New Media Ministry!

Posted on by Togo South Team

The Team is starting a new Christian media ministry! The goal is to open avenues of evangelism and discipleship using audio and visual resources. A studio been built and is in the process of being outfitted. Several Togolese are working alongside the ministry, already recording the Ewe Old Testament as the first project!

There’s still a need to fund the remainder of the studio outfitting. $35,000 will enable the work to get well underway.

An anonymous donor has offered to match up to $17,500 of any gifts that come in before March 31st. If you’re interested in helping us reach our goal, click here to give!

Contact us below for more information!

Have you met Prosper?

Posted on by Togo South Team

Early Sunday morning, we drove to a small church on top of the mountain. The ABWE leadership is visiting Togo. The vice president, Dave Woodard, is preaching this morning at a mountain church behind Hôpital Baptiste Biblique. He speaks on having a relationship with Jesus. To help illustrate his sermon, he points to a young boy sitting in the front row.

“I don’t know this boy or his name. So, how can I be his friend?” Dave then extends his hand in greeting and asks what the boy’s name is.

The boy replies, “My name is Prosper.”

Dave explains, “I now know Prosper’s name. However, I still don’t really know him. Likewise, many people have heard of the name of Jesus. But they don’t know Him.”

Dave takes a seat next to Prosper. “Now, if I spent some time with Prosper and talked with him, then we could say we are friends.”

Dave goes on to explain that if we want to grow in our relationship with Christ, we need to spend time with Him. To be a follower of God you don’t want to keep your relationship with God a secret. You want to tell others! “If I’m good friends with Prosper, I want to tell others about Prosper!”

Dave walks to the next pew where a young girl was sitting. “Hi, would you like to meet my friend Prosper?”

The girl smiles big as she wiggles in her seat and nods her head.

Dave finishes by saying, “We need to be actively telling others about Jesus and what he did for us on the cross.”

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-Shared by Liz Ortiz

PET carts

Posted on by Togo South Team

One day this spring, while walking through our Women’s Ward, I noticed a woman who was paralyzed from the waist down and had been admitted to the hospital for a simple infection. Her hands were calloused with thick leathery skin and she explained to me that she cares for her family and her home by scooting across the room with her hands. She had an active child playing by her bedside and I couldn’t begin to imagine how she was able to run a home and keep up with a toddler all with limited mobility. We talked some more and arranged for a follow-up visit at the hospital a few weeks later for a potential solution to her problem of mobility.

Several years ago a missionary family became interested in “Personal Energy Transportation” carts or simply “PET Carts,” which are hand-cranked transportation devices for the disabled. Items like traditional wheelchairs and crutches are difficult to use in areas without paved roads or level terrain, so often the disabled are home-bound and isolated from society.

Thanks to these missionaries’ interest, and some generous donors, our hospital received a large shipment of PET carts just a few weeks before this woman’s hospital visit! I quickly recruited a volunteer PET cart team to assemble the device and then we waited for the woman’s follow-up visit.

When the day came, the woman was dressed in her best clothes and smiling ear to ear in anticipation. We began by explaining all the features of the cart followed by a personal demonstration by yours truly. Next, we helped her onto the cart and watched as she quickly learned to pedal, steer, and brake by herself. After reviewing the safety features once more, she was ready to return to her town as a newly independent, and mobile, member of society.

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Honoré Afolabi received one of the PET carts for a gentleman in his Lomé neighborhood.  The man agreed to do a short Bible study with Honoré and he also accepted a French Bible.  Honoré was able to walk him through The Story of Hope study. Without being told to, the man decided to take notes and write down the verses to read them again at home.

By the grace of God, on the afternoon of Monday, June 26th, he accepted Christ as his personal savior! We give God the glory for his saving grace. Please pray for him as he expressed the desire to continue the Bible study.

I love camp!

Posted on by Togo South Team
Of all the amazing aspects of Bible Camp in Togo this year, such as:
~Being reunited with staff from the early years of camp;
~Meeting new staff who are the children of our older workers;
~Seeing the son of our first director participating in the ministry;
~Watching dozens of kids singing, playing great games, listening to the Word of God;
~Admiring the creativity of those who planned out this year’s camp;
~Witnessing everything working smoothly over six days with two large groups of kids and teens;
~Enjoying the demonstration of how to make sugar cookies, including baking them in a wooden cabinet with a charcoal grill inside it;
~Videoing my little friend Sharon practicing sharing the Wordless Book story with a friend . . .

 

It is THIS moment that rises to the top:

I had gone to camp to observe and greet friends, pray, and take photos and video clips. I spent the night in a small apartment on the grounds. At six thirty the next morning, I was preparing to go outside to think and pray and take photos as I do almost daily. As I approached the door to go out, I heard low voices right outside on the step. I carefully peered out the window, and I saw a counselor, Bible in hand, alongside a camper. She was asking the camper if she had ever asked Jesus to be her Savior. I heard another pair of quiet voices out the other window. Another counselor and camper, talking about the Gospel. Moses came to mind as God spoke to him from the burning bush, and I literally thought, “Surely this is holy ground. I should take my shoes off!” I was so moved as I stood in that sacred spot, hearing the Gospel being shared with two campers.

Thank the Lord for HIS work here in Togo, and for resurrecting the camp ministry from the still-burning embers of earlier days!  I love camp!

-Shared by Judy Bowen
Visit Judy’s website: Tell of His Wonders

ALMA & Evangelism

Posted on by Togo South Team

This weekend ALMA (our HIV/AIDS ministry) sponsored an evangelistic campaign in Tsiko’s public square with the ABWE Tsiko church.

12974317_10153456334410906_2350662650210948116_nOn Friday night we held a service with the church band, 2 choirs, and a dynamic evangelist. There were several decisions to become Christ followers.

On Saturday morning we prepared to head out two by two to do door to door visits. We shared the Gospel and gave invitations to church on Sunday. We were able to tell many people about Christ and the church’s role in the face of the HIV/AIDS crisis, prevention, education. We praise God that several folks from Tsiko village became Christ followers and a few were in church on Sunday to declare what God has done in their lives!

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We are so humbled and blessed to have had this part in advancing His kingdom and plan to do this every 3 months, as well as speaking in churches, and developing the Center for counseling, education, testing, treatment and fellowship/support groups.

Thanks for your prayers and support for this ministry!

Story shared by Brenda Mastin

So thankful for new literature!

Posted on by Togo South Team

Pictured here is our CRC and Print Shop staff, amidst the many boxes of hymnals, French New Testaments, and French Gospel tracts that arrived a few days ago by sea container! We are all so thankful to you who provided $8,600 to pay for the 10,000 New Testaments and 450,000 tracts!! May the Lord bless you always for your prayers for our print/distribution ministry, and for your giving to help us keep going! Many thanks to the folks in Michigan who helped prepare all of these cartons (688) for shipping.

Shared by Judy Bowen.

Source: So thankful for new literature!

Spirit Worship is still popular in Togo

Posted on by Togo South Team

Having served in Togo in the past, I was taken by surprise to see how animistic/fetish worship is still very common and popular even 15 years later.

Agbeko and I went to meet 2 visually impaired people in Mission Tové area to invite them to the Village of Light. One is a little girl and the other a young man. On the dirt road on the way to our destination, we saw village idols placed to protect the different families or villages.

YaoYao is a young man that went blind over a year ago at 16 years of age. He has been living shut up in a room in isolation due to his blindness.  We weren’t sure why, but wondered if it was a shameful thing for the family that he became blind. Continue reading Spirit Worship is still popular in Togo

VBS

Posted on by Togo South Team

“I blow bubbles and make funny faces.  Basically, I’m a clown.  The Togolese believers do the real work.” Often this is how we missionaries feel doing ministry in Togo!  Our white faces draw the crowd.  We can provide the funding, expertise, training to Togolese believers who in turn get to reach into the hearts of the people with the Gospel!

Recently, the Buczak family was able to host a VBS in a Kabiyé village near Hôpital Baptiste Biblique. Continue reading VBS