Light of Togo

WIth the recent arrival of Jon & Heidi Huff, the Bible institute is undergoing some small changes which will hopefully lead to its growth and greater effectiveness. One of the adjustments recently made was to allow any church member who wants to learn more about the Bible to attend. Because of this, there is now one pastor-in-training and three other men who are taking courses. Jon is currently teaching Old Testament Survey, and he asked me to teach New Testament Survey. We’ve completed a couple weeks already, and so far it has been a great experience and yet another opportunity to teach the truth of the Bible.

Please pray for these four guys that God would use these classes to increase their knowledge of His Word, and as a result increase their desire to know it’s author.

Have you ever heard one of those “strange sounding” African languages that has all kinds of “strange sounds” that seem impossible for you to pronounce?  Well, that pretty much describes Kabiye.  When I first heard it I thought, “Wow, that sounds like a really difficult language!”  The funny thing is that I’m just crazy enough to try to learn it!

I began lessons a few weeks ago, and so far I think it’s going pretty well.  That’s probably because I have no idea yet how the language works!  In the Kabiye culture, greetings are very important, so we’ve just been working on those so far.  Next week we’ll start getting into verb conjugations.

In case you’re wondering what it sounds like, here’s a few clips of me trying to speak a few simple phrases:

My name is Jesse

I am from America

I am learning Kabiye

I am a teacher of God’s Word

Here is a what a typical greeting dialog sounds like:

Person 1: Ŋliwa lɛ! (Good morning.)
Person 2: Yoo, alaafiya wɛɛ? (Thanks, how’s it going?)
1: Alaafiya! (It’s going well.)
2: Ña halʋ yɔ? (And how’s your wife?)
1: Alaafiya! (She’s well.)
2: Tɔnʋʋ tayɔ? (And how’s your health?)
1: Kɩwɛ mbʋ lɛ. (I’m feeling well.)
2:Tʋmɩyɛ ñɩŋanzɩ yɔ? (And how about the fatigue from your work?)
1:Alaafiya! (It’s fine.)

It’s after this part that I get lost. When I greet somebody for the first time in Kabiye, they are shocked and excited that I’m speaking to them in their own language instead of in French. The only problem is that they assume that since I know the greetings that I am fluent, so they start talking about…well, I’m not really sure what they talk about. That’s when I have to stop them and explain in French that I’ve only started to learn Kabiye.

Kabiye is definitely a challenge, but I’m trying to take a patient approach, realizing that it will be incredibly frustrating at times. Please pray for my progress, that I will be able to communicate well in the Kabiye people’s “heart language.”

It’s been a while since we last updated our website with a new family picture.  Well, since June of last year to be exact. Several people have asked for a new one, so here it is.

To download it, right-click (NOT left-click) on one of the following links and select “Save Link As…” or something similar, depending on what browser you’re using.  If you need a larger size, please let me know and I’ll send it to you.

| 4×6 landscape | 4×6 portrait | 5×7 landscape | 5×7 portrait |

Don’t we look so Africany?  This was taken from our rooftop in front of our neighbors’ beautiful palm trees.

A couple weeks ago as I was returning from a walk in the neighborhood, I met a 10-12 year old boy named Calbert who is from Burkina Faso.  We talked for a little while, then he came to church with us the following day.  He said that he’s a Christian and that he goes to church with his parents in Burkina, but that he’s staying here in Kara for a while with his aunt.

After that day, I did not see him again and assumed that maybe he had returned to Burkina.  Then suddenly yesterday as I was driving down our road I saw him again but he looked very distressed.  He explained that he did not have the necessary supplies for school and therefore was not allowed to come back until he had them.  As always, I was looking to help if there was a true need, but something just didn’t seem to add up in his story as I dug a little deeper.  I decided to make him wait for a day as I thought more about it and tried to verify the story.  In the mean time, our gardener went to his school and talked to somebody who said he didn’t think there was any problem with Calbert.  Looks like we might have a liar on our hands!

Then this morning as we were leaving for church, he was again on our road waiting for me.  This time he said that his aunt kicked him out of the house, he had slept on the street, and that he needed money to take a taxi back to Burkina.  This time there was no doubt he was lying.  He had spit into his hands and wiped it under his eyes to make it look like he had been crying.  This was very obvious due to the little white “spit bubbles” that were all over his cheeks.

I told him we had to leave right away for church, but that he could come with us and that we’d talk afterwards.  So, after church I sat him down and confronted him about his lies.  At first he denied it, but when I presented him with the proof he admitted to having lied to me to try to get money.

I had already decided that I wasn’t going to get mad, yell at him, and tell him never to come back, which I’m sure is what he was expecting.  Instead, God showed me that this was a perfect opportunity to explain the gospel to him.  I showed him from the Bible that lying is a sin, that God hates sin, that every sin must be punished, and that the fair punishment for our sin against a perfect God is eternity in hell.  Then I told him of Jesus’ perfect life, His voluntary death on the cross as our sin-bearing substitute, and His offer of total forgiveness to those who come to him repenting of their sin and putting their faith only in what He has done.  I believe he completely understood what I explained, and expressed some interest in it.  I gave him a new testament and some material to read about the gospel and told him that he is welcome to come back any time to talk.  Please pray for Calbert that the Holy Spirit will use this sin in his life to show him his need of Jesus Christ.

As I look back on these events, it’s clear to me that it was one of those times when we must be ready at any moment to take a bad circumstance and use it for God’s glory.  I pray that God will continue to move me (my feelings, desires, comfort zone, etc.) out of the way so that He will be glorified more and more through my life.