When Germain Fayosseh came to ABWE headquarters for the Good Soil Evangelism & Discipleship (GSED) seminar and trainer certification in May of 2018, his enthusiasm was contagious. Dr. Sharon Rahilly, the director of ABWE’s nursing schools in Togo, had encouraged and provided for him to come and he was overflowing with joy and thankfulness. “The opportunity of a lifetime,” he told us. “This is exactly what I need for my ministry of evangelism and training and equipping church leaders, nursing students, and other believers back in Togo.” Even though English is not his first language, he listened and participated fully, and left with as many French copies of The Story of Hope that weight restrictions for his suitcase permitted.

Arriving back in Togo, Germain got right to work. He translated the GSED PowerPoint and other training materials into French and during the month of June taught the principles and The Story of Hope to the nursing students. The hospital ministry in Togo sends out a Community Health Evangelism (CHE) group to surrounding villages to promote basic health care and outreach. Germain wanted each of those nurses to be trained in how to initiate conversations, peel worldview onions, and cut through worldview noise in their evangelism efforts. Germain then accompanied the students on a trip to one of the villages to demonstrate how to put these principles into practice. He also presented GSED to the local churches that the CHE group partners with and has been able to go back to several of the villages to train the leaders of those churches.

Germain also introduced a study of The Story of Hope into his ministry in both public and Christian schools. In the fall of 2018, he developed a new ministry that teaches a Study and Organization Methods class in two of the public high schools and uses those contacts for entry conversations with students, inviting them to a lunch time bible study. In one of the public schools the group started with 12 this year and has grown to over 40. At the other school, the principal allowed Germain, at the beginning of the school year, to address the entire student body of over 1100 students about his classes and bible studies and present a Gideon’s New Testament to each student. Germain wrote, “What a great opportunity to share about the hope they can have!” He asks prayer especially for Emmanuel, one of the public-school students, who has been coming often to church now as well, that he would make a clear faith response to the gospel. Germain has also done the Good Soil training with some of the teachers in several Christian schools who are now using The Story of Hope as the curriculum for their bible courses. Germain, himself, is teaching it to the junior high students in one of the schools.

Germain and his wife, Ayoko, use The Story of Hope in their personal evangelism as well, currently studying it with a couple and another individual. “I am forever grateful for the training I received at ABWE. It is a tremendous tool that God is using here in Togo.” Germain asks that we pray for peace for Togo in this year where they are facing both COVID and a presidential election. He asks that we pray for more opportunities to share and train local churches in GSED, and that the Holy Spirit would bring many of the students he works with this year to truly understand and embrace God’s redemptive plan for them.