The yelling outside the bedroom window woke Rory and Kristy Moore at 5:00am on March 12, 2019. The kitchen building on campus at Village of Light School for the Blind was on fire. Fire is a hardship for anyone and especially in Togo, West Africa where there are no fire companies. For two hours, Rory, Kristy, and some of the Togolese staff threw bucket after bucket of water on the fire as it continued to consume the building.

In hindsight, Rory has praised God for the events that followed the fire because they were times that carried wonderful reminders of how faithful God is. However, there remained a need. It was not just a building the center was lacking. Village of Light was lacking someone with the knowledge to rebuild. Without anyone on campus with a construction background, the building would sit in its ruins being rebuilt in a painfully slow (and perhaps not exactly structurally sound) fashion. The Project Office at ABWE was called upon and responded to this need by sending Matt Brown, a long-term missionary based in the USA, to take the lead on this construction project.

On September 13, 2019, just 6 months after the fire, the new and improved kitchen was inaugurated with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The praises of the attending staff members from the Village of Light filled the new dining space. Offerings of song, prayer, and a time of fellowship at God’s faithful provision were lifted. “I want to praise God because without Him none of this would have been possible,” Rory stated, building upon his prior statement of how He praised God for allowing the fire to happen. He included many thanks to folks that gave, and especially to the teams that came to build. All total, there were more than sixty-five people that put in labor in various areas like demolition, excavation, concrete, roofing, masonry, painting, tiling, and more. Without these teams this building would either still be unusable, or would have been built to the lesser standards.

Thanks to God’s provision of work teams, finances, and materials school began as scheduled on September 16, 2019 with a fully operational kitchen and cafeteria. The kitchen staff has been enjoying the new food prep, cooking, and clean up areas just as much as the students are enjoying eating their meals in the large dining section. The laughter, conversations, singing, and prayer not only fills the cafeteria 3 times a day it also fills the hearts of the Village of Light staff members. It truly is a beautiful thing to hear.

Hannah Strayer is a missionary using media on the field to communicate stories of need with others God may be calling to help resolve them. You can learn more about her or begin partnering with her today! You can also follow her on social media (just scroll to the very bottom of this page.

Rory & Kristy Moore are school administrators in Togo, West Africa for Village of Light School for the Blind. If you would like to give a gift or begin partnering with them, you can do so here. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram. You can also email them at rkmoore@abwe.cc

Matt & Sarah Brown are missionaries based in the US with the Project Office which started in 1993. Currently, a team of missionaries oversees construction projects in over 20 countries, and has recruited thousands of construction volunteers over the past two decades. You can partner with the Browns, or you can apply for the Project Office!