Knee Deep in Water

It is now rainy season here in Togo. It does not seem to be quite as bad as Liberia was, but we are getting pretty frequent rain storms these days. Sunday I did not work until 2pm, so wanted to go to church at Action Faith. Some of our translators go there and the pastor is Ghanaian so the message is spoken in English first, then translated. I have really enjoyed this church, the pastor, dancing, worship, and people - many of which at least speak small amounts of english.

(My favorite part of this picture is the guy who just came on his motorcycle...helmet and all...and just got right into that drain to figure out where it was clogged. Guess the helmet is good to have if all the sudden it started working and he got sucked in...lol:))

The rain was comin down quite hard as we lfet the ship, but decided to brave the weather anyway. The translators assured us that most people will be late anyway because of the rain. When we arrived, this is what we saw. The area outside was knee deep in parts and water was spilling into the church because the drain could not handle the amount of water the sky was dumping down.

Once more buckets arrived, I hopped out and got to work...skirt and all. We all spent the first 1.5 hrs bailing water, mopping up with rags, and cleaning the church. Once we finished and the rain slowed, we put the chairs up and had church.

It was a lovely morning all in all. It was so neat to be a part of the church and everyone workin hard together as a team to protect the church from more water damage. One of our translators Thierry-(in the black with blue bucket) was even out in his really nice Sunday clothes...just took his shoes off, rolled up his pants, and got to work.

There are many things I love about the people and churches here. I rediscovered some of that today. They have an amazing love for God and each other...they take worship and church seriously. It is so easy for us, me included, to get caught up in my own time....thinking church should be from 8-10 and if it is not done in that time I get annoyed. Here, time doesn't mean much....the purpose of going to church is of greater importance and doesn't necessarily have a time restraint. If it means cleaning for a couple hours first, that fine...church will still happen adn they want to take time to worship no matter what. Of course after a long 4 hour service I would be lying if I told you I didnt get a bit antsy and sometimes I do wish time mattered to them more:)

Anyway...of course some people stayed home in bed, but many braved the weather and got wet trying to save their church...it was in no way an inconvenience for them. And once they spent a few hours cleaning they did not go home...but instead spent the next few hours worshiping God and even thanking him for the rain:) Thierry plays drums and didn't even think twice before going up soaking wet, sitting at the drums, and playing for worship. It was a wonderful morning.