Togo. Wow did I love it. It is filled with the kindest most joy-filled people. We were received by amazing hospitality and well cared for and loved the whole time. This was my first time in Africa, and I absolutely loved it. We had a lot of free time this month and less time of structured ministry. I loved the freedom and lack of schedule and all the time to hang with squadmates and the kids on our street.

Housing:

• 3 teams lived together this month
• We lived in one house with three bedrooms. Each room had one bed.
• Several people slept on their mats in our living room
• There was running water, always a plus! There was only cold water, but this did not matter because it is HOT.
• Our hosts served us so well and provided delicious meals and drinks. Plus we had plantains which are my favorite.

Places visited:

• Lomé, Togo. There was little to no travel this month and we stayed in and around Lomé.
• We went to the beach which was quite close to our house.

Travel:

• We had long travel to get to Lomé including a layover in Brazil and in Morocco.
• But after arrival to Lomé, we have only driven short distances in our hosts van or in a taxi.
• Here they don’t use Uber, but they do have Gozem, which is exactly like Uber but is all in French.

What we did:

• We are here with Pastor Zank and his ministry Latter Glory Missions
• Our assigned ministry this month was preaching and teaching.
• We preached in churches.
• Pastor Zank also has a Bible school where adults attend in three different classes. We were able to teach at the Bible school as well. I really enjoyed the Bible school.
• There are tons of kids that live on our street and our unassigned ministry was to love on these sweet kiddos.
• We gave high fives, held them, played games, connected however we could, whenever we could. It was fun to watch them grow more comfortable with us after about a week. They are so cute.

• We held a kid’s event where we did a brief. Devotional, a craft and lots of songs and games.

• We also held a Beauty for Ashes, or women’s, retreat for the women in the church (I took care of the babies during the retreat).

New Experiences:

• Learned a few Ewe words
• Picked up a little more French (a very small amount)
• Wore a baby on my back! This brought me a lot of joy.

• Attended an African wedding.
• Prepared multiple sermons and teachings and taught at a Bible school.
• Danced in an African church

What I enjoyed most:

• Wearing babies!
• Playing with and getting to know the kids on our street.
• Building relationships in the community with the guards at the hotel, the women who fry dough outside of our house, and the women who sell us snacks.
• Izzy. This little boy captured mine and all of our hearts on day one. I’m not exactly sure of his name because language barriers, but it starts with something sounding like Izzy. So, we dubbed him Izzy and have ran with it.

 (amazing photos courtesy of Kristen Duguay as always)

This wraps up month 4 and takes us into month 5 Ghana! We start with debrief, a time to all rest and hang out and talk about what we have learned this last month and, on the race so far. Leadership has raised up new squad leaders. They will step into these roles and our beloved alumni squad leaders will head back stateside soon. We will also have team change. My sweet team J-Walkers who I have been with for these first 4 months will be split up. It will definitely be a sad time. I also get to look forward to a new team, new team members and new lessons to be learned.

With so much love,

Kayla