Monday, my final day of class with Pastor Kossi and his students, was supposed to be a discussion about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. However, we began with questions about the service. This in turn led to questions about prayer, sermons, and then eventually the church year. I hadn’t meant to do a class on the Church Year at this . . . read more
Kossi has certainly been given a gift with his language abilities. Nevertheless English is a little bit more of a struggle for him.
While working as a missionary you have to learn how to speak with simple sentences and simple words. You learn to try and avoid words that we might think of as more intellectual and keep it simple. Not only because it . . . read more
My first stop on my West Africa trip was Lome Togo.
It is here that Pastor Kossi Blewu has been working diligently for the Lord. During my first visit to Togo in January 2008, Pastor Kossi was working as an administrator at a local school and preaching in his spare time. He had one large congregation and two small preaching stations. Now he has a . . . read more
The last two months have witnessed a constant blur of comings and goings. Ed and Janice Starkey safely arrived in India. The Joint Asia Pastoral conference was held in Chennai. An apartment needed to be found for Ed and Janice. Dave Koenig packed and left. Vanessa and I spent a week in New Delhi applying for Visas for my West Africa trip. This was . . . read more
After the conference in Whiski it was time to say goodbye to the Congo and head south into Zambia. It was strange to be south of the Equator and not only because the water drained in the wrong direction. The farther south we went the colder the weather became. Not that it every became too cold. Even in Lusaka it would drop down into the 60s at . . . read more
After returning from our voyages in the North we met up with Yumba and drove up to Whiski for a three day conference with the pastors and members of the CCLC. Whiski is a small village just near the border between Congo DRC and Zambia. The day before the conference we began with a worship service. Vanessa went through an overview of the . . . read more
Even though we have already visited Congo and Zambia once this year in January, in late July of 2013 it was time to return again. While there in January it was indicated to us that August would be a much better time to visit. For one thing august is the height of the dry season making the Congo roads much easier to navigate. For another thing the . . . read more
Although Pastor Ohlmann was not able to come in time for Kossi’s wedding, but he did arrive the following day to visit Togo and meet Kossi. This was Todd’s first visit to Togo. We spent a couple days in Togo. We visited three of Kossi’s five congregations. Even though Pastor Ohlmann has been reading reports about Kossi and the . . . read more
Near the end of May 2013 Pastor Kossi Blewu, the head of the Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne de Confession du Togo, celebrated his wedding. By local custom he was already married to his wife for many years. But knowing the importance first of asking the Lord’s blessing and second of being an example to his congregation, he desired to have a . . . read more