Kara Governor, commanding the military and the police
Ended successfully without any accidents

■ The president provided his private plane.
The mission team could not avoid long-distance travel for the conference site, it was in the city of Kara that is 425km distant from Lome, the capital city of Togo. In order for safely of Pastor Seok-Jeon, Yoon and mission team members, the president of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, and the government made a decision to provide a private plane to the team. In Togo, the plane is given to the most honored guests for the nation. Since the prepared plane showed a problem and caused an issue on the flight, the government provided a standby plane of Côte d’Ivoire, the neighbor country, to the team. By order of the president, the mayor of Kara state, escorted Pastor Yoon in the plane. On their way back to Lome from Kara, the government supported Pastor Yoon by the plane as well as escort of national guests.

■ The first lady welcomed the mission team of the conference.
The first lady of Togo, Julie Beguedou, welcomed the mission team with special dining, in presidential palace that is 4km distant from Airport. Ms. Beguedou is a member of Calvary church that has its senior pastor as Mitré, the president of the Togo Assembly of God.
She has a lot of understanding about Korea, as well as Korean Companies. Pastor Seok-Jeon, Yoon told, “I appreciate for your complete support and cooperation to the conference. I hope that Togo will be blessed by the great work of God.” He handed her special letter for thanks and gift, Samsung galaxy tab.

The first lady told, “I give thanks to you on behalf of President.” She welcomed the mission team even in the first gate of the palace and provided special dining with respectful treatment.

In this dining there was the president and sub-president of the assembly of God, Dao and Felin who are Yonsei central Baptist church’s missionaries as well as public servants of Togo, the first daughter Kyra and two kids from Yonsei church who participated to the conference journey.

■ The escort for the mission team.
The entire escort for the mission team and pastor Yoon was provided by the Togo presidential order and intervene. In particular, in every travel of the mission team, the escort team checked arrival point and inspected passers-by in advance to mission team’s arrival, from their arrival to Togo airport and departure for Seoul. During every travel, armed soldiers and tens of policemen guarded the team. In order for the safety of pastor Seok-Jeon, Yoon the national guest, police motorcycle escorted front and back of his vehicle. For his safety and comfort, Togo government allocated full-time bodyguard, Ben, who guarded him at 2015 and 2016.

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Conference was broadcasted regularly in Togo three times a day on its radio stations RTDS, TVT and TV2 a few months before its opening day. Posters about conference were posted not only in the main cities of Togo but everywhere in city of Kara and even on the cars of pastors in charge of the conference. We also have sent invitations to ministers of about 20 African countries. Togo, the whole country was so excited with the news and the expectation of the conference that there’s no Togolese who doesn’t know about it.

#Odds and ends of conference.
Ministers and church members who participated in the conference were from other countries and all regions of Togo hundred kilometers away as well as city of Kara, state of Kara. To provide them accommodation, tens of churches in Palace Congress were offered as temporarily dwelling. Ministers gathered in the conference area early in the morning by taking a shuttle bus provided by organizers. Even though it was really hot in the noon, it wasn’t difficult to lie down and sleep anywhere outside because it was only 18 Celsius.

#Media frenzy coverage and aftereffects
The four days of conference and an interview with pastor Yoon were recorded and broadcasted on the next day at 9 o’clock, at the same time, the video was broadcasted live in a Togo radio station RADIO KARA(91.5HZ).

According to organizers, about 800,000 people watched the conference and 8,000,000 Togolese including Muslim probably heard about the conference. Via satellite channel in national broadcast TVT, the conference was on TV in 56 different Africa countries. The recorded video which had been uploaded on the Internet  broadcasted across Africa. The number of people who watched the conference on the web is expected to be hundreds of millions. Especially welcoming interview with pastor Yoon in Kara will be televised nationally on the evening main news on Nov. 15th.

#Local response and expectation regarding the church building.
Togolese church community and many Togolese knew about the news of our church’s plans for constructing one thousand churches around the globe and 300 of them in Togo. It was disclosed that even Togo president knows about it in detail.  Each local church that we have completed has a ‘Yonsei Central Baptist Church’ name on the sign with the phrase saying ‘This church was built with the support of Yonsei Central Baptist Church in Korea’. After visiting local churches of Togo, we found that Togolese people, their church community as well as the president are deeply appreciating the 300-church-building project we are now undertaking and also they are doing their best praying for our church.

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