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Togo Mission 2007with Kipuke Ministries
22july2007 Day of departure
Today has been restful; we leave in just a few hours for the airport
We awakened early this AM, ate and went to church here in Lome at the same church that we attended last Sunday. We stayed thru most of the service and because it is very long Esaho wanted us to move along so we could complete the rest of our plans prior to departure. We originally had planned to go to a service near the border in the south .on the coast.
We went at this time to the market as it closes early on Sunday and is less crowded. Thank God for that... The people crowd you, beg you and use every persuasion possible to get you to buy.
They place things in your hands,
they tell you “look at me father, I have 2 children and a wife who have not eaten, buy from me”.
It becomes a little over stimulating. Then you negotiate, never pay what they ask, because they will lower the price if you say no and try to walk away.
However, they will keep handing things to you until you have spent every last franc in your pocket.
We bought some earrings, bracelets necklaces that I did not want to buy and other things (too much) and also some cloth.
Mary bought another outfit (? Why) and we ended up finally with a doll with a baby on her back.
We met a crippled young man that the ministry had lost contact with and Esaho gave him a card to contact him because they intended on buying him a tricycle before. I took his photo to share with you as well as the photos as we were leaving of the young men who followed us everywhere.
We drove to the coast. The pastor of the church called and asked to meet with us this afternoon and we said ok. On the way to a site Esahu wanted us to photograph we passed many interesting and contrasting things. We saw a group of young men dressed in traditional native costume on the way to a Voodoo ceremony. They would only allow us to take their photo for 5000f. We said no. Now everyone will ask you for money even if they see you taking a photo of the sky or ocean. So we just take them without asking.
We arrived at the site where the river and the ocean meet.
At no time no matter how “angry the ocean becomes, the river and ocean never meet”. There is a thin strip of land, like a sandbar separating them.
Esaho says this is “the only place in the world like this.
Only God could have done this, how can you not believe?
We also passed a garbage heap beside a beautiful ocean beach and a little girl squatting on the same dump, taking a dump (#2) in public.
Kids selling crabs and shrimp along the side of the road, coconut market areas.
Fields of wheat and other consumable foods grown in fertile flat plots unlike those of the north which are very rocky and hilly.
We returned to Lome, continued to pack and the preacher and his wife arrived.
I loved them from our first visit last Saturday and at church. They are asking for our support, thinking we are rich.
But to them we are rich, but they do not understand our limited resources and Esahu wants to make it clear that we cannot promise them anything.
We can listen and agree to send their letter to other churches and I will do so.
They are very strong with the Holy Spirit and want to do so much. Much of what they want to do is the same as Kipuke, but in different ways. The letter is quite strong and shows the desire that he and his wife have to bring people to Christ.
Mary is quite sleepy. Esaho, in his African way that you must respect in an indirect
way, dismisses me to go take a nap.
He is as the preacher told me, his spiritual counselor and teacher.
Before I leave we pray for his ministry and for his unborn child. I
pray God blesses this ministry abundantly and will share this letter with all who ask.
I then awakened at 630pm and proceeded to write this.
Today Epu continued to feel the effects of malaria.
The gentleman, I cannot remember his name, that came back from Benin with us had prepared us the lunch Esahu new I Liked. They deep fry chicken, truly yard bird, and serve it with white rice and a sauce of tomatoes and onion.
I find it better than the restaurants that we have eaten at.
Battery low must go, see you soon. God Bless the Eash’s
The Trip Home has a layover in Casablanca and New York
This entry is written in retrospect as I didn't write it until April 1 2008. I cannot find the jornal entry for the trip home.
I didn't get mosquito bit hardly at all until departure. In the Lome airport, awaiting our flight , my ankles were eaten alive. I put this stuff on my legs that was a prepackaged wipe, but it was like attracting flies to sugar. It was early morning, after midnight, we went thru customs check, 2 soldiers talked to us their and then asked for their "present". Learning from Esahu, I stood firm and explained I had no money to give them. After repeating this back and forth several times they let us go.
We had a short but interesting layover in Casablanca. Our flight was late. Customs held the entire flight for another 45 minutes, checking and then rechecking our bags. Might have been because I reported some abandoned, or what appeared to be abandoned bags. You know somebody sits there with their bags and then just dissappears ...for a long time. Spooked me.
We met a young 16 y/o white female who came to Togo to work and live in a village
( by herself) hoping it would look good on her Vassar application. Quite brave and by the way she caught malaria while she was here. We also met a couple that traveled on same flight , coming and going to visit their son in The Peace Corps,
Then we met a soon to be Preist and his sister ( a nurse ) on their way to the Vatican from Ivory Coast. The conversation was very interesting. They questioned us about our knowledge and understanding of the Civil War there. We had to admit our ignorance.
Because of the Customs delay of our flight , we arrived on the ground in New York and had to wait 45 minutes on the tarmak before disembarking as we watched our flight to Atlanta take off.
Not being seasoned travelers we walked from 1 terminal to another at JFK following misinformed instructions, finally recovered our luggage, which we should have done at the beginning. They thought it had been checked thru to Augusta ( Why?..we were flying to Atlanta )
Well anyway after being told in a polite New York way how ignorant we were, we finally ended up at a hotel for the evening, stood in line for an hour to check in and finally was in a room by 9pm. We arrived New York that morning. Got up at 4 am to catch shuttle back to JFK and finally back to Atlanta and There was Judy to Pick us up. What a blessing.
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