~ Murphy Crowson ~ Crowson's Blog

(Pictures to the left) Batoe Christians gather at the river to baptize new believers from the village of Agodeke

We rejoice this week in the birth of a new church in the Sendome/Batoe region as well as three new Christians in the Batoe church. Seven men and one women from the village of Agodeke were baptized into Christ last Sunday after an exciting worship time with the Batoe Christians. The new believers walked 3 miles from their village to the river to be baptized, a sure sign of their desire to put their faith in Jesus. This is a major turning point for the area as they now know with great confidence that if they proclaim the Word of Life God will use them to bring people to Jesus AND that they can do this without a missionary or any kind of foreign financing. 100% God's power through them. Praise God!

I also rejoice that four believers came forward in Sendome to confess sin before the Lord and their family in Christ. This is an incredible sign of the Holy Spirit at work in their hearts to bring them closer and closer to the image of Christ. Praise God for sending His Spirit to convict the world of sin!

I ask that you continue to pray for Joe, a man from Kpotonou who is making alcohol to pay the school fees for his family. Pray that God would give him faith to trust and believe that if he would seek first God's Kingdom then God would provide all that he needs. I have the money that he needs to pay the school fees. The money isn't the issue. His real need is FAITH. That is my desire for him. If I give him the money then his school fees are paid, but that doesn't necessarily produce faith in God. More often than not, it produces faith in the white missionary. This is not a case where he came to me for help and I refused. He didn't come to anybody for help, not even God. This is a significant moment where he must choose the path that he can see or choose the path of faith. Pray that He will choose FAITH!

Today I'm in Accra picking up my cousin and her husband, Larry and Rhonda Fisk. They live in Alaska and have come for a two week visit. They're loving this HOT weather while I'm shivering everywhere I go:) 79 is "break out the jacket" weather for me while it's "put on the shorts and t-shirts" for them. We have a packed schedule for them over the next two weeks as we try to give them a glimpse of all that the Lord is doing among the Watchi.

2006 Watchi Team

Men from Afakomi Kope

Anchou, an elder from the Tabligbo church

Stephen & Matthew getting ready to ride their bikes to school

It's Matthew's Birthday month! He turns 6 on September 19. We have already begun to celebrate:)

French class with Daniel

Emily's Classroom

~ Christine Crowson ~

Praise God for another good week. This past Sunday we celebrated with the Batoe church as 11 people were baptized. Eight of the eleven are from Agodoke, a village where the Batoe Christians have been teaching. The Batoe church was very excited to see their neighbors taking this step of faith. Please pray for these new christians that they will grow strong in their faith. We have all adjusted to the new school schedule. Stephen and Matthew continue to enjoy their new school and new teachers.

We would also like you to pray with us for our adoption. Our paperwork is in China moving from desk to desk through their system. Right now the wait for a referral has lengthened to 15 months. Please pray with us that this wait will shorten so that we can bring our daughter home sooner.

~ Emily Dunnagan ~

How many others schools can claim bleating green goats, birds, and lizards as some of their greatest distractions? Our neighbors tie their goat which has been dyed green right behind the school building. This goat tends to cry loudy in the middle of lessons, or at the end of the day when the boys are practicing their memory verse. Towards the end of the day Monday 5 pigeons chased a large lizard all across the tin roof making quite a racket. Amy and I just laugh at the wildlife. The boys love to chase the birds and lizards in our side yard. Mordecai (our dog) isn't quite big enough to scare wildlife of any kind out of the yard. I wore a panya (wrap skirt) for the first time today and realized that it made it a bit difficult to play freeze tag with the boys during recess. Amy and I had the grand plan over the weekend that we would sleep in on Saturday morning, but turns out we were both up by 6:15. We had a great weekend visiting Lome on Saturday with the Crowson's and then experiencing cluster worship in Attitogone with the Koonce's Sunday. My French is improving slowly thanks to our French teacher Daniel, but I have only learned one phrase in Eve, "Mawo na yra O" which means "God bless you".

~ Marty Koonce ~

Last week we were able to have good train and multiply sessions with everyone except for Afakomi Kope and Ahepe. The news from Tabligbo is that the new trainee, Felicien, is eager and ready to learn. He is from Tabligbo but works with the Topeglo church. He is already using what he has aquirred and we hope to see the blessings in maturity and growth there. Tabligbo has decided to do something. They set up evangelism groups last week after church and today went and evangelized after their service was over. This is a huge step for them in the right direction. Now we can pray for faithfulness, courage, and persistence among those going out. Ankou seems to be doing a little better with his health and we ask you to continue to remember him in your prayers that his spiritual confidence will return. Afakomi has had one of its most faithful men return from working in Lome. This has brought a renewal in some excitement among their membership. He has a heart for evangelism and the courage to preach repentance. So, please pray for Koffi of Afakomi Kope to step up and be used to build up that church there. Koffi the tailor and I will be working with him to encourage and train him in this. In the Atitogon cluster they continue in their service as faithfully as ever. They have made some bold predictions of growth for this year, though, that honestly they have not put in the prayer and work to achieve. Pray for them to persevere and continue on as God brings about the growth they long for out there. They want to plant two more churches before year's end and begin a new cluster of churches. Please pray also for the Nyinoume, Dogbati, and Vogan areas. We haven't heard much word from them as of late, but know that your prayers would be of great blessing to them. To end off our otherwise good week, our engine failed in our truck. They will be looking at it this week to assess the damage. I guess after over 100,000 miles of dusty roads, it had had enough. Pray for the rebuilding to be done well and not be too expensive. Thank you for your prayers and your love. May God bless you for the spiritual and physical sacrifices you all make to keep us here.

~ Louise Koonce ~

The school year is in full swing and the routine is a welcome change for me. So far there have been very few spare moments in spite of the absence of boys during the day. Our mother rabbit has given birth to seven bunnies. That has given us a new science lesson. The rains have begun again and we are enjoying the cool weather.

~ Amy Shafer ~

Well I learned a new recess game this week. It's called "auction" and it's actually pretending like you are having an auction. And nobody has any money! And the boys love it! Tucker started it Monday and it goes something like this... Someone gets their plastic drinking cup off the front porch for the gavel and then climbs up into the fort that we have next to the swing set. They also take up assorted jump ropes, bean bags, parachute sacks and balls. Then they hold up an item and start the bidding. Everyone else stands around on the ground and yells out bids. The numbers climb rapidly. You have to shout really loudly to be heard above Trevor screaming, "Two hundred thousand million dollars!"  Finally the auctioneer yells out above the clamor the name of the winner and bangs the cup down on the rail of the fort. Then they toss the item down and we repeat the performance with the next item. I can't figure out why it is so much fun. It doesn't make any sense to me. But I stand down there with them and dutifully bid. Occasionally I win something. One day I won Mordecai. It was kind of nice to win my own dog. :)

We're already collecting quite an assortment of quotes from the boys. I keep an index card in my classroom to write down the funnier moments of the day. Already this week we've heard this prayer from Trevor, "God please help this dog to not get any more ticks. He already gets them a lot. And we just want him to not get any more. In Jesus name, Amen," this from Matthew, "I might look like a boy, but I'm a worm on the inside," and this "school song" from Trevor, "What could I do?/It is a perfect day/I like my friends/They are my own friends for every day/This is my school song." They definitely keep us laughing.