Dapaong: Baptism out in the village

There are seven churches in or around Dapaong that Randy has been working with for many years. One of them is a small work in town and the other six are village works managed by one man, Sopa. He is more or less a circuit-riding pastor. He once rode his bicycle out to the villages, but now has a motorcycle to make the treks (as far as 45 minutes one way) on mostly dirt and dusty roads.

Over the past couple years as people have been converted, Sopa would bring them through baptism/discipleship classes. After going through about ten lessons, and if the folks could give a clear testimony on receiving Christ, these converts were deemed fit for baptism. Folks from these six churches had been accumulating for sometime, but for some reason there had not been a baptism in a while. Randy, being ordained and technically the head pastor, was asked to come up and participate in a joint service with all six of the churches.

He and I left Kara on the three and a half hour drive to Dapaong last weekend. While there we checked on the progress of the construction projects, but the main focus was on the special service. Some of these villages were in walking distance, yet others were up to 40 minutes away by car.

We set out from the hotel at 6:45am and headed to the first village. There we picked up about some people, and ended up with a total of 22 in the extended-cab short bed Toyota pick-up truck. We left from that village and headed 40 minutes down a dirt road to a village called Sagneamga in the middle of nowhere. This village was selected for the baptisms because of an elderly Chief there who had accepted Christ a little over 10 years ago, denouncing his voodoo wears, and now wished to be baptized.

We arrived in the village about 8 am and had the folks disembark from the vehicle. Randy and I then went over to pick up the Chief and drive him to the lake, which was about a mile from the church and his home. We met Aqueté and the other truck out there. Aqueté had also driven out to one of the churches, picked up about 20+ folks, and transported them to the service.

As Randy began to wade into the mucky waters, I gazed across a crowd of hundreds. Some were church members, some visitors, and some just wanted to see their Chief get baptized. The Chief was given an option, and chose to be first in the baptism. He waded into the waters about ankle deep and began to explain how Christ had saved his soul and why he wanted to be baptized. This of course was all in Moba, which I completely don’t understand, but I understood the gist of the situation.

After the Chief, 38 others entered the waters to follow the Lord in His example. There were two others in the water with Randy at all times. One took pictures of each person, the other kept guard for alligators. The service lasted nearly 2 hours, with testimonies sprinkled in between each baptism.

It truly was an amazing day. These folks had been saved over the past couple years and now were just waiting for the opportunity to be baptized. This was the first time in Randy’s 20 years here in Togo that he was able to baptize a Chief. It was the same man he had lead to the Lord via Sopa’s translating a decade before.

The Chief and church folks were so grateful that they threw a dinner afterwards. Randy and I were invited to eat privately with the Chief while the others all gathered near the church and ate. The meal, while compared to American standards was very much below par, by Togo village standards was a very high-class meal. We were so thankful for the hospitality and more grateful for the opportunity to witness what the Lord is doing in the lives of the folks here in Togo.

Dapaong: Finishing of two churches.

This past weekend we were up in Dapaong again for a baptism service and to check out the progress on two village churches that have been under construction since May. Randy and I had left Dapaong for Kara a week prior to our return. Wow! What a difference a week makes. We were so amazed by the progress. When we had left, the doors were up but not concreted in, the metal rafters were up but no tinned had been fastened, the walls were up but no air blocks had really been laid, and there was no stucco up either.

Seven days makes all the difference! One mason, two apprentices, and a handful of village volunteers had put all the air block up and finished the stucco on one of the buildings. Aqueté had left two days before us with two friends and two apprentices, and in two days had put up both of the roofs. What an amazing job both of the teams did. The week had been long and very hot for these guys but they did such a terrific job putting together these Churches.


With the remaining stucco work scheduled to be down sometime in the middle of this week, we only needed to paint and bring in the benches. Both of those will come later this year when we have enough time and money.

Dapaong Welding Trip

After a few minor set backs, like blowing three out of four fan belts on the truck just mere miles after leaving Kara, we finally were on the road heading north to Dapaong. This particular trip had two goals. We wanted to weld up the rafters for two village churches and hang metal doors. With the foundation laid, the block walls erected, and the floor poured, we were ready for these next steps. We arrived on the weekend and began to work.
It would take us two days to weld up each church's rafters then install the necessary running boards to hold the tin that would come later. Both the rafters and running boards had to be welded into place about 12-16 feet up in the air. It was amazing to watch Randy and the other Africans parade around the rafters like some sort of high-rise metal working crew. As for me, I’m terrified of heights and the scaffolding was enough to frighten me!

Aqueté and I began welding up the rafters on the first day and welded till dark. In one afternoon we made significant progress and had both rafters welded and hoisted into place. With such rapid progress I thought surely we would knock this project out in a couple days. Then came the next morning. The front and back sides of the church have peeks made from cement bocks.
We needed to weld together the rails then raise the rafters into place so that they could accept the newly fabricated rails (supports for the tin). Once the rafters were in place, we had to clamp down the rails to the rafters and weld them permanently into place. This is where fabrication slowed down to a crawl. There's just something about working 12 feet of the ground that will do that to a project!

We were assured that work could commence at 5am, when the sun would be up. It wasn’t. The sun didn’t even begin to crescent the horizon for another hour, but by about 5:30 there was sufficient light to start our work. Around 10am all the rafters and rails had been put up and clamped down and were ready to be welded into their permanent fixed place. The welding took the rest of the morning and afternoon, and by that evening the roof was ready to accept the tin.

The next morning we drove to another village, which had it’s own difficulties. We occasionally needed to pause for a water run while welding up the rafters at this site. Unfortunately, out in the middle of nowhere, there is no electricity or running water. We would carry a 55-gallon drum and numerous five-gallon jugs (originally meant for cooking oil) down to a local watering hole. It was the nastiest, filthiest thing you have ever set you eyes upon, yet several women across the way washed their clothes in the water while our guys waded out into it and filled up our containers so we could continue on with our project. They never thought twice about the conditions and just happily walked into the muck.

Like the other church, this one took about a day and a half to weld, hoist, and tack all the pieces into place. This one, however, differed from the first because the door had arrived. The door was made of tin with a metal frame. Termites are a huge problem here in Togo, so to avoid eventual reconstruction, Randy has opted to spend a bit more up front and go with the metal.

The door had cement column on either side and a cement header. We knocked out specific areas of concrete that had been previously cast so we could expose the rebar contained within. We then placed the door into position and welded the door to the rebar using scraps of metal bar laying around the job site. The notches would later be filled back in with concrete and the same process was mimicked at the other site later the next day.

It was a long five days in Dapaong. The work habitually went from sun up till sun down. The temperatures soared into the hundreds daily, and, being 9 degrees from the equator, the African sun just seems so much more intense. We did have an unusual reprieve the last morning, due to an abnormal rain shower. The rains should have ceased about three weeks ago, yet this storm lasted all night and into the morning. With it came some much desired and needed cooler weather (80’s).

The folks in the villages seemed so pleased with the construction going on. In one of the villages, their church is the only cement structure as far as the eye can see. Everything else is mud huts with thatch or tin roofs.

As I’ve mentioned before, both of these churches have been meeting under trees in fields for nearly nine years. It is such a blessing to know that in a matter of weeks the roof will be on and they can start to assemble and worship in their own buildings.