Light of Togo

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!)

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.

This is a quick update of what we’ve been doing while in Québec, and of where we’re headed in the next several months.

RELATED LINKS:
•Blog posts about our Togo departure progress
•Fund-raiser page
•www.day6images.com

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!

Here it is at last.  Sorry that it took so long, but there was a little trouble getting the audio file off of the church computer.  I know that you were all anxiously waiting to listen to me speak in French for 25 minutes!  Try not to fall asleep!

Just to give you some idea of what I’m talking about, I preached from Colossians 2:1-10, focusing mostly on verses 6-10.  The basic idea was that Paul instructed us to walk in Christ in the same manner in which we received Christ.  He then goes on to warn of those who would add unnecessary things to the Christian life, such as religious traditions, laws, and human philosophies.  So, just as we were saved by faith, in grace, in receiving the life of Christ, so we are to walk in faith, by grace, fully dependent on the life of Christ which dwells in us.  Because, as Paul points out, we are complete in Him.  We need not search elsewhere for finding out how to live the Christian life.

There were many of you who were praying for my first sermon in French, which I preached on Sunday night. It actually went much better than I thought it would. Sections that were tripping me up in practicing (yes, because it was in a different language I did “practice.” Sounds weird, but it helped!) didn’t seem to be difficult at all once I was in the flow of the message. People said that it sounded very natural and easy to understand. I say all that not to brag, but to say GLORY TO GOD! All of the praise goes only to Him, because without His direct enabling I would be entirely incapable of preaching or learning a second language.

I had intended to record it on video to put on the blog, but unfortunately I miscalculated the remaining battery life in the video camera and it shut off right after the singing and announcements.  Oops!  Fortunately, they recorded it through the church’s sound system and I should be able to at least put the audio up in a few days once I receive it.  Not that I expect non-French speakers to listen to the entire message, but I figured that maybe you’d like to at least hear what it sounded like.  By the way, have you ever heard yourself speak on a recording?  It’s really bizarre, right?  It’s even more strange in a foreign language!

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!

Today I had my last tutoring session with Suzanne until September, and tomorrow Tiffany will have her last one.  Suzanne takes off the months of July and August for a summer vacation, so for the next couple months it will just be Tiffany, me, and a pile of French textbooks as we work through some of the finer points of French.  While we plan to take advantage of the nice weather, we certainly don’t look at this time as a break from French.

Lately it seems that we have had more opportunities than normal to speak French in very relaxed situations with various friends.  This is one of the most useful ways to “study” for us right now because we are able to put into practice what we have been learning.  It is very encouraging as we are both beginning to form longer and more complex sentances.

We are looking forward to having my parents with us in a few weeks.  They will be here for one week, then a few weeks after they leave my cousin and his wife will be visiting for five days from Australia.

I have been notified by several people that I am ready to preach in French.  I was previously unaware of this, so I’m really glad that they have let me know!  I have a message ready, and the date is set for July 20th.  It should be…hmm…what’s the right word for it…interesting.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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

The month of May marked one year since our arrival in Quebec. It seriously seems like it has only been a few months. We praise God for the progress that He has allowed us to make in our French and we trust that these last five months will be even more productive as we attempt to learn more of the advanced aspects of the language.

Since Malerie left, Tiffany has been doing school with Joshua and he is doing extremely well. He looks forward to school each day and sometimes asks if he can keep working after they are finished. He is at the point now where he is putting letters together and starting to read words and simple sentences. Like every parent, we are so thankful for him and we’re amazed at how quickly he is growing up.

Not a day goes by that we don’t think about how close we are to arriving in Togo. We ask that you would continually pray for the Lord’s direction and wisdom as we make all of the necessary preparations.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support!

You may have noticed a scarcity of blog posts recently.  I was thinking about making up some great story (excuse) such as the dog ate our computer or something, but I couldn’t come up with anything original or believable, so I guess that the truth will have to suffice.  The fact is that we’ve been very busy lately, but it has definitely been a good kind of busy.  We’ve been meeting a lot with Quebecois friends, which means that we’ve been speaking French a lot and often.  This is extremely helpful for us right now since we already have a good foundation of “book learning,” but not as much experience in putting it to use.

One man in particular, Pierre, has been a huge blessing to us.  He is retired and single, so he has chosen to dedicate a large portion of his time to be a conversation partner with missionaries who are learning French, free of charge.  It really is difficult to explain how much this helps us out.  At times, it is difficult to find people who have enough time and patience to sit around and listen to somebody talk to them on a 3rd grade level!  Just last night, he invited us and the Huffs over to his house for dinner.  He went all out and fed us like kings: huge steaks, fresh veggies, French bread, and cake for dessert.  After waddling out of his house last night, I couldn’t help but thank God for his willingness to help missionaries learn his language.

In the coming weeks, we do plan on posting more frequently in order to keep you up to date with what’s going on.  I also plan to do a series of posts which will focus on the Bible passage in John 15 regarding our abiding in Christ.

So, if you have not yet subscribed to our blog so you’ll automatically get these updates, go ahead and do so now; either by email or by RSS feed.

It’s amazing to think that we have been living in Quebec now for almost one year.  We have been thinking a lot lately about our first few months here and the amazing ways that we say God work in our lives.  Here’s a brief summary:

May 6th, 2007 - last meeting of deputation, Pasco, WA ~ May 7th - La Grande, OR…journey begins ~ May 8th - weird van noise, overloaded back end, prayer ~ May 9th - really weird van noises, squealing, grinding, more prayer ~ May 10th - arrive in Quebec, 2,851 miles in 4 days, decided never to do that again…no apartment reserved, no furniture, no French, no plan, no idea…more prayer…stay with missionaries we’ve never met, poor missionaries ~ May 11th - meet another missionary we’ve never met, gives up his whole day to drive us around and translate…thanking God…appointment to see the only available 3 bedroom apartment in all of Quebec City…nice, good price, 5 minutes from the university, no bugs or crazy neighbors…we’ll take it…thanking God again ~ May 12th - thrift store marathon, no translator, lots of hand motions…and prayer…not finding furniture…receive random phone call from unknown furniture-collecting lady, offers furniture, next thrift store, receive call from furniture-collecting lady’s friend, offers more furniture…thanking God ~ May 13th - Sunday, church…what are they saying? ~ May 14th - classes start at university…what are they saying?  more prayer ~ May 15th - morning classes, more random calls from more unknown furniture-collecting people ~ May 16th - classes, still no idea what they’re saying, is this even French? …moved into apartment, slept on floor…thanking God ~ May 17th - classes, feeling very lost…prayer…another call from furniture donator, this is borderline weird, wondering where they get our number, only explanation is God…thanking God ~ May 20th - fully furnished apartment, everything free…speechless ~ May 9th, 2008 - Jesse still trying to regain sanity from 2,851 miles in 4 days, Tiffany doesn’t believe it will happen

Without going into every little detail, all we can say is that what God did was nothing short of a miracle.  Since then we’ve seen God work in so many other ways, but mostly in giving us the ability to speak and understand French…finally.  I know that we’re not fluent, but just to be able to carry on basic conversations is light years ahead of where we were a year ago.

We really appreciate all of you who have prayed for us in the past year, but please don’t stop.  Many people have told us that our last several month in language training will be the most important because we are now at the level where we can make the most rapid progress.  And as we look ahead to January of next year, we see the next big obstacle of getting to Togo.  We really have no idea yet how it’s all going to work out…we just know that it will.  It might not all happen exactly as we plan, but it will happen as God has planned, and we just want Him to get all the glory for everything, good or bad, in our lives.

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

The theme in April for our family would definitely have to be “transition.” At the end of the month, I finished my last semester of French studies at Laval University and immediately jumped into a five week French theological course with Tiffany’s tutor. So far, this has been extremely helpful and useful as I am learning the proper French vocabulary and grammar for things like: how to pray, how to preach, how to share the gospel, how to share my testimony, and many other things. At times, it is easy to get impatient in wanting to reach that eventual goal of fluency, but the main thing that we must focus on each day is progress. We can see how God has greatly blessed us by giving us the capacity to make progress each day, little by little. Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our language studies.

Around the same time Malerie, our nanny for the past year, left to go back home for the summer before heading to college this Fall. This was, and still is, a huge adjustment for all three of us. When you are used to having an extra set of hands around the house and suddenly they are gone, it is easy to see how much they are missed! Malerie was truly a blessing to our family and she has become our dear friend. Please pray for her as God directs her life in His will.

As we get closer to the end of our time here in Quebec, our attention is being drawn more and more to all that will be necessary in order to reach Togo by early next year. Many years ago my thinking was that getting to the field was a quick, easy, and cheap process for missionaries which simply involved getting some shots, buying a plane ticket, and going. Boy was I ever wrong! What we’ve realize is that this project is beyond us and our means. We are confident that God, just as He always has, will provide the necessary funds and resources. In fact, we know that He will likely use many of you in helping us to get there. We will be keeping you up to date in the coming months regarding our progress. We just ask that you would continue to pray with us to the God who provides all that we are and all that we have.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

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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!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been here in Quebec for almost a year now!  In another week, I will be finished with my classes at the university and will not continue studying there because of the rise in tuition rates. What is really great though is that Tiffany’s tutor, Suzanne, is offering a French theological course starting the very next Monday, on the 28th.  This should be a great opportunity to learn many of the biblical, theological, and ministry related terminology in French.  It will last for five weeks and there will be two other missionaries taking the course with me.

I’m really excited about this, as we will be learning many vital communication skills like learning how to pray in French, how to deliver a message, how to share the gospel with some one, and many other things.  Please be praying for me during the month of May that I can learn as much as possible and retain it! That seems to be the hard part for me; I seem to catch on to things very quickly, but retaining the knowledge in long-term memory is sometimes a challenge.