There is so much exciting stuff going on right now that I will not be able to put it all in one blog post. This has been an exciting term for us, and the closer we get to the end of it, the better it gets.
We have been looking forward to hosting another team from Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, NC, as they sent over seven last year and came back this year with ten. We tried to do everything possible to prepare for the group, but inevitably life in Togo is unpredictable and rarely goes as planned.
The group flew in last Thursday night, and even though I paid a Togolese friend to help them get through customs and immigrations as quickly as possible, they were still the last ones out of the airport 2 hours after their flight landed. Thankfully, they all had great spirits, the flight was not delayed and all the bags showed up as well.
Their great attitude was a big encouragement to me, because while I reserved 6 hotel rooms for 12 people, when we got to the hotel someone had botched our reservation and only had 4 rooms for us. The group squeezed into those four rooms, and my friend Jesse and I went out at 1:00am to look for another hotel room. Thankfully, we found a room and were able to get five hours of sleep before getting back on the road for the long drive home with the group.
Unfortunately, the six-hour ride home turned into seven as the truck that we borrowed from another missionary was experiencing a problem that caused it to lose power and struggle to get over the hilly terrain here. After contacting several people smarter than me, not a hard thing to do, it seemed clear that the fuel filter was clogged and needed to be changed out.
Here is where the providence of God really amazed me. The night before, we “tried” to empty out everything from that truck in order to make room for all of the luggage, and we did not see the fuel filter. Had we seen that filter, we would have taken it out too! By God’s grace, the filter stayed in the truck and boy, what a life saver that was on the way up as we would have been up a creek without that filter! God was showing us His marvelous grace, and we praised Him for it!
On Saturday we went down to the Bible Institute and orphanage property to prepare for a dinner that night, and to paint the chairs for the orphanage gazebo. After finally finishing the entryway on to the property with these pavers and new doors, we were 99.9% done on the orphanage work.
The last piece of the big puzzle was to paint these chairs for the gazebo, and the church who had such a big part of making this orphanage construction possible was here to put that last piece in place.
As you can see from the picture, some worked hard and others supervised them pointing out places where they missed. They made a great team.
That evening we went over to the local church where Pastor Dave preached the commencement service for the second straight year.
We graduated five students again for the third straight year, and we are excited to see how God is going to use these graduates in the years to come.
After the graduation service, about 60 people went over to the Bible Institute and orphanage property where they received a tour of the just finished facility and a meal to celebrate with the graduates.
It was a great end to a great day and just the start of what became an even better weekend on Sunday. I look forward to telling you about the incredible time that we had at church today when I write the next post tomorrow.
