Light of Togo

I just want to give you a quick update of what’s been going on lately. Last week we took a trip down to the capital city of Lomé with two of our missionary coworkers to get some supplies and other things for our new house. After living in Kara for a couple months, which is 6 hours up-country, we are amazed to see how many things we can find in Lomé.

The progress on the house is going well, and should be done by the time our container arrives.  The container got delayed, yet again, but is now on its way.  I’m working on getting an estimated arrival date, but I’m guessing that it will be around the first week of May.

We are still searching for a vehicle.  The company we’re using has not had much come available lately, so we are now starting to look in-country.  It’s a little more risky doing it this way because we won’t be guaranteed a vehicle that’s in great shape, but it should save some money and at this rate it will save lots of time too.

Joshua’s been having a great time lately.  Just the other day, when it was a nice cool 100 degrees (that’s not a joke by the way.  It’s been so hot lately that when it dropped to 100 it felt REALLY nice!), he and his “uncle” Jimmy (our coworker) took the garden hose and drenched themselves.  They then took a huge empty trash can, jumped inside, and filled it up with water and bathtub bubbles.  After dumping that out on the grass, it made a perfect place to run and slide on their bellies.  We got lots of great pictures, but they’re on Jimmy’s camera, so I’ll try to get them and put some on the website so you can see Joshua’s wet and wild afternoon!

A couple weeks ago, Joshua’s friend named Job brought him quite a surprise. It was Joshua’s newest animal buddy which he named Cami. Joshua and I take it out of its cage every morning and put it on a tree so he can eat and enjoy the sunshine. He’s very calm and doesn’t try to run away. Here’s a couple pictures for you.

Click here to download a PDF version of this update on our letterhead

Even though we’ve only been in Togo for six weeks now, there’s been a lot going on here lately. What we are quickly learning, however, is just how much patience will be required in order to live here! Nothing; such as the container shipping, vehicle search, moving in to our own house, and communication with the States, seems to be going according to “our schedule.” We have no doubt though that God has a reason for all of it, even if that reason is just to teach us patience! We realize that learning to slow down is just one of many ways in which we’ll have to change our lives in order to live here.

A couple weeks ago I started teaching a New Testament Survey course in the Bible Institute to a man named Yélé, who is just getting started in the institute. So far it has gone very well and has been a great experience for me.

I’ve also begun meeting on a regular basis with the pastor of the church we’re working in, pastor Nicodème. We have been praying together and discussing ways in which we can help the church grow and eventually become independent missionary assistance. Please pray that God will give direction to Pastor Nicodeme as he leads this church, and pray that God would use me to be an encouragement to him as well as a temporary help to the chuch.

Tiffany is doing really great. She is really adjusting well to the differences of opperating a home in Africa. Like most things here, everything is a much longer process when compared to America. Cooking is one thing that she really enjoys doing, and she has already had the chance to get creative with the different ingredients that are found here. She has gone “exploring” at the market a few times with our coworker, Lisa Lewis, and they have found several new things that we didn’t think existed here in Kara.

Joshua is also doing very well. Even though we have explained to him a few times that we are going to be here for a very long time, it doesn’t seem to bother him much. That either means that he’s adjusting very well, or that he has absolutely no concept of “a very long time.” Either way, he’s loving his new life here. He especially enjoys the newest addition to our family, Cami. Cami is a chameleon that Joshua’s friend caught for him a few weeks ago. We keep him in a cage at night, and put him on a small tree during the day where he catches bugs and enjoys the sunshine. I’ll put some pictures of Joshua and Cami on the website when I get a chance.

Speaking of the website, we’ve been having some problems with it, and I’m still working on getting it resolved. If you have problems with it, one thing that may help is updating your browser to its latest version, especially if you are using Internet Explorer.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Ever since we arrived in Togo six weeks ago, we have been experiencing the hot and dusty Harmattan. We’ve been told about this thing that would happen soon called rain, which we vaguely remember from Oregon, but we were starting to doubt whether or not it was possible here. Then yesterday, during the hottest part of the day, a huge wind started blowing and did not stop all afternoon. With it came a huge black blanket of clouds which brought great joy to us webbed-feet Oregonians! We all went outside and enjoyed the great relief from the heat. Joshua stayed out so long running around the yard that he was soaked down to his underwear. After coming inside, it felt SO nice to actually be cold! I know that this probably isn’t even worth a blog post, but it was quite an exciting event for us!

What’s interesting is that this rain has two purposes. It will ripen the mangoes which grow everywhere here, and it will get rid of the dust in the air from the Harmattan. That can be good and bad. Good because it’s not so dusty all the time, but bad because the dusty air serves as a filter for the harsh sunlight. So, we’ve been told that in the next several weeks it will start to get even hotter before the rainy season starts in May.

As of one week ago, our container was shipped and is now somewhere over, and hopefully not in, the Atlantic Ocean. We’re not sure yet of an arrival date, but they usually take anywhere from four to eight weeks. Please pray for a timely arrival; we can’t wait to have mid-summer Christmas unpacking party!

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of beginning a New Testament Survey course in the Bible institute with a guy name Yélé. I think it went pretty well, and I think that he will be a great student, but it showed me many areas where my French can use some improvement. Please continue to pray for our improvement in French and please pray for the course as well.

Also, I’ve met a couple times with Nicodeme who is the pastor of the church where we are currently working. Each time we meet we spend some time praying together and discussing what kinds of things can be done to help the church. On Sunday we will be meeting again to develop a schedule in order to put into practice some of the things we’ve discussed. Pray for this church, and for Nicodeme and his family. He has gone through some incredible difficulties in the past several months and needs a lot of encouragement. I reminded him the other night as we talked that God has a purpose for every difficulty, trial, and persecution, and that purpose is to bring glory to Himself as 1 Peter talks about. Please just pray that God will use me to help him and the church here.

Thanks so much to all of you who have responded to my asking if the website was loading correctly. From the responses, it seems that about 75% had problems and the rest had no problems at all. Strange, huh?

It’s very difficult to troubleshoot a problem like that, since I my difficulties in accessing it were inconsistent as well. However, I think that I narrowed down the problem to a particular plugin that I was using. I have disabled it and the site seems to load much faster for me now, with no problems at all 100% of the time.

I’m curious to know if you will have the same success. If you could please visit the site one more time and let me know what happens. Sorry to keep bothering you with it, but the only way I’m going to know that it’s fixed is to hear from you.

Thanks so much!