I am no longer in Togo, but I definitely miss the people that I shared my time with there. They taught me so much like being completely selfless, setting an example of worshipping God withholding nothing, to have joy in the midst of struggle, and so much more like bits of French and Ewe (their native language).
The disconnect I had in the last two weeks of last month in Togo, set me behind on posting these blogs. Also, if I hadn’t had that disconnect I probably wouldn’t have had the inspiration for each of the blogs that came after.
I am so grateful that I took that time to lean into God and what He had for me last month by making intentional decisions like spending more time with the people that served us and some in the community. They are beautiful people and they made it so hard for me to leave.
With their consent, I decided to share a few things about each of them with you. So, without further a due, let me introduce some Togolese to you.
Pastor Zank (Our Host):
He is 35 years old and has accomplished so much to further the kingdom and is still doing his best to continue expanding what God has given him to steward. He has been a pastor for 18 years, starting at the age of 17. Two years after becoming a pastor he found an organization that is called Latter Glory Minitries, which is purposed to train leaders and pastors to go evangelize. Just four years after starting the ministry, he then founded what is known as The Bible Insititute, where they have trained around 1,200 pastors and leaders, that have branched of in to every village. He started an orphanage eight years ago that now has 35 children within an hour radius. They don’t yet have a building to have a central location, but He is praying that it all comes together soon. His ministry dishes out $600/year for the childrens school fees and $40/month for them to eat. In their currency that is 362,987 Francs/year and 24,199 Francs/month. He has a heart of compassion to serve. It costs them for us to be there last month, but he wanted to serve us some much that he forked the extra costs. He is a man on a mission, part of his mission at the moment is also to get a church building to fit more members. His church is always full each Sunday, people stood to allow us to sit while we were there. His church consist of four short walls and fabric as a roof. They have raised $5,000 so far, but need another $20k to get a building larger enough built. Please pray for provision and if you happen to be interested in helping him, please reach out to me so I can connect you.
P.S. He just had to have a World Race shirt =D
Pastor Mike:
Since the age of 18 he has been a pastor and is now 28 years old. He keeps busy outside of that also. He has been teaching at the Bible Insititute for the past six years and running a business, selling secondhand items from the U.S. and Europe. If anyone is willing to sell him used cars from wither country, he is highly interested, feel free to reach out if you are so I can connect you. One thing I admired most about Pastor Mike was his zeal for the Lord and his fire. He is always set ablaze in the spirit and loves to evangelize and teach others how to share the goodness of God.
Elyane:
She is such a beautiful soul and one of the most selfless loving people I have met. She always did her best to teach me a new word each day, but I would be lying if I said I remebered them all and I know for a fact that I can’t spell them. Her effort was amazing though and me messing up each word brought forth so many laughs. She is 37 and the mother of a 14-year-old daughter and two 10-year-old twin boys. They are beautiful, smart, well-behaved children. In addition to being a mom, she also runs a clothing business and has been a Deacon/administrator for pastor Zank’s church for the past four years.
Mimi:
Both her and Elyane put so much on hold to serve us. They washed all of our clothes and wouldn’t allow us to along with aiding our chef with preparing meals. Not a day went by that Mimi didn’t say my (Weesha in her accent) at least 7-10 times, just because 🙂 *tears* She is a beautiful women of God and she reflects His love so well. She is so patient and kind, which shows so much especially as she ministers in the children’s program at the church. She is 34 andhas been the sunday school teacher for the past five years now. Mimi is the mother of 3 and a half children of her own also, one boy (18), two girls (15 & 6), and one on the way, she is now 7 months pregnant. Her and her husband won’t know the gender of the baby until it has arrived unless the doctor demands them to find out. Her dream is to travel as an evangelist.
Albert:
Just love him .. A. he has the same name as my favorite grandfather B. he fed me, like duh, I love food but C. he is so sweet and has a heart full of passion for creativity and serving people. He has been a cook for the past seven years and hopes to have his own restaurant one day. I pray that he achieves that and more, because he deserves it. He is so dilgent at his work, he made us so many delicious meals and the most beautiful salads i’ve seen. Besides his passion for cooking, he also is passionate about sharing the gospel and evangelizing to those around him. That is their version of a stove by the way, a skillet on top of coals.
Rudoph Zank:
He is Pastor Zank’s nephew and is soon to turn 25. He is currently a Senior in University studying Marketing Management. He serves in the kingdom through his musical talents. He sings, plays keyboard, drums, and the base guitar. His hobbies are directly connected with how he serves in ministry and what he attends school for, which is recording songs in the studio and learning to grow in videography. He is a really cool guy and became a really good friend to many of us. He also became my neighborhood translator whenever I went out to chat with people, BIG HELP!
Those were all the people that hosted/served us last month. The put asside their businesses to serve us for the month, the women left their children with their husbands during the day only to have to go serve their families after all they did for us. They are the most selfless people I know, so full of love, joy, and compassion and I couldn’t be more grateful that I got to know them.
Below are two women I met in the community that I wanted to highlight for their kindness.
Jessica:
She is 30 years old, not yet married or with children of her own, but she has been a teacher for nine years and cares for her students so well. She also does children’s minstry at her church. She has been Catholic all her life and loves Jesus so much. She also took me in as her student for a week to teach me French. I mentioned her in a previous blog about the number ten in French … it is spelled “dix”, but pronounced “dis”. We had a very interesting and hilarious conversation about why I could not pronounce that word without her help first. Haha
Justine:
She is also 30 years old and happened to be hesitant to take a picture because she isn’t yet married. She eventually gave into my request as you can see, but she refused to smile, so sad because her smile is so beautiful. She has owned one of the neighborhood snack shops for a year now and seems to be doing pretty decent. She is posted right outside of a school, so the kids hit her up a lot. She has been saved as an Apostolic Christian for the past 14 years and stepped into her singing gift 10 years prior to today. She is a beautiful person, lovely to chat and laugh with even though the language barrier made it tough at times.
These people changed my life in so many ways. They made moving forward so tough, but I will always love them and I know I will see them in heaven. You may not have been able to experience them as I did, but they were important enough for me to share with you. Please pray for them in all they do. Thank you for reading!
