Starting a Missions Movement

By Ron Washer, Executive Administrator for Africa

One key element of successful church-planting movements begins when national churches pick up the vision for sending their own missionaries to areas not yet reached with the gospel.

ABWE missionaries in Togo have prayed and worked diligently toward that end. More than 60 churches have been started with several catching the vision for sending their own members to the "uttermost parts" of Togo.

Laré and Mana Butoika were saved through one of the church-plants in the Ewe-speaking part of Togo. Laré belongs to the Moba tribe and is from northern Togo where very little church planting is going on. When the Association of Baptist Churches of Togo (ASSEBBTO) established a mission arm for their churches, Laré and Mana were the first missionaries they supported. The Butoikas went to the northernmost town of Dapaong to plant churches among Laré's own people. God has raised up a growing body of believers just outside Dapaong.

The Togo church-planting movement is now in the infant stages of becoming a missions movement to the glory of God.