Happy New Year to all of you. This past month with my mom and dad was wonderful, though, it will take a while for the boys to recover from having a gallery to applaud their every move and laugh at their worst jokes. Dad was very encouraging to the leaders he counseled with and his sermons will be remembered for a long time to come.

I have been spending my time, since returning from Accra, trying to get our phone and internet working again, to no avail as of yet, but we'll keep trying anyway. This week I'll be writing some booklets, so, I ask for prayers for wisdom and perseverance. Next week I begin my leadership training again out in the villages. I am looking forward to it because I seem rather out of touch with what is going on in the different churches and clusters. Please pray for me to be able to reconnect and to use my time well because in just six months or so we will be on furlough.

I have a general prayer request for the Watchi. One of the biggest hurdles here to obeying Jesus is fear. Oddly, everyone aknowledges that God is the all powerful God, but foolishly they don't fear him and instead they fear the voodoo spirits and curses. Pray for the Watchi to fear God. Thank you for your prayers and your love. Please continue to pray for our health as we have all been well lately except for respiratory crud from the dust. Lastly, I ask that you remember my friend Al Fowler and his family of Searcy, AR as our friend Marilyn, his wife, has finished her race (and what a race she did run!). She passed away on Christmas eve after a hard fought battle against cancer. Have a great New Year.

Kelly and Anna made it safely home after a spending a great month with us. We completely enjoyed having them here for the holidays. We rang in the new year with our teammates at the Crowson's home. Only Trevor and Tanner fell asleep in the floor before midnight fell. New year's day we played around the house and handed out candy to the neighborhood children as they came by in their best clothes. School started back for the boys today, and it may take a few days to get back in the routine. Since our phone line went dead Christmas day and our internet with it, we have not been able to wish even our family season's greetings. So a hearty Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Emily and I have spent the last few days adjusting back to life in Togo. It's amazing how different life can be in places that are just a six hour plane ride apart. Togo is hot, Germany was snowy. Togo is full of people who could care less about an entire market full of Christmas ornaments, Germany was full of people (like us) who were using part of their vacation time to browse those very markets. Togo is about as low as you can get as far as global importance and Europe is as high as it gets. It's an interesting study of contrasts. And it makes me glad that, right now, I live in Africa.

I really did enjoy my time with my family in Europe though. This vacation was a chance to take a break from Togo and get to spend time with family. Being in Europe was just a perk. Being in snow made it an extra good perk. :)

While we were in Europe I could tell that Togo has left its mark on me. We stayed in a hostel where the bathroom light switch was outside the door. Obviously this was a very tempting target for mischievous siblings. It proved to be too tempting for my sister and she switched the light off on me. My first thought was, "Huh, how funny that in Europe the bathroom fan works even when the power goes out."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! We had a wonderful time of celebrating these past two weeks as we remember how thankful we are for Jesus and for all the blessings of the past year! We hope and pray that 2007 will be filled with wonderful blessings for your family and walk with Jesus.

We ended the year with a wonderful celebration of a new beginning in the Kpeve church. Yohannes and Enyona were married on Saturday. The wedding was a blast and we all had a great time. Naturally, it was a little different than a typical American wedding:) We praise God for this young couple and have high hopes for all of the ways that the Lord is going to use them to advance the Kingdom. They represent the second generation of Christians here among the Watchi as two young people who repented early in life and didn't have a lot of idolatry baggage to rid their lives of. Yohannes is already using his gifts to bless the church and Enyona is a sweet, faithful young lady. This is the young woman who had the terrible tropical ulcer on her leg last year that we prayed about. Her father told Yohannes that he could marry her after her wound healed. In answer to much prayer, God healed her foot and they are now united together. Praise Him for He is good. Join us this week as we pray for this young couple, that the Lord would bless their marriage and use them as power tools in the Kingdom.

Happy New Year to everyone. May you all have a blessed 2007. We had fun Christmas and New Year's celebrations. This was our 9th Christmas in West Africa. Dust at Christmas time has become nostalgic to me. Unfortunately we had some sickness this Christmas but we are all better now.

This past Saturday we attended a wedding in Kpeve. It was such a fun way to begin the new year. It was such a joy to watch the Christians celebrate with the bride and groom.

On Sunday we worshipped with the Sedome Church. After worship one of the ladies brought dzogbon (a porridge usually eaten for breakfast) for everyone. We enjoyed sharing a little of their New Year celebration.

On Sunday night the Koonces, our teachers and Lauren came over and we celebrated with a Mexican food feast and some fire works and lots of games and fun together. We look forward to a wonderful year. Please continue to pray for our adoption. Thank you for your prayers for us and for the Watchi.

Amy and I had a great trip to Europe and a fun time being with her family. I froze the whole time ,but loved the food. It has been crazy to go from freezing temperatures of Germany to the 104 degree heat of Togo. I actually saw snow up in the mountains of Germany!! Rottenburg was my favorite city. It has an interesting history and fun Christmas shops. I also loved visiting Heidelberg again and spending more time there. Before our break- the Christmas play "A Togo Christmas Carol" was a great success and most of the boys remembered their lines.

Togo has welcomed us back with power rationing (the power was on the whole time we were gone) and it has been out for 2-8 hours every day. But we have still been enjoying some lazy days reading and relaxing before we start school again on Tuesday. We have a great New Years party planned tomorrow night at the Crowson's house. It is hard to believe the school year is half way over! I hope you all have had wonderful holidays! Happy New Years!