A Great Gift

A couple of months ago, I was out in the village of Lassa Tchou spending time with some of the Christians there. We somehow started talking about composting, which is a subject that I find myself very interested in these days. I asked them if they ever collected animal poop to combine with other organic materials to be used as fertilizer, and I was met with a combination of laughter and blank stares. We talked about it for a few more minutes, then moved on to other things, a conversation like many others I've had before.

What this conversation led to, however, warmed my heart. The mother of one of the Lassa Tchou church's leaders is a faithful and beautiful Christian woman. She is quite old, and also one of the sweetest people I have ever known. Her smile can light up an entire village :) Many people who have visited Togo have fond memories of Jean Marie's mother. She was listening in on the conversation about animal poop and composting that day, but at the time did not have anything to say.

Instead, she went out into the fields and starting picking up poop.

I returned to Lassa Tchou one month later, on Christmas day, and this sweet sister had a huge bag full of animal poop to give to me as a present! It blew me away. I showed her how thankful I was in a culturally appropriate way, but all I really wanted to do was pick her up off of the ground and give her a huge hug!

Sometimes it seems like the people I work with don't listen when I speak. Sometimes I get the feeling that much of the teaching I do goes in one ear and out the other, and that I'm not having an impact…

And then someone gives me a big bag of poop :)

Redefining a "Succesful" Meeting

Today we loaded up the truck and took the whole family out to the village of N'Djei for a morning meeting. Being able to spend time in the villages as a complete family is just one of the many blessings that comes with having children who are not yet school aged :) The people love to see our children, and we love to share our whole life with our brothers and sisters, which includes our rambunctious little boys.

We rolled up at 9:30 or so, and there was only one man sitting near the meeting place, reading his Bible. Over the next hour or so, the boys chased chickens and goats while April and I talked with the people that slowly trickled in. Only 5 more people came, and one of them left when he saw his friend on a motorcycle and asked him for a ride into town. Priorities, people.

We decided to go ahead and teach at the urging of the 5 people who showed up, and we had a really good meeting. Thought provoking questions were asked and responded to, laughter filled the meeting place several times, and everyone left having learned something (us included) and having been encouraged. This meeting had only 5 people attend it (these meetings usually have 20 or more), but it was a successful meeting.

Last week I went to another village, Lassa Tchou, to teach. The Christians did not show up for the meeting at all, and I was very disappointed at first. Then a young man who is a faithful church member showed up and told me that all of the Christians were at the home of a young boy who had died that morning, comforting the family and praying with them. Needless to say, my heart was full of pride, and even though the meeting didn't even happen, it was a successful meeting.

Our lives here in Togo have led us to redefine many things in our lives, and success is one of them. In a country where things often don't go the way they should, I believe that we can find success in things that an outsider might consider a failure. May God be glorified through all of our successes, through all of our failings, and through everything we put our hands to.

Tragedy for Togo

Today, Les Eperviers du Togo (The Togo Sparrow Hawks) were supposed to be playing the Ghana Black Stars in Group B of the African Cup of Nations, the continent wide soccer tournament that is second in importance only to the FIFA World Cup. Instead, the Togolese national team is back in Togo, healing from a tragic event in which three people were killed after Angolan rebel forces opened machine gun fire on their team buses.

As I was on my way to work today, I noticed that one of the homes of a very important person in this particular village had it's flag at half staff. I was caught off guard by how touched I was by this gesture. Emotions welled up inside of me, and I wept.

As I reflected on the whole situation this afternoon, I realized that there was only one other time in my life when I had shed tears for a country. It was a little after 9am on September 11th, 2001. One plane had already hit the World Trade Center, and I watched live as the second plane smashed into the south tower. Immediately, I fell on my knees and pleaded with God to have mercy on our country. I never could have imagined the horror that I felt in that moment.

Today, my 2nd country is dealing with similar emotions amidst tragedy. America will always be my first country; you can see in the picture below that my purse has an American flag on top and a Togolese flag down below. However, over the last 7 years, Togo has taken a huge chunk of my heart. When the Togolese people are full of joy, our family is full of joy. When the Togolese people celebrate, our family celebrates. When the Togolese people mourn, we mourn right along with them and do whatever we can to share their burden. This was very poignant to me as I watched a family mourn the death of a young child this afternoon while I was out in the village. And so tonight my head is slightly bowed. My demeanor is a little subdued, and I am sad. My 2nd country has been robbed of 3 young lives. It's no September 11th, I know, but in a country where very few things go right, the things that go horribly wrong are magnified. They have also been robbed of the joy of competing in the African Cup of Nations. We have presidential elections coming up at the end of February, and the whole country is already slightly on edge.

Please pray for Togo. It is in need of the strength that comes with the prayers of the saints. So often the Togolese are forgotten or left behind, and all of us here are in need of the hope found only in God.