Light of Togo

It’s been a very busy few weeks for us, so we’re really looking forward to leaving tomorrow morning (at 4 am!) for Accra, which is the capital of Ghana and the most developed city in West Africa. The primary reason for the trip is to bring our friend and fellow missionary, Jim, to the airport. He has been in Togo for 3 years now, and is taking a furlough back to the States.

Since we’ll be driving 11 hours each way, we decided to make it worthwhile by spending a few days there. We’ll spend most of the time shopping for things we can’t find in Kara, and running other errands like getting our truck worked on. We do plan on doing something fun for Joshua too though, maybe the beach!

Please pray for our safety, smooth border crossings, Jim’s flight, and a good time in Ghana.

Several weeks ago Randy, our coworker, proposed the idea of doing a conference/retreat for all the Togolese pastors.  We all thought it was a good idea, so we started planning it.  It will take place this coming Sunday through Friday.  The idea is to get all the pastors together from all the churches that Randy has started and bring them around to each church so they can all see in person the work that is taking place around the country.  So, that means that we’ll be taking a couple overnight trips during the week.  Please pray for our safety as we’ll be taking two vehicles (ours and Jim’s) fully loaded on some rough roads.

Each of the four missionaries, Randy (Alderman), Jim (White), Jon (Huff), and myself will be speaking two times during the conference.  I’m currently preparing for these, so please be in prayer for that as well as for the others who will speak.  We are praying that this will be a time of refreshment and encouragement for these pastors, as well as a challenge to those who are perhaps on the verge of ethical, moral, or personal problems in their life.

I’ll keep you updated as much as possible as the conference goes along.  Thank you so much for your prayers!

In the past couple months I have been quite a terrible blogger.  There has been so much happening every day, and I have not done a very good job with keeping you up to date.  While I can’t promise anything, I do plan on updating the blog more frequently.  In fact, in the next few weeks I plan on doing one very large post with photos, and maybe video, of lots of the things I’ve written about on our blog.  Many of you have been asking about photos, but up to this point I honestly have had no time to respond to those requests, so I figured that I’ll just do it all at once when I get some time.

So, to catch up on the last couple weeks:

The Huffs arrived in Accra safely, we crossed back over the border into Togo with no problems, spent a couple days in Lomé, then drove back up to Kara on the 4th.  That wasn’t necessarily how we wanted to spend Independence Day, but it was great to “celebrate” our return home to Kara.

Speaking of Kara, we’ve been busy trying to find a house in Kara for the Huffs.  We’ve seen around 15 already, and they’ve narrowed it down to one so far.  We’re going to see a couple more, but more than likely they’ll be starting negotiations on that house very soon.  In the mean time they are staying with us, and we’re having a great time together.

Speaking of houses, we are finally getting around to many of the little repairs and improvements that have needed to be done since moving in but haven’t had the time to do.  It’s great to be getting more and more settled in the house so we can spend more time focusing on the more important things.

Speaking of more important things, we had a great Sunday a few days ago.  There were quite a bit more people at church than normal, and as I preached on Colossians 3:1-4 it sparked a good discussion/question session after the message.  The passage deals with seeking the eternal things which are of infinite importance instead of being consumed with the passing, temporary things that attract our attention every day.  We do this because our old sinful nature was put to death in Christ, and we now have a new life and new nature because Christ is our life.  Please pray for me as I’m teaching/preaching through the book of Colossians.  I work hard at trying to effectively communicate these truths to the people, but sometimes it’s difficult with my limited understading of their culture.

Speaking of prayer, please also pray for this church we’re working at.  We have made a temporary commitment to help out there, and of course the goal is to see this church become independent (autonomous) of missionary help, so please pray that God gives wisdom and direction to the pastor, the members, and the missionaries involved so we can see this church reach that goal in the near future.

Speaking of the near future, I’m sure that you have many other things to do in the near future other than reading a very long update by a belated blogging missionary!  So, as they say in French, “À la prochaine!” (See you next time!)

Before the films, we let the kids play with a big ball, which was a completely new experience for them. Joshua even jumped in there with them and had a blast running around with all the kids, stirring up the biggest dust cloud I’ve ever seen!

It was interesting to see how at the beginning of the films there were only a handful of church members there watching, but by the end there were probably around 150 people, many of whom were standing outside watching through the windows.

Afterwards, Pastor Sopa gave, in the local Moba language, a clear explanation of how to know Jesus personally. Sopa, by the way, is the pastor of six churches right now, and as you can imagine needs help very badly. He started out by walking to each church, then he upgraded to a bicycle, and now he has a motorcycle that Randy Alderman bought for him. He preaches at two churches each Sunday and rotates between them. Please pray for him, and for God to call other Togolese men to go help in this needy area.

This afternoon we will be leaving with Jim White and Lisa Lewis heading North to the city of Dapaong.  We will be working with one of the pastors in the area, Sopa, as we do some outreach events in a few villages around the city.  We’ll staying for a couple nights and coming back on Sunday afternoon.  We would appreciate your prayers for our safety, and of course pray for these events that God will bless and draw people to Himself to experience His grace!

We’ll tell you how it went when we return.

Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: Aug ‘08

It seems like just a few months ago we were writing an update letter telling you that we were arriving in Quebec to begin language school, but now we are thrilled to tell you that only seven weeks remain before we leave here to head back to Oregon! We will be there for a few months doing all the preparing, packing, and “paperworking” for our planned departure to Togo at the end of January. We can hardly believe how close we are to finally arriving in the place where God has called us! In the next few weeks, we will be sending out a special update with more details about what lies ahead for us in the next six months. In the mean time, please be in prayer for us that our French will continue to improve and that we will accomplish as much preparation as possible before leaving here on October 27th.

The past couple of months have been very busy for us, but very good as well. Since our last update letter, here are some highlights of what has been going on.

•I preached my first sermon in French. (listen here)
•My parents came for a week long visit in Quebec.
•Along with two friends, I helped develop a new website for our church here in Quebec. (www.eglisebaptiste.ca)
•My cousin and his wife from Australia spent part of their vacation here with us for five days. We then went with them to Boston for five days and had a really great time with them.
•We started tutoring again with our tutor, Suzanne, after her two months off during the summer.

We’d like to ask that you please continue to pray for all the other missionaries with whom we will be working in Togo. In all, there are five missionary families and two single missionaries. Two of these missionaries are already in Togo, two are in language school, two are on deputation, and one is heading to Togo shortly. As you can imagine, we are all very anxious to get to Togo and begin working in the church planting process, so please pray for God’s direction and provision in each of our lives and ministries.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: June ‘08

I’m not sure that we’ve ever talked so much in all our lives.  In the past month, it seemed that every day was spent with friends, our tutor, conversation partners, or anyone else who speaks French.  This has been a great opportunity to put into practice what we have been learning for the past year.  If you’ve ever learned a foreign language, you know how much more difficult speaking is compared to “textbook learning.”  It is encouraging though to look back and see the progress we’ve made and to look forward to being relatively fluent one day in Africa as we evangelize, disciple, and encourage all in French!

Along those lines, I’d like to ask that you pray for me as I will be preaching my first sermon in French on July 20th.  I wrote it during my theological course, and have been meeting with our pastor here to smooth out the rough edges.  I am a bit nervous just because it will be my first time preaching in French, but I pray that God will work through it to deliver His Word despite my mispronunciations and backwards English sentence structure!

If you have not yet done so, I’d like to encourage you to visit our blog where I have begun a verse by verse study on John chapter 15.  This is a great way for me to dig a little deeper than normal into the Bible and I hope that you can follow along and do the same.

With all of our Togo coworkers scattered all over the map, it is at times difficult to keep in touch with them, but lately we’ve had the opportunity to speak with them through the internet using Skype.  From talking with them about future plans and preparations for Togo, it makes us all the more excited to finish strong in our language learning and get to Togo.  We are looking forward to the day when all of the missionaries are working together, reaching the Togolese with the gospel of Christ for the glory of God.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

I recently called our veteran coworker, Randy Alderman, to discuss our coming to Togo in Jan/Feb of next year.  We had a really great talk and it made us all the more excited to finally get over there and be involved in the ministry.  One thing that he really stressed to me is the importance of proper planning for the things that we are going to need and use in Togo.  Without explaining all the details, it basically comes down to the fact that there are many things which are better to purchase in America and ship to Togo rather than getting them there for a much higher price and lower quality.  Because we have never had a house of our own and all of our current furniture/appliances are either borrowed or extremely used, it will be necessary to set up our house from scratch.  On top of this, there are many other expenses that are associated with moving 7,288 miles away and getting set up in a new country.  After getting off the phone with Randy I realized, “wow, this is going to be expensive!”

God has already taken care of every single need, financial or not, that we’ve had and we know that He is going to work as He wants in this situation too.  We have seen Him use churches and individuals to meet many needs before that were completely beyond our own capability.  What we ask of you is to pray for God’s provision, and ask Him if He might want you to be a part of it in the coming months.

Last Saturday we all bundled up and headed to vieux-Québec (Old Quebec) where the 2008 winter carnaval is being held. We went with our co-workers, the Huffs (Jon, Heidi, and Abby). We had a really great time, as there were lots of great family activities. I think the most amazing thing to me was the snow and ice carvings/scultures. Some of these were intricately detailed, and each one left me thinking, “I wonder if that’s just Styrofoam. Hmm.”

I think we would all agree that our favorite thing was “the typhoon,” which was a giant round inter-tube which held all seven of us. It was placed at the top of a steep hill and pushed off, but not before giving it a good spin. Everyone really enjoyed this, except for Abby. At only two years old, I don’t think she had any idea of what was going on. All she knew is that suddenly everything was spinning around her and she didn’t like it one bit!

Here’s some photos from our excursion.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: Jan’08

It has been a long time coming, but if you remember in our last prayer letter, we mentioned that we would be changing the way in which we regularly communicate with you. Unfortunately this transition took much longer than we first expected or hoped, but at last our website overhaul is finished, and we believe that this will allow us to more effectively communicate with you, and you with us.

We have modified our website from a purely informational site into a blog where we will be regularly updating you on what is going on in our lives and our ministry. The address has not changed, so come pay us a visit at www.lightoftogo.com.

Rest assured that we will continue to send out a regular update letter each month as well, but it is going to be much more concise and less detailed than it previously was. It will briefly highlight some things from the previous month and give you a couple of prayer requests. In our blog, however, we will provide a much more detailed and personal account of everything that God is doing in our lives.

Other than that, in the past few months we have stayed extremely busy with so many things going on. Our French studies are progressing very well. I am in the Intermediate-Advanced class at the university, while Tiffany is studying with an excellent private tutor and doing very well.

Thank you so much for praying for our Togo co-workers, the Huffs. They arrived safely in Québec in December and the Lord was able to use us in finding them a good apartment, furniture, and many other things before they arrived.

Joshua recently turned five years old, and had a great birthday party. He’s so excited about everything going on in his life right now, and you can see photos video, and read about it on the website.

Thank you so much for your patience during this transition time, and we want to thank you sincerely for your continued prayer and support.

We would like to begin by saying thank you to all of you who have prayed for our re-enrollment process in language school and for our friends and co-workers, Jon and Heidi Huff. To give you an update, we have completely finished the process and all of our legal documents are in order. For the Huffs, there is some good news and some news that could be good or bad. The good news is that they will still be coming to Quebec and attending language school beginning in January. The less certain news is that they still are not sure if they will be required to pay the higher tuition rates. It seems that there is a lot of “mixed information” about the many details and effects of this new Quebec law as it relates to non-Canadian students. This could be a very good thing, however, because it means that there is still a chance that they will be able to pay the lower rate. Please continue to pray with us and them about this.

During this month, I had the great blessing of spending more time than normal with Joshua doing some special “Daddy and Joshua” things. It’s hard to believe how quickly he is growing up, so we are trying to “enjoy every minute of it” as we have been advised many times. About a week ago, he attempted to tell me for the first time that he loves me “with all his heart,” a phrase that he often hears from adults. However, in his four year old rendition of it he said, “Daddy, I love you all about my heart!” While it’s probably not grammatically correct, it sure sounded great to me! I didn’t have the heart to tell him the “right way” to say it, so he’s been telling us all about his heart for the past week.

We are now half way through the fall semester in language school and we have been learning many things lately, including pronoun complements, quantitive pronouns, endless verb tenses, and many other things guaranteed to bore you if I went into any further detail! Last week he had our mid-term tests, which we managed to survive, and we’re looking forward to the rest of our semester in our “quest for fluency!”

In the next few weeks we will be making some changes to our website and in the way we communicate with all of you. Our prayer letter will become more of a concise and quick update, outlining recent happenings and some prayer requests. Meanwhile our website will still contain all of its current information, with the addition of a personal blog, photo gallery, family videos, and automatic notifications when any of these are updated. Next month we will give you more details about these changes.

Here’s a quick update for the month of September.

Recent blessings:

- French studies are continuing to go well. I am finally at the point where I usually feel comfortable asking questions and carrying on a conversation (a very elementary one) in French.

- Tiffany’s parents were able to come visit us for one week. It was a complete surprise for Joshua, and he had a wonderful time with them.

- I was able to help out a missionary to Quebec by designing a prayer card and putting together a video presentation for him.

Prayer requests:

- Please pray for Jon & Heidi Huff, who are missionaries to Togo with whom we will be working. They have been planning to come to Quebec for language studies, but Quebec has passed a new law that makes it extremely expensive for non-Canadian students to study here. They are looking for a possible way around it, but it is not looking good. This law will not affect us because we already began our studies before the new law began, but unfortunately it will affect all new students. Please pray for them during this time as they make many important decisions.

- Pray for our continued language learning.

- Pray for Joshua as he is starting some schooling of his own with Malerie. He is learning the ABCs and doing very well so far.

- Pray for Dmitry, the man I mentioned in the past two letters. I met with him a couple weeks ago but we did not have much time to talk, so pray as I see him again in the following weeks that God will give us the opportunity to speak and that He will give Dmitry the open heart to hear His word.

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support. We are so grateful to each and every one of you.