Update from Togo - January 2011

Lomè (low-may), Togo used to be the 'Paris of Africa'. It is a french speaking nation, so my two years of high school french class has come in very handy! Don't be surprised if your small 1985 toyota taxi reaches speeds of 100 mph (you think I'm kidding) through narrow streets within 2 inches of people on bikes, dirt bikes, quads, and if you're lucky: a motorized wheelchair. Thousands of people are constantly in the streets as well as the Togolaise army with dormant tanks and AK-47's. This small but overpopulated city is full of life, and is a constant 95 degrees with WAY too much humidity- thankfully Hawaii prepared us for this weather! Anyway, Loud speakers blast reggae music so loud I think a deaf man could ever hear it. Street vendors are selling just about everything you can imagine: guinea fowls, baby goats, bunnies, puppies, statues of giraffes, leather bags from nomadic tribes of West Africa, Chuck Taylor's, delicious fruit, posters of Lil Wayne and Jesus, kabobs, car parts, beautiful fabric, toy phones, and fresh baked bread. Outside of this busy city is Noèpé (no-ep-ay), a quiet countryside town that is home to many rural villages and my team of 25. We are 40 minutes away from the city, isolated from any form of contact with home or city life. (we all look forward to Monday's, which have been dubbed Internet days...if we are lucky and can get to the city!) Regardless, I have settled into my new home until heading back to Kona in March- although I must say Jack Johnson's song 'Banana Pancakes' doesn't exactly have the same effect in the African bush as it does on a rainy day in Olympia. ;) The University of Nations Noèpé base consists of just a few run down buildings, but our leaders, Joseph, Meleah, Andy and Amy have big dreams to make this base much like the one in Hawaii. We are very fortunate to have CLEAN running water, electricity, and three warm meals a day. Our diet consists of bread, yams, different soups on top of rice, spaghetti or cous cous, potato stew, salad and veggies, and for dessert: pineapple, watermelon, bananas, and honey dew melon, and my new favorite treat: fried plantains! We have been at the base for almost a month now- time flies! We have worked hard to clean up the trash and overgrowth on base to make it more livable and pioneered. There is a secondary and primary school also on base that has over 100 students. When making the trek from our gathering area to our abode up the hill, which passes by the school, kids come to greet you and you can have 30 kids surrounding you, wanting to hold your hand or hug you! If they only knew how much their love has blessed me. Half of the 25 people on my team have been working hard on a water tank that will collect water for the villages during the rainy season, as well as cleaning up the warehouse on campus. The other half of the team has been involved in street ministry in Lomè, and saw eight people come to Jesus! For Christmas, we hosted a program for 200 people from surrounding villages and included dance, singing, and a hot meal of rice, chicken, and stew. I have never seen such a desperation for food, and I was broken hearted thinking that for many, that would be their only meal that week. For New Years, we spent time at the home of an incredible lady name Augusta who loves and cares for seven beautiful orphans. She has known what it means to be orphaned, and ever since that happened to her as a young girl, she has wanted to help other orphans. Oh, to see such joy behind their eyes was one of the most beautiful displays of Jesus' love for the lost! We spent hours teaching them songs and games; Augusta is an amazing cook, so we all had full bellies. The stories of the orphans include heart breaking pasts and exposure to things so horrific, that many lost their innocence at the ages of 6 or 7. We all cried, and praised Jesus for His redeeming love for those kids, and for keeping us from similar fates. There is nothing else I wanted to do that day, but show them how much they are loved by their creator. I am reminded of James 1:27, "Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We will be back to visit them a few more times before we leave. I am on the healthcare team and word gets around FAST that there is a white nurse, one of our leaders, Amy, and her helpers with medicine currently in town! We have treated many local villagers who have been plagued by malaria. It is so frustrating to see so many people with a sickness that can be so easily cured for so cheap! By the grace of Jesus we haven't run out of medicine. I was asked to head up a health checkup for each one the kids at the school. The 10 girls in healthcare were involved in taking the kids blood pressure, pulse, height and weight, and performing a nutritional check up. Besides a few fevers, all the kids are loving, happy and healthy. A clinic in Noepe invited us to come do checkups on people. I had heard of third world hospitals through missionary friends, and I was still appalled when I saw what i did. A broken table, which is the 'check up table', holds biohazard boxes full of who knows what, as well as a cup full of community thermometers that have been passed from sick child to sick child. A motorcycle and some giant steel pipes sit in the adjacent hallway next to a bathroom that couldn't even be qualified as a bathroom. There is a room for people who have been in accidents, which holds nothing but a bed and some scissors. The smell of blood still lingers there. What really got to me was the birthing room. Old equipment lay in a pile next to a can of old tomato sauce with a bed in the middle. The nurses do the best they can, but due to the poverty and lack of education in Togo, a very apathetic spirit lingers in this clinic. People are so sick but no one cares and there is no medicine. If people want to be healed, they have to pay for the medicine at a pharmacy in town, but most don't have the means to. This kind of desperation is what leads to young women prostituting themselves for money so they can afford things they so badly need. A few days ago, a young girl was brought in who has sickle cell. Her stomach was so hard, her liver was breaking down, she could hardly breathe or walk. To show the severity of her case, she would be in extreme intensive care if she was in the USA. The doctors aren't aware of the enormity of it, so their response is a shrug of the shoulders. You can only imagine our frustration and sadness! Next to this precious girl is another girl name Rose, who has typhoid fever. She is in so much pain she can hardly move. After a lot of prayer, Rose is able to sit up and crack a smile. The other little girl is rushed to the hospital in Lome, where even though the atmosphere is also very lethargic, she will get a blood transfusion, a bunch of test runs and a hospital stay for two weeks. All of this only costed $30. Yep, that cheap. She is doing much better now. I think to myself, 'I never want to go back there,' but being a prideful human, I daily forget how Jesus uses me in EVERYTHING to further His kingdom. It's not about my frustration with how third world countries work or how there is a lack of health, it's about having been chosen by Jesus to come and bring His love through simple availability to everything the Lord has planned. Sometimes i forget that smiling can bring Jesus to people. God is really drilling in my brain the spirit of humility and being willing. Its amazing how much more open you can be by simply saying, 'Jesus today is YOURS. lead me to one person or to one hundred people.' and He will! I'm seeing my own life doing a complete 180 as i watch the flame of Jesus' kingdom more forward. When i find myself missing alone time, my home, my parents, brother and sister, my best friend, and my own bed, I am kindly reminded by Jesus of this: I have been brought back to West Africa, alongside 24 amazing young people, serving Him and seeing orphans find love in the arms of a mother, the sick being healed, and hungry bellies going to bed full. This is truly living! I am finally living out one of my favorite verses: Matthew 10:6-8. I am then reminded that in a few short months this adventure will be over and will become another chapter of the crazy journey God is taking me on, and I will be back in the arms of my loving parents, talking with Taylor and Kylan about life and having a belly aching laugh with Abbey again. It will also be refreshing to see my two puppies who are not diseased or being used as voodoo rituals, but thats beside the point. Tears come to my eyes typing this, and just seeing how faithful God is through every stage of life! It's a time for radical transformation in Togo, and i wouldn't have it any other way. Go God.