Saturday 12-13-2008

Saturday, December 13, 2008

On Friday night we attended church service at Wuiti Baptist and listed to Jonathan give a great sermon. After Jonathan’s sermon a leader of the church began having prayer requests and basically having a prayer service. Every need of the church and its parishioners was mentioned with its own individual prayer. The group was very comforted in our perception of the duration of the prayer meeting as Jonathan made mention of the incredible prayer life and length of the prayer meeting. It also seemed to the entire group that our jet lag had arrived on Friday night. None of us could tell what day it was much less what time.

Saturday morning everyone seemed to physically feel better and seemed to be somewhat adjusted to the time. This morning we all had a very good time when we were so blessed to spend time with Wuiti’s children’s church. About 100 kids, aged 3 to 12 were in two different groups having a version of “Children’s Church”. Those children are the most beautiful things God has created. They loved to see us and have us spend time with them. I wish we could have stayed longer with them but had to get to the Hosanna Church for a quick meeting before lunch.

After a great lunch of Po Boys we went to Hosanna’s church about 20 miles East of Togo to their mission church. We had to travel down a very congested road with many people scavenging on each side of the road. We turned off the main road and traveled on a dirt road about 2 or 3 miles off the beaten path to find their newly formed church. The people were very glad to see us and very kind.

We went out into their village to witness and speak to some of the parishioners of the church. We each took turns visiting with the locals and sharing the Gospel. Randy Calvert had the most interesting encounter of the day as he was witnessing to a woman with 4 or 5 kids and telling her of Christ. When it came time to see if she wanted to accept Jesus she told Randy that “She had the marks of Voodoo on her and she could not pray” She also explained that she was afraid to pray as she had friends in the past that prayed and those friends had bad things happen to them. She did allow us to pray with and for her children as she sat watching which was encouraging. Randy took some good natured fun as we were leaving as we were wondering if he had a Voodoo hex on him. Dudley asked Randy if Randy would mind catching another plane home next week as we didn’t really want to be in the air with him. We also thought about going back to the woman and asking her to put a Hex on Liberty Hill tonight for the game….wonder if it would work….we were afraid that she would charge us three chickens and we didn’t want to steal the Pink Chickens from the locals as payment…yes….pink chickens….we have pictures.

The ride to and from that mission church was very interesting…We saw all sorts of people make their living in any way they can….they sell anything and everything they have.

We had to be back from the mission church in time to attend a wedding ceremony in which we were invited. The church was packed and everyone was dressed to the hilt. The Bride and Groom were very beautiful as were the decorations of the church. As most all men we really didn’t notice many things about the wedding service but did manage to get many pictures and video for our wives so all of their questions would be answered in some manner. It was a truly joyous occasion as is most of their church services are.

Dinner was great tonight as we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green peas with iced tea! Goodness gracious was it good. We are all really happy about the iced tea they make for us at lunch and dinner.

Tonight we went the Hosanna church for evening service and heard some of the most beautiful singing we have ever heard. Jonathan gave another great sermon from Luke 5 and Dudley gave his testimony. Watching the congregation give their tithes and offerings is truly a treat as they form a “Congo” line to the pulpit and present their tithe. I don’t quite have the dance moves down but I plan to by the end of the trip. Gracious these women have some rhythm and moves! Charles Ray and I just tried to keep time with the clapping.

By the way…did you know that you could get 7 adult males into a Toyota Camry….neither did we. Now I know how those clowns do that trick at the circus! Our Chiropractic bill will be a bit expensive when we get home.