Projects:
- Togo Church Planting
- Benin Church Planting
- Togo Palms Youth Camp
- Vocational Training - Works with Timothy Initiative
- Deaf Ministry
Deaf Ministry:
- Unreached People Group - Least reached, among the least reached
- 200,000 in Togo and Benin
- 95% without access to education
- Education, communication, life transformation
Next Steps:
What do you do in your free-time?
- Plays with dog. Hangs out with teammates. Go-karting.
What is your Church’s name?
What is your church service like?
- Similar to our church. Adults and kids ds are together at first and they worship together. Kids then go to story time and games and then adults finish service.
What is the pastor’s name?
How did you get involved in Togo?
- Went to Africa after graduation from college. It felt like home. Azlyn asked God what he wanted her to do and Africa seemed to be the correct fit.
How did you meet Mousea?
- Found a deaf church attached to a school and he was the teacher at that church.
How many people have you taught sign-language?
- 2 kids directly - the rest of the time they try to get them into schools.
What’s your favorite thing to do?
- It’s her job to meet the family of deaf children and it’s one of Azlyn’s favorite things to do.
How many days a week do you go to service?
How many people are in your church?
- About 50 kids and about 40 adults.
Do the kids come alone or do the parents come with them?
- Often the kids come first and sometimes invite their parents.
What do you do during your day?
- Learning sign-language, teaching Bible stories, sometimes hanging out at home and keeping in touch with people, sometimes hanging with the team, meeting a deaf child, grocery shopping
What is a missionary?
- Anybody that wants to tell people about Jesus. Anyone could be a missionary.
What do you eat in Togo?
- A lot of rice, cornmeal paste that looks like mashed potatoes.
What state where you born in?
Why did you become a missionary?
- Saw there were a lot of people (deaf, orphans, etc) that were ignored and needed someone to speak up for them. Felt called to be that person.
What does Togo look like?
- The ocean is close. There is a lot of sand and water. There are a few paved roads but most are dirt. There are palm trees, coconuts, mangos.
Do you have to pay to be a missionary?
- No but she has to raise support. Has 7 churchs partnered with her.
How old are you?
Are you allowed to talk about God and pray in the open in Togo?
- Mostly, yes. There are a few limits. Can’t go into a public school.
Why do you call the food pot?
- French word that means paste.
What’s the culture like in Togo?
- Africa kind of has its own culture and each reach has a unique culture of it own. The people in Togo are very open and kind. They are open to talking to spiritual things. Everything has a spiritual component to it.
Is Jesus one of many Gods?
- Yes. The people of Togo tend to have multiple idols.
Why did you choose Togo?
- Azlyn tried to go to many different ferent countries in Africa other than Togo. God shut the door on those and reminded her that it isn’t about what she wants - but about what He wants for her.
Are there any jobs like fireman and policeman?
- Yes, there are. There are a lot of police - less firemen.
Is Togo corrupt?
- Yes, unfortunately there is a lot of corruption. There are a lot of bribes.
How many hours a day do you work?
- Usually 7-12 hours depending on what’s going on.
Is there a Togolese Bible? Are the stories modified for the culture?
- There are 40 different dialects. Not all of them have the Bible in their language ge but they can figure it out from other dialects. They really relate to the agricultural stories.
What does prayer look like in Togo?
- It looks really different. It kind of feels disorganized but also very powerful. Everyone prays at the same time loudly until the leader says “Amen” and then they move on. They tend to pray out of desperation and a “need” to pray rather than a feeling that they must.
Does Togo feel modern?
- Mostly, now. The capital city is more modern but outside is not.
Are there traces of the one true God even among the different religions?
- They are mostly about VooDoo and animism. Their sacrifices to idols feels very “old testiment” and they are trying to appease their gods. This makes it easy to create a bridge to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ.
How do you remember all the signs in sign-language?
- Azlyn makes a lot of errors.
What’s your favorite part of serving in Togo?
- Seeing the deaf ministry come along to where it is now. There wasn’t even a deaf ministry when she first started and felt that God put it on here long before she was in Togo.
