Bonding

As I write to you tonight from my laptop I have to admit I feel a little different. The past three nights I have slept on a floor that is surrounded by a mud hut and lived with Da Jah and his family. Da Jah did not speak English and I did not speak Kabiye, his local language, but the strange thing is we still grew close and become friends. I was impressed with his work ethic and his level I commitment to God. He is a Christian and I am a Christian and we would read together, sort of. I mean neither of us can speak a common language but we would open our Bibles and point out similar phases such as Jesus, God, and love. It took a lot of work talking with him and I was exhausted after the weekend but man it was worth every minute of it. I saw how he studied Eso Tom (God's word) and how he met with his neighbors to share his life and his message of belief: Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He would pray with his family every night. He had a son whom I formed a friendship with by talking and hiking and teaching English to him. It was special to be with Christians in Togo for me because I knew that we shared the share God even though we were vastly different in how we live and what we eat but still we are humans and humans can all relate.

Now I see how important it is to have a common language and I'm so blessed to be able to go home and share the message of Christ to the people I will live with in the future. I'm motivated to talk after spending three days not being able to. It was so impressive to see this guy work and work for God. On Sunday I had the chance to go to church with him and see him preach and teach. It was amazing. We took the Lord's supper and I even said the closing prayer. Also I gave a small coin and it was all I had. It was about 50 cents and yet that was the most that anyone gave. I felt odd because I didn't expect this. I thought this is just one coin, it means nothing to me, yet this coin will go far in a village that Da Jah lived in.

I'm so richly blessed to be alive and God is continuing to teach me here in Africa.