In l'Afrique

Bonsoir, Brothers and Sisters in the States

I do not have the best internet connection so I have to make this brief.

This is my update:
We were meant to leave on Thursday 2 weeks ago. Our flights were canceled and we ended up splitting our team in two to make 2 separate journeys on 2 separate days to Togo. My team left last Saturday. We spent 22 hours in flight, 18 hours in airports, slept in a lot of chairs, ate our "last American meal" of McDonalds in the Frankfurt airport, stepped on Ethiopian ground, tried to decipher a whole lot of French, and arrived in Lome, Togo last Monday. The other half of our team encountered just as much opposition as we did, but arrived safely (and together, after also being split a second time) on Tuesday.

When we finally all made it here, we were so thankful to be back together after separating 3 days before and were incredibly eager to get on the University campus and share the Gospel with students there. And we are still eager.

When we finally got everyone together, our project leader had to share with us that there had been rioting on campus (which seems to the popular thing here in french-speaking Africa... this is why we couldn't go to Cote D'Ivoire). Negotiations have failed to be made and the campus has been closed since we got here.

I cannot express the emotions my team has gone through together, but we are confident of the Lord's faithfulness. It was our leaders' idea to contact supporters in this time of potential discouragement and ask for joined prayer that this wouldn't be so.
Pray that:
a peaceful negotiation will be made
the campus will open and we will be allowed on it
while we are waiting, we are learning more about the character of the Lord
He is filling us with a Spirit of unity and peace and boldness in preparation for when we do get the opportunity to minister to the students

In the mean time, we have been blessed to meet students outside of campus. And we practice our french with the staff at the compound we are staying at. We are enjoying immersing ourselves in this culture and language. But this city needs hope. Please pray for that. Pray that our brothers and sisters in Togo would see the Lord, that they would experience His joy, that they would be filled with hope. Right now, the church down the road from our compound is joining for days on end of unceasing prayer for the Holy Spirit to fill this city. Pray with them that they would experience the fullness of God. Pray without ceasing.

Praise God that none of our team has gotten sick yet. Praise Him that we were called to this place where no other project has ever ventured before, and that He has specific work that He has prepared in advance for us to do here.

I pray that God blesses you with the immeasurable riches of His mercy and grace, and that He is keeping each of you near to Him, that each of you are growing in wisdom and knowledge of His character.

Thank you for a being a part of this adventure He has called us on.