This project is designed to help send needed supplies and materials to churches in West Africa. Individuals and churches in the US would fill 55 gallon barrels with needed items and then those barrels would be shipped to Togo or other countries in West Africa. We currently have a contact from Togo in Davenport, Iowa who can help us ship the barrels for $150 per barrel. If we were going to ship them from South Dakota, it would cost about $600 per barrel. We are currently working with the Evangelical Mission for the Restoration of the Nations churches in Togo and hope that some of these items will also be able to be used for evangelism in villages and communities in the region of West Africa. This would help attract people from the surrounding areas and they could hear the gospel while getting some of their basic needs met at the same time.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we had the opportunity to transport 14 barrels down to the Quad Cities on the Iowa and Illinois border where they were picked up and then loaded on a container ship to head across the ocean to Togo.
The shipment should take about 6-8 weeks to reach Togo where it will be unloaded and the people in Togo will be contacted to come and pick up the barrels. We are hoping to be able to get updates on the location of the barrels during their journey and will update this post when we know more information. Our contact in the Quad Cities who helped line up the shipping of the barrels is Christian and his family. Christian is the brother of Roger who is the pastor we have been working with in Kpalime.
We would like to thank everyone for partnering with us on this project, without your support and partnership this project would not have been the success it was. We would like to thank everyone for their donations of barrels and items to fill the barrels as well as money to help with the shipping costs. We would also like to thank Iverson’s Body Shop for the use of their pick-up and trailer for transporting the barrels as well as Christian Abaya and his family for helping us line up the shipping details from Illinois. May God richly bless everyone for their part in the Barrels of Blessing project.
Praise God the Barrels have finally made the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean and are now in Togo. Even though we initially only planned to send 4 or 5 barrels we learned that God often has bigger plans and were so excited to be able to send 14 barrels, one barrel to the West African Advanced School of Theology (WAAST) and 13 to the Evangelical Mission for the Restoration of the Nations churches in Togo. They currently have branches in Kpalime, Kara, Lome, and Zozokondji. Some of the items shipped include clothing, medical supplies, office supplies, school supplies, baby formula, kitchen/cooking supplies, a generator, computers, printer, projector, tools, and electronic equipment and supplies. The first person contacted to pick up their barrel was Mary Ballenger at WAAST but when she went to pick it up she couldn’t find the person she had spoken with. She emailed us and we were able to get in contact with Mr. Gaba, the owner of the shipping company in Illinois, and he had the problem solved within about 30 minutes and Mary was able to get her barrel. We worked with Roger to secure a truck to transport the other 13 barrels north to Kpalime but when he went to pick the barrels up the truck driver was not working due to the Muslim Holy Feast. Roger quickly found that all the other truck drivers were not working that weekend either. He finally found someone that would transport the barrels but he was going to charge twice as much as the other truck which was not an option. We all started praying and within about 20 minutes God provided a truck through the shipping guy in Lome and they were able to get the barrels to Kpalime. Here are some pictures from that process.
Unfortunately we lost communication with Roger and his wife Happy as well as Mary for the next 8 days due to protests against the government in the country of Togo. The governments response to the protests was to turn off all cell phone and internet service across the country. Once we regained contact we found that they had started sorting the items sent as well as distributing certain items marked for people that we had met while there. These people included Roger and Happy’s kids, George and Onias (the boys that Gabe and Alex help sponsor each month) and the Queen that Michele worked with while in Kpalime. Here are some pictures of them sorting as well as some pictures of the people receiving their gifts.
After they finished sorting the barrels, Roger brought together all the pastors and elders from all the branches so they could collectively decide how to distribute the contents of the barrels. They decided to split the contents up based on need and did so together before transporting the barrels to all the branches. Here are some pictures from that process.
They will now distribute the contents of the barrels to the people of the churches as well as use the contents for evangelism in that region. They are so excited and thankful for all the wonderful things that were sent to them. All of these things will make a huge difference in this region and will help meet the basic needs for many people We are so thankful for all of you who partnered with us to make this project possible. We appreciate all your prayers and donations. It is truly a team effort from people all over this country and world that makes something like this so successful. May God richly bless you all. Here is a short video that was sent to us from Togo talking about the barrels and thanking everyone that took part in this project.