Martin Blackadder shares his experiences of the mission to Togo.

I first heard about the mission to Togo earlier this year when Mervyn, our minister, announced that Albert Houston would be going as part of a team intending to do building work there. Although it interested me at the time I really didn’t consider being a part of this project because I thought the team had already been chosen and organised. However, in talking to my brother in law Alan Lorimer, and later with Wesley Campbell who was going to be in charge of the team, I discovered that there was a need for a plasterer and Wesley asked me if I would join the team. Although I was filled with trepidation at the thought, I agreed to do this, believing that God was in this plan.

So, having received an unbelievable amount of vaccinations, on 7 July 2007 I found myself on board an Air France plane heading to Lome, Togo in West Africa.

My first impressions of Agbodrafo, the village in which we were to be stationed, was that of poverty and what looked like the most basic existence. There were no roads as we know them. The housing consisted of no more than block buildings and nothing more. Our job as a team was to refurbish the existing two classrooms of the local school and build a completely new classroom. Our team consisted of 18 men and women across a wide variety of age ranges, most of whom had no building experience. However, every one of the team gave 100% and made up for any lack of experience. Everyone had to “muck in”, preparing walls for painting, repairing the floors to the existing classrooms, carrying all the materials for the new classroom and building a protective lid for the well. There was also a considerable amount of electrical work to be done and Albert had to do all this himself, being an experienced electrician.

The Togolese people were very welcoming and the children especially were really friendly and glad to see us there. Everywhere we went we were surrounded by children but they did not just come to watch us, they were very willing to give us a hand.

The church services we took part in were very different from those back home. We went to several services and although they all lasted for over 2 hours, it just didn’t seem like it. They just seemed to enjoy worshipping God and were in no hurry to leave. A highlight of one of the services was when around 50 of the children came dancing into the church, right up to the front, singing with the most amazing harmonies, songs of worship in their own language. The church also had a praise band of guitars, drums and trumpets and all the band were dressed immaculately in white shirts with bow ties. I don’t know how our praise team would react to such a uniform! We all took part in the service and sang several of the praise songs we would sing in Ireland.

Altogether it was an amazing experience and the team got on so well, not having known each other before our initial planning meetings. We all felt that we probably gained more from the whole experience than we actually gave. We succesfully completed all the work we had to do but felt that we learned so much from the people of Togo. We learned that the ability to worship God doesn’t depend on your circumstances and that God is God no matter where you are in the world.

I would like to thank the people of Glengormley Methodist Church for the privilege it was to represent them in Togo. So many people worked tirelessly to raise funds for the trip and Albert and I will always be indebted to them for their generosity .