Praise be to our God for His love endures forever! We are continuously full of joy and thanksgiving for all that the Lord is doing. The women's conference went very well this past weekend. Each year the leaders are getting better and better in planning, preparing and leading these meetings. Our goal from the beginning was to put everything in their hands and work hard to make everything sustainable with local finances. Meaning, when we leave there is NO dependence on American funds for evangelism, meetings, church plants, baptisms, literature production and distribution, etc. Our goal is being realized as God's Spirit moves in their hearts to be cheerful givers as well as give them faith in His provision if they would just ask.

I praise God for this year's women's meeting. 100% planned, lead and paid for by the Watchi people. More and more the movement is more dependent on Almighty God and less and less on American missionaries. Our vision is being realized, thanks be to God!

This week I hauled 620 kilos of soya beans to Adangbe. This is half of the soya harvest this year, another blessing from God. Watchi farmers will receive 150 franks/kilo. When put with the pineapple harvest, this is a great blessing for the Watchi Christians. As they loaded up the 50 kilo sacks into my vehicle, I could see a glimmer of hope in their eyes for the future of their families and churches.

We have had another great week. The highlight of our weekend was the annual women's conference. It was well attended and we pray that the women that came left encouraged. I was so excited that five of the Kpotonou women attended this year's conference. This is the first year for them to attend. They said that they were very encouraged. A very large group of women came from Sedome, Batoe and Agodoke. It was so encouraging to see the Agodoke ladies at the meeting. One of the older women was just baptized last Sunday. One of the young women from that village gave a testimony. She told us that she stood up to some of her family members when they were trying to get her to take some voodoo fetishes. She told them that she follows Jesus now and that she puts her trust in Him. Praise God! Please continue to pray for these new Christians as they daily take a stand for Christ in their village.

This week we head up to Kara for a late Thanksgiving celebration and our annual sports camp. We are looking forward to the fellowship with the team in Kara.

Blessings to all of you! Thank you for your prayers for the Watchi!

This has been a very eventful week for us. We have had kinds of adventures in water and power outages, but more importantly we have had some wonderful times with the team and with the Togolese Christian women. I had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with the Koonces and Crowsons. We had a great morning of school before we all headed over to the Crowsons for a great lunch. It was full of Thanksgiving classics like dressing, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. Even without Turkey or my mom's squash casserole the day felt a lot like Thanksgiving back home, complete with high spirited fellowship. Our Thanksgiving play went well and each of the boys remembered their lines. The pilgrims sailed their ship the "Cauliflower" to Plymouth, met the Indians, harvested corn, and had the first Thanksgiving all in under 6 minutes.Then we just got to relax with Louise and Christine all afternoon (they beat Amy and I at Cranium).

I had a truly amazing time worshiping with all of the women at the Takpekpe on Saturday and Sunday. I was able to met Mama Dela from Vogan for the first time and was so impressed. She translated for Amy and I all day Saturday, so we were able to follow each of the speakers and understand the testimonies given. I enjoyed seeing women I knew from Sendome and Batoe, and even one girl from Afekome Kope. They got a good laugh out of my attempts at speaking Eve and the matching skirts us "yovos" wore on Saturday. I am always so uplifted and encouraged by the whole hearted way people here worship.

I have two funny moments to share this week that both involve Matthew and Trevor. The first actually happened over last weekend but is just too cute. A week ago Friday Matthew found an "acorn" at recess as was so excited, but it made Trevor sad because he didn't have one. (these things that they call acorns are actually baby coconuts) So Matthew planned his whole Saturday around a way to cheer Trevor up. He spent all of Saturday morning hunting for "acorns" and then had Murphy drive him and the 15 acorns he found over to the Koonce so he could give them to Trevor. Wednesday of this week I had the younger three boys in my class and Trevor was complaining that the picture on his handwriting page was of girls. Matthew turned to Trevor in exasperation and said "But Trevor if you don't like girls you are not going to get married!".

We celebrate God's power to redeem and renew. This week we heard that one of those who was most verbose in his attacks against Hammer in the Vogan church has confessed his sin and repented! For more details, check out Marty's blog at tenminmusings.blogspot.com. This week was yet another good week of teaching sessions with leaders from Topeglo, Tabligbo, Ahepe, Atitogon, Amouzouglita, Togbonou, and Adankonou Kope. I am so thankful for those who have gone before us and procured this great material for the work here, namely Mr. Anthony Parker. Thank you Anthony. I do ask for special prayers for the Dogbati and Gninoume clusters. I know that they must be missing Jeff's encouragement right now as are the rest of us. Pray for the to persevere, walk in truth, and to live as they were taught to live.

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 beginning 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. Please pray for Marty this Tuesday as he travels to pick up his mother and father in Accra. Pray for Marty's dad who has three bulging dics in his back and is about to fly to Africa and then travel on these roads. Thank you for your prayers and may God bless you for your love and sacrifice on our behalf.

What an eventful week this has been. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We enjoyed the day at the Crowson's home. Our feast was plentiful and the electricity stayed on almost all day. The teachers and boys had prepared a Thanksgiving play and dazzled us with their creativity.

This year's Women's Conference was another success. 103 women signed in at the meeting, which was hosted by the Tabligbo church. There were some remarkable factors in this year's meeting. Firstly, it was the first meeting that a missionary has not been a featured speaker. This was not insulting to us at all, rather it was encouraging that they stepped up to fill the teaching needs themselves, and did an excellent job. I was particularly thrilled to hear Afii from Atitogon teach a lesson on "The Full Armor of God", even though she is illiterate. Also noteworthy is this meeting being the first one that an organized meal plan was not made. Usually the women take turns cooking, which means that most of them miss large portions of the teaching sessions and the hosting church usually goes into debt paying for the food. This year, the women either brought their own food or bought from the neighborhood sellers. We all wondered how this would go over, since food is central to an African gathering. There were minimal complaints, but we hope that they will reflect on the benefits.

I was surprised and pleased to see Afii from Topeglo at the conference. She was wearing a large smile and gave a beautiful testimony of God's faithfulness during the amputation of her leg. Thank you for all your prayers for her.

We continue to have power rationing, and although they have posted a schedule, they do not seem to be adhering to it at all. Please pray that it will not affect our attitudes and effectiveness in the days to come.

It's now HOT in Togo. Emily and I convinced ourselves at the beginning of the week that it wasn't hot yet and we should appreciate the "cool" weather before it started to really heat up. Then, on Wednesday, the power was out all during school and the boys started to complain a bit about the heat. Stephen doesn't usually complain about anything, but when we were all guessing about the contents of some packages that Emily and I received he said, "Maybe it's a small generator. Small enough to send, but big enough to work for the school." I decided that if the boys were feeling hot then it really must be warm. Then we started getting reports from Murphy "oh, today it was 110" "well, it was 102 in the shade today." Emily and I were so glad to hear that we weren't just being wimps and it really was hot. :)

Trevor has found a new life calling. He interrupted lunch to tell us, "Hey, guess what? When I grow up I can be a chick-monk!" (Prior to this revelation he believed the goal of his life was to become a king. He wasn't sure how this was going to be accomplished until Tanner told him that the modern equivalent of a king is a mayor!) I told Trevor that he had the perfect nose for a chipmunk and later overheard him telling Louise, "Yeah, I'm going to be a chick-monk because I have a chick-monk nose!" Trev spent the rest of the afternoon pretending to be a chipmunk. He practiced wiggling his nose and twitching his head around to smell for nuts. He used an "acorn" (really a baby coconut) to practice finding food. He explained to me that he needed to practice climbing trees and picking acorns "for when he grew up" so it was my job to hold the acorn out in my hand while he "climbed" out my arm and grabbed it. So if anyone has a use for a half-grown chick-monk wanna-be just let me know. I think I can spare him from school for a few hours this week.