On the day of the funeral, the name of Jesus was spoken for the first time in this young man's village. Until that moment, no one had ever proclaimed the Good News of Jesus to his "home town." A large group of Christians from the three churches that are in that area came for the funeral, lifting up holy hands in praise and proclaiming Christ's victory over death. It was a powerful moment and God's presence was evident. One woman said that as they began to pray she saw two angels with the young man who had died standing in the middle of the circle. When the prayers began, the two angels and young man went up to heaven. Another man had a dream that night that he saw the young man who had died waving at him and saying "Repent, because you want to be where I am now!"

As you can imagine, the Presence of God combined with these two stories shook people up and added to the testimony of the Sedome Christians. People are repenting and turning their hearts to God! Praise God for working wonders to bring people to faith!

Pray for the men's meeting this week. The leadership portion begins tomorrow (Wednesday) while the regular men's portion will begin on Thursday and end on Saturday. Ask God to Anoint us with His Spirit and move our hearts to seek His Face!

I also ask you to pray that God will bless our vehicle. It's in the shop again with some engine trouble. Pray that the mechanic will find quality parts at good prices as well as do a good job replacing them! We hope to have it back next week.

Please pray for the village of Didokpo. Four people have come down with Cholera (one child has already died). They're scared that this may spread so join us in praying for an end to the Cholera and for God to heal the sick.

Also, please continue to ask the Lord to bless our adoption process. We are still waiting on a referral. Because the wait time is so long, some of our paperwork is expiring and we are having to get it replaced. Please ask the Lord to bless us AGAIN so that we can get everything renewed quickly and without hassle.

From Christine - This has been a very good week. The boys are doing great! We are all healthy, praise God! I had two very good meetings. My first meeting was in Batoe. The new Christian women from Agodeke walked 3 miles to come. This was their first time to attend. The ladies from Batoe were very encouraging to these new women. At the end of our meeting we had a time of prayer that lasted for an hour. It was such a blessing for me to listen to these ladies praying for one another. Two of the ladies from Agodeke prayed which took a lot of courage. Continue to pray for Antoinette's sisters, Popono and Doneno. They still struggle with sadness in addition to the added responsibly of taking care of her children.

My second meeting was in Sedome. It was such a relaxed, fun time of fellowship with these women. There was a sense of peace among them and enjoyment of each others company. We had one new lady attend the meeting who had just started coming to church the day before. The other women were very encouraging and patiently explained the lesson until she could better understand. I was very encouraged by the maturity among these Christian women. Pray for them, that they will continue to grow in their faith. Pray that the more mature women will teach, encourage and mentor the newer Christians. Thank you so much for your prayers.

We were welcomed into the hot season and back into power outages this week. I am coming to love Fan Milk (frozen treats from an "Ice Cream Man"). Last week we started to get into some American history with the younger boys. So then Stephen had to write a short composition about America with the guide words "freedom, liberty, flag" and his was all about Chuck-E-Cheese. We tried out a new seamstress group and got some really fun stuff made (turns out though our Eve/French communication didn't work out so well because all of the clothes were made to fit Amy). We bought another round of neat fabric at market with Lauren this week but I can't decide if I want short or long skirts made :) Friday night was really fun. First of all Amy and I got three packages in the mail! Yeah for mail!! Then the Crowsons had Amy and I, plus Travis, Lauren, and Tyson (peace corp volunteers) and the Koonce boys all over for an Italian dinner. It was a fun night and it is such a blessing to have other people near my age to hang out with. We got to worship with the Adangbe cluster for the first time this Sunday which was really neat. One of the villages in that cluster has had a cholera out break which has them very concerned so please keep that in your prayers.

From Marty - This last week was typical for us here in Togo, uncharacteristically "routine" in fact. I continue to have good training sessions with the groups of men I meet with each week. In addition to that the weekly Bible study that I do in Afakomi Kope continues to grow well. God has blessed us with good health and we have been blessed by the lifting of other burdens as well. Thank you for your prayers. I am looking forward with great expectation for this week's annual men's meeting for the Watchi. This is the first time that during the three days of the main meeting we will be fasting together on behalf of ourselves and the Watchi people. Please be in prayer for this. It is also the first time that the leadership training portion that precedes the meeting has been organized by the meeting committee instead of the missionaries. One more step in the process of transition. Thank you again for your love and your prayers for us and the Watchi people.

From Louise - As Marty said, this was a fairly routine week. The boys carried on the usual chores and schoolwork. I carried on the usual business of the house. One thing that has presented itself is the heat! As Harmatan has begun to lift, the temperatures are rising as well. Dela is continuing to recover well from her surgery; thank you for all the prayers and inquiries about her. Continue to pray for the church in Vogan.

Trevor went through a few more identity crises in the last week. We read a book called Stellaluna one afternoon and it's about a fruit bat who is raised by birds. The illustrations are well done and Stellaluna generally has a funny look on her face. The day after we read the book Trevor stood on one of the desks and shouted, "I'm Stellaluna. We're all Stellaluna!"

The next day Tanner, Matthew and Trevor wanted to pretend that we were Lost Boys in Neverland. They tried to make me be Peter Pan, but I opted for the role of Wendy. The only downside of being Wendy was that they insisted I teach with a British accent. If I forgot and said something like "You just add those two numbers together" in my normal voice Matthew would get all over me and said, "Remember Miss Amy, you're Wendy!" Trevor called me "Mother" (with a British accent) for the entire hour of class. The next day he got tired of being a Lost Boy and decided to be Tinkerbell.

We had a discussion during class with the older boys about sea lions. I was saying how the sea lions at the coast in Washington are noisy. So Tucker said, "Well couldn't you just go to the market and buy fish to keep them quiet?" The dried, smoked fish and the noisy crowded market he was thinking of are nothing like the fat, cold fish and quiet clean "markets" that actually exist in Washington. It was funny to think of the different mental pictures we had coming from the same sentence.