~ Jeff and Brenda Holland ~

God is blessing us in our continued transitions.

School is slowing down for Josiah and the other students as there is only one more week of classes remaining. This is just another landmark highlighting the reality of our imminent departure in early June.

We had a good Easter weekend and took a short trip out of town. Since then we have been sticking with our routine of making visits and preparing for our return to the USA. This week, we saw Komla, our house worker who had a stroke last year. He is happy and responsive, but has regressed in his ability to take care of himself and walk about. Keep him in your prayers.

Jeff also spent time with the Dagbati elders in prayer and fasting. They are all working hard for the Kingdom. Progress often seems slow, but we pray that with their perseverance and faith, God will move mountains in the many places they are evangelizing and maturing Christians.

The Koonce family enjoyed a "normal" week. Everyone in the family is relatively well, only Taylor has suffered a bit from allergies. The boys are gearing up for the end of school. They have summer fever, even though we live in the land of endless summer. They are eager to have free time to play. Mom is looking forward to having more time with them, and planning things to do to pass the summer constructively; pass the time, at is between teammates departing and visitors arriving. It looks like it will be a busy three months. We anticipate visits from Louise's sister and niece, friends from Warrenton, and the Bunner family. Marty has been working "normally" as well having his studies in the villages, Lome, and Tabligbo. New developments in his work are some personal Bible studies he is doing in Tabligbo and in Lome. Two in Tabligbo are people we have considered friends for a long time and spoken to "casually" about Jesus but never got down to the real issues. In Vogan things are better and worse at the same time.

Those who are not seeking God have taught lessons recently and showed their shallowness to the church. This is difficult because many were disappointed and discouraged. The good is that the elders are starting their training next week. Angansigle is doing well in the Atitogon area and will even be hosting a cluster worship next month. Please pray for the men in Afakomi to find something to work at locally instead of always going elsewhere and leaving their church leaderless. Please continue to pray for Ahepe as their image has really improved in the village after they have made needed changes both physical and spiritual. Tabligbo has suffered a blow from the loss of another elder. This one, Jaques, has left the village with his family without giving word to anyone as to where he went or what he was going to be doing or if he would even be back. Yet, somehow, the other elders aren't discouraged, just disappointed. They have done much better at being leaders and examples. Ankou, one of them, is in need of prayers for his health as he has had some intestinal problems for the last couple of months. God bless you all and thank you so much for your prayers.

We now have less than two weeks remaining in this chapter of our lives in Togo. This week Anthony has been recovering from jet lag while Maureen has been packing for our upcoming travels and organizing things for the big garage sale that we are planning for next Saturday. On Sunday we worshipped with the churches in the Nyinoume cluster and said our goodbyes to them. We were once again honored to be blessed by the prayers of our Watchi brothers and sisters. Though we do not yet know what the future holds, we have much security in knowing that so many people are around the world are praying for our family. Thank you.

On Tuesday, Anthony and Marty met with Tabligbo elders. Anthony has not been able to be involved in this for the past several weeks, so it was good to be back with them. On the whole, they are growing in their leadership gifts. One of the elders, Ankou, is suffering from some chronic health problems. We spent much of our meeting discussing and praying about those. Please remember him in your prayers. On a somewhat confusing note, another elder has surprisingly moved to Lomé, presumably in search of a better job situation.

This morning (Saturday), Maureen has gone with Christine to Batoe in her last opportunity to meet with the women there. The boys are treasuring their last days in their very special MK school, and Anthony is working on a Power Point presentation for reporting about our work here.

Thank you for the prayers for the sale of our vehicle. We are planning to sell the car to a Christian aid organization that is run by an American missionary. The details of the sale must be approved by his board of directors which meets this week. We are not expecting any problems, but please pray that it all goes smoothly.

Please pray that God will put in Josiah, Jeremy, and Jonathan's life friends, good friends, that will take sadness away and will help bring 'home' to a new place. Please pray for the boys that are having to say good bye to their best friends that they will go to each other and build an even greater relationship within the group. That they will keep the ones leaving in their hearts and to grow together being apart from each other.

They are the best group of boys and I am sad to be at the end of this school year with them.

Something that I discovered that is really funny in my classroom is to have a straight face contest. Whenever class seems to get too serious I like to stop and have the contest. It brings so much laughter to the room. You have got to do it with Stephen!! That boy is FUNNY!!

That's what's happening this week. It's soon till I'll be seeing some of you!!

Okay, another bug story :) We've been having really bad roach problems in our kitchen. In the mornings, when I've gone in to turn the light on, there have been a bunch just sitting on the counters. For those of you who couldn't already guess, this is NOT okay with me . . . to say, "I don't do roaches," would be a gross understatement. So Wednesday, the pest control man came to spray everything down, and when we came home from school, there were dead roaches everywhere--there were so many we had to sweep them up with a broom (okay, Stacey swept, I watched). Honestly, I had mixed emotions. I was thrilled to see that many dead roaches, and yet disgusted beyond words to see that many dead roaches. And to think that they had just a few hours earlier been living and thriving in our kitchen . . . Oh well! As we say here, "C'est l'Afrique!"

This has been another great week at school--very productive :) We're finishing everything up right on time, and it feels like there is less and less to do each day. I know the boys are excited about this! They were actually cheering that school was out in two weeks, which makes me really sad--aren't they going to miss me as much as I'm going to miss them?! But, I also remember being a kid, and I can't blame them for counting down. They have worked incredibly hard this year, and definitely deserve a summer break.

If you would remember to pray for me, I would be most grateful. I have malaria again and it's hard not to be discouraged about it. I really don't want anything to take away from my last two weeks here, so please pray for a speedy healing! I love you all so much, and don't know what I'd do without your prayers. Thank you!

We had a joyful Easter Sunday this week as we met with the Christians from Batoe and celebrated the Resurrection of our Lord! While I was preaching on the resurrection as the foundation of our faith I was filled with an "inexpressible joy" of being in Christ. Thank you God for revealing yourself to us and then using us to reveal yourself to others!

Our Easter egg hunt was rained out, so we quickly changed plans and had an inside Easter egg hunt complete with Easter candy fresh from America :-)

Matthew finally lost his second tooth this week. It's been loose for about a month but he would not let us pull it out. In fact, the new tooth was growing in behind it. He was excited to have a visit from the tooth angel who left him two dollars and a blue balloon :-)

Thank you for your prayers for Enyona and Kossi! Enyona's foot is doing much better and I heard word and that Kossi has also been healed. Praise God for hearing and answering our prayers. Please continue to pray for the Sendome region, that God would use the Christians there to plant a new church this year!

We heard good news this week about our adoption. With one exception, all of our paper work has been notarized and authenticated by both the US and the Chinese governments! Now we are waiting for approval from the USCIS office in Accra to bring an orphan and to the United States. Thank you for praying for those ladies by name. I ask that you continue to pray for Linda Hartman and Adeline Aidoo, that the Lord would put our names on their hearts so that that will remember us and process our paper work quickly!