Revival in Togo
Through prayer and Bible work, a dying church gets a fresh start!
When you read a story from Train Them 2 Fish, it is normally an exciting tale of conversions in Congo, but Train Them 2 Fish has a mission even broader than reaching Congo with the everlasting gospel. We work to reach all the French-speaking countries of Africa. One of those countries is Togo, a small nation in West Africa with a population estimated at 9.5 million—and a Seventh-day Adventist membership just over 10,000, with 80 churches and 13 ordained ministers.
Recently, the Togo conference held an outreach campaign to celebrate 60 years of Adventist presence in the nation. The Togo conference invited our team to work in the Kloto region where they have a project to establish a second conference. In the mornings, we hosted health expos; in the evenings, we held preaching services at four different locations; and throughout our time there, we provided a training program for ten Bible workers.
One of our evangelistic sites was the Agou Adzépé Seventh-day Adventist church, a dying congregation of 12 members. Agou Adzépé used to be a flourishing church with 60 active members. Then someone in the community accused one of the members of practicing witchcraft, and things fell apart. Pastor Bienfait, the main speaker at Agou Adzépé during our evangelistic program, organized 24 hours of prayer and fasting with the 12 members, asking the Lord to revive His church and give it a new, positive reputation in the community.
After the day of prayer, Pastor Bienfait, together with the local pastor, led two trained Bible workers in an aggressive door-to-door ministry while the medical team provided free health care at Agou Adzépé every morning for two weeks. The pastors and laymen did prayer walks and visited people in their homes, praying with some and studying the Bible with others, inviting them to the health expo and to the evangelistic meetings. Simon, an alcoholic well-known to the community, came to the health program and learned about freedom from alcohol. Simon decided to stop drinking. He accepted the workers’ invitation to study the Bible every morning, and he attended the meetings in the evenings. Neighbors soon realized that Simon had gone a number of days without drinking. They also saw him going to church every night.
At the same time, one of the Bible workers began studying the Bible with his own family. This worker, the youngest in his family and the only Adventist, still lived with his parents. He invited Pastor Bienfait to pray with his family as he continued sharing Bible truth with them.
At the end of the campaign, Brother Simon, five people from the Bible worker’s family, and 13 others gave their lives to Jesus. When these 19 were baptized at Agou Adzépé, the church membership increased from 12 to 31 people! God completed the miracle by erasing the witchcraft reputation from the Seventh-day Adventist church at Agou Adzépé. Instead, the community talks about the church that offers free health care and helps people to stop drinking. Two Bible workers have been assigned to nurture the new believers and continue Bible studies with more people in the community.
Please pray for the Agou Adzépé church, that the fire kindled there will continue to burn and that more souls will come to Jesus. Also pray that they will soon be able to build a church shelter for the growing congregation. Thank you for your prayers and support of the work in Togo!
Location
Togo
Author
Thomas Ongasa is the president of Train Them 2 Fish, a ministry focused on bringing the everlasting gospel to the French-speaking countries of Africa.
How You Can Help
Pray for the church of Agou Adzépé to continue proclaiming the everlasting gospel in Togo and to stay connected to Christ!
Pray for the Train Them 2 Fish team as they send Bible workers to reach the masses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond.
Give. For $90 a month, you can sponsor one church planter/Bible worker. Mark your donations “Congo Workers” or “Togo Workers” and send to:
Mission Projects International
PO Box 237
Kirksville, MO 63501
To give securely online, visit:
www.missionspro.org/donate