Naka and Jonas were settled in their lives in Kara. The third-largest city in Togo, Kara sits in the north, where the dominant religions are a blend of Christianity, Islam and folk religions. There, mentored by missionaries Randy and Jeanette Alderman and equipped with a deep understanding of their culture, Jonas and Naka became leaders in the church, and their ministry thrived.  

Then came an invitation to leave it all behind. 

JJ Alderman, whom they had first known as the six-year-old son of Randy and Jeanette, had grown up to become a Converge global worker preparing to serve in Aného, about 450 kilometers south of Kara. He asked Jonas and Naka to join him in reaching Southern Togo with the gospel. 

“When he invited us to work with him in the south, my heart wasn’t ready yet,” Naka said. 

The ask was enormous. When European colonizers drew the borders of West Africa in the early 20th century, they divided the region by political interest, not by people groups. The lines that became Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria cut through cultures, languages and communities.  

For Jonas and Naka, accepting JJ and Melissa’s invitation meant leaving behind their churches, their families and their business, and stepping into a culture and language not their own. 

Into the Stronghold of Voodoo 

It also meant entering a different kind of spiritual darkness. 

“Aného is the stronghold of voodoo, and people’s hearts are attached to voodooism,” Naka explained. 

West African Vodun, more widely known as Voodoo, is the dominant religion in Southern Togo, shaped by the blending of tribal traditions through the slave trade. People give sacrifices to spirits for protection, for success in school or work and for retribution against enemies. Witch doctors and fetichers practice openly throughout the region. Their flags, marked with black, white and red stripes, hang outside homes and businesses throughout the southern cities and villages, marking what they offer. 

This was the world JJ and Melissa were inviting Jonas and Naka to enter. 

Naka wasn’t ready. She threw herself into her coal business in Kara, growing her stock, building something she could see and touch. She dedicated herself further to their church plants, and she told Jonas she wasn’t eager to leave their life behind. 

He answered her gently but clearly: “Go into God’s presence, because when God calls me, He has called you. He is calling us, and we have to go together.” 

So, Naka prayed.  

“With all my heart, I began to ask what God clearly wants for me,” she said. “And, first of all, He gave me peace. He gave me peace without my understanding how.” 

She asked God for a sign that she should leave the business. Two weeks later, she sold an extraordinary amount of stock in a single stretch.  

“God clearly showed me that He wanted me to go with Jonas.” 

Do you want to go to the nations? Discern your calling and go to the least-reached. 

Planting New Life in Hard Soil 

In 2009, JJ, Melissa, Jonas and Naka planted New Life Church in Aného. They shared the gospel freely, inviting people to move, as they described it, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. 

For a long time, almost no one moved. 

“Their hearts were centered on voodoo,” Naka said. “When we shared the gospel, hearts were closed.” 

Then Melissa began working with children. Slowly, families opened up.  

“Then, God was able to do what only He could do,” Naka said. “He delivered people from the grip of voodooism. He gave peace. He gave hope. We have seen people being saved, people transformed, changed. Only God did that.” 

A man named Simon had been a feticher, a person trained in the practice of Vodun, from a long line of Vodun practitioners. When he and his wife, Louise, accepted Jesus, they began a new lineage. Their eight children are growing up not in fear of evil spirits, but in the freedom of Christ. 

Early in their ministry, Jonas and Naka discipled a young man, Ben. Ben became a pastor and now leads their second church plant, established seven years after New Life. Ben then discipled a young man named Antoine, who was 18 years old when he planted his first church in a village called Anamé, which means the place of witchcraft. 

A Crossroads After Loss 

As the multiplication was just beginning to become what Jonas and Naka and the 6° Initiative team had prayed and worked toward for years, Jonas passed away. 

Naka stood at a crossroads. She could return to Kara, to her family, her culture and the life she had left behind. Or she could stay. 

The pastors and young leaders around her stepped forward. One took the lead at the pastoral training center. Others assumed greater responsibility in the network. The ministry didn’t just survive; it accelerated. 

Naka felt God confirming that His work in Aného was far from finished. She stayed. 

No Pastor Left Behind 

Today, churches are being planted at a rapid pace across Southern Togo. And as the Togolese pastors have grown more confident in discipling and developing leaders on their own, Naka and the 6° Initiative team have turned their attention to a new challenge: making sure no pastor falls through the cracks. 

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Out of that concern, in collaboration with the local pastors, a new structure was born: the Better Together Network. 

“We don’t want to have an orphaned pastor on the field,” Naka said. “We want to support them. We want to work with them. We want to build them so that a life is transformed, a family flourishes, a ministry flourishes, a heart devoted to the Lord.” 

The gospel work Jonas helped start, and Naka chose to continue, is still going. 

Ready to get involved in the 6 Degree Initiative? Get started today.