In 2010, Tabernacle EPC (TEPC) in the Austinville community near Youngstown, Ohio planned to send a missionary team to Uganda. The trip had to be canceled, but God had other plans – for the Gbentchal area of Togo.

Because of a conversation Dan Osborn, TEPC’s youth pastor, had with David Whetstone of Mentor Leaders, Dan traveled to Gbentchal, Togo in West Africa. There, he discovered a village suffering from poverty, a lack of drinking water, and no access to the Gospel.

Villagers in Gbentchal had to walk 10 miles round-trip to bring infected water to their homes. TEPC raised money to send a mission team to Gbentchal in July 2011 and to dig a well that would serve the village’s more than 100 orphans. The team of 11 provided basic medical services and shared the Gospel with all who would listen. The 11 team members were Dan Osborn, youth director at Tabernacle EPC; Brad Walker, Dr. Steve Swain, Robert Cahalin, Greg Mook, YSU University Scholar graduate; Tim O’Brien, Beth Valantine, Dan and Sarah Kidd, Jillian Smith, Canfield High School senior; and Jon Michael Valantine, Austintown Fitch High School senior.

Digging the well proved to be a true miracle. The local drilling team arrived July 8th, but the drill hit a rock. The crew returned July 11th, but the drill would not operate. Meanwhile, the TEPC team prayed for the drilling efforts because they sensed the drilling team was working in the wrong location.

One of the TEPC team members prayed for a sign, that if the drill was supposed to move then God would have to make it rain, referencing the story of Elijah on Mt. Caramel wetting the wood before the fire. Later, an isolated rainstorm appeared over the village for about 20 minutes. The TEPC team asked the drilling team to move their rig about 200 yards to another location. The drilling team, all Muslim, agreed to move the rig “because God has told you so.” Thirty minutes into drilling, a water gusher sprang forth which now provides water for the village’s orphans and the extended families associated with them.

Through the work of Tabernacle EPC and Mentor Leaders, the orphans also now have a school/dining hall and four teachers, and a pastor from Daepong, a nearby city, now serves the village. Mentor Leaders hopes to help start a Bible institute next year and fund more wells for the village.

Click here to watch a video about Tabernacle’s work in Togo

Click here for more information about Tabernacle EPC

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