Progress at Lossa Bas

A few months ago an elderly lady started attending our church. We are off the main road quite a ways and thought nothing of her walking as do so many even though she uses a walking stick and really moves slowly. She mentioned after a couple weeks that she wanted to keep coming but indicated that she would like for us to pick her up at her house. So, we took her home and realized exactly how far away she really was. She must live at least a mile and the trip one way for her on foot must have taken well over and hour.From that point forward we decided that we would drive to her house each Sunday before church and bring her with us. Well, it wasn’t much longer after that and we started having kids who lived near Mrs. Lisaga wanting to ride with us to church. Before we knew it we had ballooned from one elderly lady to nearly 30 kids and an elderly lady each week. This past week alone, I had 18 people in my vehicle. I think the most amazing thing is that we pick all these folks up right behind a Mosque and their coming out of a highly Islamic populated neighborhood.

Due to all our growth we’ve started to outgrow our building and are in desperate need of something bigger and something more permanent. However, in the mean time we decided that the first step would be to have some benches fabricated so that our folks would have seating during Sunday school and during the morning services. In the past 13 weeks the church has doubled from its original 35-40. So, this week we added some colorful benches to the church.

Lossa Bas has really been something else; from its growth to all those who have been saved and are earnestly studying God’s word. I’ve just really enjoyed the opportunity to minister there with these folks.

Witnessing to the Chief's brother

This month while Don was here we decided to drive up to Dapaong and visit Pastor Soapa. Being that it was Don’s first trip to Togo yet alone to Africa, he had never had the opportunity to meet Saopa. So, we left quite early from Kara and drove the three hours up to Dapaong along with another friend. When we arrived, we did some introductions, sat around for a while to chat and eventually conducted some video interviews for a future presentation that Don is putting together for me. From, Soapa’s house we drove another 45 minutes out on mostly dirt roads to a remote village out in the bush. We bypassed four bridges that had collapsed the year before and drove through the river beds—thank goodness it was the dry season still!

Pulling up into the village the road gradually became smaller till I was driving my vehicle on a walking trail rather then a dirt road. The corn fields had crept on us and with ever movement forward we could feel the ruts from the different rows of corn. We saw the house of the Chief, and elderly Christian man that Randy some 11 years prior had the opportunity to lead to the Lord. And just last year he followed the Lord in baptism. I pulled up under a near by tree and as we started to get out the folks started to arrive. Now, I can’t speak to why they would be coming over. Maybe it was the vehicle, the white people or really there was just not much going on in the middle of nowhere, where they lived. Either way, it was great to see them and recognize the faces of many of the church members.

A bench was brought and we sat awaiting the chief. Moments later he came and made his way through the crowd of nearly 50 plus people. He came forward, and we knelt out of respect to greet him. It’s always such an honor to be around this kind, tender hearted man! We sat around for an hour or more talking, asking question and doing some video and eventually we started heading towards the vehicle. That’s when the chief looked to me and asked if I would take a couple minutes to talk to his brother about Christ.

I looked around. I thought possible the huts near by or the church would be a more secluded place and easier to share the gospel with him; a place easier to hear, easier to concentrate, easier to think with less distractions. But alas, we just sat back down under the mango tree out in the middle of the bush with all the folks standing around and for the next ten minutes or so, it was as if Soapa, the chief’s brother and I were the only three people on the face of the earth. I explained thoroughly that we were all sinners and that Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross was indeed the only payment sufficient to pardon sins and give us a relationship with Christ. When I was done explaining, I looked to him and asked him if he had ever accepted Christ before. He told me that he had, which was a shock since his brother, the chief had asked me to share it with him so I believed he hadn’t. I asked him when and he replied while you where speaking, I believed. So, I looked at him and said, well if that’s true lets pray now and why don’t you commit to God with your mouth what you’ve said you already believe in your heart.

I was later told that this man had been closed to the things of God in the past. I’m not sure why he was more sensitive this particular day but I’m so thrilled to have been present when God worked and it was such a neat thing to see another soul accept Christ and recognize the depth of the sacrifice He made on the Cross for u

A glimpse of Togo

This past weekend I drove down to Lome to pick up Don, a friend of mine. He was coming in with a group from my home church in Jacksonville, Florida. While the majority of the group was going to stay down in Lome to do some short term missions work, I pulled Don away for four days to do some filming. He’s a full time media pastor and has the equipment, experience and heart to do what I needed done. Since, my homecoming is just around the corner, I thought it would be nice to have some footage of the ministry here in Togo to share with everyone back in the States. The trip was very brief yet packed with lots of things to get done.

The first full day we drove from Lome to Kara which takes typically 6-7 hours. We ate lunch, settled in then after a couple hours headed into Kara near where I’m preaching each week. In the Lossa Bas area we took some footage then passed upon three men investigating what we were doing. So when the footage had been captured we wondered over to them and presented the gospel. They all seemed interested and took the tracts and bibles that we gave them very thankfully.

The second full day was much like the first in that we started off around 5:15 in the morning. We ate a quick bit for breakfast then packed ourselves into my truck and headed north to Dapaong. The trip is about 3.5 hours and didn’t disappoint! We arrived in Dapaong in the later morning and were greeted by Pastor Soapa. He’s such a great soul and really loves the Lord! We mounted up and headed out to a particular village that he’s pastoring and I have helped in. When we got there the crowd began to build. It’s tough to say sometime wither it’s because of what is going on or that a truck is out in the middle of now where. Literally the road had run out and for nearly 10 minutes we drove on walking paths. Either way, the crowd gathered and the little elderly Christian chief came over to greet us. It’s always such a pleasure to see him. He expressed his thanks for all that we had done, his amazement at how God has been blessing his village and people and yet asked for help—knowing that so much more of his people need Christ. After spending a couple hours visiting we decided that it was about time to leave and headed out. Before leaving Dapoang we had the opportunity to eat authentic Togolese cuisine with Pastor Soapa. Don had expressed his desire to have the “full African experience” and I thought that this might help that desire along!

The third day we started off early and much like the prior days we shot film in different locations attempting to gather enough to make a short presentation that would adequately represent Togo and the ministry that God has called me too and given me. We did get to see some wild animals at a local Game Reserve before heading out to the Tamburma people who live a couple hours from my house. The difference was night and day between the Christian village in Dapaong and the deeply fetish villages of Tamburma. It was another stark reminder of how much this little country of Togo needs Christ!

The final day was much of a travel day. We started out around 6 am but were very much weary. We traveled back down to Lome before finally heading out another hour towards the Togo-Benin boarder to meet up with my Church’s missions group. It was nice to visit with them and see how everyone had been doing while we were absent.

The trip for Don was short. It was fast past but for me it was very memorable. God is doing much in Togo yet it was a reminder of how much still really needs to be done. It also helped to show me that God really has given me a great life, with a bright future and a wonderful work to participate in.