. . . you know there is a big disaster. I can’t remember the ever seeing my grandmother run anyway.

This is one of the Nigerian sayings that Pastor Bassey quoted as the introduction to his sermon this last week.

I spent the last week near the city of Badagari in Nigeria. Here most of the pastors from Nigeria, Ghana, and Togo gathered together for a joint West Africa pastoral conference. This was caused mainly by the political insecurity of Nigeria. Since it seemed abnormally unsafe for me to journey to Efa we brought all the pastors together near Lagos, Nigeria. Once there of course we needed something for them to do. I was also hoping that it would be a good chance for Kossi and the men from Togo to learn from the deeper theological understanding of the Nigerian men. Besides the original reasons it turned out to be an excellent opportunity for me to hear the pastors speak and preach. An opportunity I have seldom had before since I am usually the one preaching. Further I learned a lot just by being able to socialize daily with the pastors. The Nigerians who regularly hold conventions and conferences on their own were excited now because of the addition of men from Ghana and Togo.

There was some last minute difficulty caused by the nationwide strike in Nigeria. At the beginning of the year the Nigerian government removed subsidy on fuel. This meant the gas prices at the pump jumped immediately from 65 nira per liter ( $1.52 /gallon ) to 110 nira per liter ( $2.57 /gallon ). The National Labor Committee started a strike on Monday January 9^th. The same day the pastors were planning on traveling from Efa to Lagos. Martin Essien however, knowing the problems this would cause quickly rescheduled their travel for Sunday night. The men from Ghana and Togo were not as easy to reschedule but because most of their travel took place across Togo and Benin it didn’t delay them too badly. They showed up late Monday night and were ready for the conference on Tuesday morning. Otherwise the strike really didn’t cause problems for the conference. Although it made it impossible for me to visit Efa even for a single day.

Present at the conference was one young man named Jospeh Kofi Ackah from Ghana. Previously in contact with Steve and Gretchen Eichstadt, Joseph had contacted me about the possibilities of beginning a church in Ghana. We met here at the conference where we were able to spend a little time in study each day. He asked for baptism and agreed to attend the Bible Institute in Efa, Nigeria. His hope is to return to Ghana after his time at the Bible Institute.

Pastor Kossi Blewu from Lome, Togo arrived with more joyful news. Currently serving two congregations in the city of Lome, Pastor Kossi has four new outreach areas he wishes to pursue. Two at various places around the city of Lome where small mission congregations are already present. And two more in the country of Benin were an acquaintance of Kossi who gave his life to the Lord has donated land hoping these places may be used to build churches.

May the word of grace continue forth by the power of the Holy Spirit,

Pastor Matthew Ude

November 25, 2009 – 8:20pm – Lome Togo

Choir in Lome Togo singing in church

Leave it to the French to make things difficult. I arrived in Lome Togo today after only a very brief stint in Ghana. It really amazes me how different the two countries are although put together I do not think their combined width is even 150 miles. One of the differences is the outlets. Its true that everywhere I go has different outlets from the UK to Nigeria to India. Here in Togo I have found generally the same two round holes like in India, BUT they are inset into a round cavern with a single flat vertical protuberance coming out of the wall, so that they not only need the correct sized metal protuberances sticking out from your plug, but the shape of the rubber housing on the plug itself must all fit within certain parameters. This made me very doubtful as to the usefulness of my ingenious American made plug of all countries. However if I underestimated the French flare for uniqueness, I also underestimated American cleverness, my handy little international plug did indeed fit just fine without any problems. It seems France and America can indeed work together. And I must say that however strange their outlets the food here in Togo is the best I have found in Africa. It is incredible. It isn’t just the food either everything in Togo seems to take after France, which is understandable since it was a french colony. I admit that I don’t know that much about French style, but there is something about the hair and clothes here that just seems well French.

Children singing and dancing in Lome Togo

Another and better surprise awaited me in the car on the way to Togo. We have a pastoral conference in Lome this weekend. In order to lend support and help to encourage both themselves and those members in Lome, Pastor Gideon, as well as Martin Essien, Pastor Essien Michael, and Pastor Eric from Nigeria, are coming to take part in this conference. I flew first to Ghana to visit the church there and picked up Pastor Gideon and brought him with me to Togo. When we only a few miles from Lome, Pastor Gideon received a phone call. After talking on the cell phone for a little while he informed me that he had forgotten that he has a program Thursday night in Accra, so he would have to go back to Ghana and then return on Friday to Lome to take part in the Pastoral Conference. Naturally curious, I inquired about the nature of his program. I have to preach the Gospel he said at this other church. I do try hard not to jump to conclusions, in these foreign lands it is so easy to misunderstand what is going on especially when their native language is not English. So I inquired further. Turns out what he meant was that he was going there to do exactly what he said, to preach the Gospel and show them the difference between what the Gospel truly was and what their church taught. “We must not hide in our churches, we must go to them and tell them the truth,” he told me. At that point I almost could have hugged Gideon if I weren’t German, well maybe thought of hugging him, well . . .