Funerals often seem to be at the very center of Togolese life. We drove from Kara to Dapaong with Nagbandjoa and Claire to attend the funeral of Bidenou's mother. Because her father is a village chief and her mother was the daughter of a village chief, there was a huge crowd. The amount of support that church leaders from around the country gave to Pastor Nakpergou was a great sign of how much he and his wife are respected.

Worship is almost always lively in the Kara church.

Translating is way more tiring than teaching, especially when the speaker is very lively and uses lots of movement and motions. Sometimes Gregg manages to get it right.

Not only do the seminar cooks have to prepare 3 meals a day for large groups over an open fire, they have to do it while caring for their children.

Our pastors like to tell visitors stories about MoJ founders, Tom and Joan Beak.

In Kara we do seminars with our students once per month after church. We try and arrange to do seminars with our student in Lome whenever we are in town. So, going to pick up a visiting team leads to an opportunity to teach and to stay in town for several days to meet with Damigou and with key student leaders.

Scott Johnson, (behind Claire on the left), was with Jayne and I when we travelled to Togo in January of 1995 to determine if we were really called to Togo. Scott has visited us almost every year since, usually bringing a team with him. It was very clear that the Holy Spirit was guiding in the choice of every team member and every topic this year.

When you go on a short-term missions trip, the most important thing you can do is build relationships with the local people. Nick Giancola and Scott's whole team were great at loving and building relationships.

Girls from the Girls Program learning to read and write in Moba.

Every 5 years, the MIJ churches elect a new board. This year, Pastor Nakordja is the president. The leaders in this photo are respected throughout the country for their character, wisdom and knowledge of God's Word.

Pastor Nagbandjoa encourages all of the Cell Groups of the Kara church to organize outreach activities. Jayne's cell group decided to go to the accident ward of the local hospital.

Leading the new member/baptism class is another opportunity for our students to develop their leadership in the church.

The living room of our home in Kara has no furniture so that it can be used for children's church.

Meals of corn "pate" waiting for the seminarists to come and get their dinner. The cooks will scoop the sauce on top when you are ready.

Visiting teams are not the only ones with something to teach. We always arrange our annual Pastor's Seminar to have one week with visiting teachers and one week with local teachers. Here, Pastor Nagbandjoa is sharing what he learned from his program in Ivory Coast on planning and administration.