Mission to Togo - Summer 2016
During the summer of 2016, I got to join my best friend Ellie and spend 6 weeks living and learning with an incredible missionary family in Togo, West Africa. Our host parents, Bruno and Amy Koumedjra, started a mission in Vogan, Togo, in 2008 called Shining in Togo. Since then, they have planted several churches, started a sustainable chicken farm, and discipled and encouraged hundreds. They also started Vogan Christian Academy, a school that started with 12 students and now teaches over 300. They are recognized as the top school in the region, and parents send their children to the school all the way from Nigeria for the chance to learn English and receive a Christ-centered education. Ellie and I had the incredible opportunity to live life with Bruno and Amy and see how they are using sustainable ministry and poverty alleviation methods to make a lasting impact in Vogan and surrounding villages.
AnswersFor nearly a year, Ellie and I had been praying and seeking an opportunity to serve abroad for the summer of 2016. We applied for internships abroad and reached out to a dozen contacts, to no avail. Then suddenly, one phone call to Ellie's friend Danny, and before we knew it we had flights booked to Lome, Togo, to live with a family that Danny's church was partnered with. Danny, a Missions and Involvement Pastor at Pinedale Christian Church, had taken teams over to work with Bruno and Amy on several occasions. When Ellie told Danny that we were looking for an opportunity to serve, and that we were willing to go anywhere, wherever we were led, he didn't hesitate for a second. He immediately called Bruno and asked if we could come their way, and Bruno replied with a resounding, "YES." Little did we know that Bruno and Amy had been praying for students to start getting involved in their mission. We were an answer to their prayers just as much as they were to ours.
"To save time, I'm gonna call you 'Lindsellie.'" - Bruno |
Part of the Fam
On June 20, 2016, Ellie and I walked into Bruno and Amy's home for the first time. Exhausted from 24 hours of traveling and battered by the 2-hour drive down bumpy and dusty Togolese roads, we walked in the door ready to pass out in our beds. Instead, we stayed up a while, meeting everyone in the house and getting acquainted with their home. In addition to Ellie and I, Bruno and Amy have a squirmy and precious 8-month-old son, Gabriel, as well as Bruno's sister, Liza, and two adopted daughters, Mace and Gloria. By the end of our stay, I was so grateful for this family and their packed house, but I confess that on that first night, I felt overwhelmed. I also felt like an outsider. As I watched them laugh together and play with the baby and cook together on that first night, every bit a family, I couldn't help but miss my own family, so many miles away. It was challenging to feel like Ellie and I were on the outskirts. We didn't know their language, and we didn't know them. I found myself frustrated by the small indicators of my unfamiliarity in their home, like the fact that I could never find the trash can, didn't understand their system of doing dishes, or didn't know what to call Liza for the longest time. These little reminders that I was so far from home made the first week very challenging.
Soon enough, though, Ellie and I learned the ropes and felt like part of the family. Most of our time in Togo was spent at the school, which also served as the meeting place for the church. School was still in session, so an average day for us started out by waking up early and heading to the school to spend time with the children and perform English diagnostic testing. We had afternoon chores, and then nearly every evening, we had commitments with the church or youth of the town. We would walk back to the school for weekly prayer meeting, youth night, or game night, or sometimes just to spend more time with children who didn’t have anywhere else to go. Bruno and Amy were also adding a second story to the school building, so on several occasions we helped mix cement and haul material. We spent much of our time with about half a dozen peers who became very dear friends. They attend the church and the school, and they are also mentored by Bruno and Amy, so we often spent time with them at home and at the school. After the first week, Bruno started to ask Ellie and I to lead or contribute to various events, especially the youth events. We shared often in these meetings, talking with our African peers about issues that span the globe and sharing personal testimonies and anecdotes. In addition, on weekends, we would visit two villages where Bruno and Amy have initiated development and planted churches. We would go with our friends to spend the day with the orphaned children of the village, feed them a meal, have story time, play games and sing songs.
When Helping HurtsIn addition to lessons about the concept of time and cultural differences, I also learned more about poverty and constructive poverty alleviation. I realize now that, like many North Americans, my understanding of poverty was strictly material. Naturally, unmet physical needs are an aspect of poverty, but beyond that, there is poverty of relationships and poverty of self – feelings of helplessness, loneliness, low self-esteem, and hopelessness. I learned that alleviating poverty doesn’t mean simply eliminating physical needs, it means empowering the poor to steward a life in which they are able to use their own assets, talents, and gifts to meet their own physical needs. It is much easier for us to pour money into a poor community than it is to develop and empower it, but the former only addresses a symptom, not the root problem. I witnessed this first hand, and had the opportunity to learn a great deal from Bruno and Amy about sustainable missions. I believe that this will have a significant impact on my future. For a while now, I have considered working in the nonprofit sector after graduation. I still do, but I see now that so many organizations only address the material side of poverty and make many common errors in addressing poverty in the majority world and even in the U.S. If in the future I am to work for a nonprofit that addresses poverty, I want my future to be dedicated to alleviating poverty in its entirety, not just in the material sense.
"I think African people are the most beautiful in the earth!"
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Different Perspectives of TimeThe experience differed significantly from my expectations. One aspect of this was the unanticipated amount of down time we had. I expected this trip to be like a typical short-term mission trip, where you go, go, go the entire time and stay very busy. I should’ve known that a schedule like that isn’t sustainable or realistic for a 6-week mission trip, nor is it congruent with the culture of Africa. The truth is that we typically had a few hours of down time in the afternoons when we were able to rest, read, and reflect. I read four books in six weeks, journaled daily, and spent time recharging for our tasks by having long, quality conversations with Bruno, Ellie, and our African friends. Ellie and I quickly learned firsthand what it means to live in a culture with a polychronic concept of time, meaning that Africans tend to view time as an inexhaustible resource. They don’t measure their effectiveness in terms of how wisely they managed their time and how many tasks they accomplished, but rather, they place high value on building relationships. In contrast, America is considered a monochronic culture, where “time is money.” Ellie and I were very uncomfortable the first few days when Bruno brought us back to the house and then disappeared for a nap. We were squirming. “Shouldn’t we be doing something??” But we soon came to understand that in Togo, like many African and European nations, it is customary to rest in the early afternoon. We soon learned to love this “forced rest,” and took advantage of the chance to recharge and learn and reflect. For the first couple of weeks, Ellie and I had a hard time shedding the mindset that this custom was lazy or wasteful. We soon began to understand how this different way of looking at time was just that: different. When we saw how liberal Africans are with their time, we also saw how they were always willing to put others first and build relationships. They are patient and caring in situations where the typical American would be chomping at the bit. This is just one example of many instances where I gained a better understanding of this different culture instead of simply writing it off as inferior to my own.
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This trip was an incredible opportunity to truly live life alongside a family in a different culture, and I’m grateful for all that Bruno and Amy taught us, particularly regarding poverty and sustainable missions. More than that, I am grateful to feel like I have a home and family on the other side of the world.