Visting the English Dept at the Université de Kara

Today was my second trip to the University of Kara in eight days. I was invited by a friend to come speak to his English class during their break between lessons. Last week, when I first arrived, I wasn’t sure what to expect but was very surprised to see that the majority of the class stayed behind during the break to listen to what I had to say. I’m not sure if they were more interested in seeing a white man, hearing English with an American accent or in what I was telling them. Truth be known, it didn’t bother me either way just as long as they were listening.

Last week, I gave a reading from John 3:1-6 and explained it to them then took questions and this week, with much the same format, I taught on Matthew 8:1-3. It was on leprosy and how that is like sin in our lives. It was so interesting to see the room packed out and people standing in the hallway to listen. The crazy thing was that I got to speak entirely in English and not have to struggle through with French.

It has really been an interesting opportunity and as it stands now, I have an open invitation to return each Thursday till the semester is out. I’m praying that God will continue to open doors, work in people’s lives and that some will be saved from the efforts.

A little wind, a little problem.

I got a call this past week from Pastor Soapa up in Dapaong. He informed me that one of the village church roofs has broken free from their foundations and where flapping in the wind like a sail. I immediately decided that I needed to drive the 3.5 hours (one direction) to survey the damage. So two days later at 6 a.m. I found myself on the road with two other Togolese.

The last time that I had visited this particular village was when the Chief and about 40 others were baptized back in November. It was an amazing site to see.

This trip would be much less ceremonial. Once we passed the city of Dapaong it would still take us another 40 minutes on a dirt road to get to the village. To make things even a bit more interesting, one of the bridges on this road was utterly washed out last rainy season making the road virtually impassible when the heavy rains come each August.

We arrived to find that the wind had slowly worked on the tin of the building into it broke loose the welds of the main metal joists from the cement pillars. When we first arrived it was truly as site to behold. One third of one side of the building was just flapping in the open wind. We gathered some volunteers and pulled the roof back into place and after about 20 minutes of arc welding the roof is temporarily tacked into place.

There really wasn’t much we could do other then reconnect the roof at this point to help prevent it from causing more damage. The working plan now is to order the new tin, steel and other various materials and try to replace the damaged portion sometime this summer.