Friends,

It has been nearly one year since we arrived in Togo. So much has happened in the past 12 months. There have been blessings, trials, happy times and sad.  There have been many many lessons learned.  When I started this blog, it was with the intention of communicating with you in a more informal manner the things of life here in Togo.  I admit to you that I have not written often. There are many reasons for this. One being that I have found barely enough time and energy to do the things that need to be done in a day, let alone take the time to write about them.  Having put the first year behind us I hope to be able to make time to write more frequently.  There is so much that happens within the hospital, the church, our compound and in our town.  It is almost overwhelming just thinking about the activity that surrounds us.

It is 3:15 AM. Tonight something aweful happened in the community.  It was a shocking and sad event that has been like an immediate blow to my stomach.  I say that figuratively, and yet, my stomach is churning as I type.  I am compelled to write, even though I feel unable to accurately communicate the depths of my thoughts.  What occurs to me at this moment is that the spiritual battle that is raging around us every moment is so incredibly fierce that when I get a clearer glimpse of it than what I see on a daily basis,  I am sobered to the core. 

Togo can be a place where the sights, smells, and sounds can seem to ingulf your senses to the point where they seem to begin to blur. The overstimulation makes me begin to unconsciously try to block some of it out rather than trying to fully take it all in.  I wonder if this is what can happen to us spiritually as well. There is so much happening in the battle for souls.  Satan and his minions are fighting a large scale war and a large percentage of their battle tactics aim at the hearts and minds of the individuals whom we know, see, talk to, go to church with, by bananas from, and work with.  The battle is fought in every home, marriage, circumstance and in every heart. The enemy is ruthless, cunning, smart, and so incredibly evil! These are the realities to which I am sobered at this moment. And yet, they are truths that have been constant for thousands of years.  If we had spirits sensitive enough to fully see and feel all this all the time, what would change about the way we live? Everything. 

 Oh, God give me eyes to see the truth, and a heart to be able to handle it more than just in a moment like this.  Make me understand more fully that the battle we fight is “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness” Ephesians 6:12 .  Make me fit for the battle oh God, for I am convinced that we have been placed here, “for such a time as this” Esther 4:14

Even as the battle rages all around us, I am all to aware that our home is not exempt.  Please pray for us. Pray that we will not give our enemy any foothold into our home. Pray that we will make our hearts places fit only for the King of Kings.  I pray that our home will be a place where we come to rest and be strengthened, encouraged, sharpened and bathed in the truth so that when we go out, we are fit for battle with eyes wide open.