Let’s talk about month 3-Togo. I know I’m writing this over half way through a different country but I’ve had a hard time finding the words. Why? Well let me tell you. Togo was hard. It was definitely one of those “stretching” months I mentioned in previous blogs. It definitely was not a “bad” month; but, it was a month that pushed me outside my comfort zone.
In Togo our ministry consisted of preaching and teaching. That’s it. We went to churches all over the city of Lomé and preached multiple times a week. If you don’t know what that entails it means diving deep into God’s word and bringing truths to the surface to share. It means listening to the Holy Spirit and speaking on that. It means preaching in front of a bunch of people for an hour and hoping your translator understands what you’re trying to say. Sometimes that meant preparing a sermon in an hour because you last minute found out you had to preach. Y’all, I have a new respect for pastors everywhere. This month was easy for me to say “this isn’t where I’m gifted, this is hard, and I don’t like this”. Yes, I have preached before on the race but not this consistently. I was used to building relationships but this month we went to many churches but rarely visited the same one. What God taught me through this was how to trust the Holy Spirit. Left to myself I would have never busted out writing a sermon that was exactly what was needed and have used since then. I never would have had enough energy to persevere through the hard. I learned how to dive into the bible in a totally new way. I learned to grow in discomfort. This month wasn’t “bad” it just looked different. Our purpose was to share the gospel directly with those in front of us, which is a beautiful and wildly important responsibility.
The other part of the organization we partnered with was teaching at a bible school. Not going to lie, it took me a minute to prep my lesson. I taught at the bible school about God’s heart for justice. As I researched, God used this to teach me so much about this topic in light of the gospel. Everything I got to learn I got to share with the class. God’s heart for justice (specifically restorative justice) is incredibly important, so if you have questions I would be more than happy to chat about this. It’s a topic we don’t talk about enough and I know there are a ton of questions. I know I had plenty. I absolutely don’t have all the answers but I can tell you what I learned about God’s heart in this. As we discussed questions or comments at the end of the class a man voiced a story about a friend who was taken advantage of financially by a family member and the friend wanted to seek revenge. The friend’s bible study leader encouraged her to go to the family member to extend forgiveness. The friend didn’t understand why this was encouraged and neither did the man telling the story. He then said, “now that you have explained God’s heart for justice, I now understand why she was told to extend forgiveness and how we are called to reconcile conflict with those who harm us”. It was a beautiful moment where things came full circle for him. The other questions that were asked were brilliant and beautiful. The only thing I could speak into that space was God’s word-truth. The Holy Spirit moved and impacted lives. This day ended up being one of my favorite days in Togo.
All in all- it was hard. I looked up Greek and Hebrew words for crying out loud! It forced me to preach when I didn’t want to. It forced me to dive into the bible in a way I wasn’t used to. It forced me to be uncomfortable sharing the gospel not how I wanted to (I’m 100% relational). It forced me to trust the Holy Spirit in new ways. It forced me to see who the holy spirit is and what He is capable of doing. It forced me to teach about something I’m incredibly passionate about. I learned to say bye to some comforts and pick up trust instead.
Stretching. It’s uncomfortable and not anything you want to do, but it does grow you. I can teach freely about the things I’m passionate about and can probably preach anywhere now. Let’s be real, I’d rather not but I am thankful for the growth and for the cant’s that turned into cans.
