Light of Togo

What do you get when you combine a broken bridge, 200 semi trucks, angry taxi drivers, and four tired missionaries?  A big adventure!

After a few days in Lomé, Jim and I started heading back for Kara around 11 am, which normally means arriving home around 5 pm.  Around the half way point, however, things started to get interesting.  We came up on a 4 mile-long line of semi trucks that had been building up since at least Monday.  It was at this point that we just “happened” to run into a couple other missionary friends from Kara who were only two cars ahead of us.  They had a map, and we had no clue, so we decided to follow them.

We got turned around, drove back to the last village, and asked about a road on the map that could have brought us out north of the bridge.  The locals, however, told us that the road is impassable.  So at this point we had two options: sit in traffic, going nowhere; or sit on the side of the road drinking Coke, going nowhere.  The decision was unanimous.

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Once we started seeing vehicles coming from towards the bridge, we figured it was time to move out.  Our progress was stopped short, though, by all the traffic trying to go north. After two hours of stop and go, we were diverted off the main road and onto a narrow dirt road.  This road wasn’t at all a problem for our 4×4 vehicles, but there were all kinds of small cars, overloaded taxi vans, and huge semi trucks trying to make one lane into two.  As night fell we slowly crept along, hopping out of the vehicles from time to time in order to direct traffic, push vehicles out of the mud, or just to find out why we weren’t moving.

A couple hours later, we were past all the traffic and on our way to wherever that road would take us.  Five and a half hours after starting into the traffic jam, we came out a whopping 7 miles north of where we started!

Now it’s late, we’re tired, we’re hungry, but at least we’re past all that mess…right?  Let me interrupt my own story here and explain something.  I have learned two things about frustrating circumstances in Africa: first, that you don’t get too excited about a bad situation getting better because it’s usually not over; and second, that you don’t get too worked up about it because it just makes everything worse.  Just take a deep breath, say “WAWA” (West Africa Wins Again), and go with the flow.

So, not even an hour of driving on the main road brought us to the toll booth where we would normally pay 300 francs and pass right through.  But not tonight!  A line of taxi vans was blocking up both lanes of the road, making it impossible to pass.  Walking up to the booths, we saw a group of about 150 people standing around, some talking, some arguing, and some shouting loudly at nobody in particular, and some just watching the whole scene like a movie that you don’t want to be in.

We eventually found out that several taxi van drivers wanted to protest the bridge situation by blocking the road and refusing to pay their toll.  We soon realized that there was nothing we were going to do or say to fix the problem.  They wanted to voice their complaint to the local authorities, so until they showed up nothing was going to change.  We had the idea of just jumping the curb with our vehicles, and going around everyone, but we seriously felt like it wouldn’t have been the smartest move at that point.

We felt like the best place to be at this time was back at our vehicles, which is where we stayed until everything settled down.  Once the local “préfet” arrived, they came to an agreement that those who wanted to pay their toll and leave could do so, and those who didn’t could stay as long as they wanted.  The only problem is that the people blocking the road were the ones staying and they had no desire to move so that everyone else could leave.

With the situation having settled down a bit, and us getting more tired by the minute, we went back to the curb-jumping idea.  We moved several small concrete barricades out of the way, payed our toll, jumped the curb, and drove off into the sunset.  Well, the sunset part isn’t exactly true since we missed it by several hours.

In all, the 6 hour trip took 12.  A 12 hour trip doesn’t sound that bad, but I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase before: “You just had to be there.”  Honestly though, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything!  It was a great adventure and something that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.  I can imagine us missionaries sitting around 20 years from now laughing about the “good ‘ole days.”  Just do me a favor and please tell me if 20 years from now I’m repeating this story over and over again as if it’s the first time you’ve heard it.

I’d like to ask you to pray for my trip to Lomé today.  I’m taking the Huffs down so they can pick up their vehicle from the port, while Jim and I will do some shopping and other errands.  Please pray for our safety there and back on Thursday or Friday.

Asking for prayer for safety on a trip sometimes seems like such a “catch phrase” kind of thing to say, but after taking a couple long distance trips here in Togo, I take it very seriously now!  During the pastors’ conference, we were coming down a mountain around a curve when all of a sudden a guy on a motorcycle was in the middle of our lane coming straight at us.  To make matters worse there was a large semi in the other lane, which gave the motorcycle guy no place to go.  But, he was completely unaware of all this because he had his head turned almost completely backwards talking to somebody behind him!  With only a split second to react, I honked and swerved as far off the steep road as I could, which gave him barely enough room to squeeze between me and the truck, just inches away from hitting our bumper.

This is just one of the many “incidences” we’ve had already in the short time we’ve been here.  So, when I ask you to pray for our safety, it’s because we really do need it!  Thanks very much!

In one corner, the unsuspecting missionary.  In the other corner, the heavyweight champion of African sicknesses.   In the first of many bouts to come, Malaria threw the first punch and knocked me flat on my back for 48 hours, but thankfully due to a very effective treatment we found I am now back on my feet again and recovering from it.  Tiffany had posted on Facebook that I was sick, so thanks to all who were praying for me.  I’m sure it will not be the last time that we meet this opponent, but we sure do hope that it’s very infrequently!

What I’m very thankful for (other than the obvious, which is of course that I’m not dead) is that I did not have many pressing obligations this week, so the sickness did not set me back too much in that respect.  I am also thankful for a wonderful and as-close-to-perfect-as-possible wife who took great care of me while I was stuck in bed for two days.  Thanks Tiff, you’re the best!

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.

We are always amazed to see the unique ways that God provides things as we’re headed to Togo.  Last night we saw this happen again.

In my last blog post I mentioned the problem we are having with getting our appliances for Togo.  What I failed to mention is that it’s going to cost a lot more than we were first expecting.  We mentioned the whole situation as a prayer request in our Sunday School class yesterday morning.  What we didn’t know is that God had already been preparing to provide for the financial part of this need.

Last night at church, some good friends of ours pulled us aside and told us how they had been thinking for a couple months about doing something out of the ordinary to be a blessing to some missionaries.  They really didn’t know the who or how or what yet, but they just knew that God wanted them to do something. One day, the wife really prayed and asked God to show them what they should do.  The very next day, they were notified by their insurance company that they had been over charged a long time ago for some medical bills and that they would be receiving a $300 reimbursement.  Then yesterday when we mentioned the appliances, they knew that this was where God wanted them to direct their blessing.

They were such an encouragement to us as they told us that we were the first missionary family that they have known personally, and that it was a great example for their kids to see that we are just a normal family like them who God chose to go to the mission field.  Now, I don’t know that I would define myself as “normal,” but I think I know what he means.  Many people have the idea that missionaries are some kind of mutant species from another planet and God only calls them to serve Him, but the fact is that we are real people and God has just happened to choose and call us to be a part of His work in another part of the world.  It’s not because we are any more special or different than any other family at church, it’s just that God told us to go and we said yes.

OK, sorry for the rabbit trail.  Anyhow, they were such a blessing to us and we thank God for their friendship, their generosity, and for their willingness to follow God’s leading in their lives.

We just can’t help but give all the glory to God for His goodness to us.  We don’t deserve a bit of what He does in our lives, but we know that He does it because we are His children and He loves us.  It’s our responsibility to simply be content with whatever God gives us, whether poverty or riches, health or sickness, trials or victories, because we know that through all of it He is seeking to bring glory to Jesus Christ through our lives!

WARNING: Do not read any farther unless you want your GeekFactor to be raised by approximately 17.82 percent!

Ever since coming to Quebec, I’ve been wanting to help out the church here by redoing their website, which the pastor has been wanting to do for quite some time as well.  A few weeks ago, I found out that the pastor’s son, Jonathan, and another guy, Benoit, both have done website development (webdev) before.  Between the two of them, they have a working knowledge of html, css, and php, and I have a bit of experience in Wordpress, which is the platform we used for the site.  So, on Saturday they came over to our house where we set up our “Webdev Workstation,” which slightly resembled something that one might see at a NASAcontrol room.  We started at 10:00am and began working on a completely new design and functionality for the site so there can be a regular public area and a “members only” section which contains a blog, church member photo directory, and other helpful stuff.

It was really neat to see how the three of us worked together with Jonathan doing a lot of the technical coding and problem solving, Benoit doing the page setups, transferring information, and translating things into French, and me doing the visual design and work within Wordpress.

By the time the public section was done, it was 2:00 in the morning!  But, we got it done.  Yesterday, we worked got almost the whole members section finished, and it should be entirely done by Thursday evening.

It was a lot of fun and I learned a ton of things about webdev in the process, but I am glad that it’s almost done.  Below is a screenshot of what it looks like (click the image to enlarge it) and a link to it if you’d like to check it out.

There is a long-running story about missionaries and used tea bags.  It comes from many years ago when people had the mentality of “well, we can’t use this junk, so let’s give it to a missionary!”  Occasionally, missionaries would actually receive tea bags that had already been used.  Thankfully that mentality is long gone…well, almost.  A couple weeks ago, we received a package from the States with a few goodies in it, and to our surprise some used tea bags as well.  Yes, that’s right, used tea bags.  What made it even worse is that it came from our home church! However, if you knew the people who sent it to us, you would immediately know, as we did, that it was completely a joke.  It was from our great friends Mark and Tami Norwood.  We have told them that story and they have often joked around with us that when we are gone they will send us some.  I never thought that they would really do it though!  Just in case you’re wondering, they did send some other, more useful things too!

Today we met at a restaurant with our tutor, Suzanne, and all of her students, who all happen to be friends of ours. There were five missionary couples, plus my friend Dmitry and my conversation partner for a grand total of 16 people. We had quite a good time, and a good meal. Tiffany and I both had Greek salads with tons of fresh veggies - yum! - and Joshua had the longest chicken strips I’d even seen. They must have come from some kind of super hybrid turkeychicken.

I spent most of the time talking to Dmitry, which was nice since I haven’t seen him for a while. He told us about an event going on next weekend at the city port, where 8 battleships from all around the world will be docked for three days and open for tours. Then on Sunday afternoon as they are leaving they will fire off 20 rounds each from their canons. We are planning to go together with Dmitry, so we’re really looking forward to that. I’m just hoping that the guy in charge of loading the canons remembers to put the blanks in rather than the real rounds.

Well, yesterday was my final day of studying French at Laval University.  It feels very nice to be done, but I realize that there is a LOT that I still need to learn.  On Monday, I begin my theological course with Tiff’s tutor, which I’m very excited about.  I’ll be working most of today on my first French sermon which must be ready for the beginning of this course.  It’s amazing how slow the process is when doing this in a second language!  I’m looking forward to the day when French is nearly as familiar to me as English.

Tiffany, in the mean time, will be continuing her tutoring through the end of May, then we will both have three months to study on our own before the tutoring begins again in September.

We’re excited about seeing the light at the end of a long French tunnel, and we know that we’ll be finished before we can say “French toast,” so pray with us that God will guide us in learning all that is necessary before heading to Togo.

I’d like to ask for your prayer in the coming week.  I am going to have a very full week with six exams in four different classes.  On top of that, I’ll be preparing my first sermon in French which needs to be completed by the following Monday for the start of my theological course.  I’m definitely not trying to complain, but I’m simply asking you to pray for Tiffany, Joshua, and me in the next 10 days or so.  Thank you!

If you’ve read our updates over the past several months, you probably already know that Quebec passed a new law that raises tuition rates…no, let me rephrase that…skyrockets tuition rates for non-Canadian students.  We were told that because we started school before this new law was passed that we would not be affected by it as long as we enrolled in a “certificate program.”  Since doing this we have completed the fall and winter sessions and I was looking forward to going back in the summer.  Just to be on the safe side, I emailed the program administrator to see if I would still be charged the normal rate during the summer.  To my (not-so)surprise, she said that the exemption from the new law is only during the regular school sessions.  This is about the 827th time that we have been told something different!

Well this might sound like bad news, and I suppose it could be, but over the past several weeks I had been having an overwhelming urge to study more on my own rather than in the classroom setting.  I have progressed through the university’s French program fairly quickly, and I really feel like because of this there are some grammatical areas that I either have not fully grasped or have missed altogether along the way; not because I didn’t learn it by the way, but because I have skipped some levels in the program.  Unfortunately, in a class of 20 people I can’t stop the teacher and ask him to cover something that I should have learned as a beginner.

So the plan now is to study with Tiffany’s tutor and individually until the end of June, which is when the tutor begins her summer break, then on my own for July and August, and then with the tutor again until we leave at the end of October.

We know that this is God’s clear direction in our lives at this point, and I am actually very excited about studying on my own once this semester ends on the 25th.  I guess that I’m having a relapse of my old “home-schooled syndrome!”  Just please pray for us that we will continue to make the progress necessary for us to communicate effectively in Togo.

First of all, if you’ve never read “My Utmost for His Highest,” by Oswald Chambers, you really should. It’s a daily reading kind of book, just one page per day. It is basically a collection of writings and sermon/lecture excerpts from Chambers’ life.

Thanks to pastor Bill Anker in Spokane, Washington, I have now not only read from Oswald Chambers but about him too. He gave me Chambers’ biography a couple years ago, but I just got around to reading it lately. In case you’re interested the title is “Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God.” It’s not the most entertaining read, but it is very challenging to see Chambers’ approach to life, ministry, and Christianity in general. I’m astounded at his simple but deep faith in God. He was not a man that was striving for or worried about results, success, or popularity even among Christians. His sole desire was to abide in Christ and draw closer to Him, leaving all the results up to His plan. Wow, if we could just learn how to do that! Aren’t we so often guilty of manipulating circumstances and people so we can get our results, our success, or popularity?

It’s always encouraging to read about the men who followed Christ wholeheartedly in the past, but let’s not forget that God works the same way today! He can use anyone in any culture at any time. Some people talk as if God is done using people in great ways, but that is the farthest thing from the truth. God is still working in and through people who have abandoned to Him the directing of their own lives. This is really what it comes down to, isn’t it? Who’s going to be God? Is He, or are we going to pathetically attempt to rule our own life, setting ourself up as a little demigod of our ugly little kingdom? The issue here is worship. God deserves and desires worship, and He gets it when we acknowledge His divine right to BE GOD in our lives.

When I showed up to class yesterday morning, I was surprised to find a man waiting there to talk to me. He told me that a reporter from Radio Canada wanted to interview me for a news story that he is preparing for the radio. The story has to do with the recent grossly inflated tuition prices in Quebec for foreign students, and the reporter wanted to interview somebody who could have been affected by this.

Now at this point in my very brief French experience, I do not feel like I’m ready to do a radio interview answering complex questions! So, I told the guy that I’d love to do it, but that my French is not great. He said that this wouldn’t be a problem and that I could answer in English if I wanted and that they could just translate it when it’s broadcasted. This sounded like a much better arrangement, so I agreed and he said that he would put me in touch with the reporter. Now keep in mind that this man with whom I was talking works for the university, not the radio station.

After school I called the reporter without really knowing what to expect. My assumption was that he would set up a time when we could meet or something. So after a few “preliminaries,” all in French, he said that he would transfer the phone to another line for the interview. “OK, no problem,” I thought, “I would have preferred to have some preparation first, but that’s a problem. After all, I can respond in English, right?”

When the reporter picked up the other line and asked the first question I started to answer in English when he stopped me and said, “No, in French please.” Doh! This is exactly what I feared.

Now, I think it’s necessary for me to explain something about myself to you at this point. I am NOT good at just coming up with things off the top of my head without any preparation. I just don’t do well at all in those situations. I’m the type of person who likes to know what I’m getting into so I can plan and prepare accordingly, and that’s even when speaking English! Throw in the French factor and now I’m sure to make a fool of myself. Well I thought, “OK, I’m just going to do the best I can and hope that he doesn’t ask anything too difficult.”

The first two questions were relatively easy and I felt like I didn’t butcher the responses too bad, but then came the third. He asked something about if I had known what was going to happen with the tuition prices before I came, would I have still come and if the tuition is higher this summer will I be able to continue. Without getting into all the complexities of French grammar, I’ll just say this: Have you ever posed a question to a young child, then realized that they might have understood you, but they had no earthly idea how to correctly answer the question? Got the mental picture now? OK, well that was me! As I hacked my way through the response, I can just imagine what the reporter was thinking, “Man, is THIS the best student they could find for me?” “Maybe they accidentally got me somebody from the Antarctican language program.” or “This guy has been studying French for HOW long?” Well, whatever it was he was thinking, he evidently came to the conclusion that he wasn’t getting much helpful information because after this question he said, in English, “OK, well thank you for the interview, have a nice day.” And that was that.

So, as I think back on my 15 minutes of fame (more like 3), I have decided two things: first, I don’t want to be a celebrity anymore so I’m officially retiring and telling all news agencies, tabloids, and the paparazzi that I “have no further comments.” (don’t you just love it when they say that? I wonder if that would have worked with my parents when I was growing up: “Jesse, did you tell your little brother to do a back flip off of the trampoline into the rose bushes?” “Dad, Mom…I have no further comments.” haha!) Second, I have decided that I really hope that they don’t air this story, or at least my interview. I have also learned that, when necessary, it’s better just to ask for some time to prepare rather than slaughtering a very beautiful language!

Before moving to Québec, we heard about how bad the winters can be, but we had no idea what we were in store for! With winter only half over, we’ve already accumulated 59 inches of snow on the ground. That’s almost 5 feet! The snow plows generally do a good job of keeping the roads clear, but all of that snow has to go somewhere. A lot of it just keeps getting pushed to the curbs, which haven’t been visible since sometime in November, where the snow banks look more like white walls in a house than piles of snow. What’s interesting is that they actually will load the snow into huge trucks that transport the white white fluffy goodness by the ton to large areas which resemble trash landfills. These mini snow mountains would be great for sledding!

Here’s a video of one of the recent blizzards and some other winter scenes:

If you cannot view this video, click here for instructions.During the first big blizzard back in December, I grabbed the camera and went out to our balcony. It just so happened that this poor lady was walking, or trying to, through the snow back to her apartment. I was about to go down and help her out when she finally got back onto the path.

In class, I regularly have an assignment known as a “dictée.” In this exercise I listen to a recording of somebody speaking French and then dictate on paper each word that is said. Doesn’t sound too hard, right? Well, while these exercises have become easier with time and practice, this latest one caused me to think, “Am I in the right class? This sounds like Uzbekistanian!” Just for fun, listen to this quick excerpt.

She takes those big breaths so she can talk faster!