It was a great week for us with the Bunners and of course the Crowsons, Emily, and Amy. I got to travel with Frank on Tuesday as he encouraged the leaders in the Dogbati, Gninoume, and Atitogon areas. We had our fourth meal by 5:00 pm because every place we went they wanted to feed Frank. This is a big weekend from Vogan as leaders from each region and elders from Tabligbo are going there with the express interest of bringing peace and reconciliation.

Pray for them as they meet with Hammer on Saturday for prayer and then the church on Sunday. Continue to pray for me as I do our training in Atitogon, Ahepe, Tabligbo, and for Togbonou Kope. I have had interest expressed to me about us planting a church in the northern section of Lome called Agoenyive. I will investigate this more thoroughly in the coming weeks. Pray for that to be a sustainable church plant as the area is mostly catholic and muslim. Also please pray for Afakomi Kope as they are still trying to figure out if they have enough time to worship and be in relationship with Jesus or not. Pray for them to be willing to sacrifice a little for the one who sacrificed it all. Other churches on the "C" (for critical) list are: Amouzouglita, Hompou, Togbonou Kope, and Topeglo. Pray for all the Watchi to be so overwhelmed by the love of God that they cannot keep quiet and evangelism flows naturally from them as they seek to share the blessing. Thank you for your love. Marty

We continued to enjoy having the Bunner family in town (They returned to the States this past Friday). On Monday, I drove Jenna and the teachers around to do some shopping in Lome while Marty and Frank took the boys to play golf. We met up with them at a guest house for lunch and fun at the pool. Unfortunately, the Crowsons were kept at home because of sickness. On Tuesday, Jenna, Christine and I went to Vogan to visit and eat with Dela. Thursday, we spent the entire day with the Bunners at the Crowson's home. We enacted a team meeting and enjoyed some great prayer time together. The children joined us after school and we celebrated Aaron's belated birthday. After a meal together, we played charades and then sang until the children were falling off to sleep one by one. It was hard to say goodbye again to the Bunners, but it had sure been a blessing to all of us, as well as the Togolese people.

We had our local girl Peace Corp volunteer over for dinner last Saturday night. Her name is Lauren and she stayed for four hours. :) It was fun to hang out with someone our own age. We had chicken pita wraps, okra and Lauren brought a mango, a pear and an apple. We even made a chocolate cake for dessert. Turns out that between the two of us Ems and I have five cake mixes. We get fed enough sweets as it is so we haven't felt a need to use any of the mixes. When the Peace Corp volunteers came over one night last week they all drooled over them and we felt pretty spoiled.

Oooh and I get to tell a funny story on Emily this week. She put our cell phone through a test and it failed. We can now say with a great deal of confidence that if you leave a phone sitting out in the middle of a Togo rainstorm all afternoon and then forget to look for it until the next morning you will no longer own a working cell phone. :)

It was fun to have the Bunner kids in school this week. I think everyone would have been a little more resistant to settling back into the school routine if there hadn't been friends around to share the work. It was hard to say goodbye to them last night and we were definitely missing Corrie's influence on Trevor this morning when he filled my chalkboard with drawings of crocodiles eating ducks.

Please continue to pray for the Batoe church, especially the family members of Antoinette. There's still great sadness in their hearts over the loss of their dear sister. Pray that God would comfort them and strengthen their faith.

Both Matthew and I were hit hard this week with a case of malaria. We're both better now and regaining our strength. Thank you for your prayers for continued health for all of our family.

The Bunner's visit was a great joy and delight as well as an encouragement to our family and to the Watchi Christians. God used them to encourage so many people. We were sad to see them go this past Friday but thankful to God for bringing us close to such a wonderful family.

I'll be in Accra, Ghana this entire week getting some vital car repairs done. While the vehicle is with the mechanic I'm taking the time to brush up on my web development skills as well as have a spiritual retreat. Frank brought me a book called "Desiring God" that I'm going to sink my teeth into this week as I refresh my soul in our wonderful Creator.

Christine is home with the boys this week. Please ask the Lord to keep them safe while I'm gone. We also ask that you pray that God would shorten the days that we need to wait for our Chinese daughter's referral and place our daughter in loving arms until we can hold her in our arms.

Ok so our nap time on Thursday was my funniest moment of the week. As a little bit of background I make the younger boys rest quietly on party days. Thursday we were celebrating Aaron Bunner's birthday after-school so I knew Trevor, Matthew, and Corrie would need rest time. I brought them all inside into our guest room and had them spread out on the double bed and couch. They were all finally laying still, and I was really hoping they were asleep, when thump Trevor fell off of the bed. I tried so hard not ot laugh at his startled smiling face.

Having the Bunner's here has been so much fun. I especially enjoyed getting to know Aaron, Josh, and Corrie in school this week. Corrie's pink and purple butterflies and flowers are so different that the usual star wars and spiderman art that hangs on the walls of my classroom. Aaron and Josh worked on their own school work and just went with the flow of our school day. Having them in french class helped us realize how much we have learned already.

Last Monday we didn't have school so we could have one last fun day in Lome with the Bunners. Our day started out souvenir shopping with Jenna, Louise, Corrie, and Trevor. We got to experience the Grande Marche for the first time. You probably can't imagine that many people going that many different directions all trying to get you to buy their stuff. You are always being bumped by someone and ducking out of someone else's way. Trying not to bump the man with fabric piled up two feet high on his head and ducking to avoid someone else with a large bag of charcoal on their head. You always feel like you are going the wrong direction and are constantly saying "NO, Merci." Louise bought us Tampico from a FAN Milk cart towards the end which was great. (Tampicos are pouches with a sunny delight type drink mixture that is slightly frozen)

Amy and I are excited to go back to Grande Marche with just Louise or Lauren (a peace corp girl in Tabligbo) some other time to shop for ourselves. I would love more local looking fabric. Lauren knows a girl who works for the local seamstress school in town and would make us skirts for us! After that we headed outside of Lome to the Hotel where we were meeting the men and older boys for lunch and swimming. (Murphy and Matthew were sick so the Crowson's were not with us) We took a different road back to Tabligbo that goes through the old capital city and a really pretty costal area. We also saw Lake Togo and lots of palm trees. It is still raining everyday so the hot season is not officially here yet, but I can feel it getting a little bit warmer every afternoon. I have been here for TWO months! Wow how time flies!