A Hope Worth Sharing

I heard my Savior say

“Thy strength indeed is small

Child of weakness, watch and pray

Find in Me thine all in all”

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe

Sin had left its crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow!

  These words have been echoing through my mind the last couple of days. I don’t even remember hearing the song anytime recently (though ironically, today the song was randomly playing from Stephen’s itunes – but that was after I had already been thinking about it!). I expected life with a toddler here to be a challenge, but in some ways it has been an even greater one than I anticipated! Especially when said toddler has not yet started sleeping well here… as a result, I have at times felt tired and weak. And yet the Lord has softly and sweetly encouraged me with these words. In Him I have all I need, and to Him I owe all I am. I am so thankful for the “precious and magnificent promises” my God has given me, such that I have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” – including to life here in Togo (2 Pet. 1:3-4). What hope I have!

  Well, Evelyn and I have still been laying low the last couple of days. She is not seriously ill or anything, but she has developed a cough that is interfering quite a bit with her sleep. She isn’t quite herself and I haven’t wanted to spread her germs around, so we have only done a couple quick visits to the women and kids in the hospital so far. We will see what the Lord has for us to do in that area later on, but for now I am just taking care of my girl – which is, after all, one of my main purposes/roles in life right now anyway =-)  Stephen has been super busy still at the hospital… I’m trying to let him tell you about that part, but anytime the poor guy sits down to write a blog post he gets another call to go down to the hospital. =-p

  On Sunday we had such an… interesting? fun? thought provoking? slightly sad?... experience at the little village church we went to. At first Stephen and I were planning to walk down the road about a mile to Tsiko Church, which is the closest (and also the local “mega-church”, haha!). We decided Evelyn couldn’t handle the walk in the sun, so at the last minute we hitched a ride with one of the missionary ladies to her church, which is in a small village about 20 minutes away (by car, phew!). It was just a little hut made out of bamboo-type sticks, a dirt floor, and a thatched roof – about the size of most people’s master bedroom =-p There were probably about 50 people packed in there! What I loved about this little church was how they worshipped. Many of the Baptist churches around here sing a lot of American/western hymns they’ve learned from missionaries, and just give them a kind of African flavor in their delivery =-) This church did sing a hymn or two in Ewe (the most common local tribal language) that we recognized,  such as “How Great Thou Art” – which is always a treat to worship along with them! Our hearts can sing a long in English. But what we really loved was the rest – the most truly Togolese and heartfelt worship service I have seen here. In addition to those hymns, they sang their own music in their own particular way, and it was a joy to watch and even participate in! Yes, believe it or not – percussion and dancing in a Baptist church! ;-) The people welcomed us kindly and though we couldn’t understand the service (it was in French, then translated into Ewe), worshipping with God’s people is worshipping with God’s people. The sad part though was what Stephen told me later (I had to take a restless Evelyn out). The missionary lady, Brenda, translated enough of the sermon into English that it left us feeling a little troubled. Like our experience with some of the other little churches in our previous visit, this pastor (and seemingly the rest of the congregation) had much passion for the gospel and for salvation, but Scripture was not explored in depth. “Jesus saves!” was excitedly proclaimed, but the riches of what Scripture has to say about the gospel and the inheritance that is ours in Christ, His instructions for life and godliness are usually not touched on much. Many of the churches here are in such great need of teaching and discipleship. In addition to sharing the love of Christ through medicine, this is where our heart really longs to help these people. We can (at times) postpone death through medicine. We can also (at times) improve people’s quality of life. But we all eventually die – the gospel is the true answer to death, and only in Scripture do we find true quality of life! That is hope, and that is what we long for these people to fully know. The hope that encourages my heart when life is hard and gives me purpose is the same hope we want to share!

  

  Well, I was going to tell you about some funny interactions Evie has had with the people here, especially the kids at church on Sunday… but that will have to wait for another post because this one is already long winded =-p Thank you friends and family for your prayers!