Light of Togo

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!

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

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

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

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

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

My name is Jesse

I am from America

I am learning Kabiye

I am a teacher of God’s Word

Here is a what a typical greeting dialog sounds like:

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

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

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

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!

Last week was certainly one to remember.  I believe it (the pastors’ conference) was a great help to the Togolese pastors as they were able to see every one of their “sister churches” in Togo, get to know the other pastors, and recieve biblical teaching on topics relevant to them.  I personally had a good time getting to know several pastors who I had never met before.  I would like to ask you to pray for them if you could.  Many, if not all of them are struggling to make ends meet, dealing with serious health problems, and trying to lead churches full of people in the same situation as they are.

I had the opportunity to speak two times during the conference.  I basically did a verse by verse study of Jean 15:1-17, dealing with the topic of abiding in Christ.  The main idea was that without a deep, trusting, abiding relationship in Christ, their ministries will only bear the fruit of their own efforts and not that of the Spirit.  The other sessions given by the other missionaries were incredibly helpful as well, and I was really challenged and encouraged by them.

Without going into too much detail about all the rest of what we did during the week, I’ll just say that we drove a total of 24 hours, many of which were spent on roads so bumby that they made my truck beg me for mercy.  In fact, it’s making a few new little noises that I’ve never heard before!  During the last two days, we were in the Dapaong area visiting some remote village churches.  It had rained really hard just a couple days earlier.

Other than my vehicle we had Jim’s, which doesn’t have 4×4.  Just in case you don’t know, remote village roads, hard rains, and no 4×4 aren’t a good combination!  Because his vehicle is larger, he also had the majority of the people (9) in it which just added to the problem.  Needless to say, he got stuck in the mud 4 times!  A couple times were pretty bad and we had to tow it out using my vehicle while everyone pushed on his.  Overall, it was a great experience.  Really!  There’s something exciting about being stuck in the mud out in a remote African village with no cell phone service.  It makes me want to buy a helicopter actually.

So, now that the conference is over and several other time-consuming things are wrapping up,  I expect to have quite a bit more “free” time.  Free time is a very relative term, isn’t it?  What I mean is that I’ll have more time to catch up on all the other stuff that’s been put aside while I was too busy.  So as always, I’ll do my best to keep you updated with anything else that’s going on.  Thanks so much for praying for the conference, and don’t forget to pray for the pastors.

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.

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.

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.

In the last post, I mentioned that I’d be preaching a couple times this week.  Thanks to all of you who were praying for this.  I really believe that God worked in a great way through both of these opportunities.  I, of course, can take zero credit for anything that God does.  He simply used His Word like He has promised to do, and He just happened to use me in the process.  It’s incredibly humbling that God would ever use somebody like me, and I give Him all the praise and glory for it.

I’ll hopefully be able to post the audio from Wednesday night’s sermon if I can get it from the sound ministry at church tomorrow.

Only 3 days to go!  We’ll be writing one last blog post before leaving Tuesday, and we’ll give you some details about the trip.

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.

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

Finally back home in Oregon, but not for long!  We safely drove 3,500 miles coast to coast (our 7th time doing so!) with no problems whatsoever.  Thank you so much to all of you who were praying for our safety during our trip.  We were able to visit some family and friends along the way, and God gave us a great time with all of them.

We are really excited to be back home, but we’re even more excited to get out of here in February!  It’s coming quick, so we know that we can’t just sit back and relax.  There’s lots of work to be done, especially in the next six weeks or so until we ship our container.  Please pray for all that needs to be done, and that we don’t forget any important details.

Please also continue to pray for the Togo Departure Fundraiser.  We have already received a few donations, and we praise God for His provision.  We have come to the point where we realize that even if we don’t receive a penny, that God will either provide in some other way, or allow us to get by without what we think we need.  In either way, we know that God is going to do what is best for us!

I’ll have some exciting opportunities to speak and preach while we’re home, so I’d also like to ask you to pray for those as well.  One of these opportunities will be speaking to a public school Bible club, and possibly even in some of the regular classes.  Please pray that God will open these doors so that He might have an opportunity to minister through me.

I know that I’ve given you a bunch of things to pray for, but right now we need and appreciate your support of us in prayer more than ever.  We realize that if we ever get to Togo, that it will not be because of our own skill or ability, but because of God alone, doing what only He can do.

Please make sure to check back often at the website where we will be updating you more frequently with everything that’s going on.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

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

A couple days ago, I briefly started looking around at airline tickets to Togo. Since we’re planning to leave around the end of January, I figured that we should probably order them pretty soon. So, after a bit of looking around I decided that it would be much cheaper to just swim. The cheapest price I was finding from Portland, OR to Lomé, Togo was around $6,500!!! That was the amount we have been expecting all along, but it still is very shocking to imagine spending that much on three plane tickets.

That very same evening, I got an unexpected call from J.J. Alderman who is one of the missionaries we will be working with.  He mentioned that it’s sometimes possible to save some money by flying into Accra, Ghana and crossing over the border into Togo.

Anything sounded better than $6,500 so I decided to take a look at tickets to Togo.  At first look, all I found were prices similar to those going to Togo.  Then I happened to stumbled across a website that serves as a travel agency for missionaries.  I did a quick search and couldn’t believe my eyes.  Surely it must be an error, I thought to myself.  It was listing a price of a little over $800 per ticket!  I thought it couldn’t be true, so I went to another travel website, did a search, and sure enough it found a similar price, but with the indication “Special Fare” next to it.  That same site also listed non-special fare tickets at over $2,000 per ticket, so I knew that this lower fare was probably just a limited-time deal from one particular airline (United).  So, going back to the missionary travel site, I saw that if you contact them directly with your desired itinerary they can sometimes find better prices.  So, that’s exactly what I did.

To make this long story just a little bit not-so-long, I’ll summarize from here:

We bought our tickets at $2,289!

We saved over $4,000!

Praise God!  Of course, we really don’t believe in coincidences and we know that it was all because of God that we found these tickets at such a good price.  We’re leaving on February 3rd, 2009 so it is now officially official!  For the past few days, we have been elated to finally have a departure date and we can’t stop talking about it!

Thanks for continuing to pray for us as we get ready for our big journey!