Health Warning

There should be a health warning or small print included when you sign up to go on a short term missions team that it might just change your life...and in some cases drastically.

That's just what happened for Ruth Wilson. Ruth was a member of the MMS(I) Volunteers in Mission team to Togo back in July 2007.

Team Ireland 2007

From that visit she felt God's call upon her life and put herself forward as a Mission Partner with the Methodist Church. After a lengthy process she was accepted and in September went to Selly Oaks mission training college to prepare to go to The Gambia, where she will be teaching.

Ruth with some of her fellow international students who attend Selly Oaks

Today Ruth was commissioned in Fivemiletown Methodist as a mission partner in a wonderful service of worship and will shortly be leaving to take up her new post in Banjul.

Some of Team Ireland 2007 with Ruth at her commissioning

Ruth heard God's call, listened and followed. I know that He will continue to guide and to keep her through this big and exciting change, He will keep her paths straight and protect her from any harm.

When you surrender yourself to God's will and put your life in His hands you have no idea what you could be doing or where you could end up but you can always be sure that He has everything under control.

Déjà vu!!!

Today was a day that I thoroughly enjoyed and will remain with me for a long long time.

We’ve been in Togo a week now and most of us haven’t really left Lomé much…and in my case the hotel!! But today we made a journey along the coast. Our first stop was in Anecho were we had to greet the King. Not just as formal as the equivalent in Ghana but interesting none the less. One point of notice was that Pauline wasn’t allowed to wear her flip flops…she had to take them off before we went in because only the king is allowed to wear that style of shoe in the ‘kingdom’!! He was a very jovial chap and more than willing to chat to us…telling us a little of the Lawson family history (a name which is kinda like the equivalent to ‘Smith’ back home!!) and how they had descended down many years from someone who had spent much of his life in England. He even had this humongous book in which that person had kept every piece of correspondence he had ever made and which has now been published. He is from a line of Methodists so one thing we struggled with was that if he was a Christian how could he hold in line with the royal traditions of taking a second wife when he became king??!!

Me with the King of Anecho

Then we had a short lunch stop beside the meeting of the waters where a mad monkey tried to attack me. Well no it was small and cute…but it did try to attack me!!

The mad monkey!!

Our afternoon visit was to Agbodrafo which for me was an extremely surreal experience. It was in Agbodrafo that we spent two and a half weeks last year. Time spent in the church compound with the people and children as we built an extension to the school, renovated 2 other classrooms and spent time in children’s clubs. So it was very special to be back – to see the absolutely finished product and to renew friendships with people we had spent a lot of time with last year. It was amazing to see the faces of children who recognised us and just lit up as we talked to them. Many of them asked for other members of last years team by name... Pastor Wesley and Mr Mark were 2 that stuck out for me...its clear that they had a great impact on those lives to be asked for a year later.

Some of my welcoming committee!!

The site when we arrives last year(left) The site when we left last year (right)

The site as it was today!

Two pictures which were in the classroom

The whole experience held many mixed emotions for me...this was a place I honestly never thought I would see again so to finally get there having been in Togo a week I finally felt like I was back.
Back in Agbodrafo :)

That is where I would consider ‘home’ here...not Lomé...I don’t like cities at the best of times but I didn’t spend much time here and I think I left a little piece of myself in Agbodrafo when we left last year(...as I think I do with every place I visit.)

There was also another marker here for me – most definitely the mural which I had helped to paint in one of the classrooms. I just had to make sure it was there to help me realise it was all real. And it just made me smile as memories from last year cam flooding back – the painstaking process of drawing the mural, painting it – making sure not to go outside the lines...then there was the big brown smudge where Mr Wesley had managed to paint the wrong colour in the wrong place!!

The beginnings of the Mural : Moi et Mr Wesley et Moi avec Pauline

Moi with the mural a year on

So many memories came back as I wandered through the compound – but the one thing that was clear was that God is most definitely there and He is most definitely working in that place. It just amazes me to think that the witness and influence of our team could last so long and will probably outlast us – but that is not our doing, that is God using us as His hands and feet for His glory and He is still working amongst those fantastic people.

I’m just sad that I won’t be able to attend the church service tomorrow morning as I would love to be able to share with them one more time. But instead I will be preparing to fly back to Ghana and back to the lake, which I’m also very excited about – it’ll be great to be back home – we’ll home for now!! :)

Team Ireland/Togo 2008...Moi, Oliver, Elizabeth, Fidele, Pauline, Gerard et Glenn

Gerard, Moi et Fidele