Togo Week 2

Bonjour à ma famille et à tous mes amis!  (Hello family and friends!)  Comment ça va? (How are you?)  All is well here in Noepe, Togo, here’s a little update from week 2 =) 

We had our first week of Titus Project here at YWAM Noepe in Togo and a great week it was!  We have a full class of 18 bible teachers from 9 different nations, some of whom are already leaders of schools within YWAM and one of them is actually going to take what he’s learned here and pioneer another Titus Project at his YWAM base in Cameroon next year!  Yay for bible training schools being spread throughout West Africa \(^o^)/. 

I’m not gonna lie, I was a little intimidated at first to be teaching a group of mostly older men as a young woman who just finished SBS, especially since some of them had already had years of staffing SBS.  I thought, ‘Who am I to teach them?  They’ve already been teaching for years and here I am teaching them how to do things?’  But the intimidation quickly faded and was replaced with confidence and excitement as I saw their friendly faces and eagerness to learn.  I had the privilege of teaching on ‘The Heart of a Teacher, How to Present a Teaching, and How to Give and Receive Feedback’ this week. 

As I reflected on the heart of a teacher, I was reminded that I’m not here for personal growth in order to better my teaching skills but rather so I can help to equip others with tools so that they can grow as teachers and bring transformation to others.  Having this mindset has helped to take the pressure off of teaching and to make it more enjoyable as I serve God in this season. 

My French is still quite limited but I’ve been making progress each day and am thankful that gestures can go a long way too =)  Here are a few more sentences that I’ve learned!

1. Where is the toilet? (Où est la toilette?0

2. I don’t like ants because they bite me.  (Je n’aime pas les fourmis car ils me piquent)

3. This food looks delicious!  (Cette nourriture à l’air delicieuse!)

Highlights of this week:

- ‘Spicy’ African worship on base and at church

- Got to try some Fufu which is a native dish to Togo made up of mashed yams paired with a spicy soup, I wanted to try the one with the large mysterious rodent (still not sure what it was) but it was too expensive so I had chicken instead =P 

- Got to ride a moto taxi in town today!  It was so fun riding through the streets and corn field with the wind blowing in my hair =) 

- Was sad to say bye to some of the outreach teams that left but was excited to welcome new people, once again thankful for the many friends that I’ve been able to make here =)

Okie dokie, that’s all for now!  The ‘students’ start teaching this week, looking forward to seeing them grow.

I love you all!  Sorry for the lack of pictures, due to the internet connection I can’t post much but will definitely post them after outreach =) 

Bye for now! Au revoir!