Togo Day 4

8-12-07

Worship today was awesome! Bill and I overslept and so we missed most of breakfast and I didn't get to shower. Good thing we are all loaded up with bug spray - that way, nobody can tell.
John and I were taken to the church early so that we could prepare. John got ready to preach and I began making a vase and flowers out of balloons. Some members of the congregation wanted to be helpful, but they spoke no english. I was able to mime the action of pumping up the balloons and pull out the color that I wanted next. It was somewhat frustrating, but it all worked out ok.
At worship, we were once again given places of honor and I ended up in the front row with Dr. Nancy, John, Leslie, Pastor Guidi and his wife, Agnes. Worship took a full 4 hours but it seemed to fly by. The pointed the fans at us and gave us towels and bottled water to help us battle the heat.
Pastor John preached a great sermon based on the life of Joseph. He spoke of how "chance" meetings are often arranged by God and that God uses these interactions to bless us or to help us bless others. Pastor Peter did the translating for him. He has a special place in my heart. Peter is filled with an unquenchable joy.
During worship we were able to offer a song. We sang "Blessed Be." The congregation seemed to catch on rather quickly to the melody, but the associated motions were just too much. It was a real blast though.
As worship came to a close we were all presented with sashes which bear American and Togoleese flags and "Peace Lutheran Church" What a blessing! These were all hand woven and very nice. I'm thinking about how mine might one day be transformed into a stole.
After worship we were greeted with refreshments - Coke, Fanta, and fresh coconut. After that we piled into cars and headed toward "downtown" Lome' There we ate a a tourist friendly restaurant. The menu was in French and German. Our translators had difficulty with some of the French words and it just so happened that those were the parts in the German menu that I was able to translate. Imagine that, using German language skills in Togo! We ate a very fine meal there with many of the luxuries of home.
After lunch we went back to the church and met with Pastor Guidi and the elders. They spoke of their thanks and of their plans for th future. They want to launch a radio station. It will cost them $35,000 USD and they expect it to bring in $4,500 USD per month. I like their big thinking, but I can't imagine that if a radio station were that big of a money maker, the market would not already be saturated. With those numbers, they will have made back the investment in 8 months.
When the meeting ended, we began the children's ministry with orphans and children from Pastor Guidi's church. We were planning on only having 30-40 kids, but there were actually closer to 400! So, on the fly we changed plans and put on a sort of variety show. A lot of the leadership fell into my lap because of my musical abilities. It was exhausting, but I loved every minute of it. It was great to have a chance to do something that I am good at.
When all of the children left, we met with the doctors for the clinic and decided how to arrange the space. We had lost of local help in setting up, so that process went rather quickly.
At the end of the day we finally had a chance to debrief as a team. There were concerns raised about pastor Guidi's desire for money and the comparatively opulent lifestyle that he leads when compared to members of his congregation. John explained this as a cultural difference not unlike our experience with the goat yesterday.
I spent the last part of the day talking over a variety of issues with Bill, my roommate. We have a lot in common, so he is pretty easy to talk to.