Dapong Lutheran Day School – Togo April 2018 Update

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When I first arrived here, in January of 1998, I the school teacher for the children of other Lutheran missionaries, including the children of Rev. Gary Schulte and his wife Stephanie.  However, after several years, most of the families with children left Togo, and I began teaching English in a Togolese high school.  It was this change from teaching other American children, using American school books, to teaching Togolese students and having no books that made me really have a great desire to be a part of creating a Lutheran School for the Togolese young people. While offering a good education in basic school subjects, we will have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with our students, and through them reach out to families and friends.  We will also be training future Lutheran church members and leaders in the true Lutheran / Christian doctrine and lifestyle.  We read in Proverbs 22, verse 6: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”  We pray that by “bringing up” many young Togolese young people in God’s Way, they will become strong Christian leaders, loving Christian parents, and honorable members of their communities.  We pray that the light of Jesus’ love would shine through their lives, and bring light and love to those around them.

Tuesday, April 25th, 2018 the official ‘cornerstone’ was put into place.  President Rev. LARE Kolani Lambon invited all of the members of the national Lutheran Church Board to come to the site of the school, which is on a parcel of land where the national church office was built a number of years ago.  President Lambon led a short liturgical service, including a benediction on the ‘cornerstone, the workers, and those who eventually will teach and attend the school.  The huge stone, which the masons (the workers who are making all of the cement bricks for the school walls) had struggled to dig up and move in a wheel barrow.  The stone will not be a part of the school wall, but marks the corner of the land on which the school is being built.  After cementing the stone in place, the President, who is the director of the school project, asked the construction leader to mark off the boundaries of the school walls, allowing us to have an idea of the layout of the school.  The masons have already made many bricks (this is all done by hand here, from mixing the cement, water, sand and and gravel, to forming the bricks in molds and laying them out to dry and harden in the sun.  All of the water for this brick making is carried to the site by several neighborhood women who carry large basins of water on their heads, to dump in large barrels where the masons are working.  The work on the construction of the school has just begun, and we pray that God will continue to bless the work as it advances.  There are many government regulations and requirements that must be followed, and this also takes time, effort and funds.  Our school must meet these regulations to be recognized by the government as an acceptable educational institution.  Once we have a school building, which at first will just have partial walls, with a metal roof— and we have completed all of the government requirements, we must have school benches for the students, some documents or books, and teachers. Creating a school from the very beginning. . .and placing of the cornerstone. . .to the completed school with students, teachers and books is a big project!  But we have faith that with God, all things are possible.  We are so very thankful that you are interested in our Lutheran Dayschool project, and pray that your joining with us in this wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the young people of Togo will be a blessing to you as it will be to them!

	Measurements are being made, and lines traced for the placement of the foundation and walls of the school building.
	The man in the light colored shirt, center of the photo, is the ‘geometre’ or building director.  He drew up the plan for the school building and is guiding the workers.  You can see the bricks the masons have made, drying and curing in the sun.
	The geometre’s plan for the school building.
	The ‘cornerstone’ ready to be transported in the wheelbarrow to the corner where it will be placed.
	Gathering around the stone for a short liturgical service with Pastors and the masons who will do much of the construction.
	President LARE Lambon, speaking words of blessing on the cornerstone, as well as on the workers and the work to be done on the Lutheran School.
	President LARE Lambon placing the first shovel full of cement to secure the cornerstone in its place.
	This is the building site, with some newly made bricks in the left back.  The group of guys includes President Lambon talking with the masons.  Gravel in the foreground is for brick making.
	Getting a tree stump out of the way.  The barrel of water is also for brick making.  Several of the neighborhood women have been hired to fill the water barrels daily, carrying basins of water on the heads from the water source.
	Trying to get the huge rock which has been chosen to be the cornerstone out of the ground where it has been lodged since????