Missionary Todd Ohlmann and I arrived in Lomé, Togo, West Africa Saturday evening, May 5th, 2019. Pastor Kossi met us at the airport and took us to the hostel where we are staying.

Sunday morning we attended the worship service at the main church and seminary building of the Mission Evangelique Lutherienne de Confession du Togo (MELC). It was an interesting mix of English and French translated into the local Ewe language. Missionary Ohlmann preached and also introduced me to the church here.

The past two days we have been going around Lomé looking at potential houses and apartments for me to rent. It’s been both interesting and frustrating.

We have also been working on getting me a year visa. The good new is that today I got my passport back with a visa valid of one year. Now I just have to work on getting a stay card, which will allow me to stay more than 90 days at a time. That requires a planned residence (hence we’ve been looking at places) and a bunch of other hoops, but I have almost 90 days to get the card so I can stay the full year. This stay card (carte de séjour) should let me also get visas for other countries so I can visited them as well.

Tomorrow I begin the work in earnest as we meet with and teach the pastors who completed their studies this last year. On Thursday we will be teaching the 6 students that are currently studying to become pastors.