Togo Week 2

Week Two 

Saturday – Girl’s Day 

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We kicked off the week with the first annual girls’ day event in Aneho with 4 of the main 6DI church plant’s youth girls’. Each group prepared a song and dance (including us interns)! The event included worship, teaching from the pastor's wife, testimony sharing, a meal, games, lessons on health and body care (it is not taught and it is hard to access resources), and more worship. 

One of the sweetest parts is the tradition here that everyone has matching fabric for events. We all had  skirts made for us. 

Sunday – Church & Rest 

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I attended church at New Life (one of the 4 main church plants), where I hung out with the little ones before joining the main service for the second half. Our mission team has been so gracious to tirelessly translate for us. Afterward, we had a ministry team lunch and a slow, restful afternoon.

All of the interns (L- R) 

Kate, Abby, Me, Lisa, Kegan

Monday – Confidence in Christ, French, Cooking & Fun

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The day began with session II of our Confidence in Christ course, followed by a French lesson. Later, we joined the VT girls in prepping a traditional meal, even with a language barrier, we managed to cook, laugh, sing together, and even attempted to learn some African dances together (rather unsuccessfully on our part). We ended the day with a games night with all the VT young leaders.

Tuesday – DBS & Aného Adventures 

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We did a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) with Aquafa, a sweet mom to five and faithful evangelist working with the Timothy Initiative. In the afternoon, we were pushed out of our comfort zones through a scavenger hunt competition where each intern was paired up with a VT girl. We experienced our first Togolese taxi rides (unforgettable experience) and headed into Aného on our own, traversed the market, shopped, located landmarks, embarrassed ourselves (a lot), tried street foods, worked on our language and communicating with our partner as best as we could, got to share the gospel with a taxi driver, and built connections with the VT girls. After that we played soccer with the village youth and finished the day with dinner at the Roberts’ home.

Wednesday – DBS, Prayer Walk, Dresses & more DBS 

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We started with continuing our Colossian’s bible study and then did a prayer walk around the village of one of the churches, Grace. In the afternoon, we got fitted for dresses made by a  seamstress from church with fabric we picked out at the local market.  I had another DBS sessions with a sweet 11 yr old girl called Tina and the evening wrapped up with dinner with Steph and Suze.

Thursday – Kids Camp & Celebration

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Thursday we last minute attended and helped out with a kids’ camp becuase permission was granted by the chief and hosted by one of the local schools. The VT you g leaders ran it, and lef incredibly well!! The passion they have for sharing the gospel and for working with the kids is unmatched. We had 38 children, sit down for one on one gospel conversations and decided to accept Christ! It was such a joy filled morning and probably one of my favourite days so far. After a full day of ministry, we celebrated with a team activity: go-karting and dinner out in Lomé.

Friday – Sabbath Rest & Connection

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Friday was our long awaited Sabbath which was spent slow and restfully. I spent time reading, doing devotions, chatting with the girls, kayaking, coloring, and catching up with calls to family and friends back home. We ended with dinner and games at Savanna and Azelyn’s house.

Saturday – Ministry & Mentorship

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Saturday started off with a 5am 10km run with Savanna, one of the residents here and a fellow intern, Kate. We then joined in on a women’s ministry meeting which was a time for our missionaries to encourage the women leaders within the church, teach, read scripture together, worship and play games. I then had DBS with Kezia and Yaya, the sweetest sisters where we continued their study in 1 Samuel!!  The day ended with another dinner at the Robert’s, a lovely end to a full week.

Thanks for following along and keeping me in your prayers. These last two weeks have been full of moments that reveal God’s faithfulness, his love, his heart for his people. Even in a place marked by spiritual darkness and known for voodoo, this land belongs to the Lord, it is his holy ground.

It’s been a privilege to see more of God’s heart and character through the joy and kindness of the Togolese people and the intentionality of the 6DI team in challenging us, loving us and discipling us.