Thank you for your prayers for Batoe. God is comforting their hearts little by little. This past Tuesday I greeted Antoinette's sisters and other family members again to encouragement them and I saw some smiles for the first time in weeks. Let us continue to pray that God will fill the void that they feel in their hearts with the love and life of Jesus.

For the next two months I'm holding a special weekly mentoring/teaching time with all of the Adangbe elders/leaders on Wednesdays. Last week when they were discussing how to pay for lunch each Wednesday they decided that everyone needed to give a small sack of corn and then 100 franks (20 cents) each week to help with sauce. This discussion was going on into 20 minutes when I raised my hand and offered to pay for everybodies lunch during our time together. They said NO! Well, at least let me pay for the sauce. You guys give your corn and I'll provide the sauce. NO, they said! "We need to learn how to do this for ourselves so that when you're gone our meetings will continue on." I insisted, saying that it's just a one time thing and they can pay for their own lunch after I leave. No, they wanted to do it now. After being put in my place, I finally relented. So, today, after our lunch of corn meal and fish sauce, I put in my 20 cents (next week I will take my corn).

This coming Sunday the Agodeke church will have it's grand opening. Daniel, one of the men who planted this church, told me that the Agodeke Christians were inviting all of their family, friends and neighbors to repent and come to Jesus so that they can all worship together! They are planning a big celebration on Sunday which we were invited too. With the exception of encouraging those who taught these people the Good News of Jesus, I have had no part in planting this church. Every week the Batoe Christians are so excited to report the good things happening in this new church. Pray for Agodeke (A-go-dae-kay), that the Lord would establish them in their faith and protect them from the evil one.

On the home front, we now have wireless, 24/7, reliable internet! It's amazing! Read my blog for more details: http://audienceofone.cc

Also, everyone is healthy this week. Join us in praising God for healing. Please continue to pray for our adoption, that the Lord would shorten the days that we must wait to bring our little home and that He would provide all that we need to complete the adoption process.

The past week has been good. The boys are healthy and enjoying school and life in Tabligbo. I had a women's meeting in Kpotonou and it went very well. Two new women were at my meeting. They are both regulars at Church now. Because of the new ladies at the meeting, we reviewed all the past lessons. I had each women retell each story. I was so happy that they allremembered every story. It was so fun to listen as each of them told stories about Jesus.

On Sunday we went to worship with Kpotonou church. After the service ended, one of the women (a regular at my meetings) asked if she could speak with me. She asked if I would take her three year old daughter home to live with me. I asked her why she would want me to do that. She said that there is suffering in her home. When I asked for a little further explanation, she said that she does not know how she can pay for all her children to go to school. She also said that she is very busy. My heart felt so sad for this women and the desperation that would lead her to want to send a child away. I went and got Murphy and we both prayed over her. Please pray for this young mother. Her name is Dodzino (do-ji-no). She has four children, the youngest is about one year old. Pray for the many young mothers just like her who feel desperate and don't know how they will provide for their children. Dodzino's husband is a christian. Pray that this family will put their faith in God to provide for their family.

We had a huge thunderstorm in the night Monday night! I woke up because my curtains were blowing and hitting me in the face. After I got up and closed windows I layed awake for a long time listening to the wind, thunder, rain, and watching the lightening, I love a good thunderstorm. The storm led to very cool (83 degree) temperatures today which was a nice birthday treat.Tuesday I got colorful home made birthday cards from each of the boys and a can of orange fanta from the Crowson boys which was so thoughtful. The day managed to go well, Hannah and Elijah Reeves joined us for schoo,and it managed to stop raining long enough for us to have a good recess.

Then that night the team threw me a great suprise party. I was told that it was just a time to socialize with the Reeves family and their kids who were visting, but really it was an adult party for me! The Koonces had told me to invite Lauren (the Peace Corp girl) so she came over for dinner and then went with us. Christine Crowson made a great chocolate cake with sprinkles and they let me choose a game to play. My gift from Amy and the team is a trip to Lome on Monday to shop for fabric so that I can have a couple of local looking skirts made. I am super excited!! And Loiuse Koonce made this really cute Emily paper doll with velcro skirts as the card. It was so thoughtful and funny. I chose MadGab as the game and we all laughed a lot. I love Mad Gab! Amy and I didn't get home until 10:45 which is later than we stay out even on Fridays, so neadless to say we are tired, but the party was so much fun. And then Wednesday I got a fun package of random candy from a woman at my church. And so Amy and I spent the whole afternoon eating gummy worms!

My funny story this week involves a little "potty humor" but hopefully you won't be grosed out.

At the end of french class Thursday, Trevor asked to go to the bathroom and then Matthew asked to go get a drink. Everyone else had moved on to art class, when I herd a shout and realized neither boy had returned. I walked over to the bathroom to find the door wide open Trevor is sitting on the toliet and Matthew is standing a little ways off and says as I approach "I am helping him go to the bathroom Miss Emily." I relpied with the best straight face I could muster "How are you helping him Matthew?". To witch Matthew matter of factly answered " I told him to hold on to the seat so he won't fall in." Turns out the shouting was due to the fact the Mordecai was licking/chewing on Trevor's toes while he was trying to go to the bathroom. Maybe it was funnier in person but Amy and I both had a good laugh over it.

We had a near typical week here in Tabligbo which delighted us. I was able to have all of my teaching sessions and was very encouraged by the growth we are seeing both in maturity and in number. Two of the new churches, Afagnan Gbleta and Amengran are continuing to grow with additional conversions. For Amengran it is now getting time to seek a more permament meeting place. Pray for the land to be inexpensive and it to be a good location within the city. Pray also for the Afagnan Gbleta church as they are challenged because they rented land from a difficult man who is wanting to impede their growth. Pray for them to be able to find a new place to build their shelter.

Last week Vogan experienced some closure and reconcilliation through the work of several elders from different congregations. These elders met with Hammer and the other leaders for two different Sundays in order to help them work through their conflict and reconcile them to each other while seeking to avoid the oh so common church split. God answered months of prayers as there was repentance expressed by several who had been divisive. The way this was handled and not something contrived by we the missionaries gave us great hope as to the future of the Watchi churches and encouraged us as to the maturity level of the present leaders. I found myself musing as to the blessing this would be in the states to have unity of this sort; churches that resolved conflict in love as opposed to churches that bring conflict upon each other.

Please pray for the following churches to grow to a point where they will plant an additional church before May 2007: Atitogon, Togbonou, Amouzouglita, Hompou, Angasigle, Topeglo, Afakomi Kope, Ahepe, Fiove, Kpeyidzi, Vo Asso, Vogan Avadzime, Kpotonou, and Sedome. God bless you and thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

After a frustrating week without a phone, we are back online. The phone company periodically claims we have not paid a bill and thus turns off the phone without warning. We take all the receipts in to prove they have been paid and then they turn it back on. This time they said they would not turn it on until this month's bill is paid which was not due yet. Marty was on his way to do just that, when I picked up the phone and got a dial tone. Thankful for small favors!

Thank you for your prayers for Afi. She is healing well after the amputation and may even be released from the hospital this week. Continue to prayer that she will be able to keep it clean once she is back at home in the village.

Yesterday, Thursday, was art day for the younger group. Since art is Trevor's favorite subject, Emily has to go through the same routine with Trevor almost every day: "Miss Emily, do I need my art book today?" "No Trevor, art is on Thursdays" "What day is it today? Is it Thursday?" "No Trevor, it's Monday. We do art on Thursday." "Oh." Sometimes they have that conversation multiple times a day. Yesterday Trevor didn't ask about art. So at recess we told him that it was art day. He burst into this song and dance number that lasted for five minutes, "Today is my favorite day/I love art/art is my favorite subject/This is my art day."

Today we had a Fall Festival at the end of school. Lauren came over to help out with the games. We had to revise our plans when it started to rain, but we managed to have a wheelbarrow race and a three-legged race in the rain and then came on the porch for bobbing for apples, a cake walk and "fishing." Matthew probably won the prize for "best apple bobber." He submerged half his head and came up spluttering and blinking water out of his eyes, but he got the apple. :) Really the afternoon was an excuse to take a bunch of pictures and give the boys a bunch of candy and then send them home on a sugar high.

Quotes from the week: "I like snakes because they look serious. But I just like them on the page...not in real life." -Stephen, "I used to think that all Indians lived in teepees. Then I got to kindergarten and saw pictures of different homes." -Taylor "J-J-Jairplane!" -Trevor "I must have been looking at the funth: the fifth month." -Tanner