Benches heading north

This past week we had the privilege of loading up 25 benches, driving them a couple miles to a near by intersection and then loading them on a truck heading north to Dapaong. It’s the first trip of many we pray.

Bench Building

Bench building is no small task. Probably the easiest thing about building benches is spending buying everything. There are several varieties and styles of benches but Randy has an old designed that seems to stand up well against time.

Several months back we started the process of buying all the supplies, shipping them North on a 7 hour ride to Kara. After which we had the steel fabricated and the wood planned and shaped. We are now in the stage of the process where the benches are being sanded, varnished and assembled. It’s been such a blessing to see how God has answered prayers and brought us these benches. The next and final step will be transporting them the additional 3.5 hours north to Dapaong and then another hour or so out into the villages where the two churches are still waiting and needing them.

Esso and church

Sunday morning came rather swiftly, much as it did when I lived in the States. It seems that late evening will bring about the morning much quicker then if you budget your rest time with more respect. I awoke and ran around preparing for the morning at hand. Here in Togo due to the approaching hot season, the services are purposefully scheduled early to avoid the peak temperatures. My goal was to leave by 7:40 so that I would make it there just before the Sunday School hour began at 8:00 A.M. When I strolled through the front doors out into my green yard I caught with a glimpse Esso. Esso meaning God, a term of endearment in the Kawbee language, much similar possible to saying, “God bless” or “God be with you.” He, like most Sunday morning has been accompanying me to church. He is a rather poor soul who I had befriended when I first moved out to my rental home in neighborhood of Bohou just four miles or so outside of Kara.

Mere weeks after I had made his acquaintance he was in a horrific head on collision with a motorcycle. Being that most don’t wear any sort of protection, he sustained a massive head injury to which the doctors waited two days after admittance to finally take a skull x-ray. It was during this time that my bond to the young man began to grow. God had placed him upon my heart but for what reason I wasn’t exactly sure. Miraculously, he walked out of the hospital two short weeks later with huge road rashes, missing a tooth or two and having his jaw wired shut. With his swelling still very visible he found the energy to come over to my home and pay his respects for my visiting in the hospital, a tradition that isn’t overlooked here in Togo. From that moment, I had decided that I wanted to reach out to him and see what God could do through me and in him. It’s been several months now and he’s become rather faithful to church. He comes with some doctrinal confusion and confesses to know God but strains to give a clear testimony of when he actually put his faith in the finished work of Christ. He needs much prayer but it’s such an encouragement to see him learning and to see how God is cultivating His word in his heart. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

Walking out into the yard, I motioned for the security guard to prepare the main gate so that I might drive the vehicle out of the driveway. Esso came over and slid into the passenger seat next to me. He then asked me in his rich and deep African accent slight diluted from his accident, “I have a cousin that would like to come with us to church this morning. Would it be possible to take him?” I looked over at him with a joy in my heart and replied as simple, “sure.” It’s great to see how God has been working here in Togo but even more specifically here in my neighborhood.

It was the best of time. It was the worst of times.

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” as one particular author of the past once wrote aptly. The month of September held some interesting twists and turns, ups and downs for my life.

The month began as many others yet I felt something come upon myself that I hadn’t felt in many years. It wasn’t friendly yet was strangely if not eerily familiar. I finally began to remember as the feelings mixed with distant memories. It had been a bit over five years since I had felt this way, this strange, this terrible. With a sudden epiphany, my mind finally linked the past to the present and I knew in an instant that I had somehow, someway contracted Malaria for the second time in my life. Malaria, despite common notions, is very treatable if you have but three dollars and a couple days to wrestle with its symptoms…of which I had both.

The month however ended on a much greater note. I had been for months teaching a Bible study in French but I never had built enough courage up to preach in French. Teaching and preaching while very much similar are distinctly different in and of themselves. To speak in public is a disconcerting thing for many but to exacerbate it with the thought of doing it in foreign language of which you have been speaking for only two short years is incredible frightening. Even so, I found myself muttering the words when asked, “I would love too” just before the fear and in trepidation began to flood my mind. I immediately began combing through topic ideas and found through much prayer a lesson out of Genesis chapter 22. A meager week later after much prayer and preparation I preached my first French message which was interestingly enough then translated into an African tongue so that those who didn’t understand French would understand the message.

A month that started out very much wrongly ended on such a positive spiritual note as I have so often felt. Serving Christ has its rewards as well as some low moments but in retrospect it’s worth every moment.