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Hey folks we are up in Bassar!
Monday afternoon as we write this email, we are all a little bored and slightly claustrophobic because it has been raining since 0300 in the morning and we haven’t been able to leave the house yet!
Friday we were still in Lomé, we did some cultural orientation in the morning then Tim and Samuel ran around town exchanging money and buying supplies. Bassar has a population of around 40,000(?) but there are something’s you simply can’t buy. Jam for example. In the afternoon we visited the Togo Bible Society office to find our selves in the middle of their postponed weekly chapel meeting! It was wonderful to find out more about what they do in Togo, especially as they are partners in the Bassar project. We then headed off to the Wycliffe Togo office only to find that the head of the office (Napo) who is an Ncham (the language in Bassar) speaker was in the north of the country. Maybe we will try him again at the end of the trip.
a.. PRAY for the Togo Bible society, they are looking to expand their team so that can do more translation and more distribution. b.. PRAY for Napo the head of Wycliffe Togo as he travels that he will clearly communicate the need to have bibles in mother tongues.
Saturday we were up early, breakfast at 6, the bus was an hour late to pick us up, some would say “that is Africa”. We loaded up and headed north. The driver was very good, knowing all the best places to buy more supplies especially fruit along the way. We got stocked up with bananas, mangoes, pineapples and oranges. The first three are not really available in Bassar.
Along the way we stopped for lunch in Sokodé, and met up with Becky Snead who is a Wycliffe UK member working on a dictionary project. It was a welcome break from the bus! We arrived in Bassar at 1600 which gave us a couple hours to check the place out, set up the mozzie nets, get the water filter going and connect up the newly bought gas cooker. Bar a tap that wouldn’t turn off and a bit of tape required for the window screen, the house was wonderful.
a.. Pray for Becky, she is trying to get the dictionary in a state to publish by December. b.. PRAISE for the safe, trouble free journey.
Sunday was our first church experience. We attended Bassar Baptist church, which was a wonderful gentle introduction to African church life. The service was a bit hot, but not too long, and Tim preached for the first time on this trip. The whole team were clapping and moving in the worship, even recognising some of the songs we could sing along in English. We even had a chuckle when they pulled the hymn books out for two songs!
Mid afternoon we popped over to Samuel’s house to meet and greet his family and present the gifts we bought for the kids. It was a warm afternoon but good to meet the rest of Samuel’s clan. A little odd watching Tom and Jerry in French though!
Post evening devo’s Tim and Richie managed to run back to Samuel’s house to watch the last 15 minutes of Spain beating Germany for the Euro 2008 title.
a.. PRAY for Samuel, for protection over his family, b.. PRAY he finds the time and finance to finish building his new house. c.. PRAY as he embarks on a pig farming income generation project.
Monday the rain started during the night, lightning and thunder right over head, somehow some of the team managed to sleep though it! After lunch the rain actually stopped enough for Samuel to take Tim to the doctor. Tim has managed to pick up a throat infection which is limiting his ability to swallow. The doc has prescribed some anti-biotic tablets and some anti-inflammatory; he should be fine in 5 days time.
a.. PRAY the medicine works. b.. PRAY for Jenny as she keeps the team working
