Our family has officially become residents of the United States again after 12 and one half years of non-resident status. We are settled in Abilene, TX where Jeff is a graduate student at Abilene Christian University in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program. The program is one of the best in the nation and is very intense. Despite the 1000 pages of reading per week on average, 15 page papers, classes and tests, Jeff has been taking time each evening to spend with the rest of the family. God is blessing his studies and he is learning much and getting good grades! Yeah!

Josiah is in 5th grade at the local elementary. He enjoys riding his bike to and from school with his neighbor friend though there is beginning to be some mornings that are a little too cold for this Togolese boy's blood. He has been doing great in school and is adjusting well. He is going to get to try his hand at basketball this next month as he joins a basketball league.

Brenda keeps busy with Ellianna and Rebecca. They are both growing and learning so much. Brenda keeps the neighbor kids after school and that earns enough money for Elli and Becca to go to Tuesday/Thursday school. While they are at school, Brenda has been going to her "therapy" i.e. riding horses. God has been very good to us during this transition time. Thank you all for praying for our transition. God is answering in ways we could never have asked for or imagined. Please continue to pray that God will grant us direction for what he desires for us to do after these 2 years in Abilene.

Our contact information is:
542 E.N. 23rd St., Abilene, TX 79601
Phone: 325 672-9494
Jeff cell: 903 327-6864
Brenda cell: 903 327-6865

Greetings from the Parkers! Thanks to all of you who continue to pray for our family’s transition. Recently, God has blessed us with a call to serve a church in Albany, Texas as the preaching minister. This is a charming small town just about 35 miles from Abilene. I am writing this message from Albany, as we are here looking for a home. We plan to move the week after Thanksgiving. Have a look at www.albanytexas.com to learn more about the town. We’ll let you know when we have our new address there.

We have been tremendously blessed to be in Alabama for the past few months, near to family and so many friends. We have grown even deeper in our love and appreciation for the Homewood church. Jeremy has loved being in third grade and his teacher really does not want him to leave! Both Jeremy and Jonathan have enjoyed all the activities associated with fall—especially their first excursion as trick-or-treaters.

We appreciate so much the great ministry that the Crowsons, Koonces, and schoolteachers are continuing among the Watchi. Thank you for your continued support of this ministry in God’s kingdom.

Yesterday was an exciting day as we were able to participate in the first worship service of the new church in Agodeke (A-go-dae-kay). All of the Christians from the Sedome and Batoe churches plus a lot of vistors from the Agodeke region came to encourage the new Christians and partake in the Grand Opening! It was especially exciting for me to see men and women that I have mentored in the faith now mentoring others in their faith. 2 Timothy 2:2 is becoming a reality in this area thanks to God working in their hearts.

Our trip there was also an adventure. We drove the car one hour to Sedome and then took off on foot from there for about one and a half miles through the "bush" and "swamp" to get to the new village. The water was a foot deep in some places, so we picked up the boys and carried them part of the way. After worship and lunch (Christine and I were honored to get the fish head in our sauce! Sorry teachers, maybe next time) we trekked back to Sedome. On the way, Christine's shoes just couldn't take the water and mud and broke! So, she walked the last mile or so barefooted in the rocks and sand. My wife is such a trooper! It was hot too!

We praise God for the growth that is taking place in this area. He is listening and answering our prayers!

This morning Christine is meeting with the Batoe women. This is her first meeting with them since Antoinette's death and sure to be a difficult one since Antoinette was always the one who co-led the meetings with her. Please continue to pray for the village of Batoe and Antoinette's family, that the Lord would comfort their heart give them courage to believe.

So Saturday was shopping day in Lome. First of all I must say that the prospect of shopping for over a month at one time is very overwhelming. I am always afraid we will go way over budget or not get something essential, but it turned out just fine. At Citimart, Amy and I had filled up our little hand basket and were just walking around when we noticed Louise was checking out and we hadn't gotten our cheese from the deli yet. So I just asked Louise how to say half kilo and how to order a 1/4 kilo and ordered my own cheese. I was very proud of myself! Turns out I still needed Louise though for when they told me they were all out of mozerella and wanted to give me swiss instead. Ramco was our last grocery stop. I ordered our ground pork, ham, and mozerella cheese! I was so proud of myself for actually using some French! We had a great time "birthday" shopping around Lome again Monday! Louise, Christine, and Amy bought me fabric to have three new skirts made! Two are hand dyed and one is a pattern fabric that we all are going to have matching skirts made from for the upcoming women's meeting (the women from the same village all usually wear matching outfits). Now I just need to find a seamstress, and I think Lauren knows one I could use. I will be sure to take pictures of the finished products!

In French class Wednesday Daniel taught us "Jesus Loves Me" . Thursday we had a great time having Lauren and Travis (the two Tabligbo Peace Corps workers) here for dinner, and then we went and hung out at Lauren's house which was fun. I feel so spoiled after seeing the way they live! They love eating at our house because we actually eat meat. We made plans to go to market together next Wednedsay after school provided it is not raining and the power is on.

It was another good week in Togo for us. God blessed us with a great worship time with Adankonou Kope on Sunday. This was followed by good teaching times for leaders involved with the Topeglo, Atitogon, Togbonou, Ahepe, Amouzouglita, Adankonou, Tabligbo and Afakomi churches. Marty also got to meet with Mikadodo who started the church in Amengran. They had additional baptisms this last week. We have not heard from the new church in Afagnan Gbleta, so we ask you to lift them up in prayer. Afii, the young lady from Topeglo who had a leg amputated nine days ago is back at home in the village now. She is in very little pain and is so thankful to have some relief from the infection she was living with. Pray for her to be able to keep the wound clean and infection free. Pray also that we can find a prosthetic leg for her. Keep praying for Vogan as they work through their difficulties. They seem to have turned a corner in a positive direction. Our family is doing well. The boys really enjoy school and there is always something new to share when they return home each day. Recently, as we have experienced some low times, we were given a glimpse of sorts into the need we have for your prayers. On one occasion after a couple of difficult days, Marty had an extraordinary run of very effective and encouraging days only to find out that one of our dearest prayer warriors had praying for us through the night. We and the Watchi so desparately need your prayers in order to repel the darkness in Togo. Please pray for us and this work. We praise God for you and are so thankful for your love and faithfullness.

Louise has gone on a spiritual retreat for a couple of nights, so keep Marty and the boys in your prayers to survive until her return.

My adventure for the week was a trip to the dentist on Monday. It turned into an adventure for Louise, Christine and Emily too because we all went into Lome together to have a shopping day. It took us a while to actually find the dentist. We were first directed to an ophthalmologist's office. It was crowded with people who were getting eye drops and I didn't think it looked like a promising place to have my tooth checked out. They told us pretty quickly that we were at the wrong place and gave us directions on how to find the dentist office. Those directions lead us to a busy intersection that was surrounded by shops selling anything from cell phone covers to trash cans. We saw an advertisment for the dentist painted on one of the buildings, but couldn't actually see an office anywhere. We called the dentist to see if we could get more specific directions and found out that he was just around the corner. His office was in fact next to the sign for a gynecologist...is it any wonder we couldn't find it?

The dentist told me that there was nothing wrong with my tooth. That was really good news. I thought that a filling had fallen out, but apparently I was feeling a normal rough edge on my tooth that I hadn't noticed before. It makes me sound like a hypocondriach I guess. :)

It was as we left the dentist office that we experienced our real adventure. The building had a tiny elevator and the four of us barely fit inside. Just as Christine pushed the button to go down all of the lights went out. The doors were closed and the elevator didn't go anywhere. We were all pretty sure that we were going to be stuck in a Togolese elevator for a very long time. We prayed, determined that we had no flashlights between the four of us and decided to try pushing the buttons again. Just as Louise pressed a button the lights came back on and the doors opened. We evacuated rather quickly and took the stairs to get back down to ground level. I don't believe any of us will ride an elevator in this country again.