2018 Togo Trip

At the end of July Michele and Jeff had the opportunity to travel back to Togo again.  Unfortunately, Gabe and Alex were not able to go this year as they had other commitments during the summer.  We thank God for a wonderful trip and safety while we were traveling abroad.  During the trip we focused on working with the Evangelical Mission for the Restoration of the Nations (MERNA) Church in Kpalime and then spent 3 days at the end of our trip at the West African Advanced School of Theology (WAAST).

During this trip we ministered at the church in Kpalime a couple of times and took part in some economic development activities for the people in the church.  They were learning how to raise snails and make products from Soju beans.  We also visited villages to look at land and pray over different places where the church is considering planting new churches in the near future.  That was a great time as we gained a better sense of the needs in those villages as well as a really good picture of how God is leading the church to expand.  The church in Kpalime is really working to be the church for the people and has been able to purchase a small farm that they use to help provide food for people that need it in the church as well as secure funds to help with financial needs in the church through raising cash crops.  They also have started the process of opening a small clinic that will be used to help meet medical needs of the people in that area and the church.  It was great to be able to tour these facilities and see how God is using the church to meet the needs of the people in that region.  One of the highlights of our trip was celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary while in Togo.  We celebrated by buying 210 trees for the church and then went to the farm and helped them plant the trees the next day.  It was an awesome experience as we had to walk a mile back through the bush to get to the church’s farm property.   We also spent a day at the Queen’s village again and Michele had the opportunity to speak to the women and learn more about the needs they have.  This was a great time and will help open more doors in that village in the future.  We are praying that God provides for a church to be planted in that village.  The final thing we did while in Kpalime was to host a pastor’s retreat for all of the MERNA Church pastors and their wives.  It was a great time of fellowship and growth for everyone.  Our message was “A Fresh Anointing for a New Season” and talked about the domino affect that we all have on the people around us.  The second day Michele spoke to the pastor’s wives about hospitality and their role in leadership while Jeff met with the pastor’s to talk more about leadership and worked through some short and long range strategic planning for the church.  We also were able to present the pastor’s with gifts and spoil them some while they were there with us.  After this, we traveled back to Lome and stayed at WAAST.  We helped them organize and inventory a large shipment of books from the United States that will service classes and students for the next three years.  It was great to be able to help them in this way and we met a lot of great people while we were there.  Below are some pictures from our trip.