Please pray for the Nyinoume church as they organize leaders and every member. This weekend Jeff has led them in a workshop to help them confirm elders, choose deacons, and help every member be part of at least one work of service. Based on Ephesians 4:11-12, the workshop is not just emphasizing leaders but the concept of leaders “equipping all of the saints for works of service in order to build up the body of Christ.” Our prayer is that all of the members will be equipped for works of service under the tutelage of the elders and deacons so that the whole church functions as one body.

Also pray for Luke. He is a health-worker in his village. God has raised him up to be a huge motivational leader in the Vo Asso church. The church has grown form fewer than 10 members to more than 35 in the last couple of years. That congregation is now working on two church plantings. One, led by a team of evangelists from Vo Asso, will be in a nearby to form the Vo Asso cluster (a cluster is a group of cooperating congregations in close proximity). The other is in a large town about 9 km away. Luke and one or two others will be working in the town 2-3 days a week to establish the congregation in coming months.

We started practicing baseball again this week. Our team kids and a bunch of Togo kids got together at an old field. The grass had burned off leaving soot behind. This left our boys almost as dark as their African friends. Josiah loves baseball. Ellianna, at just 30 months old, has learned to climb into the tree house—scaring us half-to-death. Rebecca has decided to be a demolition scholar. She loves books—at least tasting and tearing them apart. Turning 8 months old this week, she worked hard and was promoted to trashcan-contents-remover.

We are going to miss Shannon, the sister of our teacher, Stacey. She was here for about a month and survived sickness, power-outages, water shut-offs, bugs, and many other things with a great attitude.

We hope that all of you are settling into the new year as well as we are.

We received news from your side of the ocean this last week that Marty's dad's thumb surgery went well. Pray for his recovery in this. We continue our training of leaders among the churches in Tabligbo, Ahepe, Vogan, and the Atitogon region. Vogan's new group of elders and deacons should begin in the next two weeks. Pray for their love for each other and unity as well as a determination to grow in faith. Atitogon regions continues to respond well to its training although several of the churches there are struggling.

Evangelism is needed in Togbonou and Atitogon. Seriousness is needed in Amouzouglita. Renewal is needed for Hompou and perseverance for Adankonou Kope. Please pray for the Ahepe and Tabligbo churches as the leaders struggle in those places with so much unhealthy church history and lack of hope for improvement or progress. Afakomi may very well be the bright spot this week. Please pray for them to mature beyond just being Sunday Christians. Our family has had a healthy week and we are gearing up for our string of birthdays beginning with Tucker's on the 24th of this month.

God bless you all for your prayers.

We have been thankful for our electrical generator this week. As I write this, we are once again running on generator power. The electricity has been going out pretty often, though unpredictably, this week. Two nights it was out from 9:00 p.m. until midnight and so far it's been out about seven hours today.

We're also glad that we have international communication available. Maureen was able to phone and wish her dad a Happy 84th Birthday today (Friday).

This has been a fairly routine week for Anthony and the boys- working on leadership materials, doing leadership training, and meeting with various committees, while the boys have enjoyed their week at school. It is baseball season, at least on the Watchi team, so the boys have started baseball practice on Sunday afternoons and have been playing catch during their breaks at school.

Maureen has spent a lot of time sorting through things, making decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of, and has started some packing. She has already put up a few Chinese New Year decorations at home. She and Christine are continuing meeting with different ladies' groups on Saturday mornings.

We've enjoyed having Stacey's sister Shannon here with the team for the past month. We'll be seeing her off in Lomé on Saturday night.

Kossi and his family

When I met with Tonn on Tuesday he hadn't had a drink in four days! Daily victories will lead to weekly victories... That morning the chief had sent word that he needed Tonn to work for him but Tonn declined. (The chief pays him with alcohol). On market day he didn't do his usual job of loading the trucks in order to avoid the "party" that he and his friends normally had after they were paid on market day. And, when one of his friends filled a cup with alcohol and pushed it to him during the week, Tonn said no. Denni met with him every evening this week to keep him accountable and to pray together. Please ask the Lord to give Tonn strength to take a good beginning and make it last.

When I saw Kossi on Wednesday he was encouraged. He said that something had changed in his wife's heart and that there was more peace in his home. He had also taken my advice to try and do some specific things during the week to show his wife that he loved her even though her behaviour brought shame on the family. He bought her a new blouse in the village market and picked out several things that she does well and began to praise her for them. With the Holy Spirit working in both of their lives I have hope that the Lord is going to safe this marriage. Pray that He does. Pray that she will be deeply convicted by the love and grace of Jesus and confess her sin and need for a savior. Pray that Kossi will love his wife with God's love even if she doesn't love him in return.

I also ask you to pray for Kpeve's preaching point in Kpokede (Kpo-ke-day) that the Lord would establish a new body of believers in their village. Also pray that the Lord will move his mighty hand to begin a new church in the Sendome/Batoe area.

Our family is doing well. We are working hard to get all of our paper worked started for our China adoption and praying that the Lord will provide all that we need in terms of advice, counsel, paperwork and finances to be able to provide a precious girl with a loving family.