February 2019

We just finished our annual reports which entail looking over the past year, reviewing the goals we set last year, and making goals for the new year. Wow! We have to stop and thank the Lord that we were able to see great things happen in 2018! The biggest thing was that after years of waiting and planning, the airplane was finally working and put to ministry use! Ryan flew nearly 50 hours and had over 60 passengers of various positions including pastors, leaders, surgeons, doctors, and other medical staff and national partners. We are always thankful for your prayers for safety.

Already this month, Ryan has made several flights to Mango transporting surgeons, medical administrators, and as an added bonus, he got to transport some Bibles and hymnals on one of his flights.

When Ryan is not flying, he can be found using his service gifts helping friends in other ways. He serves on a local church facilitation team encouraging local pastors and helping where needed, as well as a hospital security team and the missionary worship team. He also just finished transforming some old apartments at our house into guest rooms. This month, we were able to host our first guests; two local pastoral leaders who had come out for our team meetings. We hope to use these guest rooms for traveling pastors and ministers. Already, we have some wonderful people lined up to stay with us. Perhaps you, too, would like to make a visit to Togo? Now you have an excuse.

I, Stephanie, continue chasing around Christian and helping with miscellaneous needs. I stay busy during the week taking care of the home, watching Christian grow and learn, and I serve with our missions guesthouse leadership and help with bookkeeping at the Christian Resource Center. Last year also brought an opportunity to minister to a local girl as she navigated a difficult school year and a crisis pregnancy. Sadly, this young girl lost her baby, but we continue to help her physically and spiritually when we can. Please join me in praying for Esther as she continues her studies in high school with hopes of one day becoming a midwife.

Another opportunity to revisit my interest in serving the deaf in Togo has presented itself. Several years ago, our mission began establishing Christian schools in connection with our local churches. This past school year, a young deaf boy named Jonas enrolled in one of our schools. Our friend, Liz, has begun working to teach him some signs and his school teacher has expressed interest in learning sign so that she may communicate with him in the classroom. This week, I had the opportunity to visit the school and even had a chance to teach the classroom along with the teacher some general classroom etiquette using sign language. The schools have interest in serving special needs children, but personnel are definitely needed to really invest in this sort of ministry well. I love the idea of working with the deaf, but my sign needs a whole lot of help as it’s been many years since I’ve really had anything to do with it. Please pray for guidance for the schools' administrators that the Lord would fill their hearts' desire to serve special needs children. Also, pray that the Lord would make it clear to me if he would like me to pursue getting involved in this work (It will involve some beginning ASL lesson planning. If you have some you'd like to share, I'd much appreciate it.)

This brings me to another subject. This and last school year, the Lord has blessed us with such a wonderful teacher at our MK* school. Aunt Marilyn has invested two years of her heart into our girls and both Leslie and AnnMarie are doing well. However, in June, Aunt Marilyn will retire and return to the States. Aunt Marilyn’s time here has allowed we moms to apply ourselves to other works and ministries on our team. We are all prepared to homeschool again next year, but it would cause us to have to minimize what we are able to do for our team. Would you please pray with us that God might send us out another teacher for 1-2 years to teach our 10 elementary aged MKs? If you know someone who is interested, please let us know right away and we can help them to get the ball rolling on the application process.

Lastly, we have purchased tickets for our six-month furlough to the States starting in mid-May. We will begin contacting our supporting churches and friends. We will be making a trip out to the east coast in July and probably in September/October as well. I’ll plan to put better specifics into our next letter. In the meantime, please pray that we will finish what we are doing here well and that we will be able to get all of the logistics in order for our time home. If you know of someone who has a car to loan us for that period time, it would be extremely helpful.

This year our family has adopted the word “words” for our word of the year. This encourages us to use our words well toward one another and for God’s glory. May our God also give you love and grace with words as you seek to honor Him this year. We are ever thankful for your love and support for the work that God has called us to here in Togo.

In Christ,

The Buczaks

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 (ESV)

*MK – Missionary Kid

October 2018

Thank you for your patience with us as it has been a few months since our last letter.

Our family recently visited the magnificent
Kpimé waterfall.

Ryan has had the privilege of flying about twice a month or so up to Mango. He carries mostly medical professionals seeking to view and/or participate in the ministries of both Hôpital Baptiste Biblique in the south and Hôpital de l’Espérance in the north. Last month he got to fly the founder as well as the new president of World Medical Mission division of Samaritan’s Purse. Next week, he will get to fly the president of ABWE, Paul Davis. It’s a privilege to get to fly and serve all of God’s servants great and small. He has also recently joined the church facilitation and leadership committee which allows him to see and participate more in our mission’s many church plants around southern Togo.

I, Stephanie, served as our guest house interim manager while the long-term manager was on furlough for seven months. I am thankful that our manager is back, as she had big shoes to fill and I am happy to give them back to her. I also serve as the guest house housing coordinator, which basically means I assign rooms to short-term missionaries who come to serve on our field. Most short-termers are medical professionals who come to work in our hospital.

I have also had the privilege of bookkeeping in our Christian Resource Center (CRC). The CRC makes available Bibles, books, videos, audio Bibles, etc., to ministry groups and individuals. I love being a small part of this work as it serves as a practical way of getting the Word of God into the hands of people; especially to people who might not otherwise have access to it. It is God’s Word by His Holy Spirit that does the work at saving and changing lives for His glory.

By now, many of you have heard that Leslie fell and broke her arm a couple of weeks ago. I posted pictures of the x-ray on Facebook and many people have shown concern that it looks like it might not align correctly. However, I would like to assure you all that God is a great healing God and he has orchestrated this event perfectly for His glory. We praise the Lord for:

Don't be alarmed. God has Leslie's arm in his hands.

•  A recently arriving physician’s assistant who has contacts with both a well-known sports team’s orthopedic surgeon as well as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who have both viewed the x-rays by email and have given advice to let the bone heal on its own with a sling. Without the inroad through this missionary friend, these same consults would cost a WHOLE lot more than most orthopedic consults.
• Our own missionary surgeons and doctors who not only know what they’re doing, they also do it daily with hearts of prayer seeking God’s guidance for each case they encounter.
• God’s design at quickly healing children. As you know, Leslie is a very active little person. God is pulling that bone back into place and creating his own miraculous glue in her arm to put our little girl back together. Long term, it may take many months for Leslie to heal, but we know that God will do it.

AnnMarie is doing well in school and has recently enjoyed learning to knit. Christian is following in Leslie’s footsteps and proving to be an active little boy. Please pray for all of us as we grow in the Lord. Please pray that we would be faithful at viewing all things with our “gospel glasses” on, that we would glorify God in our conversation with our children, the Togolese, and our teammates. He is worthy.

May our God continue the work He is doing in your heart wherever He has you on your path to discovering and learning about Him.

May 2018

Photo Credit: Judy Bowen

Going about daily routine, there’s something rather thrilling about hearing that distinct buzz of that white and blue bird flying over the house as Ryan orients himself with flying in Togo. The kids and I drop everything and run out to wave at Daddy. Kids around town can be heard calling out “Avion! Avion! Avion!”

Yep, the 206 is flying beautifully (To see videos and pictures of our first flights, see our Facebook profiles.). Ryan is just 1.2 flight hours from reaching his allotted pilot break-in period and should complete it later this week. Permissions have been granted to fly about the country, and contacts are being made in various places to be able to land. Ryan and Jason will soon be venturing out on cross country-flights to survey the landing sights currently available to us. Please pray for us in the coming months, that God would make it clear to us exactly where and how he would like us to use this great tool to bring the Gospel for evangelism, discipleship, and church multiplying churches in Togo.

This past month has been a busy one in our home. Since April 1st, we have hosted an Resurrection Day potluck, ladies' conference, and a Labor Day celebration for our employees at our home. It has been a special blessing for all of us that our home can be a place where people can come to celebrate our Lord Jesus and the blessings his grace brings to our lives. Thanks to our friends at EBC for sending out collapsible tables and chairs on our December container.

We have two matters of fund raising to discuss in this letter, but first, we are thrilled to report that the Lord has provided $13,000 toward our home electrical system!!! The generator is hooked up and functioning wonderfully. The purchase of the generator is working out so nicely for us as well as our teammates, the Lairds. They brought out the generator and system here to Togo, but are selling it to us because they don't currently need it. What they do need, is a car. So by us purchasing this from them, they are able to put those funds to a new car, and two families are being greatly helped. All that to say, there is still $7,000 left to buy the complete automatic switch and battery backup system from them. If you are interested in helping two families at once, you can give to our Outfit & Passage fund at www.abwe.org/give and be sure to put Buczak O&P or 0134441-002 on the giving line.

The second matter of fundraising is concerning our housing. We have been approved to begin fundraising to build a house near the hangar for $80,000. We feel that we need to be closer to the hangar in order to keep a closer watch on the goings on there. Currently, we have guards at the hangar 24/7. Also, though we love our current home, it is rather old for a Togolese house, and it is in need of constant repairs. Rather than putting money toward this house, we feel it would be a wiser use of funds to put them toward something that will be better built to last. To participate in this project, please be careful NOT to give to our Buczak account, but to give to Togo Aviation 0763031 and carefully specify that your gift is for 003 Buczak Housing.

Our God is wonderful and he has done and will do great things! As we all anticipate and work in the hope of his return and restoration, I thought I'd share this beautiful verse I recently found from Isaiah 61:11. "For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations." Whether it be a vegetable garden or a fruit garden, may our Lord bless the fruit of your labors for His glory.