Togo
This is the unlikely story of how God captured the work of two Lauren’s Lighthouse pastors in Togo using a Ghanaian videographer.
Six years ago, Pastor Henry graduated from LLT Bible School. With little experience in pastoring or church-planting, the Lord opened a door for him to go to Ukraine to minister to Muslims, who make up a large portion of the population. Over the next four years, he won many of them to Christ. As a result, he eventually became a target and was nearly killed by a group of Muslims. The Lord then called him back to Ghana to work in the Volta Region (near Togo), in connection with Pastor Godly. Pastor Helen, a university lecturer who was also in ministry, began seeking clarity in her calling. While attending LLT Bible School, she had an encounter with the Lord, leading her to join the Lauren’s Lighthouse Temple network. These two pastors now partner together in the Volta region.
In December 2021, Pastor Godly and a team traveled to Togo with Pastor Henry and Pastor Helen to hold crusades and children’s Christmas parties. Through the work of the Holy Spirit and their efforts, two churches were planted in Togo, along with a bible school. As part of the year-long bible school curriculum, students participate in missions directed toward unreached people. Togo students, through these outreaches, have brought many to Jesus.
On the third Saturday in April, 2022, in the early morning hours, at least 25 people who had been saved through bible school outreach were baptized off the southern shore of Togo.
Scott and I arrived in Ghana two days later. We spent the week visiting Central region network churches and bible schools, and getting video footage with Isaac, our Ghanaian videographer. On Sunday April, 24th, I sat down with Pastor Godly and Mom Rose to interview them for the video that would share Lauren’s story and the story of Lauren’s Lighthouse Temple. During the interview, Pastor began to discuss the work of our network churches and bible schools. As he did, he shared the story of Pastor Henry and Pastor Helen, the church they started, and the baptisms that had taken place the previous weekend. When Pastor Godly finished, Isaac asked for more details concerning the baptisms and realized that he had witnessed them on the beach. That Saturday, he had traveled to Togo from Ghana’s capital city of Accra, several hours away. Flying his drone camera to get footage of the shore, he noticed a group on the beach and in the water. After realizing it was a baptism service, he turned off his drone so as not to interrupt.
Pastor, Mom Rose, and Isaac talked excitedly for a moment, confirming the place, date and time. They determined that the event Isaac witnessed was indeed the LLT Togo baptisms. I finally asked Isaac, “Do you think you captured any video before you turned off your camera?” He wasn’t sure, but said he would check when he got back to Accra. After I returned to the States, he sent me a short video of people gathered on the beach and in the water celebrating the new life in Christ that they had found.
Below is that video, shot on April 16th, 2022, my birthday. What a gift.