​Ministries to come...
This is what we are working towards.
It will take time, prayer, and finances to get us there...
We are trusting God for all of it,
including the timing, and additional co-workers.
Just like this mango tree,
ministries take time to grow.
Living Water Ministries
We are passionate about water because in Togo there are lots of villages who don’t have access to clean water. They are drinking dirty water, which contains a lot of germs, bacteria and parasites that are making them sick. They are drinking the same water animals drink, and those animals relieve themselves in the water. People wash their clothes in the same water.
Water is life. When we give clean water to villages who don’t have clean water, we are giving them life full of health. And if they have health, they can work and support their family.
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Jesus is the Living Water. He is bringing life, restoration and salvation! Our desire is that in giving people access to clean water, that it will open the door for them to meet Jesus, the Living Water.
The name Living Water comes from the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. John 4:1-42
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." John 4:10
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John, 4:13-14
Our strategy in doing community development is to partner with people and villages to see things accomplished. The people or village has a part to play and things to bring as well to see it accomplished. For example, with drilling a well, this has looked like the village providing the land and helping to prepare some of the things needed like sand and gravel before we have been able to drill for water. The village also establishes their own committee to do these things and take care of the well.
Training for a better future
Village - Akplolo-Konta
Literacy Centre
A lot of people in the villages have very little or no education. Not being able to do basic things such as read, write and basic math, leaves them vulnerable and more able to be taken advantage of. We want to offer the adults training in reading, writing and basic math skills. We also see that this will be a benefit as they will then be able to read the Bible.
Training program for young women
The fact is that most of the girls living in the villages in general do not have a profession or any training. Many due to lack of means have had to stop school before secondary school and even most of these girls have not even finished primary school. How can she, who has not even finished primary school, learn a trade? The girls who are going to register in our centre will be given an education level assessment adapted to the training. If it turns out that she does not have the required level of reading, writing and counting, she will first start in our literacy centre, then after that she will go on to learn the trade.
We see that many girls without education or an occupation are not considered and are abused by their families and husbands. They are condemned to work in the hot sun every day and find it difficult to have the means to eat and feed their children. Many men do not work and the whole burden of the family rests on the woman. It is she who will go to the field, fetch the water, sometimes having to walk three to five kilometres before finding water, prepare food for the family, take care of the children. Do you see how often it is important to help today's girls by breaking the chain of suffering and giving them a better, hopeful future? We have worked in several villages in Togo and have seen this first hand. Investing in someone's life means saving an entire generation.
The different trades we would like to offer training in are:
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Tailoring, designing and sewing clothes
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Cooking, with this skill she could open a small restaurant.
We see the importance of offering training specifically for young women, but also know that young men in the villages do not have many opportunities either, and so some trades will be open to them as well.
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Business, to understand how to manage money for your small business, like your tailoring business or small restaurant. This will be offered in combination with other trades.
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Farming God’s way: Organic farming
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Electricity & small electronics repair.
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Film making, Photography and Journalism.
Along side these trades, we want to teach them the Bible, as well as teach about primary health care and good sanitation.
Connect with the WORD
To offer people the opportunity to read the Bible in one week. (YES it is possible!) We are also talking about how to make that more accessible to people who maybe can’t take a whole week off, planning for once a week, or reading a portion in a weekend, so they read through the whole Bible over several weeks. We accompany the reading with an audio Bible, which makes this accessible to those that cannot read, or have poor reading skills.
Why one week? It gives you an overview of the whole Bible. You see how things are connected, you see the context. We have done this with our students, and at the end of the week they give testimony as to what God spoke to them. God speaks and shows each one what they need to hear. And God answered their questions. This does not negate study or meditation. Those things are important. It means that when you do study a passage in-depth or meditate on the word, you have a better understanding of the greater context and how what you are studying fits into that. This is the ultimate let the Holy Spirit speak to you week. When people read the Bible for themselves, they are able to grow and feed themselves spiritually, they are able to discern when something they are being taught is maybe not correct. They are not just relying on their pastor to tell them what the Bible says, they are able to find out for themselves. We want to see this offered not just in French, but in peoples mother tongue as well. There are many local languages in Togo.
We would like to see this in both the village and the city. Our plan is to have a house in the city, where we can run Bible weeks, Bible studies, as well as have a resource library.
Library Nicodemus
A resource library where pastors, or anyone can come to study the word. A place where it is safe to ask, discuss and seek God on the hard questions.
Hope Radio - Radio Espoir
The goal is to preach the good news. We see some radio that is not christian, and with their information, they place fear in people. There is no hope in their message. We want a radio station that will encourage, and give hope to the world. People in the villages often don’t have access to news. We want a radio station that will preach the gospel, and have Bible reading, but also have other programs that talk about health and sanitation, social education, community development, and news. In the village, they often don’t have electricity or television, but they have radio, so people listen to the radio.
A place of rest and renewal - for missionaries and those in ministry.
We have seen that African missionaries especially often do not have much support, and so when it comes time to take a break and rest, they have no options because they can’t afford it. We want to provide a place at little to no cost, bring your own food, and come and rest and spend some time with God being refreshed and renewed, ready to return to the ministry. We have plans for a christian library so they can read, or listen to audio books. As well, some may choose to come for the Bible reading. When we moved off the mission campus some years ago in Togo, we prayed for a house with two bedrooms, so we could do this. God answered and gave us a two bedroom, two bathroom place. Someone would come for a weekend or even the whole Christmas break to just be away and refreshed at our place. As we develop our land in the village our plan is to have a house or two on the land for this purpose. But until that point, as we look for a place in Togo, our heart is to always have an extra room for this purpose.
Short Term missions opportunities
To offer those from the west the opportunity to come for short term missions, to see the work and be involved, whether that is a team of people, or just one or two.