To Go!

Bea twice a week teaches the fifth and 6th grade a half hour of English. She was using volunteers to show a family which the kids though was hilarious!

La Lumiere which mean the Light in French. This is so fitting!A school, a moto, and the Togolese Flag. This pretty much sums it all up!

Aren't they beautiful?

Beautiful little Abigail in 1st grade. She came running up to me immediately when I came and loved to be hugged. Oh the crazy kindergarten kids! You can tell they have a lot of personality.

I was attempting to speak to the first grade teacher with my French but eventually needed help with the translation. Soon I will be fluent, I hope!

The first grade teacher was teaching Bible to her 40 students. They stayed pretty engaged throughout the lesson.

This shows you most of the class with me in the far left corner. They love to have their picture taken!

If you put these two small words together, it spells a fantastic place that has recently become near to my heart. I hope you can guess it by now.... TOGO! Yes, this past week, I have been privileged to travel to Togo by trotro(never a dull moment!) to explore the endless possibilities to be a help there next year. Once leaving Accra, and seeing the untainted beauty of Ghana and Togo, I am always reminded that I was not meant to live in a city all of my life. The green exotic foliage and jagged mountains seem to stretch on forever bringing hope and new life around every dangerous and bumpy corner. After waiting for a trotro to fill up for two hours, the rest of the trip went by fast to Ho which is still in Ghana but close to the border. I spent sometime with some other missionaries and then made my way to Kpalime with another misisonary. One thing I am realizing here, you just get use to meeting so many different people all the time and sharing your whole life story even if you will never see them again. I love that you can just be honest with people as we all share the same passion of giving the Gospel to the nations.

Once in Kpalime(silent K) we stayed with a missionary who does many outreaches in the village and who takes care of three Togolese children. They immediately latched onto me and we enjoyed the afternoon playing and conversing in the little French that I can use. However, when playing with kids, the same language is not necessary as smiles, laughter, and tickling is a universal language! I did enjoy the moments when they totally understood what I said and vice versa in French. Lightbulb!

On Wednesday, I visited one of the 14 Christian schools associated with the Baptist churches. I had to endure 40 minutes of the students reading the same passage on the board over and over again. The teacher insisted that they must work on pronunciation but this does no good if they don't understand what they are reading plus they are only 7 so as I know, their attention span is small. These are some of the small areas in which I hope to help the teachers in as they are just copying how they grew up but we want them to understand that there are better ways to ensure the students' learning. However, it is small when you have 40 students in the room to do this and every space is filled with a desk, but I am praying that I can find a manageable way to ensure everyone's learning need. Oh the needs are plenty and I feel so inadequate to discover all the answers but I am willing and I know the Lord will provide.

Wednesday night helped me realize the importance of prayer and to not take for granite the chance we have to pray openly. I spent the night at another misisonaries house where she had Togolese company staying for the night. We were talking for awhile until the man said, "Prions" or Let's Pray! He prayed for many things including me and my transition to Togo next year. It was such a blessing and wake-up call that prayer is esential as we must deliver Thanks to our Father in Heaven. Everytime we got into the car, we prayed as travel here is a miracle with the potholes, livestock, and motos.

On Thursday and Friday, I spent more time in the schools. I most enjoyed a first grade room as she was energetic and tried to keep the kids engaged. However, this is a challenge when you have 40 6 year olds and nowhere to go but the small wooden bench but they did well. She proved to have more challenges than this as she had a 4 year old in the class and one precious girl who is autistic and always up to something. I long to work with this class and help find ways to keep everyone active and learning. She did a good job going around to check on the students' work but she had to spend so much time with two in particular that the others proved to be restless. I enjoyed giving her praise in the French I could muster to speak but I got to the point where I needed a translator to express my encouragement. Oh, it would be so much easier if I was fluent in French, but I know this will come if I keep working on it.

Thursday night was a very productive night as we met the the Togolese church leaders to discuss a CEG(middle school) for next year. There is a lot to determine for this project to happen but we are excited for the children to continue their education in a Christian school environment. During this time, I definitely got to work on my French as I had to concentrate to pick up on the gist of the conversation but it was good practice. Bea(missionary) feels really convicted to provide afterschool programs for the students, especially for the girls so they do not become pregnant as a prey to older men. I am in charge of this project which I am excited about. Thank goodness for the years I spent trying a new craft every week! I am also thankful for Nanette who taught me how to crochet and knit after Sunday School. I am more convinced than ever that it is important to remember what you were taught at an early age as it will come back to haunt you later on! This just shows that the Lord equips us early on for His glory in ways that we can't even imagine! Anyways, I will be teaching the girls different skills so they have something to look forward to or make money from instead of thinking their only answer is pregnancy. Yes, I am knee deep in projects already but the Lord will provide as always!

My trip home was not too eventful but I guess more so than in the states. In the first trotro, I found myself in an old station wagon sitting in the middle front seat. Ah, this reminded me of the days going to Pennsylvania with all 6 of us crammed in a car and me sitting up front center. However, the scene was a little different as I was surrounded by Ghanaians, we bumped along red clay roads, and I was surrounded by luscious green foliage and palm trees. Oh the memories! The next trotro but even more cozier as I was crammed between two larger woman and a child for 4 hours. Talk about fun! We all survived and I made it home within 6 hours of leaving the house where I stayed in Togo. Going home actually proved another exciting change as they are tearing up our road to put in new gutters. So imagine a dirt road covered with piles upon piles of gravel and dirt along with broken up cement from the old gutter. Than imagine a huge gaping hole between the road and your house and looking down in a muddy pit. Yep, home sweet home. I had to laugh as I walked the gang plank to my gate since we call our house the Palace and now how fitting as I had to walk the drawbridge across the moat. Oh blessed Ghana, never a dull moment!

I guess the real question is are you actually moving to Togo? The answer at this point is yes! I feel that the Lord is making it possible for me to work with the Togolese people to provide Christian education for the students and to disciple the teachers. I feel so inadequate and overwhelemed but the Lord will provide!

Happy Sunday