It is great to be back! I enjoyed my times in the states and my time teaching in Kara this fall, but it is wonderful to be back. I have enjoyed great worship times the past two Sundays. I love being able to sing most of the songs and see so many familiar faces. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to worship here in Tabligbo with the Koonce family, amazingly this was my first chance to attend church there. This Sunday we went out with the Crowsons and was able to see one of the finished wells and a pair of brand new twins named Jacob and Ester (pictured right).

Rachel and I are settling back into our house pretty well despite the dust, power outages, and water rationing. The picture shows us filtering the water out our of cistern so that we could use it. Rachel and I were a little unsure about using the water after we saw a couple of frogs living in it.

I have been able to see Lauren (our Peace Corp. friend) several times, including a trip to market last Wednesday. It was really fun to show Rachel my favorite part of market, which is the fabric.

Thursday was a great day in Lome- we combined teacher orientation with the celebration of Tucker's 13th birthday. School started up on Friday and Saturday. The boys were all really excited to be back to school. I was impressed that they were still able to concentrate despite the carpenter banging around outside, the music from the bar down the street, and the power outage on Friday. I am blessed to have such enthusiastic students!

From Marty - What a week it has been as we have tried to get our feet back on the ground here in Togo. With quite a number of things needing repair we have occupied ourselves with pursuing repairs and planning out our next several months in Togo. We had a good visit with the Tabligbo church on the previous Sunday and were encouraged by the stability we are seeing in the lives of the believers here. We have had a great number of visitors each day and it has been our joy to be in their presence once again.

Please do pray for our transportation. Our truck seems to be on its last leg. As I journeyed to Lome to get it, hopefully, repaired I was "topping" out with the pedal to the metal at a whopping 37 m.p.h. We were hoping it would make it this last year, but it looks as though we may be looking to raise funds for a new vehicle to use here in Togo and then ship to Rwanda with our container. Please, on our behalf, ask God for wisdom, the money needed (around $45,000), and perseverance in the meantime.

In addition to these things I will be working on our new church registration for Togo, restarting our leadership training, Kinyarwanda language learning, and praying for the maturation of the churches here. As well, please pray for our family to stay healthy, particularly for me to be malaria free, and for God to prepare us for the big goodbye that looms ten and a half months ahead.

From Louise - Greetings from the other side of the big water! We are safely back at our home in Tabligbo after a very long seven month furlough. We completely enjoyed our time in America, especially the time we had visiting with many of you. We can not say thank you enough for all the hospitality we were shown. A great big thanks goes to our sponsoring church family in Warrenton. We are also delighted to welcome our new co-sponsor, Glenwood in Tyler, Texas.

We are still getting settled back in here, and it may yet take some time to be running our lives efficiently again, since we returned to many broken things. You may want to check my blog www.louisekoonce.wordpress.com for a complete list of the challenges. The difficulty is made easier by the faces of our friends here who have welcomed us so warmly.

The boys have begun school and were so glad to see Miss Emily again and are getting to know Miss Rachel.

We celebrated two births this past week. Tucker turned thirteen on Thursday. And on Friday, Taylor was baptized (pictured to the right). His heart has always been so tender to the ways of God, it was such a sweet moment for him to make his confession before our Togolese family.

After two full weeks, it’s still often hard to believe that I’m finally here in Tabligbo. It seems like leaving from the airport in Dallas was just yesterday but it’s actually been a full two weeks already! Being the only one in the group who is “new to Togo” makes for a very easy situation for me. I’m getting to just mix right in with the group and I’m loving it. It’s been a whirlwind of emotions, to say the least, but I’m getting the chance to see and experience a lot.

In the short two weeks we’ve been here I’ve gotten to experience West African border patrols, which included a rope across the border with an armed African guarding it. This was one of the funniest things because this armed guard was in his army attire, but wearing neon green flip flops. (it only amused me of course, because I’m the first-timer).

I’ve also already been to Lome’, the capital city of Togo, twice and to the big Tabligbo market. I loved going to market. There were rows and rows of locals selling everything from rice and beans to beautiful fabrics and some American goods. They were also selling lots of fish and even some live crabs. The market was one of the things I was looking forward to the most about seeing, and it was everything I thought it would be and more.

I’ve also been able to go to two different churches since arriving in Tabligbo. My first Sunday in town, Emily and I went with the Koonces to the church in Tabligbo. Not even five minutes into the service, I felt my eyes start to water and I had chills all down both arms because of how amazing it all was to take in. The men and women sang so beautifully and with so much emotion, I really enjoyed being able to just soak it all in.

This week, we went with the Crowsons to a church in Kpotonou. Much different from the cement wall church in Tabligbo, this one was an open area with a thatch awning over the wood plank pews. It was a much smaller church and we had to make quite the drive to get there, riding through roads that had been washed out and some roads that were more like walking paths. But the services were similar at both churches while having a couple differences but you could still feel the presence of God both mornings.

Emily and I also started school this past Friday. Being a first time teacher, I had no clue what I was in for, but Emily is helping me get through the first few days! All six boys, loaded with their varying personalities, were so excited for school to start and were rushing in to school the first morning. Our first two days went great and I can’t wait to see how the rest of our year will go!

From Murphy - It's great to be home and resettling into our life and ministry among the Watchi. While we were gone my constant prayer was that the Lord would show His faithfulness to all of the Watchi Christians, especially the leaders as they shepherd their churches. Our first Sunday was with the church in Sedome. When I asked him how things had been since we were gone, he said, "You know how the Holy Spirit came and gave strength to the Apostles after Jesus went to heaven? Well, that's what happened after you left, the Holy Spirit gave us the strength that we needed while you were gone. Now that you are back, He will still give us the strength that we need." This was two Sundays ago.

Today I went to visit this same man, Denni, and discovered that the church house was burned down in a fire on Monday. Then on Tuesday, his own hut burned down along with everything inside (pictured left). This time of year is very, very dry. On top of that, a lot of people burn their fields in preparation for the rains that will come in a couple of months. The ashes from two fires lit up the church building and his house. No one was hurt, but needless to say, this is a difficult week for the church and his family. Pray that God will keep their faith strong and help them rebuild their church building and home.

Everyday we greet more and more people from different churches. Last Saturday I visted with Christians from the five churches in the Adangbe region. We are enjoying these sweet reunions with our brothers and sisters in Christ. For some reason everyone wants to feed me! One family made a special meal complete with a broasted chicken and "pate rouge" (cornmeal paste with tomatoes and peppers) - pictured right. Yummmm. I am always humbled by the Watchi people's hospitality. Visitors are a blessing and they love to receive them well.

Thanks to my awesome teammate Marty, the boys got to take a special field trip this week. The U.S. Navy HSV 2 Swift was docked in the Lome port for a couple of days and Marty got us an invitation from the captain for the boys to take a tour! It was awesome! The world that we live in is so bizarre sometimes. Yesterday we toured a multi-million dollar Naval ship while today I sat in a mud hut worth about $20 (for the wood) and had beans and spicy oil for lunch. We are constantly moving in and out of different worlds. From the 21st century of technology back to the 1700's and then back again.

The agricultural ministry has gone well over the past eight months. Two wells were completed and construction on a third began last month (pictured left). Four tons of soya beans were harvested and sold (up from one ton in 2006) which brought a profit of over $3000 to local farmers. 40,000 more pineapple plants were planted which will be harvested and exported to Switzerland. And we were able to help 150 families with food supplements after a flood destroyed all of their fields and food storages. God continues to pour His blessings upon the poor. There is much work left to be done. Let us continue to pray that God will bless the Christians so that they can thrive spiritually and physcially!

From Christine - We are so grateful to be home again after seven months in America and a month of travel. The past couple of weeks have been filled with settling back into life in Tabligbo and greeting many of our Togolese friends. We have been encouraged by the way that God has sustained them and worked through them in the past eight months.

Today we went to Batoe to visit with the Christians there. They all seemed to be doing well and they were so happy. This past fall their village was completely flooded and they all lost their farms. Praise God that they are still standing strong and seem to have hope and joy. Thank you all for your prayers on their behalf.

They boys are doing great and are so excited to be home. Their enthusiasm has been contagious. They started school last week and are enjoying being with the Koonce boys and Miss Emily and Miss Rachel.

We praise God for our safe return and we thank him that we came back refreshed and energized. Thank you to all of you who hosted us in your homes and played such a huge part in our refreshment. Thank you for your prayers! We are so grateful for your partnership with us in the work God is doing in Togo.