Next Steps

Our ABWE colleagues here in Mango have recently voted to approve our extension of service as teachers for the missionary kids in northern Togo for the 2024/2025 school year.  We will have a record number of MKs at the school next year since all the families who serve at the Hospital of Hope and at Hope Radio will be back on the field.  We are thrilled to be able to continue serving the Lord in this capacity!  While we originally came to Togo under “short-term” status, we have always expressed the desire to stay in the country as long as God would allow us to be useful.  It seems that God would have us to stay.  We have also received preliminary financial clearance from ABWE to extend our term for another year.  We ask that you continue to partner with us, both financially and with your prayer support.  We are currently at 86% of our required monthly support commitments, due to some budgeting adjustments made in anticipation of sending another child off to college and overall cost of living.

With the prospect of staying in Togo for another year, we have also begun the process of applying for our Carte de Séjour (residence permit).  This is a tedious and expensive process, but necessary since we will not be allowed to renew our 3-month visas indefinitely.  God has also been orchestrating a very likely solution to our housing needs for next year.  We have currently been sub-leasing a fully furnished home from some missionaries who are on furlough, but who will be returning this summer.  There is another single missionary who will be leaving for furlough in the fall, who would like us to stay in her fully furnished home while she is away.  This new house is just a block away from where we currently live, so still very close to the compound.  Isn’t God’s provision and confirmation amazing?!

We are still hoping to be able to return to the US this summer to help transition Ally into college.  She has been accepted to her top two choice schools, but has not yet made her final decision.  (Unfortunately, the rollout of the new FAFSA guidelines has been causing a terrible delay for universities trying to calculate financial aid packages.)  If things fall into place, we hope to be back in the US from late June to late August.  We would love to be able to see many of you face-to-face then.  While our days are spent lesson planning and grading papers, it is always a thrill to hear about what God is doing through the various ministries here in Mango.  The medical staff and chaplains are always busy providing compassionate care in the name of Jesus, both at the hospital and in the local prison.  The radio personnel are busy translating Biblically sound programming into French and many local tribal languages.  The teachers at the nursing school are training and equipping the next group of Togolese nurses for their service in the hospital.  The church planters and Bible trainers are busy with Bible studies, formal classes at the institute, and Sunday services in villages all around Mango.   And each week, we gather as a team to pray and to praise the Lord for His work in this corner of the world.