Des Moines Church Gets Visit from West African Sister Parish

October 3, 2025

For the first time in a 20-plus-year sister parish relationship, a priest from the West African country of Togo came to visit St. Theresa Parish in Des Moines.

The circumstances might be considered providential.

“It gives me chills just talking about it,” said Kay Boisen. “I truly feel it was a gift from God.”

For more than 20 years, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish in Des Moines has had a relationship with a parish of the same name in Nyassivè, Togo. Several times, some American parishioners went to visit their friends in Togo. But that community is in a rural, poor area. No one had been able to come visit their friends in Des Moines.

Until now.

Members of the local parish committee that organizes support for Togo were talking to their contact in Togo. He shared that the new priest for the sister parish, Father JeanLuk Gakpe, was on vacation in the United States. He has been ordained for four years and was newly assigned to the Nyassivè parish with plans to be installed Oct. 16. Before then, he was on vacation visiting family in the United States including a cousin in Coralville.

“Is that close?” asked the contact.

St. Theresa parishioners invited Father Gakpe for a visit. A supporter from Wisconsin picked him up and brought him to Des Moines, where he stayed with Barb and Serio Loch.

“Everything fell in place so perfectly,” Boisen said.

The relationship began in 2003 when parishioner Nina Weisenhorn joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in Nyassivè, assigned to work on girls’ education and empowerment projects. When Deacon Earl Weisenhorn visited his daughter, he brought back a request for spiritual relationship between St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in Togo and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in Des Moines to form.

Des Moines supporters not only prayed for their new friends in Togo, they began to help in other ways. They funded a library and cultural center in the African community. School children began to exchange letters, deepening the relationship. And parishioners supported education for youth. They began with support for 21 youth and now fund the education of 250 students.

“It’s been a tremendous success,” said Deacon Weisenhorn.

He concelebrated Mass with Father Raphael Assamah on Sept. 28, enjoyed coffee and donuts afterward and received a goodie bag with an Iowa State University baseball hat, a t-shirt referencing Iowa, and more.

At the end of Mass on Sept. 28, Father Gakpe thanked parishioners in Des Moines for their longstanding friendship.

He said: “Thank you for all that you are doing!”