After overcoming malaria, I had a full week of teachings capped off by a very encouraging time with Afakomi Kope on Friday night. Last week it seems that God blessed Vogan with a very timely turnaround. Several elders from different regions descended upon the church to encourage them to humble themselves and to work together in peace and love. They met with Hammer and Dela and prayed through the night with them and then on Sunday spoke to the church. In a meeting after the church, one of the more rebellious among them revealed his attitudes and character with threats and lude statements. Pray for Aimer, that he would repent. This weekend they will meet again with the church and hopefully close out this chapter for the Vogan church. Pray for Hammer and his family who have been heavily persecuted and threatened through for the last fifteen months. Pray for the training of leaders that I am doing in and for the following churches: Adankonou Kope, Amouzouglita Kope, Atitogon, Togbonou Kope, Tabligbo, Topeglo, Ahepe, and Afakomi Kope. Pray also for the "on their own" areas of Dogbati, Vo Asso, and Nyinoume. These clusters were very well trained by Jeff Holland prior to his departure. Pray for them to work faithfully and to grow. Pray for the newer churches in Afagnan Gbleta and Amengran. Please keep us in your prayers as well. As always, thank you for your love and faithfullness to God, our family, and the Watchi people.

One of the nice things about running your own school is the freedom to declare your own holidays. This week we declared October 17th "Patty Slack Day". The story behind it is that our former teammate, Patty told Amy Shaffer that day would be the start of the hot season. It is subsequently her husband, Edwin's birthday. It seems unfair to call it Patty Slack Day, huh? In celebration of the heat wave, we had a cookout and let the kids play in the Crowson's wade pool.
Marty had about of Malaria this week, but is recovering nicely. The boys are well and doing fine at school. I have been busy around the house, as usual.

Please pray for our friend Afi. She had advanced Madura foot and Friday her leg was amputated below the knee. It will be a long recovery process and a major change in her way of life, but we pray that her pain will be tremendously reduced. Please pray specifically that she will be able to keep it clean enough to prevent secondary infections, and that she will have adequate help in her home. We offer thanksgiving to God for providing the funds for the surgery through a generous donation from two kind ladies.

Our school holiday on Tuesday, "Patty Slack Day," was a nice day to make up for having school last Saturday. We had a lazy morning and then Lauren came over and we walked to the Crowsons. They had a fire ring built in the backyard and we got to help the boys roast hot dogs. I don't think I've ever done that in 90+ degree weather before. If you thought little kids were bad about wanting to get away from a fire in normal weather try picturing them sweating in shorts and no shirts with a roasting stick held at arms length over a tiny fire. I ended up roasting a few when their owners wimped out before they were cooked all of the way.

My funny story this week happened during Bravo Group math (like pretty much all of my good stories) on Wednesday. Trevor decided that he was going to pretend to be a frog so he was sitting on the floor in his best frog pose when Tanner and Matthew came in and decided to be dogs. They chased Trevor into a corner and started growling at him. The next thing I knew Trevor was standing up in the corner yelling, "Dogs don't eat frogs! Leave me alone! Don't eat me!" Tanner replied (still on his hands and knees like a dog), "I've seen Penny eat a frog! We can eat you." Matthew chimed in, "Yeah, Buster eats frogs." Trevor got really upset so I told him to come over and stand on a chair so they couldn't reach him. Somehow standing on the chair gave him the inspiration to become a grizzly bear. I have no idea where the idea came from. He tried to chase Tanner and Matthew off, but they said dogs could eat grizzly bears. I stepped in, once again, and told them about how big grizzly bears are and that if they wanted to kill one as dogs then they would need probably ten dogs and the bear would have to be already wounded. I added that black bears are much smaller and dogs might be able to take them down. Trevor said, "Well I don't want to be a black bear. I'm a grizzly bear." Now it was Tanner's turn to get upset, "Trevor you can't be a grizzly bear because that's not fair to the dogs! You have to be a black bear." It was all I could do to not laugh right there because they have such serious arguments about something that is totally inside their heads. Ahh, little kids.

Trevor was determined to get himself moved up on our behavior chart this week. I don't know if we've explained the chart before, but everyone begins the day on white and either moves up to blue or green for good behavior or down to yellow or red for poor behavior. Emily and I try to move them up for things like having a good attitude for a whole class period, responding quickly when they are asked to do something or being helpful to someone else. Trevor is still trying to grasp the concept of performing an action before being moved up. He just came up to me on Monday and said, "Can I please move up?" When I asked him why I should let him move up he said, "Because I'm on white and I'm smiling!" :)

God blessed my week in Accra with spiritual renewal, a repaired car, and some education in PHP code for Dreamweaver. My return last Thursday was uneventful and met with a very happy family to see me home :-) Unfortunately, that very night Stephen, Matthew and I all became sick. The boys had throat infections and I came down with a sinus cold. Thanks to God's blessings, we are all better now and back to our normal schedules after four days of fever and sore throats.

Yesterday after worship with Sedome, the Christians walked to a new village called Dekandzi (Day-kan-gee) to meet and greet people interested in hearing about Jesus. Their hope is to plant a church in that village in the near future. Pray that God would bless their efforts to proclaim the good news and set the captives free.

Pray also for the new church Agodeke (A-go-dea-kay) as they look for land to build a temporary shelter on and make plans to begin worship services on Sundays.

Also, please continue to pray for the Batoe Christians and the members of Antoinette's family. Their grief over the loss of their sister is still very deep and their faith shaken. Pray that God would encourage their faith and comfort their hearts and give them hope for the future.

We praise God this week that Murphy is home safe from Accra. He was there for car repairs. We are also so thankful that we are all healthy. Both Stephen and Matthew were sick this past weekend with high fevers and complaining of sore throats. They are both well today. Murphy was also a little under the weather but is feeling well again.

I had my first solo 'stuck in the mud' experience last Monday. I borrowed the Koonces car to go to Sedome for a ladies' meeting. On the way, I went to far to the right in a very muddy part of the road and got very stuck. Thankfully I was on a busy road so two men came quickly to my aid. They could not get me out but very soon four other men had joined in the effort After only 20 minutes they had me on the way. I was pretty shaken up after that experience and as I was driving on to my meeting, I kept thinking that had I stayed at home nothing like that would have happened. Then the faces of Sedome women waiting for me to arrive came to my mind and so I pressed on. When I got to Sedome the Church shelter was packed. There were seventeen women and teenagers at the meeting. Eleven of the ladies had never been to a meeting before. Praise God for what he is doing in Sedome. Pray for those women to grow in their faith and perservere. Pray for the Sedome Church as they are trying to get a Church plant started in another village. Thank you so much for your prayers.

We had school last Saturday to make up for our Monday in Lome with the Bunners. We let school out at lunch time cause both boys and teachers were tired. I am looking forward to having a relaxing Saturday at home this weekend. I "met" one of the most interesting creatures I've met so far last Saturday night. Louise tells me it is called an electric bug. This bug makes the same sound as a transformer that is about to explode! In my half asleep state I was sure I was about to have to evacuate for a harding fire drill, but no, the bug just keeps making his obnoxious noise for several long minutes. For now at least he has moved on to bother someone else.

Patty Slack Day was Tuesday! (Patty Slack goes to church with Amy and told her that Oct. 17th would be the day we knew the hot season was here. So the team made it a school holiday!). It stopped raining Oct. 15th right on schedule and it is definitely warmer. Tuesday we had a women and boys day at the Crowsons to celebrate. It was so fun and relaxing. The boys swam in the Crowsons little pool and played while we sat around talking. Lauren, the Peace Corp girl, went with us and she had a great time escaping from her usual food. Christine grilled hamburgers and the boys roasted hot dogs over a fire for lunch. We had homemade ice cream and caramel apples for dessert. What a classic cookout celebration! We played catchphrase for a long time while the boys worked on some impressive lego creations.