2019 1st Quarter Report

Church

We began this 2019 with a beautiful Sunday school series on "Money & Spirituality" every Lord's Day. It took us 8 weeks to finish and it has turned out to be a tremendous blessing for our congregation! I gleaned most of the things I taught from the books "Your Finances in Changing Times" by Larry Burkett and "Cleansing the Inside of the Cup" by Jay Wilson.

Immersions

In March it was a blessing to see 7 indviduals from Tchadome & Nyitaveglo make a decision to believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and were immersed and added to the church!! One of the 7 was an older man in his 70's. Praise God!!

2019 Family Camp

Another important event was our family camp.  A yearly gathering of our 5 congregations from Djagbley, Tchadome, Nyitaveglo, Avadjime, and Vogan for 3 days during Easter weekend.  A time for fun, food, fellowship, and lots of preaching!  Our theme was from Matthew 5:13-16 on how Christians are to be salt and light.  This year was fantastic!  Everyone just enjoyed being together!

School 

This January we received an Academic Award from the Regional school board listing our school as one of the top schools in the region. We give God all the glory!! For those of you who don’t know, we started “Vogan Christian Academy” back in 2009 with 12 students and just me and my wife on staff. This year we have 585 students from preschool to 11th grade and close to 40 people on staff.

Last year 2018, we won the regional school soccer championship.  This year was tougher and our guys played well but we didn’t make it past the first round. 

Toward the end of March, we had some people from our capital city, Lome, come and teach our students special techniques such as making bags, earrings, shoes, necklaces, and decoration. Some were also taught how to mount a satellite dish. The students really enjoyed it and we were quite impressed with their work!!

In 2 weeks the end of the year’s exam will begin for our 11th graders.  Then our secondary and primary schools will have theirs in June.  We need your prayers for all our students to do well in these exams.

Chicken Farm

Our chicken farm is doing well.  We have close to 4,000 chickens.  Pray for us to find new, cost efficient and effective ways to feed and care for the chickens.   For our agriculture project at the farm we are growing a lot of corn this year.  We divided the farm into 25 different plots.  Each plot, if it rains and the corn grows well, will be able to feed a family of six for a year.  This is an exciting project and we are using it to teach people from the villages how to do this.

Amy’s Village Visit

 I (Amy) decided to go with Djodjina to visit some of the village children. We were having some of the children write letters to sponsors. While sitting with them, several adults were curious about me and came to talk. I then took that time to tell the Bible story of creation. I also asked permission to take their photos and promised them copies. About 2 weeks later, Djodjina took the photos to them. They were so happy and one of the women, who was the wife of the man with the bicycle, said “Now we will have a picture for our funeral, so people will know who we were” This took me back and even made me cry. These are not dressed up and made ready pics but it’s the only pictures they have of themselves and their smiles are beautiful. Maybe I should go back and give them time to get ready for a photo shoot. For now, these are the ones they have.

Celebrations

In addition to the family camp we have had a few celebrations this year.   Of course, we had a New Year’s Eve celebration where, for the past few years Bruno has been asked to pray for Togo over our local radio station and we always have great singing and fun! 

Later that same month our ladies were able to go on a 2 night retreat. The theme was Love and the women learned the different words for love and their meaning.  They had a blast singing, dancing, playing games, eating, and fellowshipping!  Thank you to everyone who helped sponsor this event!!

In April, we celebrated Bruno’s 40th birthday!  He was really excited to find out that next year he gets to go to a mentor retreat that Bob Russell hosts!  I (Amy) am so thankful to Shon for helping me pull that one off! 

We just had our Togo Labor Day celebration and had our teachers over for games and a great meal!  We also had some of the youth who have been helping at the farm over that evening!

Prayer Requests

-Our vehicle!  It is 20 years old and is breaking down a lot!  Twenty years old and with us for 9 years on these Togo roads is quite a feat!  We are praying for it to last longer!  We really like this vehicle but if it keeps up, we will need to buckle down and find a new gem!!

-My uncle MIGNANOU (translated: be wise) also in his 70’s is very receptive to the gospel.  I went to preach in the village where I’m from and my parents still live and he came to the assembly.  He and I talked some more after the assembly.  Please pray that he will be wiser and make a decision for Christ.

- In 2 weeks we will have a college student, Cali from NC, visit us for 7 weeks and then in June we will be having 2 groups totaled of 35 people.  The first group of 25 consists of 5 dentists and helpers who will be both running a dental clinic and painting!  The 2nd group mostly consists of teachers who will be holding a teacher conference/training with our teachers.  Please pray for all of our visitor’s safety and for doors to be opened for us to win souls and start new Bible study contacts through their coming!

 -Pray for a good farming season!!  It is not raining as it should this time in the villages and is causing famine.

-Divine intervention for the economic situation of Togo and a spiritual breakthrough for the entire country!

- Satan likes to attack when great things are being done for God!  Please pray for the Lord’s protection and blessing over our entire ministry! 

“Now may our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ make your love increase and overflow for each other, and everyone else; may He strengthen your heart so that you will be holy and blameless in His presence when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones.”