We praise God for the five baptisms yesterday from the Sedome/Batoe area. God is working in their hearts to bring them to faith in Jesus and showing His power and love through the Christians there! Continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will work powerfully in this area so that multitudes of people will bow their knees to Jesus and worship Him and Him alone.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week we are reminded of how thankful we are for all of you who make our ministry among the Watchi possible...

We are thankful for Homewood who has been our faithful sponsor for over 10 years. We are thankful for the vision that they have always had to reach out to lost people all over the world and for the sacrifices that they make to keep that vision alive.

We are thankful to have had the opportunity to work along-side many wonderful Christian servants.

We are thankful for the hundreds of prayer warriors who have continuously and fervently lifted up our family and ministry in prayer over the last 10 years.

We are thankful for the individual supporters and churches who give so generously towards our family's, ministry's and development needs and our children's education. We praise God for your faithful giving and generous hearts!

We are also thankful for our family, who so willingly and lovingly bless us to minister so far away from home.

I'm also thankful for my wife as she labors by my side in the Kingdom and endures all the hardships of living in a foreign nation and ministering to a foreign people. I'm thankful for my two wonderful sons who have blessed my life so much. I'm thankful for the adoption journey that the Lord is taking us on and look forward bringing our daughter home from China sometime next year.

I'm thankful for the opportunities that Jesus gives me to serve his people here and for the way that their faith is sharpening mine. But most of all, and most importantly, I'm thankful that my name is written in the book of life. Thank you Lord Jesus, thank you...

Praise God for another good week. We are getting adjusted to the power rationing. It is nice to have a schedule so we can make plans. I had a good meeting in Sedome this morning. Please pray for the women in Sedome. They are very young in their faith. Pray that one or two women would rise up among them to be leaders. Pray also that the men in Sedome will feel convicted to teach the women in their Church. No lady in Sedome can read. Several of the women have taken some literacy classes but they have not moved forward very quickly.

We are excited about the upcoming ladies' meeting this weekend. Please pray that the women will have the money they need to attend this meeting. Pray also that this weekend will be a great encouragment to them.

We thank God for all of you and your prayers for the Watchi and Aja peoples! May you have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving arts and crafts just make me happy. The younger four boys did art twice this week as we are working on costumes for our Thanksgiving play. They made feathered headresses and paper sack Indian vests. The power rationing and looming threat of power & water loss kinda overshadowed this week, but hopefully now we have adjusted. We were really blessed that the power is not following the schedule and is staying on during the nights. I got measured to have skirts made from the fabric the team gave me for my birthday on Sunday so I should get my skirts in the next couple of days. I am really hoping this seamstress works out well so I can have some other things made from one of the fun panyas (african print fabrics, also refers to a wrap skirt, or a length of fabric) that are avaliable at market. We picked up our new puppy on Wednesday and he is supper cute! The boys love having a puppy at school again, though he is a bit of a distraction. Pictured to the left is our internet cafe:)

We had a good healthy week, for which we are all thankful. We had some minor repairs done on the truck last weekend (more damage from the potholes) and Marty was able to get back on his normal schedule by Tuesday. On Tuesday he began his studies in Kinyarwanda again with Daniel. He is doing this four times a week for less than an hour each time, trying to take advantage of having a Rwandan in our city to learn as much of the language and culture as we can in preparation for our work there after Togo, if God wills.

All of the teaching sessions went well as the older groups are progressing through the latter part of the third year of training and the newer groups are almost finished with the first year. Marty is writing an almost daily blog now called Ten Minute Musings and has really enjoyed the opportunity to share perspectives and stories from Togo. Please check it out and comment at will.

As for prayer requests, we ask you to keep our friend Dela in your prayers as she prepares to undergo much needed surgery. Anyone who has the privaledge of meeting her knows that they have me a great servant of Jesus. As for churches to pray for, those still on the week list include: Afakomi (which has really improved in the last two weeks), Ahepe (they continue to just plod along), Amouzouglita (they are begining a serious children's and teen's ministry), Togbonou Kope, Hompou, Topeglo (has grown in numbers, but not in maturity), and Atitogon (they are scared to really share Jesus). Please pray for the new churches in Amengran, Afagnan Gbleta, and soon to be in Nutifafa Kome. Thank you for your prayers and may God bless you for your love and sacrifice on our behalf.

It has been a busy week around the house for me. Lots of cleaning, due to the harmatan dust everywhere, and food preparation for the next few weeks. We have a busy schedule around this holiday season. The area-wide ladies conference is next weekend, Marty's parents are arriving a couple of days later and then we go to Kara for a late Thanksgiving celebration with the team there and Sports Camp.

We are surviving the electricity rationing very well. It helps that they have not turned it off even as much as the schedule calls for. Yes, they actually sent out a printed schedule for shut off hours. Thanks to our friends at Warrenton, we have a new generator, which helps us maintain things at home.

I wish you a blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving, may you be surrounded by your family and friends and feel the love of the Father poured out on you.

This week at school I was going barefoot one afternoon and for some reason Trevor asked me about it. I told him that I like not wearing shoes. He looked up at me with a very quizzical expression, "Where did you get borned?" The question didn't sound like it related to the topic at all, but I answered, "In Texas." He said, "Then why do you like to go barefoot?" That's when I realized what he was getting at. He and Tanner believe that the reason they like to go barefoot is because they were born in Lome. Somehow being born in Lome equals hating shoes. He couldn't figure out why Texas would have the same effect on a person. And, you know, I didn't have a good explanation to give him for that one.

Saturday night I had another "only in Africa" moment. The power was out (one of our scheduled outages) and Lauren was over. We were all sitting in the living room with only the lantern for light. I went into the other room to get my computer and when I came back I stepped on something that was kind of squishy. I was barefoot at the time. Normally I don't mind stepping on unidentified objects, but since it was dark and I had no idea what could be squishy on the floor of our house I minded. We brought the lantern closer to the floor to see what I'd stepped on and found a dead baby gecko that was swarming with ants. I stepped on a dead gecko. Bleh.

So since we're on the subject of feet...Sunday morning at church there was a little girl who was fascinated by my toenail polish. She spent a long time crouched down looking at my toes. Then she started rubbing her finger against the polish to feel how smooth it was I guess. I didn't mind and I went back to trying to listen to the lesson. The next thing I knew she was pulling at hairs on the tops my toes. I didn't even know I had hair on some of those toes. It's blonde and short and nobody would notice it except a six year old African girl who decided it all needed to come out. Talk about a distraction from the lesson.