From Murphy -

Before the missionaries planned the leader's portion and the leader's planned the rest. This year, they planned it all and simply told Marty and I when to speak. The speakers were excellent and really showed a lot of maturity in their faith. I'm so thankful for the opportunities that the Lord gives us to be apart of the growth of His Kingdom among the Watchi! Thank you for enabling us to be here ministering among the Watchi through your prayers and generous hearts!

The other news is that my vehicle is still in the "shop". They are having to work on the engine block but the power troubles in the capital are preventing the machinist from completing his work. Last week was a good week for the vehicle to be in the shop because of the men's meeting. I was hoping that the vehicle would be ready Saturday. But, when I called the mechanic told me about the power troubles. Looks like it will be this Friday before it's ready. Pray that God will bless Simon as he fixes our vehicle, that he will do a good job and find good parts!

We also ask you to pray for a man named Bernard from the Sedome church. Ask the Lord to give Him strength to trust in Him and go against the cultural norms.

From Christine - We praise God that the men's conference was a great blessing to those who attended. Murphy came back tired but so excited about the maturity he saw among the Watchi Christian men. The boys celebrated their 100th day of school this past Friday. Louise and I were invited to attend and it was my first 100th day of school celebration. We are so thankful for Amy and Emily and the great job they are doing with our boys. All of the boys love their teachers and enjoy school so much.

The 100th Day of school celebration on Friday was a huge success. I loved to see the boys enjoy all of the activities of the day. The 100th Day of school books I made up for them to fill in and illustrate turned out so neat and unique to each boy! After a morning of 100 activities (even french class) Louise and Christine came to join us at our 100 party. The moms had a great time seeing the hand motions and hearing the memory verse (Psalm 139:1-19) and participating in the 100 second Olympics. Moms, boys, and Lauren did jumping jacks, stood on one foot, then closed their eyes while standing on the other foot, clapped their hands, and then were silent each for 100 seconds. We shared 100 fruit snacks, popcorn, and Goldfish as a snack.

IT RAINED Friday!! For the first time in three months IT RAINED!! It just poured for like 20 minutes and we got at least half an inch of rain. We just dropped the activity we were doing and Amy and I played football with the boys in the rain. At 2:30 we stopped our game and the boys got on their bikes to head home. A bunch of Togolese boys came out and ran and played in the rain with them down the street in front of our house. Our street became a river. A cool breeze came up and it was amazing. All of the Harmatan dust washed off of our house and off of the plants. After we got the boys all headed home we went inside to make rainy day tea. It has become a tradition with Lauren that we make tea and sit on the front porch and enjoy the cool breeze after a rain storm.

From Marty - We had a great week with the men in Ahepe. It was all we could have hoped for and had prayed for. The four days together of prayer and study left us all as better men with deeper love for Jesus and a willingness to sacrifice ourselves for his kingdom. It was great to hear the prayers and to see the soul searching that God brought about through the speakers and his word. There was much repentance from living at a lower standard of holiness than God desires. The testimonies were very encouraging as men shared how God had answered their prayers. This was the first time for us to incorporate fasting into the program which was a blessing as our time together was all the more enriched by the times of prayer in the place of meals.

Murphy and I were both encouraged by how well the men organized and directed the meeting and how confidently they directed the leadership portion which was a first for the organizational committee. I must say that it is an impressive thing, spiritually, to witness that many men on their knees crying out to God together with one voice on behalf of the Watchi people. Thanks for you prayers and your love. Please continue to pray for our Rwanda Survey trip and furlough preparations. Pray also that the men who attended the conference will stay true to the commitments and promises they made at the meeting.

From Louise - Since the men were at the Men's Conference in Ahepe most of this week, the boys and I carried on normal routines as much s possible. Friday was the hundredth day of school and the children were treated to a party which Christine and I were invited to attend. Surprisingly, the first rain of the season came during the party. Marty arrived home a bit tired, but spiritually refreshed from the meeting on Saturday.

Emily and I went into Lome by ourselves for the first time this weekend. We needed to do our grocery shopping and nobody else was going into town. So we hired a driver that the team uses and took our car. Lauren came with us. The driver came on Friday to take the car to a mechanic so they could find the dead mouse in the air vents. There's been a dead mouse hidden in the car for a few weeks, but we hadn't been able to get it out. It smelled awful. Since we were going spend an extended amount of time in the car it was time to remove the mouse. Thankfully, they managed to locate and remove the mouse as well as deodorize the car. It was great.

The actual grocery shopping worked out pretty well. We were happy that we knew which stores to shop and we're comfortable pricing things. Emily even knows the French words to order our meat and cheese. We can buy everything we need for the month in three stops!