Last Sunday at Lassa Bas

This month after having been at the Lassa Bas church for nearly nine months, I had to say goodbye for the last time. We have been working with this great little church ever since they lost their pastor last spring. Since, God moved me there, we’ve been blessed and we’ve see many come to Christ, a few baptized a few weeks ago and attendance grow. While all those are great victories, I think just seeing the folks grow spiritually was my most happy achievement. I’m so thankful to God for the opportunity to have served with this great core of believers for all this time.

Please continue to pray for them. They are currently without a pastor. It has been and always will be our desire to see God raise up a national pastor to take the work. So, please remember Lassa Bas in your prayers. Thanx!

Baptism at Lossa Bas

As we believe, baptism is an important event in the life of a Christian. The bible commands us to follow the Lord in baptism signifying our belief that He died, was buried and rose again on the third day for us. With this being the subject of teaching for three consecutive Sundays, we were able to question a handful from the church that had not yet followed the Lord in baptism and of which, four of them were ready to get baptized.

Early Sunday morning, while putting my vehicle into first gear, shutting off the truck and pulling the parking brake, I glanced over towards the clock and realized that it was ten till seven in the morning. I crawled out of my vehicle and opened the large gates at the Tomde church.  Making my way towards the back of the property, I trapsed through the damp grass and attempted to avoid the mud puddles left from the previous night’s rain.  I passed by the church’s large auditorium and continued towards their baptistery. I lifted off the cover revealing the crystal clear water inside and so I being inclined dipped my hand for but a moment to test the temperature. After having confidence it was both sufficiently full and sufficiently warm I turned around and headed back to the truck.

Leaving Tomde I headed toward our church at Lossa Bas.  Navigating the roads, I began searching for my turn off.  Finding it, I slowly turned off onto the dirt path that makes its way to the church. Several minutes and several small stream later, I pulled up to the church and found myself being greeted by a little Kabiye girl. We chatted for a couple seconds before I walked into the church to start the service.  The morning service went great and we had a couple new visitors due to the baptism. 

After both mornig services were concluded we headed out towards my vehicle and Lisa’s truck. I can’t really recall how many she put into her truck but I found out that mine can hold 15 despite it's manufacture recommending only 10.  We left the Lossa Bas church grounds, fully loaded, spirits high and headed for Tomde church to use their baptistry. The Tomde church is relatively close, less then 2 miles but due to the roads and being fully loaded we took our time and about 10 minutes later we pulled up the church.

When we got to Tomde we all started unloading and heading into the church as their services were concluding. Pastor Moussa walked up to me and welcomed us all before he gave some last minute instructions to the four men that were about to be baptized.  When the service concluded both congregations walked out and surrounded the baptistery to watch the four men follow the Lord in baptism. In Togo here, it has been rare to see a baptism done outside of Christmas or Easter. That is just a traditional time to do them. However, on a perfectly nice, warm and sunny Sunday morning with everyone standing around, we proceeded. I slowly waded into the waters and one by one the four men descended down the stairs into the baptistery and one by one they gave their testimony of how Christ had saved their souls and were baptized out of obedience to God’s word.

It was really a great moment for each of the men and a reminder of what it means to be a follower and obedient to Christ.