Day 5

Every trip has a bump in the road, right? (Pun intended).  Really we had a good day overall but a disappointment as well.   We drove for over an hour down the bumpiest road I think I have ever seen.   We drove between 1 and 20 miles an hour with an average of about 5 mph the entire way. Elisa said we could have walked faster and I think she is right.   Bumping our heads on the windows, the roof, and each other we finally made it to Pastor Daniels church. (Thank the Lord for Dramamine and ginger candy).  It was hotter today but the work was just as good.  The longer we spend with two of the people (Koffi and Daniel) the more respect we have for them.  They really are good men and we are blessed to be able to partner with them here in Togo.  As we have gone about the country we see evidence of Daniels influence in Southern Togo.  He has started many churches and continues to mentor young church planters and pastors.  I had a chance to meet
several of the people he has mentored and they are well equipped to pastor churches.  I think that some of my surprise in the level of theological understanding is due in large part to his influence on these guys.  He showed me some of the materials he has used to train them and that has helped me a great deal with our training project.  It has given me a great place to start seeing where they have left off.  Today we went to Labisitto where the last HOL group went to get something started.  They now have a fully established church with a strong core group.  This church is up and on its way.  Daniel continues to train young guys and plant more churches.
 We were all looking forward to showing the Jesus Film tonight.  We had a great learning experience about African culture concerning the Jesus Film.  We were supposed to start the film at 6:30 so at six they had not yet arrived so we called them.  They were on the way and wouldn't be long.  At 6:30 we called again and they said they were on their way and it wouldn't be much longer.  At 6:45 we called them and they said they were ready to now leave where they were coming from over an hour away.  By this time it was too late to have them come and keep everyone for a two hour film.  So we were all very disappointed that we could not show the Jesus Film this evening, but we will all claim Romans 8:28!  When in Africa, go with the Africans!
We are all pretty tired as we have kept a very busy schedule.  It was time for a bit of a break anyway.  Again, we are all healthy and feeling great.  We sat around the table tonight and talked about how God has blessed us in this way.  We have not felt the jetlag that we expected even though we didn't get much sleep.  For this we are most thankful! 
Tomorrow we meet with the entire group of pastors signed up for the training.  Please pray for them as they come from all over to meet in one place.  Today I found out that pastor Daniel has talked this up over a large area and I am now curious to see how many show up.  I won't go into all of the details here, but our training program means a lot to some of these pastors.  So pray that tomorrow will go well and that the pastors will be excited about getting the training they need.