North German Missionary Society
Johann Carl Vietor, a merchant in West Africa, was a member of the company's executive committee.
During this era, the head of mission, inspector Franz Michael Zahn (from 1862 to 1900), was known to have a colonial-critical attitude, which is born by submissions in the German parliament.
The occupation of the mission area by the Western Powers was a first step towards the independence for the young West African church.
The 150 lectures given by the African Synod Secretary, Robert Kwami in 82 locations in northern Germany were accompanied by a racist Nazi campaign in Oldenburg shortly before Hitler came to power.
The so-called Kwami affair not only caused a sensation in Germany but Dutch and English daily newspapers also reported on this prelude to church struggle.
After Togo and Ghana gained independence from the colonial powers, the churches there asked the North German Mission for assistance.
In 2001, the Eglise Évangélique Presbytérienne du Togo and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, which resulted from the missionary work, were included in the North German Mission as equal partners in a new statute.
The missionaries learned the language and developed a script from Latin letters with the addition of phonetic characters.
The missionaries worked out Bible translations, catechism, song and school books in the new written language.
[4] There followed the book of the Acts of the Apostles[5] and the letters of Paul, Peter, James and Judas, which were translated by the missionaries Weyhe and Merz.
Westermann returned from Africa in 1907 due to illness and retired from serving as a missionary, but remained an honorary member of the North German Mission.
Every year on Trinity Sunday, the North German Mission invites all to a partnership service in its partner churches.
A 300-page four-language children's Bible in Ewe, German, English and French was developed and illustrated together with groups of girls and boys from Africa and Europe.
[18] Johann Bernhard Schlegel and Andreas Jakob Spieth were early Bible translators of the mission society.
[19] The member churches of the North German Mission in the two African countries operate over 600 of their own primary and secondary schools, several high schools (Mawuko, Saboba, Tatale, Hohoe, Badou, Lomé-Agbalépédogan, Tado) and teacher training centers (Amedzofe and Bimbilla).
[23] There are also rural development and advisory centers or model farms in Chereponi, Yendi, New Ayoma, Ho, Dambai, and Moyen Mono.
[24] The North German Mission supports many development aid projects with a focus on sustainable agriculture.
Women's work: Bible studies, literacy courses, training centres, and income-generating projects such as bread baking or handicrafts.
Food security: In Northern Togo, the women's department of the Evangelical Church is working on buying soy, rice and néré at harvest time and later selling it again at moderate and fair prices.
Curative medicine: EEPT and E. P. Church maintain numerous health centres, hospitals and pharmacies.
