Pineapples, pineapples, pineapples! The Lord has bless the land with tons of pineapples! The past two weeks Watchi farmers have been harvesting their pineapples. Last Tuesday afternoon we spent several hours helping farmers from Batoe get their pineapples cut and ready for market. This is the first harvest since we helped them buy the pineapples and oh, they are so excited! God is so good. He gave us the land, He gave us the pineapple plants. We planted the plants in the land and then He gave us rain which, when all put together, produced a cash crop! Now, farmers are rejoicing over some new cash flow which is helping them pay for school fees, medicines and food. For those of you who support our agricultural ministry among the Watchi, thank you! Your offerings to the poor are bearing "fruit" that is relieving suffering and providing hope!

Last Tuesday, two young men came to my leader's meeting in Batoe. They had repented a couple of years ago and then basically turned their back on Jesus and did all kinds of wild and sinful things in the community. This brought a bad name and reputation to the Lord's body in Sedome and to our efforts to be light in the community. Part of their problem is their addiction to Marijuana. They began smoking this stuff to help them "farm" better. "When we smoke it, we don't get tired!" they said. Well, what began as an energy lift has turned into an addiction and is basically destroying their lives. Now, they realize their error and want to come back to the body of Christ. Man, I literally threw the book at them! They've been playing around with Jesus like He was just another choice among many choices and not the KING! We rebuked them in the Lord and encouraged them to repent publicly for their lack of faith and for bringing shame upon the Lord's body and His name. They listened, received our rebuke and said they would repent. May the Lord convict their hearts of sin and bring them to true repentance and faith!

Please continue to pray for our adoption........... We are still waiting for a referral and have a long wait ahead of us. I created a "China Adoption" page on our blog @ http://audienceofone.cc if you would like to see more details about our progress and what lies ahead of us. This past Saturday we spent the whole day applying for grants to help us pay for the expenses that lie ahead of us. Please pray that God will provide in ways that bring honor and glory to His name and increase our faith!

When the power went off this morning for the fourth day in a row we sent someone to ask the power company what's going on. They told us that they have begun to ration our power. So, everyday we will be without power for at least six hours. Every four days we will be without power for 12 hours. Wait, it's gets better! No power means no water because the water pump runs off the town's electricity. Just in time for the hot season to roll in, oh what fun:)

We have had another good week. Everyone is healthy in our family, praise God. I had a good meeting with Batoe last week. There were fifteen women at the meeting. It was difficult without Antoinette. This was our first meeting since she passed away. Her sister, Doneno, took over leading the meeting. She asked for our prayers. She still feels very sad and she has had to take over many of Antoinette's duties at church. She said this has been difficult for her. Pray also for Antoinette's other sister, Popono, who said her heart is still hurting. Pray for the women of Batoe that they will mature in their faith and will love each other and be a strong witness for Christ in their village.

On Friday night we had a family camp-out in the back yard. The boys loved it. We roasted hot dogs over a fire as well as corn on the cob and marshmallows for dessert. We are enjoying a little bit of cool weather since the harmatan arrived early this year. It made our camp-out even more enjoyable. Blessings to all of you, thank you for your prayers.

We have had a good week, except for missing students who were home sick (we were missing at least one student every day except Monday). Amy and I went to market with Lauren on Wednesday which was quiet the experience. It has a unique smell from all of the smoked fish they sell mixed in with fruits, vegetables, food, fabric, soap, and all kinds of other random things. Lauren bought us this carmel candy like stuff from one vendor that was really tasty and then we all bought oranges to drink on our walk home. Amy and I both bought beads and Amy found some fabric with that has ducks on it. They look like yellow rubber duckies so we thought it might make good bathroom window curtains. Thursday night the power was off all evening so we read September Newsweeks that we had barrowed from Lauren by candle light. The power has been out for at least an hour every day this week. We moved into a new season Thursday. This is the "winter" season called Harmatan. From what I hear it usually starts blowing in mid December, last year it didn't come at all, and this year it is super early. So far I don't mind it because the humidity is lower and the mornings are cooler because of the dusty haze.

I was reminded this week of how difficult life is for my Watchi friends. I got a taste of it today as I returned from Lome by local taxi. In this van for eight they crowded sixteen of us and then we sat at the station for over fifty minutes. Then, we were on our way jettisoning down hill and creeping up the next as we banged along from one pothole to the next. This forty-three mile trip took us three hours and five minutes and my most distressed moment was when I saw my teammate Murphy pass me by in his air conditioned "smooth riding" Land Cruiser Prado - alone. Somehow he didn't see me crammed into the backseat with the other sardines. Thing is, this abnormal experience for me is every day fare for our Togolese family. Things of this nature along with the daily threat of death by malaria or some other famed disease, as well as persecution from ex-friends and families for being a Christian are sobering realities for them that keep their prayer life very active. Maybe we "others" could use a little more discomfort resulting in the little more deepening that our Father so longs for.

The leadership training continues to roll along well. Please pray for those being trained to now step up and begin training others. The maturation of these second and third generation students will have a ripple effect among the Watchi that will astound us all. Sunday was a great day in Tabligbo as the church presented a bicycle to Felicien, one of their own who has been working for Jesus in Topeglo. They helped buy this with their Sunday offerings to help him be able to travel back and forth from that village. Continue to pray for true reconciliation in Vogan.

Last weekend, I enjoyed a weekend away for a personal spiritual retreat. I stayed at the Baptist conference Center in Lome. I spent the time reading and praying and resting in the Lord. Marty and the boys did fine without me. I suppose that means I should be able go away more often. This week has been an amazing weather week as Harmatan has rolled in very early. Thursday morning we awoke to a gray, hazy sky and the humidity dropped throughout the day to 30%. The thin layer of dust had settled over everything by evening. To us it feels like Christmas, as if the first snow came a month early. The other amazing development came in the form of wireless internet, which I will leave for Murphy to expound upon. It has been a treat to be more in touch with your side of the ocean.

Taylor has missed a few days of school this week, maybe a virus or malaria. Pray for his quick recovery. The other boys are well and still enjoying school.

I need to ask you to pray for our dear Sister Dela, (Hammer's wife of Vogan). She has been suffering with female problems for quite some time and has just learned that she may need a radical hysterectomy. Please pray for the doctor's competence and for the funds.

Trevor has continued to amuse us. I've been noticing that he doesn't seem to care about making sure his shorts are zipped and on Monday it came up again. I said, "Trevor, your zipper needs to be fixed." "No it doesn't." "Yes, it's down." "Well, it was zipped yesterday!"

The boys finished memorizing their second passage of scripture this week. It was all thirteen verses of I Corinthians 13 and they've done a very good job. We've gotten past the stage of saying "crazy thimble" for "clanging cymbal," learned that love "is not provoked" instead of "is provoked," taught Trevor that the word is "endures" and not "DURs" and loved Matthew's rendition of "Bears all fings, believes all fings, hopes all fings, endures all fings." The one thing the verse did not accomplish was teaching Tanner that "love" is an ok word to say out loud. He'll say it in the verses, but when it came up on a spelling test this week he had to put a piece of paper over his face before he would spell the word to Emily.

We made "magma fudge" this week for science with Tucker and Stephen (Taylor was sick that day). It was a recipe in Tucker's book and the activity was supposed to help us see the differences between types of igneous rock. Stephen was convinced that because it was called "magma" the sugar concoction was going to blow up the kitchen. I think he was disappointed when it just boiled in the pan. Cooking the fudge was a fun mix of science and cooking class. We let it cool overnight and then examined it at lunch the next day. I'm not sure how much the boys actually learned about rocks, but we were all on a sugar high for the rest of the day after sampling the experiment. :)