Land in Parakou, Benin

This is an incredible miracle.

In February, we saw Pastor Augustin in Parakou for a few days on our trip from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, down to Cotonou, Benin. He told me (Fred) that an important man in the town, Mr. S., who has been a Christian a long time and has a large amount of land, had a dream around the first of the year. In the dream he was giving some of his land to the work of the Lord, if I remember the dream correctly.

Soon after that, on a Sunday in February, Bill Hoffman went up to Parakou with Augustin to preach in Augustin’s church. (This was on the weekend when we had the team in Cotonou.) At Mr. S.’s house Bill shared about our desire to build an orphanage and talked about the building plans he has been working on. Bill said that our desire was that the land could have enough space for the boys to have a soccer field and land to plant and grow food for the orphanage. This touched him and he said that he wanted to give a large amount of his land for us to do that in Parakou – 10 hectors. (1 Hector = 2.47105 Acres so that means more than 24.7 acres.)

Before we left Parakou on Good Friday morning, March 21st, we went to visit the land. This is the picture you see. Parakou is in the Northern, dry part of Benin. It is not all the way to the Sahara desert by a long shot, but it not in the South in the jungle area either. It is perhaps what we would call the beginning of the Sahel. Here is what impressed me about the land, it has water and is good, fertile land! This man is not just giving something useless to the Lord – he wants to give the best. He has Mango trees on his farm there as well as Cashew nut trees and Eucalyptus trees. It has 2 ponds – the smaller one is in the picture and in rainy season it has a nice flowing stream. The electric and phone lines are nearby. You can almost see the coconut palm trees in this picture. You do see Bill Chapel, Augustin and 2 of the man’s sons.

Debby and I have never been able to raise any money for buildings in Africa. This would mean the beginning of a whole new phase for our ministry here. Bill and Cathy Hoffman have a real heart for the orphans and Bill is a builder who loves missions work. We believe Bill is God’s man for this job! It will involve lots of money to build – but we believe that, “where God guides He provides.” After the orphanage is built we still will have space to build a residential Bible School and conference center. So, please pray about this with us. Mr. S. will be making out the title for the land for us in the very near future and then we will see what God will do.

Parakou Testimonies – March, 17-21

Bill Chapel and I (Fred) had a Prophetic Seminar, Tuesday – Thursday morning in Parakou Benin. Those that came loved it and said we needed to do again in a bigger place and all the churches needed to hear the teaching. This is the third time I have done the seminar and the other two places, Cotonou, Benin in March, 2007 and Lome, Togo, March 6-8, the people said the same thing.

The picture is of Debby praying for people at Augustin’s church.

Debby had 2 wonderful testimonies from the evening meetings she did in Parakou. She did a church revival at Augustin’s church, February 5-7, while I had a Christian Worker’s seminar in the morning. She did a second church revival there while Bill and I did the Prophetic seminar.

Tuesday (March 11th after we returned to Cotonou) Pastor Augustin came and told Debby one of the woman of his church had called with a wonderful testimony. When Debby was at the church in February she spoke on forgiveness. After the service Augustin asked her if she would pray for a woman who had been unable to have a baby. The young woman had come forward saying that she really wanted to get pregnant but had been unable for more than 5 years. After Debby prayed for her, they talked about problems she had with her husband. Debby told her she had to just forgive him. She said she would. She called Pastor Augustin to tell him that she was pregnant and was praising God. She had forgiven her husband and God had opened her womb. Praise the Lord!

Benin - Teaching

Debby praying at the end of class. Week of March 10-14. This is in Cotonou, Benin. It is the Bible School of Pastor Nazaire, called “Source de Vie.”


I (Fred) was teaching at the church Bible School of Pastor Mathias in another part of the city.

I went Sunday after church, March 9th, from Lome, Togo to Accra, Ghana with Pastor Geoff of N.H. Monday morning he started Bible School in Accra. I picked up Bill Chapel, from Debby’s dad’s church in Salamanca, NY, at the airport. The 2 of us headed back to Lome, Togo, picked up Debby and traveled on to Cotonou, Benin in time for us both to teach our evening classes.

Tuesday, Debby had morning class. In the afternoon, Pulcherie, from the Orphanage, brought the twin girls to us at the Baptist Guesthouse. “Uncle Fred” had fun playing with them – first ever time on a swing and tricycle ride. About the time they left, I (Fred) got sick. I had to send Bill to teach my class on 1 Corinthians that evening. Thank God, Bill was there. I had to do the same thing the next night being sick all-day and worse in the evening. There was no power and Bill had to teach by candlelight. We were to go to Parakou on Saturday, but I changed it to going on Monday, because I was sick, so I could get feeling better first.

Monday, March 17th we went to Parakou. I did good on the trip but come evening, I was terrible nauseated again. Bill and I did the morning seminar about Prophecy and I felt a little better. I began to email to ask people to pray. Friday morning we left Parakou and come back to Cotonou and I woke up healed. Praise the Lord. I woke without pain and when I got up and moved around, no pain. It felt wonderful! Thank you for praying. I’ll do another blog on Parakou with 2 testimonies that Debby received.

Before leaving Parakou, we went to see the land that is being donated to our ministry. That’ll be the next blog.

Saturday Bill and I went off to one of Nazaire’s village churches. They said it was a 45 minute drive – ended up like an hour and 45. It was up a lot of dirt road. The sky was dark and rained a little (I was thinking of similar times in Benin when we went off to a village up dirt roads and it rained and we got stuck). It was my first time to that village. The pastor was a student that asked me to come and I had said, “Yes,” last year.
Easter Sunday Debby went to the biggest 4 square church in Cotonou. Bill and I went to Nazaire’s big central church in Cotonou.

Vogonville, Togo

Here is the picture from the Leader's Seminar in Vogon region in Togo. This was the first ever Leader’s Seminar done in this town. They loved it and begged us to come again so that they could invite even more Pastors. Next time they want the seminar, morning and evening and for more days. So, we are planning that for 2009.

Busy three weeks

Well it has been a busy last 3 weeks here. Friday the 8th of Feb. I traveled from Benin to Ghana to receive our team of 8 that arrived Saturday evening. This included our daughter, Marie-Louise, friends Bill and Cathy Hoffman and Cathy’s son, Tim Wright, and our niece Hannah Davis. With us here in Africa for the first time was, Tina Davis our daughter-in-law, and two nurses, Emily Ingole, daughter of a pastor friend in Ohio, and Michele Harter. We slept that night in Accra, Ghana at the S.I.M. Guesthouse.

Sunday it was off to Cotonou, Benin. Everyone was up and ready to go by 8 am as planned, but the minibus didn’t arrive. Finally it showed at 9:30. We packed, bought gas and were off around 10:15. We arrived at the border with Togo around 1:00 pm – late and the minibus that was to meet us and take us on to Benin, had given up and left. So, our good friend and interpreter, Pastor Augustin, set off to get us another one. It took him well over an hour to get another one. We were in the sun in the heat of the day – no fun! By the time we did the border formalities into Togo and the out of Togo and into Benin, the sun was going down. By the time we got to the Baptist Guesthouse in Cotonou, the sun was well down. Debby came out to greet us with a big smile.

The first week the women did 2 three-day women’s seminars. Monday – Wednesday was in Se a small town – nearly 2 hours away. Then Thursday – Saturday was in another small town, Tori, about an hour away. I taught Bible School Monday – Thursday for Pastor Mathias in Cotonou – doing live teaching at a Video Bible School. Bill Hoffman was off at night preaching at village churches.

The second week was equally as busy. Sunday we were all off to different churches. Bill went 5 hours North to Parakou for the weekend to be with Pastor Augustin at his church. Then Monday – Friday I was teaching at Pastor Nazaire’s Bible School that we have been working with since 2002. Tuesday – Thursday most of the team went to “Exodus House” orphanage – less than an hour away. The nurses checked out all the children and girls. Cathy with others got the picture and name of each of them and the staff. Tina taught 3 nights at Pastor Mathias’s Video Bible School. Bill and others went off to village churches at night.

Then on Saturday, Feb. 24th was the trip back to Accra, Ghana. It was worse than the one 2 weeks earlier. The minibus didn’t show up to get loaded till 10:30. At the Togo Border we had to get visas for all 10 of us, but they only had 5 forms so we had to wait over an hour for the other 5. By the time we got to Lome, Togo everyone was overheated and tired. We saw some Orphan Children there and had a late lunch. Then we went over the border into Ghana.

We had too many people trying to “help” us at the border as usual. While Bill and I were in the office processing everyone’s passports the sun was going down. Our pastor in Lome was outside with the team. Our arrangement for the minibus in Ghana fell through, so we had to get one there and then. I was confident that Bill and I could get one. But, if you know how these borders are, you have a bunch of people trying to sell you things, others begging from you and then there is the press of the guys who want to “help” you – they generally cause you problems and then want money. The van they got was to small so I said “no” but they insisted as did the pastor, that we needed to use it. It was getting dark and so I relented. Big mistake. It was too small for us and our luggage. Hannah lay across the lap of 3 others to fit. The later it gets, the more police are on the road and that means more hassle. At a roadblock we discovered that the driver didn’t even have a license. So we spent an hour till he negotiated and paid his way out. Then the battery was dead and we had to push it to get started. Then he didn’t stop at another check point so they called ahead and had us stopped at the next – this time it took him around a half hour to negotiate and pay his way out. We got to the Baptist Guesthouse in Accra very late and tired.

Sunday morning we were all in church together with Pastor Albert. Sunday night, February 24, four of our “girls” left – Tina, Emily, Michele, and Hannah.

Last week, Feb. 25-29, I taught Bible School at the church each morning for 3 hours. At night we had service and the last 3 nights were a church crusade that Debby preached.

Sunday evening the 3rd of March, Bill and Cathy Hoffman with Marie-Louise, flew back to the USA. Monday, March 3, I got Geoff Bretches at the airport at 8:30 and we got the distance taxi to bring us to Lome, Togo. It was another one of those experiences. The first taxi kept overheating and stopping to add water. We changed to another and just a kilometer before the border, the tire blew.

The three of us are staying in Lome and going an hour each morning to Vogon to have a Leader’s Seminar. It is a small town that is the center for a number of villages. It is full of witchcraft and the churches are not united, but weak. By the grace of God, we can help bring the church leaders into a better unity. This is the first time ever, in the history of the world, that there has been a Leader’s seminar here. Just bringing the leaders together in one meeting is a step in the right direction. Thank you for praying for this.

We have 2 very interesting things going on with this trip. First of all, someone wants to donate land to us. Bill and Cathy have a great love for the orphans and street children. We are trying to help them. We are praying to build and orphanage for some of them. The land the man told Bill he wants to give is 10 hectors – more than 20 acres! That’s enough for an orphanage, soccer field and garden for them. Plus, we could build a residential Bible School / Conference center. Please join us in prayer for this.

The second interesting thing is, Debby’s cousin wrote and was in the middle of an adoption that has failed to work out. She wondered if we had twin girls at the orphanage here – we do. They are not identical twins and they will turn 4 years old in 2 weeks. So, if all the paperwork comes together, we will bring these 2 girls to the USA with us to their new Mom and Dad.

Well this is really a long one – sorry. I was trying to get certain pictures from the trip from the camera of one of the team to put with this, but never was able to get them.

THANK YOU so much for your prayers and finical report.

To go to our web page – it is http://www.davismission.com