Here is a brief summary of the mission....
The trip began at noon on Tuesday, May 11. We drove to the Tulsa airport for the first leg of our aerial journey, and flew to Detroit. We then flew to New York, and took the seven-hour flight across the Atlantic. We arrived in Casablanca, Morocco the next morning, where we had a six-hour layover. In that time, we visited the Blue Mosque, the third largest Mosque in the world, built in the 1980s. It was an amazing example of architecture, and a rather sad testament to the fact that so much talent is being put forth on something that is not the true way to eternal life. Also while we were in Casablanca we saw the ORU Business team, which spent the month helping a covert missionary under the guise of working with his business. We were able to meet with that contact for a short period and encourage him.
We then took a five-hour flight across the Sahara in the dark to Lome, Togo. Stepping off the plane was rather like stepping into a sauna; it was one in the morning local time, and still felt like it was eighty degrees and was definitely very humid. Our contact, "Papa" Nadjombe, picked us up and took us to his house, where we spent the remainder of the first night. The next day, we drove to the town of Atakpame, where the first pastor's conference was scheduled. The conference was a two-day affair, most of the segments being taught by an ORU faculty member who had come with us for the conferences. Our team also taught segments about children's ministry, a field that is not usually emphasized in West Africa. We explained the importance of such ministry, and gave strategies for effectively reaching, engaging, and teaching children. My contribution was a short lesson encouraging the pastors by reminding them about loving our enemies and forgiving those that persecute us.
The day following the first conference was Sunday, and our team split up into different groups to speak and lead children's ministry at several different churches. I went with another team member and had the opportunity to preach while she did kids ministry outside. That afternoon, the team traveled to Kara, which is about two-thirds of the way to the northern border. That Monday and Tuesday we did the second conference there, which was basically the same as the first for a different group of ministers. We traveled back to Atakpame, driving through the village of Bassar. There I saw the church David Wakefield (the grandfather of one of my team members) built in the 1950s. He was one of the first missionaries to the northern regions of Togo.
In Atakpame we rested for a day, then drove west into the mountains to the village of Aka. This was to be our base for the next few days, while we drove to villages scattered in the mountains to do evangelism crusades. The first was in a village that had no church of any sort and, to my knowledge, had never been preached in. After playing with the village children for a few hours, We set up a projector and sound system, and showed a video in French about God's power, which was then translated into the local language. After the video, our contact Nadjombe gave a message and encouraged the people to receive Jesus as lord. Roughly a dozen people responded to receive Christ and follow Him.
The next day was Sunday again, so the team split to minister in the village we had done the crusade in and one other. I was at the other, and helped with kids ministry. This was the first time that I have ever been surrounded with a hundred kids which we had no translator to communicate with. We ended up playing a series of games with them, then attempting to tell the creation story, ending up with the guy helping us telling the creation story himself …plus the birth of Jesus. The next day we fasted and prayed for the mission until dinnertime, and after dinner put on a crusade in the village we were staying at, where several dozen of the villagers accepted Christ.
I want to give a quick explanation about the format of the crusades, and what happens afterwards. Nadjombe is the head of AELVNA, the Lay Evangelism Association for Unreached Villages (the French translation of these terms is how the letters are arranged). He works with dozens of evangelists to plant churches and dig water wells in villages throughout Togo. He will visit several villages in an area and give salvation messages, and if there is not one already plant a church. Wherever a church is planted, one of the evangelists from AELVNA will live in that village for up to three months to train and teach the villagers about living as Christians and help organize the church.
On Tuesday, May 24 we drove out of the mountains to Kougnohou, which was our base for the next week. Over the course of our stay, we visited the site of one of the chapels being built and continued to evangelize in mountain villages. It was the night of the twenty-eighth, our second night evangelizing in a village the name of which escapes me, when a small, skinny old man came forward to be filled with the Holy Spirit. As it turns out, he was the village sorcerer, and had accepted Christ the first night but wanted prayer to be filled with the power of God instead of that of Satan. He gave up his idol, and we prayed for him. Afterwards he was telling the other villagers about the peace that he felt now. We came back Sunday morning, and burned his idol. We then hiked with all the villagers who had come to church that morning about a mile into the bush to the local river, where we baptized the former sorcerer and thirty other villagers. Our contact told us that this had not happened in five years.
That Monday we visited a waterfall near Badou, which was absolutely picturesque. To reach the waterfall we hiked about a mile and a half through beautiful bush and across a small creek. We then drove back to Lome, and spent a few days debriefing about the trip and our experiences. The last Sunday we visited a church that the ORU team last year started. I helped with the kids ministry while some of the other guys preached. At six in the morning on Monday June 7 we flew out of Lome on our trip back to America and ended up in Time Square, New York City on a 12 hour layover. This was quite a culture shock coming from the bush of bush to one of the biggest cities in the U.S. It was my first time to see New York and we had a short good time looking around for a while. When then made our was back to Tulsa to debrief with the rest of the 1 month teams.
Thanks to all who supported me with prayers and financially during this time. With your help many lives were changed in some of the most remote places on earth. Thank you for your help in reaching these people and providing for them. Through your help we were able to give these people some form of hope for their lives now and in the future.
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