Light of Togo

A couple weeks ago I began meeting on Sunday afternoons with the family that lives directly across the “street” (more like a walking path) from us.  They are very interested in learning some of the agricultural and health information which I have learned recently.  We began with water purification.  I taught them how they can have cheap, clean water by using the SODIS method.  They have been drinking straight from their dirty, uncovered well, so you can imagine how thrilled they were to know that they can make this water clean for drinking.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing with them the amazing benefits of the Moringa tree.  Unlike most people living around us, this family has quite a bit of land, both next to their house and in their home village, so I’m hoping that they will begin planting Moringa in and around their crops in order to supplement their nutrient-lacking diet.

My goal is that I can soon begin incorporating a Bible study into our weekly meeting and lead them through God’s Word to give them an opportunity to meet Him.  Please pray for this family that God will work in their lives so they will come to believe on Jesus and follow Him.

Click here to download this update on our printable letterhead.

New Disciples of Jesus
One of the churches we work in with in Kara had its 15th anniversary this month and as a part of their special celebration weekend, they held two special evening services on Friday and Saturday night.  The members invited many of their friends and neighbors to come watch a film, which is a huge deal in Togo!  The pastor asked if I would take up to an hour and explain the gospel, since there would be many people who had probably never heard it before.

I was quite excited about this opporunity, especially since I had ample time to explain in detail the essential elements of the gospel of Jesus.  I’m thrilled that after hearing the message, many people believed on Christ and said that they wanted to turn from their life of sin to follow Christ.  It is so humbling to be used by God in this way.  Please pray for these new disciples in Christ that they will “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ.”

Peace in Togo
Last month we asked you to pray for Togo with the elections taking place.  We are thankful for your prayer, and glad to report that everything went very well with very little violence.  There were some protests after the election, but nothing which got out of hand.  Living on a continent where conflicts can escalate very quickly, we are very thankful that there is a continuation of peace among the people.

Some “Profitable” Lessons
Over the past few weeks, I taught a series of messages about what the Bible says about money.  As in America, money is very coveted and misused by most people in Togo.  With our level of income being drastically higher than that the average person here, I recognized the potential that my teaching about money could seem condescending.  So, I made it very clear from the beginning that I was not going to teach American ideas about money, or my ideas about money, but simply what the Bible says about it.

In the end, I believe it was very beneficial both to the church and to me, as I was able to learn a little more about the Togolese perspective of money. We had some interesting group discussions, a couple of which got fairly intense, as discussions often do in Africa!  When it was all said and done, however, I think the people had a much better understanding of what God expects from them concerning money.  I’m thankful for a God who is interested and involved in every area of our lives!

Thank you for all your prayer and support!

Making Progress
As I have mentioned in previous letters, I am currently devoting the majority of my time to studying Kabiye.  Just about two weeks ago, I finally felt like all this studying is starting to pay off as I began forming simple sentences.  What’s unfortunate is that the Kabiye people assume this means that I will understand anything they say.  That is definitely not the case!

Health Concerns
Over a week ago, we noticed a gland under Joshua’s right ear starting to swell and become painful for him.  After seven days, two doctor visits, a blood test, a throat culture, and speaking with an American doctor on the phone, we were still baffled and the swelling was getting worse.  Finally we talked to another doctor on the phone who gave us a good indication of what it might be and how to treat it.  That was two days ago, and since then he has been doing much better.

We are pretty sure that it was a bacterial infection of some sort.  It is definitely a test of faith at times living in a place where you can’t drive 15 minutes to the nearest fully-equipped hospital.  We are very thankful that God directed us to speak with the right people at the right time.  It’s good to have the energetic old Joshua back!

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.

Click here to download this update on our letterhead.

God is great. That pretty much summarizes how we feel after passing our seventh month in Togo. He has done so many amazing things, and we can’t help but praise Him for it all. We’re amazed at how quickly the time has passed already, and we’re excited about what God has in store for us.

We have a great desire to increasingly reach out to the people around us in meeting both their physical and spiritual needs, so please pray that God continues to minister through us despite the cultural and communication barriers.

Just recently we hosted lunch for two families that live down the street from us. We have also helped them with Malaria treatments and in a few other areas, for which they are incredibly grateful. We know that God is opening a door there, so please pray for us as we reach out to them with the love of Christ. The religious mentality here is typically a mix of Catholicism and deep-rooted traditional beliefs, so there are many obstacles in effectively communicating the gospel, but we are convinced that God is working and that He will remove the blindness of their hearts so they can see the light of the gospel.

I have been preaching through the book of Colossians for the past few months, which has been a great challenge, encouragement, and learning experience for me. Through it God is teaching me how to communicate more clearly to the Togolese people. The first several messages were not understood very well (because of me, not them), but over the past several weeks I have seen quite a difference. There are many questions after each message, as people are curious to learn more about what we are studying. This has been a great encouragement, and I thank God for the opportunity He has given me to communicate His Word. Please pray as we’re currently studying about biblical family relationships. This is one area in which the local culture is desperately lacking, so it is very difficult at times for them to grasp what a Christian family should be.

For the past two months, the newly arrived Huff family stayed with us as they secured a house, received their container, and waited for a vehicle. It was a blessing having them with us, and we ask that you pray for them as they get settled in their own house and begin their ministry here.

As always, on our blog you can read more about what’s been going on, including the recent pastors’ conference, which was a huge blessing.

Thank you for all your prayer and support!

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 copy of this update on our letterhead.

Today marks one week since we first arrived in Togo. It’s been quite an amazing experience so far, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the future here. We started out by crossing over the border from Ghana into Togo’s capital city of Lome. Our missionary coworkers had quite a bit of shopping to do there, so we stayed for a couple nights before heading up-country to the city of Kara, which is where we will be living. Until we get set up in a house of our own, which could take up to two months, we are living with Randy and Jeannette Alderman, who are the veteran missionaries that we’re working with. We are living in a small detached apartment on their property.

There are two other missionaries here also whom we’re working with: Jim White and Lisa Lewis. We’ve been having a great time with all the missionaries here, but I think that the greatest thing has been getting to know the Togolese people and speaking with them every day. While talking to them, we really begin to understand how much of their culture we need to learn. I also am convinced that at some point I need to learn the main tribal language here, which is Kabiye. It’s definitely not something that is absolutely necessary, as most of the missionaries in Togo only know French, but I believe it’s something that will make our ministry here much more effective in the long run. So, I figure that in about a year from now I will start with lessons in Kabiye.

Joshua is having a really great time here, but is having a little difficulty getting used to the heat, as we all are. He’s been having fun playing in the backyard as he’s trying to catch the very fast lizards that roam the area.

I also have some very exciting news to tell you about starting our ministry here in Togo. Once we get settled a bit more in the coming weeks, I’ll be starting to work with one of the churches here in Kara. It is a smaller church that has had some struggles, so the plan is to work along side the pastor, Pastor Nicodime, to help encourage him and build the church through discipleship and evangelism. Please be in prayer about this that God will give me wisdom in this comfort zone stretching opportunity.

Also, there is a man in that church named Élé who is very anxious to get started in the Bible Institute, but Randy is going to be leaving for the States soon, so he has asked me if I’d be willing to start teaching him a course in New Testament Survey. I think that this will be a great opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to getting started about a month from now.

We still just can’t believe that we’re actually here, it’s so exciting! Thank you all so much for praying for us.

I just wanted to quickly tell you about two opportunities that I’ll have to speak this week and to ask you to pray for them.  Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at our church’s Forever Young lunch, talking about “how to pray more effectively for missionaries.”

Then on Thursday I’ll be speaking at a Bible club at Marshall High School in Portland.  I’ve been told that normally there are several students who come who are not Christians.  Please just pray that God will allow me to clearly present what Christianity is all about.  I’ve found that people - especially young people - have a very distorted view of what Christianity is.  Of course, we know that the Bible tells us that it’s all about the fact that God saves undeserving sinners by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, based on the perfect life, sacrificial death, and live-giving resurrection of Jesus.  Please just pray that God will allow me to effectively communicate this truth as I speak on Thursday.

One week ago I had a great opportunity to preach at the Portland Rescue Mission, which provides overnight stays to the homeless in downtown Portland. It was an exceptionally busy night because of the unusually cold temperature. As I began to preach, the crowd was slightly hostile and I found myself having to talk over them because of the constant comments and noise. However, when I got to the heart of the message, which was the gospel plain and simple, they seemed to significantly quiet down and listen intently. I explained the gospel as it is presented in Romans chapter 3, where Paul explains the sinfulness of man and his inability to save himself. We have absolutely no righteousness, which is what God requires for man to be reconciled to Him, but God gives the perfect righteousness of Christ to those who believe on Him by faith. I am humbled and amazed that God would use me to glorify Himself by giving the gospel of Christ to those men.

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

Fifty-three days and counting!  Over the past few weeks since you last heard from us, we have been incredibly busy in our preparation for heading to Togo on February 3rd.  God is providing in so many unexpected ways, and we give Him all the glory for it.  We discovered shortly after getting to Oregon that our home church, Greater Portland Baptist Church, was going to give their Thanksgiving offering in order to help out with some of the costs involved with the shipping and set-up in Togo.  We just found out the other day that over $7,000 was given!  We can do nothing but give God all the praise for moving the hearts of His people to do this.

Even though we are extremely busy right now with all the packing and logistics involved in our move, God is giving us some great opportunities to serve Him at the same time.  Last night Tiffany and I were able to go with a group from our church into a maximum security juvenile detention center where we had a special Christmas party for the men there and gave them Christmas stockings filled with gifts, including a Bible.  At the end of the party, the gospel was presented and several people believed on Christ and were saved.  It was a great privilege to be a part of what God did there.  Please continue to pray for these guys as they will be discipled in the coming months.  Also, please pray for me as I will be preaching at the Portland Rescue Mission on the 15th of this month.  My desire is to present the gospel as clearly as possible straight from the Bible.  I’ll be speaking from Romans chapter three.

We are working on finalizing all of the details with our shipping company, so pray for wisdom in that as well.  We have a LOT of packing to do in the next 10 days or so, so if you don’t hear from us for a while it’s probably because we have collapsed from exhaustion!

Thank you again for praying for our big move, and for supporting us through it!  You are such a blessing to us.

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

Here we have probably the most controversial and misunderstood verse in this passage.  Some common interpretations are: 1. that these non-abiding branches are true Christians who somehow completely separate themselves from Christ, loose their salvation, and are sent to hell; 2. that these are Christians who stop abiding (what this means is debated), and are therefore relegateed to a state of complete uselessness; 3. that those who do not abide in Christ have never been a partaker of His life.  They may be attached to the vine in a purely physical sense, but they have never received the life of the vine and therefore have never produced any fruit.

In verse 2, Jesus referred to, “every branch in me that beareth not fruit.”  It is suggested by many experts who are much more “Greeky” than me that in the original language the reference to “in me” doesn’t convey the same idea as other places in the Bible, for instance when Paul uses the term “in Christ,” meaning all who are saved.  They say that it has a much broader scope here in John 15, likely referring to all people.

The Bible tells us that we are all products of Jesus Christ, whether we are followers of His or not.  He has created us and we all receive our life from Him and thus are physically “in Him,” but not all people are receiving His life and therefore are not bearing fruit.

This verse is serves as a simple reminder to believers in Christ, and as a warning to those who reject Him.  For Christians, it is impossible for us to disconnect ourselves from the vine.  We may struggle, we may not bear as much fruit as Jesus desires, but we can never loose that life of the vine which abides in us.  God will prune and clip our lives in His work of bearing fruit through us.  But for those who reject the life of the vine, there is a day coming when you will stand before the righteous and perfect judge of the world, and He will declare that you never received the forgiveness of sins and the life of Jesus Christ, which is the only thing that can save you from eternal judgment.  It is an eternity in hell that awaits those who do not believe on Jesus Christ by faith and receive His life.  If that describes you, don’t hesistate to come to Him to receive freely the forgiveness of sin, the life of Christ, and an assurance of spending eternity in Heaven.

Do you have any thoughts about this verse?  If so, feel free to post a comment.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

It just doesn’t get much clearer than this, does it?  Jesus says in very clear terms that He, and He alone, is the vine: the source, the life-giver, the root; and that we are the branches: the result of the vine, the conduit of its life, and the bearer of its fruits.  He again gives the assurance that all those who abide in Him will produce fruit.

As I mentioned with verse two, it is necessary to ask ourselves what this fruit is.  I have heard numerous times, and believed until recently, that the fruit of a Christian is leading another person to Christ.  However, after combing through every reference to “fruit” in the Bible, and after reading these passages in their contexts, I cannot say that the Bible teaches this idea.  Certainly, that does not in any way diminish the importance or the role of evangelism; nothing about it is changed just because “fruit” does not mean evangelism. What is most important is not to make commonly held ideas fit conveniently into biblical texts, but to interpret the Word correctly.

The Bible is very clear, however, in another passage as to what the fruit of the Christian life is.  In Galatians 5:22-26 we read:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

The Bible assures us that all of Christ’s true followers have the Holy Spirit within them.  The natural product, or should we say fruit, of the Spirit in a believer’s life are these things mentioned in Galatians.  The desire of Jesus is to produce much of this fruit through your life as you abide in Him and He in you.  Ouch!  That is quite convicting as I think, “How often do I exhibit much love, much peace, much longsuffering, and much of these other things, in my home, with my friends, and with other people that I come in contact with?  Is my branch full of the fruit which Jesus wants to grow through me?”

It does no good to ask these kind of questions for the purpose of self-condemnation, but like me maybe you think that at times your life does not exhibit this fruit as it should.  If so, it is essential to remember the last part of this verse, for without me ye can do nothing. It is silly to imagine grapes or the branches which they grow on existing without the vine, or detached from it.  It is God, the loving and gracious vine dresser, who keeps you attached to the vine of Jesus Christ.  It is not your job to “keep holding on to Jesus,” because He has a hold of you and will never let go.  Without the work of God, we would not even exist, and without His allowing us to do so, we could not even take our next breath.  Without Him, salvation would be impossible and we would have no part of it.  It is this all-powerful God who is patiently pruning and purging your life so that He can produce the fruit which He desires through you.

The branch is nothing and does nothing on its own.  It is helpless and useless by itself.  It is only in the vine that they fulfill their purpose.  Their position is this: complete and absolute dependence upon the vine.  That is exactly our greatest responsibility, to rest upon the work of Christ and to live in complete and absolute dependence upon what only He can do in us and through us for His glory.

Last Tuesday my good friend Dmitry came over for dinner, bringing with him a great assortment of chocolates from Russia, which is his home country. After dinner we had a very interesting conversation about God; whether or not He exists, who He is, and how He relates to man. Dmitry can clearly see that the intelligence of man alone is enough evidence that there is some kind of creator, he just isn’t sure who that might be. While he is very skeptical of Christianity, he is also very curious about it and willing to listen to what I have to say about it.

Please pray with me that God will continue to draw Dmitry to Himself, showing him both his condition of being dead in sin and his need for Jesus Christ and spiritual life.

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.