Mandouri Flood Relief

This past weekend, Matt and I loaded up two Landcruisers full of camping gear and Kabiye Christians (13 of them!) and made the 5 hour trek north to the town of Mandouri. The entire Savanes Region was devastated by widespread flooding after receiving a record amount of rainfall this past rainy season. This led to the destruction of a huge amount of the season's crops, and a subsequent food shortage that has crippled many of the people in this region in their ability to feed themselves until the next harvest. As usual, the very poor and vulnerable are the hardest hit. A widow who was given food. Widows can be very vulnerable in this society.

Mandouri is a city of the Gourma people, a group that we surveyed this past summer with our Harding University interns to see if the area is ready for missionaries. Matt has developed a friendship with a local pastor named Pascal, and when Pascal informed Matt about the situation, he began asking God how we might all be able to help. The answer came mainly in the form of a donation from Healing Hands International, who gave $6,000 towards the purchase of corn and rice. When put together with about $1,000 given by Harding University students and others, this past Monday we were able to distribute 220 sacs of corn and rice (keep in mind that the sacs of corn weigh over 200 pounds and the rice sacs over 100 pounds - this is ALOT of food!)Kpaatcha, and elder in the N'Djei church, taking notes of the event to share with his church family

Part of the vision that Matt had for this effort was to include Kabiye Christians in the endeavor, to broaden their view of the Kingdom of God and to be an encouragement to the Gourma Christians that were helped. The Kabiye churches banded together and gave about 2 full sacs of corn plus about 25 yams, a truly rich gift! We were reminded of the poor lady who, in spite of giving only 2 small coins, gave much more than the rich people who gave to show off their wealth. Praise God that He has instilled in our Kabiye brothers and sisters a passion to give generously! Kabiye Christians being interviewed by the Togolese National Press

Below is a slide show of pictures from the distribution. The spiritual implications of this day are still sinking in and will surely resonate for a long time in our hearts, the hearts of the Kabiye Christians and especially the hearts of those who were fed in Jesus' name. Our prayer is that God would use this event to expand His Kingdom here in Togo and beyond. Praise God for His mercy, compassion and love for all of His people! Matt, me, Pascal, the Prefet and the Kabiye Christians during the distribution

Kabiye Teaching Kabiye

One of the benchmarks for a successful church planting movement is when native Christians express a desire to begin evangelism in villages near them. This has happened in several villages where our team was the original church planters, and yesterday I accompanied Matt to a teaching session led by Christians from the villages of Sande Te and Ajadaa. Here is the group (that is Matt sitting in the middle of the frame).
The village is called Kpangkulum, and it is a very remote village that is in the same district as Sande Te and Ajadaa. The session was led by these two men, Tchalo, from Sande Te, and Eyana, from Ajadaa. They are emerging young leaders who have a good grasp of what the Bible teaches about salvation through Jesus. Pray for these young men! One day they will be wise elders in their villages and in their churches, but in this season of their lives they are blessed with an energy and enthusiasm for spreading God's word! Matt has been involved in the process only in terms of helping out with transportation and giving some guidance when needed. For the most part, these brave young men are acting on their own faith and trust in the Lord.Teaching in Kpangkulum is at the halfway point. During this last visit, they talked with the people about Jesus' birth and baptism. There were many good questions asked, such as, "Why did Jesus have to be baptized?" and, "Why did John the Baptist have to come before Jesus?" Tchalo, Eyana and the others handled these questions very well and showed alot of maturity.

One of the biggest obstacles to any evangelism among the Kabiye is the stronghold that Satan holds over them through their traditional religion. We met just outside the chief's compound in Kpangkulum, and inside we found these two items:The first item is a fetish tree that has a prominent place in the middle of the compound. Notice the small concrete bowl that is built into the ground. This bowl receives sacrifices to spirits or ancestors.

The second item Matt and I are not totally sure about, but we think it's a fertility idol. Notice how the a hands of the wooden carved man are resting in the genital area. Holy Father, we pray that you would bring the people of Kpangkulum out of the darkness of their traditional religion and into the Light. Thank you for stirring passion for the lost in the hearts of the young men of Sande Te and Ajadaa, and I ask that you would give them strength, courage and absolute faith in Your power to change lives. We want Christ to be Lord in the lives of all Kabiye people! May it be so...

The Kennell's Are Here!

Yesterday we welcomed Mark, Nicole, Madeline and Michal Kennell as a part of our team here in Kara among the Kabiye. (The only pic I could find of their family was this one with Mark Berryman, a good friend to our team. Mark Kennell is on the left.) Brett drove down to Accra with Matt to pick them up on Sunday, and then after a day in Accra for rest and shopping, we traveled back to Kara.

The Kennell's were original members of the Kabiye team that arrived here back in 2000, but they left after 2 1/2 years. Making a return after a 5 year absence takes alot of faith and courage, and we are excited to share in this new journey with them as teammates. God is going to do great things through them!

Please pray for the Kennells over the next several months as they adjust to life here. They will be returning to the States in May to wrap up fundraising and logistics, and then moving back for good sometime in the fall. We are so thankful that God is bringing more people to this team to work for the salvation of the Kabiye people!

December Newsletter

To view our latest family newsletter, click on the link below or cut and paste it into your web browser. To subscribe and receive the newsletter via email, just leave a comment with your email address!


www.harvestfields.net/kabiye/Dec07_Newsletter

N'Djei Cluster Baptisms

This past Saturday, 14 people from the villages of N'Djei, Ewede, Sogode and Kayahte put on Christ in baptism. This was particularly exciting because the wives and children of several Christian men completed the salvation of their earthly families by leading them into God's family! What a great gift for them to receive just before Christmas. Click on the videos below to see two of the baptisms.

N'Djei Baptism
Uploaded by emersonstogo

The best part for us as missionaries was that these Christians led each other to Christ, handled the baptisms themselves, and ask us to be there only to observe and celebrate with them. Having a group of such highly motivated and self-sufficient Christians is very fulfilling for our team and our work here. It makes our goal of a sustainable and self-replicating church movement among the Kabiye seem more real with every passing event such as this!

N'Djei Baptism 2
Uploaded by emersonstogo

You have to love Kpaatcha, an elder of the N'Djei church, doing baptisms in 90 degree heat while wearing a winter hat but no pants. A more African scene would be hard to find! We love these people and their culture so much, and we feel that we have the greatest job in the world to be able to share in their growing walks with Christ. Praise God!

Thank You!

Thank you so much to everyone at Grace Pointe and Sycamore View for all of the wonderful gifts you sent over with Charles and April's parents! What a special holiday treat! We love you all so much and thank you for your gifts of love.

Our First Visitor!

This last week we were blessed with a visit from Charles Campbell, a member of the Missions Committee at GracePointe, our sponsoring congregation. Charles had the opportunity to see so much of what God is using our team to do among the Kabiye, and he came away with a much better understanding of life in West Africa. He experienced about the worst border crossing in border crossing history, and that probably isn't even his best story!

Thank you to GracePointe for sending Charles over here to bless our lives, and thank you Charles for being willing to come at the last minute. Thank you God for providing us with a great support system of family, friends and a loving sponsoring church!
Here is a pic of Charles bravely stumbling his way through his first Kabiye lesson. It's not for the faint of heart!

Finally, we want to thank everyone who has been trying to contact us by Skype, Facebook, email and blogs lately. Our internet has been very inconsistent since we arrived back in Kara, and we will not be able to talk on Skype until our internet is back to some kind of normalcy. We will try to keep updated on email as much as possible, so let's all hang in there together. You can still call and leave us a voicemail, and we will call you back just as soon as we can! (334)239-3109 (no international fees!) Please understand that we are just as disappointed as you are about not being able to talk to our friends and family. We love you all!

How Can We Help?

So many people have asked us how they can help us in the wake of our truck tragedy from last month. The best ways right now are to 1) Pray for the fundraising process and 2) Make a donation to our New Truck Fund. We know that God will provide, and we are excited to see exactly how he does it...

To read more about what happened, scroll down and read our previous blog entries. To see a PDF we created to help in the fundraising process, click here.

Brett's friend Justin Baeder over at Radical Congruency helped us create a button that will allow people to donate to our truck fund online through Paypal. Paypal is 100% secure, and all money donated will go directly to the purchase of a new truck.

If you feel more comfortable sending a check (or you just want to deduct your donation on your taxes!), make it out to the Grace Pointe Church of Christ, mark "Emerson Truck Fund" in the memo line, and mail it to:

Grace Pointe Church of Christ
1565 Ray Thorington Rd.
Montgomery, AL 36117
Attn: Jerry Atkinson

Please join with us and make a donation to our Truck Fund so that we can continue the work God has called us to here in Togo among the Kabiye. God bless you!

Click the "Donate" button below to contribute using Paypal.

How Exactly Did You Find Our Blog?

It's fascinating to see how people come to find our blog. Our Site Meter tells us where people clicked in from, including from search engines like Yahoo and Google. It also tells us what keywords were searched for to find us. Here's some search terms people have found us with over the last few weeks:

1. "July 18, 2007 Africa" - I guess we posted on this day, and we live in Africa, so.....

2. "Sam and Nancy Shewmaker" - Apparently they have a fan club that searches the internet thirsting for information about our good friends in Rwanda...

3. "Soumdina" - This is the partial name of a village where there is a Kabiye church...but how somebody in Athens, GA new that, I'll never know...

4. "Africa Adventures" - I have to admit, this one was very personally satisfying for me (Brett)...

5. "Toyota Hilux Wreck Pictures" - I have to admit, this one did not make me smile...

6. "West African CFA" - Our local currency, which you can learn absolutely nothing about by reading this blog...

This is just a small sample of how people find us here. Some people come by simply typing "Emersons Togo" into a search engine, but that's just not that much fun!

A Piece of History

This past week our team welcomed Don & Jane Neal and their 4 children back to Togo, their home from August 2000 until February 2006. Our blog readers probably haven't heard of the Neals, or else you're sitting there thinking, "That name sounds vaguely familiar..." The truth is, we don't know them very well ourselves, but for some reason we feel like we do...

You see, the Neals are a huge part of our team's history. They were original members all the way back in the 90's when the team formed, and they lived and worked among the Kabiye for 5 years. Their family has definitely been a big influence on the team and the work among the Kabiye. We missed out on getting to know them during our internship in 2003 because they were on furlough, and we missed living with them in Togo by a little less than a year.

We had only met them once before their return trip this week, and that was only for a short afternoon at their home in Texas. On their return trip this past week, we only spent a few hours with them. They passed through Accra (where we are currently awaiting the baby) on their way in and out of West Africa, but the bulk of their time was, of course, spent in Kara.

But for some reason, we feel like we really know them...

Maybe it's the stories we've heard about them from our current teammates. Maybe it's the fact that we live in their old house! Maybe it's that we can see the mark they left on the team and the work here, even after they have been gone for almost two years now. Maybe it's that our families are both a part of something bigger than ourselves, something lasting, enduring and led by God. A team of families dedicated to bringing the gift of God's salvation to people who otherwise might not receive this gift.

We want to say thank you to Don and Jane, for who you are, for what you've done, and for all that you do to support the work here. God has been glorified through the lives you lead for Him, and we are so blessed to have you as teammates and as a piece of our team's history!

Kalao

We have been meaning to post this for awhile, sorry for the delay. Recently our family came to know a man named Kalao (kah-LAH-oh). He lives in the same neighborhood as we do, and he heard from another person in the neighborhood that we were a family that helps people. When Kalao came to our door, he truly did need help.He is a taxi driver by trade, and a few weeks before he came to us, he had been in an accident that flipped over his taxi. His leg was injured pretty badly in the accident, and he is currently walking with crutches and is unable to work and provide for his wife and two year old son. The Kabiye are, as a general rule, very kind and humble people, and Kalao is even more so than normal. From the moment he stepped into our home he has been a blessing to our family.

Kalao’s doctor told him that he will not be able to work for the next 3 months. During that time, we are helping him to pay his bills and feed his family. Please pray that Kalao would heal quickly and be able to return to work. Kalao is a strong Christian, and we have confidence that his faith in God will help him through these hard times. We are so grateful to have a Father who does not leave us on our own, but constantly works for our good. May He do so in Kalao’s life!

Truck and Driver and Baby Update

We want to let everyone know that we are doing some better. My teammates here in Togo would surely tell you that I'm still not myself, but I have been comforted so much by your words of encouragement and your prayers for us. April and I feel so blessed to have so many amazing friends and family...

Abalo, the driver, is home from the hospital. I visited him each of the last two days in his home. Now that he is better, it is VERY difficult to be around him. God is teaching me so much about forgiveness and grace. If I can't give it to Abalo, how can I receive it from my God? However, my human nature is not easily suppressed, so while needing to forgive and give grace is the spiritual reality, it is not that simple when you add my flesh to the equation. Pray for April and me. Ask God to overwhelm us with the grace and forgiveness we have received from him, and the spiritual strength to give the same to Abalo.

The first trip to Abalo's house was to get his first hand account of the story. I asked Matt to go with me to help me with communication and to make sure I kept my cool, and the visit ended up going ok. There are huge holes in his story, and while I''m not willing to call him a liar, I will at least say that he is probably confused on some of the details :) He was, however, apologetic. He actually thanked me for saving his life and for coming to visit him in the hospital. I thought the "saving my life" line was a little dramatic, but then he explained that he was in pretty bad shape at one point and the money we gave his family to buy him meds was pretty crucial.

The next day I brought the police to his house to get his information and a statement so they could finish their report. Now listen carefully to what I'm going to say hear: Under normal circumstances, I take no pleasure in cruelly scaring other people or making them just about wet their pants with fear, but I have to be totally honest here and admit that it was a guilty pleasure for me to watch Abalo squirm and twitch when the two policemen walked into his home with their full military garb on. Maybe God granted me that pleasure, who knows :)

We also found out that the truck is semi-salvageable. We did not have full coverage insurance since it costs about $10,000 a year, but we will be able to get about $8,000 - $10,000 out of it to put towards a new truck. Which means we still have lots of praying to do, but we feel blessed to have our amount needed cut from $40,000 to about $30,000. The truck is now resting in our garage, awaiting a mechanic from Lome' to come and assess the damage and see what we can get out of it...

And now, the baby update. Prell has been almost completely off of her feet for several days now, and the contractions seemed to have lessened. However, we are taking no chances with this little life, and we are leaving tomorrow for Accra to wait for the baby. Please pray that this little one will stay inside for a few more weeks....

While in Accra, we will be able to communicate regularly and would love to talk with you. You can reach us by calling 334-239-3109, a stateside number that goes right to our computer. It costs you only what it normally would cost you to call Montgomery, Alabama. Thanks so much to everyone for continuing to bless us. Please know that we are doing better and that God is sustaining us. I am personally clinging to this verse in Psalms, Ch. 65 vs. 5:

"You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior.You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas." NLT

May it be so!

Here is a pic from the last trip my truck ever took to a village here in Kabiyeland. Thanks be to God for blessing us with this truck, even if it was for a short time...

Newest Journeys

We have had a rough week. If you haven't heard already, our truck was totaled in an accident (thankfully, we were not in vehicle) and April has begun experiencing early contractions. These are Brett's journal entries from Facebook.

Written Thursday, October 18, 2007
"Prayers Needed In Togo"

Long story short, our brand new truck is destroyed. I'm not really in the mood to recount the whole sordid tale, but I will say that a mechanic came to work on our truck, and we totally trusted the guy because he works for our team at the MK school and as a mechanic. He fixed a small leak our car was having and then took it for a spin to make sure everything was OK (please note, mechanics coming to your house to work on your car or take it to a garage is not the norm in the States but is common here). Turns out this man of normally strong moral character had a lapse in judgment, went for a joyride, drove fast and out of control and drove our truck off of a bridge. He is alive, but barely. God spared him for some reason, for as you can see by the picture, there is no rational reason why he should have survived.
This comes at a difficult time for us with April just 6 weeks away from her due date and us only two weeks from journeying to Accra to wait for the baby. We are trying to keep our heads up and not let our Adversary use this against us, but it is hard. However, we have felt God's presence through all of this mess and we're putting our faith in Him to sustain us and help us find the solution for the problem of getting a new truck.

Please pray. Pray for the man who was driving our car. His name is Abalo and he is a good man and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Pray for us that we would have peace. Pray for a solution and that God would provide for our family.

Written Friday, October 19, 2007
"Truck and Driver Update"

The man who was driving, Abalo, is going to make it, praise God. After 12 hours in a coma, he finally woke up, begged for some water and they hooked him up to an IV of pain meds. He was incoherent all day yesterday, but today I was able to talk to him. He is still in ALOT of pain, but God has spared his life. I hope he does something great with it...

We talked to an eyewitness who said that while the truck was airborne, probably about 20 feet in the air and 30 feet from the road off the side of the bridge, he actually opened the door and jumped out. Just amazing. Had he been wearing his seatbelt like he should have he would almost definitely be dead.

The truck is another story. We did not have comprehensive accident coverage because it costs about $10,000 per year, so we are going to have to salvage what we can and find the money for a new truck, around $40,000. The thought of fundraising again makes us sick to our stomachs, but it also gives us a chance to step aside and allow God to work, because there is NO WAY that we can do it on our own. We just don't have the resources available to us. We know that God will provide, so stay tuned for a crazy and encouraging story about how He does it...

The timing is just killing us right now. April is 34 weeks pregnant, and Caden came at 38 weeks. We are leaving for Accra, Ghana in 2 weeks to deliver the baby, and the stress of just living here plus April being very pregnant plus having an amazing but crazy two year old plus having our brand new truck obliterated plus trying to fight against Satan hardening our hearts toward Abalo (the driver) is pretty tough right now. We covet your prayers and words of encouragement.

So many people responded to my last note. Thank you, sincerely and gratefully, thank you. I hadn't shed a tear over this whole thing yet until this morning when I got up and my inbox was flooded with emails from Facebook saying "so and so has commented on your note" and other encouraging emails from people. I'm more convinced almost everyday that the ability to love and to be loved, to give and receive LOVE, is one of our Creator's greatest gifts...


Written Saturday, October 20, 2007
"Like We Needed the Drama"

Last night, April started having some pretty strong contractions. They were about 8 minutes apart and longer than 30 seconds. I'm no nurse, but even I know that this sort of thing is not good. Fortunately, our friend Edith IS a nurse, and she said pretty firmly that this is not good. We were scheduled to leave for Accra on November 5th to await the baby, but we're going to have to leave two weeks early, probably this coming Wednesday.

If you've been following the previous notes about our truck situation, then you are well aware that we don't need this right now, at all. We just have to accept that it is happening and deal with it. We've got an amazing support team in our teammates, fellow missionaries, our sponsoring church, our family, and of course our friends.

We would really appreciate your continued prayers. All of this is so much to take in all at one time, and we're struggling to deal with it all. Please pray for my beautiful, radiant wife and our unborn child. Pray for me that I will be strong in the Lord for them. Pray that we can, when this is all past, praise God and bring further glory to His name...

A Riddle

In Africa, how many people can you fit into a truck?

Answer: One more!!! There is always room for just one more!

Attention: Road Work Ahead

We are winding up the rainy season here in northern Togo, and the roads are an absolute mess. Leave it to the enterprising youth of our country to step up and solve the problem!

On my way out to the village of Koumea Laou to practice my Kabiye language skills this week, I came across these two youngsters engaging in a very ambitious activity: They were trying to fix the road, one small shovel full at a time!

They don't do this for free, of course. All over Togo right now as I write there are young boys filling in potholes and hoping that some kind soul will stop and pay them a few coins. These two actually did a pretty decent job on their little 6 foot stretch of road, so I stopped and paid them 200 CFA for their effort, about 40 cents. They were very happy to receive such a gift, and if you look closely you can see the boy on the left holding up his coin for the camera. God has given these two the gift of entrepreneurship!

Growing Up In Two Worlds

Here is a picture of Caden watching a movie with our friend Germaine's children. Germaine has built lots of furniture for us and is an excellent carpenter.

Here he is lounging around with some of our teammate's (the Ries boys) kids.Here he is again playing with the children of our houseworker, Antoinette. Watching Caden interact with our teammate's children one day and our Togolese friend's children the next has really helped us realize how Caden is growing up in two different worlds. Caden shares a common language and culture with the Miller, Reeves and Ries kids, but he shares only small commonalities in language and almost none in culture with our Togolese friend's children.

So what is our response to this? We have asked ourselves plenty of questions about what our lives should look like here as missionaries, and one question we've dealt with alot is, "How do we engage this foreign culture while still maintaining our (and Caden's) cultural identity?" It is a delicate balance, and to be totally honest, it's been difficult at times. We did not realize how much God would ask us to open our lives to the people around us; our home, our privacy, our possessions and our time have all been demanded of us.

We have made the decision before God, our sponsoring church, and our many supporters to leave our lives open to the people we encounter everyday. Sometimes this decision is difficult to follow through on, and at other times it gives our lives such great joy. Whatever the cost, we believe that it is our responsibility as Christ's ambassadors to open our lives to those who don't know His saving grace, and in that way we will serve God's kingdom as long as He would have us live in two worlds...

Africa Moment #7

When I have an annoying hangnail or my fingernails just don’t have that smooth edge, I always reach for my…hacksaw blade?

Prosper

Not the financial kind of Prosper; were talking about our friend Prosper (pronounced proh-Spare). Brett met him in the market here in Kara a couple of months ago and started a conversation. Prosper is a kind and gentlemanly old fellow, and they hit it off right away (they say opposites attract!). Brett ended up giving him a ride home, and they have been friends ever since. He likes to teach Brett the Kabiye language, and in exchange Brett has given him rides here and there around town, since he is an old man and doesn't get around very well.

This week Prosper came to our door in need of our help. He had swelling in his hip because of an infection, and the doctor prescribed him some antibiotics. Prosper does not have the financial means to buy the needed drugs, so we bought the drugs for him. We'll see him again this week and get an update on his health. At his age, even the smallest things can be very dangerous.

Please pray for Prosper. Pray for his body to heal, and praise God for his kind and humble spirit that has so strongly affected our family. We thank God for giving us opportunities to serve people right here in our part of town!

Family Meeting

Four times each year, we meet as a team with representatives from the churches or clusters of churches in Kabiyeland. Some are elders, some are just well respected by their brothers and sisters, and all are committed to God and to living lives of righteousness in their villages as a witness to Christ's life changing power living in them.

We talk about what is happening at each church, a kind of "state of the movement" discussion, pray for each church, and cast visions for the future of each church and the movement as a whole. It is a beautiful time of fellowship and communion with a common purpose in mind: the spreading of the gospel of salvation through Jesus to all Kabiye villages and people!

What really struck me at this last meeting was the sense of brotherhood. Our movement goes by the name "Kabiye Yesu Cecewiye", or the Kabiye Family of Jesus. This family mentality was so evident as the men present at the quarterly meeting talked, laughed, planned and prayed together. A true family of people that would otherwise never be brought together. Without the common bond they all have in Jesus Christ, this gathering would have had no purpose!

Pray for these men. Pray for Jerome and for Kpaaca (pah-chah). Pray for Essohanam and Jean-Marie. Pray for all of the leaders of the Kabiye Family of Jesus, that they may continue to spread the message to all Kabiye people so that nobody will be left out of the family...

New Truck!!!

It's finally here!!! We want to thank everyone for helping to make this happen. Thanks especially to John Land for doing lots of research and seeking out good advice. We are very pleased with our truck and feel that it will serve well and meet our needs for years to come. We plan on taking VERY meticulous care of it so that it will survive and thrive in these harsh conditions.It feels great to have our own transportation for the first time since we arrived in Togo this past January. Praise God, and may we use this vehicle to minister to the Kabiye and bring glory to Him!