An English teacher by day and an evangelist for the Kingdom of God by night and weekends – Christophe Ayiboe is a modern-day Apostle Paul who works a full-time job to support his ministry. This past month, my wife and I had the joy of spending several days with this humble servant of Christ in his hometown of Lomé, Togo. Christophe lives in a basic, rented apartment and travels around town on his motorcycle, but he does not let his limited material possessions hold him back as he labors to produce great spiritual fruit in his home country.  He has already helped to plant three churches in partnership with New Directions and continues sowing seeds from village to village. Christophe works in partnership with established, evangelical churches in Togo. As he shares the Gospel and people make decisions for Christ, he immediately connects them with a local pastor so that the new believers can be discipled and grow in the Word.

After several days with Christophe we traveled to the neighboring country of Ghana. A vital need in both Togo and Ghana is biblical training for the leaders in the church. Many pastors in this part of the world have been leading their churches for many years never having had any type of leadership or ministry training. Along with our Ghanaian partners, NDI was able to provide three full days of training for pastors and leaders from Ghana and Togo. In what has become an annual event just outside of Kumasi, Ghana, over 100 pastors and leaders gathered for biblical and leadership training taught by NDI founder, Dr. J.L. Williams, Evangelist Yaw Asante, Pastor Ransford Obeng, and me. What a joy to see the passion with which these men and women of God desire to learn more about God and His Word.

As NDI seeks to plant 20,000 churches by 2020, this can only happen through partnership with men and women on the ground. Between Togo and Ghana there are 31 unreached or least-reached people groups (cultures with no established church) comprising over three million people. As Jesus said in John 4:35, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” Many are coming to Christ in these nations through the work of these dedicated individuals and we pray that many more will. We also recognize that we will not reach this goal without your continued prayers and support – we appreciate so much your “partnership in the Gospel” (Phil. 1:5). What a great day as we stand before the throne of God and the people from 31 yet-to-be-reached tribes in Togo and Ghana will be praising God with us! To God be the glory!

-Rev. Matt Smith, Vice President for Leadership Development