church leaders and Church planting staff. He taught lessons from Nehemiah, teaching on being prepared to fight the enemy while continuing to build the kingdom. The leaders all left very encouraged and we pray it will further equip them in their work.
Thirdly, Dovene and Hammer were able to visit with Murphy Crowson, a missionary who had come back to visit in Togo and help with a seminar being taught on discipling believers through simple Church. It was encouraging to hear stories of how God used some of the people who were most entrenched with sin to build his Church and kingdom in other African countries. Stories of others entrenched in alcoholism, voo doo, other things that blinded them from God. Through meeting with these people of peace who open their homes to them to teach, they were able to start to walk in obedience to God’s word step by step as they learned each week. We pray that as we are able to continue discipling in Totchoani that God will continue to work in the heart of our person of peace, the idol priest there.
(Michael putting the electrical wiring in the newly constructed middle school building)
Lastly, we have also had the privilege to connect with a couple from Poland named Sylwia (pronounced Sylvia) and Michalak (Michael). This couple has actually been traveling around in a camper van here in Africa, stopping to fellowship and serve with other Christians and Christian organizations. We were able to host them for two months and during their time here they have been a great help to the Mission. Michael is a gifted mechanic and electrician, and a sort of jack-of-all-trades who has been helping on many different projects here at the mission including fixing tractors, cars, doing the electrical work for the new school construction, and much more. Sylwia too has jumped in and has been helping assist in the Medical work in the clinic and villages, joining the women’s prayer and fasting group, and using her talents as a photographer to help us share with you what is going on in the mission. We are so thankful for their service with us and the chance to fellowship with them. We pray God will continue to lead them as they continue on their journey.
(Sylwia assisting Kwame, one of our clinic workers, with cleaning a wound out in the village of Vo-Asso)
A blessed, busy Season!
This season has truly been a busy season for us. We are currently trying to finish the construction of the middle school. All that is left is to pour the concrete roof on it, which is scheduled to be completed this week. We praise God for bringing us this far and moving with us step by step through His provision. The Lord has even led us to Christian businessmen here who gave us more quality materials at better prices to multiple the funds we had to be able to complete the project. We are so thankful to all of you who have helped make this a reality! It will be huge in the future of our school to have four more additional classrooms to expand the middle school one class per year.
(Above: the four room middle school building is almost completed!)
(Below: the guys work between the braces to place the blocks to prepare to pour the cement for the ceiling)
We also were able to finalize the purchase of farm land further to the northwest of our mission. The Lord really paved the way in bringing us to this piece of land. There is a lot of corruption in the land buying process here, but He lead us to individuals to help us sort the good from the bad to help us find a place where we will have no issues. We are excited on this occasion as this will mark the beginning of working towards self-sustainment for the mission. The farm will be a business that will be able to provide one time gifts through its profits to help fund different things in the mission. Dovene will be using his farm training on raising pineapples and other crops to begin with on the land. We also will be placing a goat farm on this site that has been funded through partners in the US as well as IDES (International Disaster Emergency Services) that will serve as a training center for individuals wanting to learn how to raise goats to support their families as well as provide an income that will go to help support the Christian school. So we hope in the next couple of weeks to begin some of the preliminary process of construction for the goat farm.
(a picture of the farm land. The majority of it is already cleared and ready to farm!)
(Hammer helping the surveyor as the place the markers on the boundaries of the land)
Dovene and Sara and their family will also be traveling to the US for a few months this fall. They will be representing Togo Christian Mission at the International Conference on Missions in Richmond, Virginia. Be sure to check them out at the booth if you plan to attend! But during this conference the ministry will also be receiving a grant for Church planting to help progress the work of making more disciples here in Togo. Praise God! While they are in the US they will also be taking time to visit with partners and supporting Churches. Our time here will be in mid-October through early January, so it will definitely be a busy season. Please pray for safe travels as well as the ability to share well what God is doing here in Togo. Please also pray for us that we are able to complete the rest of these projects in the next couple of weeks before our travels, that God will multiply our efforts and our strength.
|
