From Marty - My welcome to Togo was complete this week my first case of malaria. As I was used to the routine, I submitted to my three days of bed rest and the medicines and waited out my time. I was very discouraged though to have gotten sick as I was hoping that my last year in Togo would be malaria free. I guess now we can change that prayer to me just having one case of malaria for the year.

I was able to get back out for a teaching session on Saturday and we had a wonderful worship with the Atitogon cluster on Sunday (Marty greeting the grandmother of the Atitogon cluster pictured top-left). It is so encouraging each Sunday to see the maturity in these young Christians. Please pray for our travels as we take a birthday trip for Louise to Benin for a couple of days and then next week Murphy and I will go north with the Kabiye missionary men for the annual safari.

From Louise - This week was a blur of activity! We had the privilege of hosting two families from the Kabiye team. The Millers and Reeves are planning to join us in Rwanda in a few years, so we took some time to talk and pray about the future God has laid before us all. We had a belated birthday party for Tanner, since there were eight more children present. He had a Wii party (pictured left) and even let the adults play, too. Sunday was a delightful day with the Atitogon cluster. My heart swelled with pride as Tucker gave the Lord’s Supper thoughts with very little language help from his Dad. Speaking of language- I had my first Kinyarwanda lesson this week. It is a very organized language and I am excited about learning it.

We had so much fun having Hannah and Elijah Reeves and Abby and Aidan Miller with us in school on Monday. Having girls in our classes automatically changed up the mix tremendously, but adding four to our six also changed everything! (the entire group pictured left) It was fun though watching our boys interact with the other kids. All six of them are so great with "company" at school. Of course, to make the day feel like any other day, the electricity and water both were out for a period of time during our busy school day, but that's just normal now.

During school one day this past week, the boys were all playing basketball and were spending most of their time throwing around a deflated basketball. Sure enough, the ball found it's way flying over the wall of our compound. Emily went around the house to get the ball for them and they decided to no longer throw it… instead, Tanner and Stephen decided it was cool to put it on our heads. You never know what they'll come up with!

Also at school, the boys' plants have really been growing (pictured left)! They are always ready to see whose is tallest or whose isn't growing at all. Even though we've had a few rotten seeds, they all seem to be doing great. Each day, the boys get to measure their plants' growth and water them. It's a project they've really gotten attached to and they are always going straight for the "light hut" as soon as they come into school.

This week we weren't able to make it out to church in the village, so we had Yovo (or white person) worship at the Crowson's house. Since the Reeves and Millers were in town, we were able to all be together for our Sunday morning. It was nice to be able to be together. I love our times out in the village, but it was still great to be able to worship in English again! This weekend we're headed off to Benin for Louise's upcoming birthday and then up to Kara the next week, so we'll be out of the village worship routine for a couple of weeks – I know I'll be missing it by the time we get back in Tabligbo!

From Murphy - This week the Sedome and Batoe Christians are praying for God to lead them to a new place to evangelize and plant a church. They have a couple of places in mind and are laying the ground work in prayer asking for the Lord's blessing. Beginning in two weeks I will work with the leaders in the afternoon and then we will go to a new place to teach people about Jesus in the late afternoon/early evening. Pray that God would lead us to receptive hearts, those whom He has prepared to receive the Good News. Pray also that God would anoint the proclamation of His Word with power and authority so that people's hearts will be convicted leading them to faith. I'm excited to meet the new people who will enter the Kingdom in the coming months.

We had a great time with the Millers and Reeves this past weekend. Our four families, plus another family currently in the States, are all going to move to Rwanda and work in the Musanze valley. The Koonces and our family will move in January, 2009. A third family will join us that summer. The Millers and Reeves will join us in 2011/12. We spent a lot of time in prayer, laying our plans and dreams before the Lord asking Him to guide all of our steps. We're excited to see the great harvest that the Lord will bring in Rwanda too! Pray that the Lord would have mercy upon this nation. See our blog for a picture of the Musanze team (http://audienceofone.cc).

Tomorrow we're headed to Benin to celebrate Louise's birthday. Happy Birthday Louise! Then Sunday, we will head to northern Togo. The guys will go on safari while the girls and kids stay with the Kabiye team ladies. We're going to have a great time. Please pray that the Lord would bless us with safety and fun times of fellowship.

Please continue to pray for our China Adoption. We are still waiting on our finger prints to be processed so that our US government paperwork can be renewed. We are hoping and praying that we will get a referral sometime this year:) Pray that God will shorten the days until we can bring our daughter home!

From Christine - Last Wednesday I had a wonderful day in Kpotonou with the Christian women. I had made a plan to visit each of them at their houses. After about the third visit I realized something was up. Each woman was dressed and ready when I arrived at their house. When I left they each came with me part of the way and then went on to Massa's (one of the Christian women) house. I began to feel like they all knew something that I didn't know. After my fourth visit, Massa told me that everyone was going to meet at the Church shelter after my visits were finished so they could tell me goodbye and send me on my way to Tabligbo. When I arrived at the Church shelter all the women were gathered and Massa had prepared a meal for us to share. They were all so excited and we had great fun laughing together and eating very spicey veyi (beans with oil and grounded and toasted casava). I praise God for these precious women and thank Him that I have been able to witness Him working in their lives.

We had a wonderful visit with the Reeves and Miller families from Kara. They came and spent three nights in Tabligbo so we could have time to visit and pray about our futures together in Rwanda. We had some great times of fellowship, praise and prayer. The boys loved spending time with their children too. We praise God for these two families and their committment to serve Him and advance His Kingdom on the earth.

From Thursday - Friday our water was out for 32 hours straight!! We definitely had to take bucket baths and bucket flush our toilet. I am sure Da Emily was laughing at us as we tried it out. We drank almost all of our pure water! We were so excited when the water came back on at 10pm Friday night!! I am now even more thankful for water than I was with just the regular rationing. I am also very thankful that we now have hot water.

It was really great to be with the Reeves and Miller families again this weekend. We spent all day Sunday together catching up on news and talking about Rwanda. I loved getting to hold AnnaMarie again and visit with Asher and Gabe about all that has happened since I left Kara in December.

Monday - Abby, Hannah, Elijah, and Aidan joined us for school. It was crazy, especially since the power was out for a while this morning, but we survived and had a great day. The kids were all really well behaved, and had to be very patient since there were almost twice as many students who also had questions to ask. Tanner's birthday party was that afternoon. He had a Wii and "Airbud" party that was a lot of fun. One of the greatest things about teaching here is that I get to be a part of almost every aspect to my student's lives and I really love that.

New Cooperative - A cooperative is a group of unified workers created by the agricultural ministry to encourage the goals of our work. It is a strategy of evangelism in order to save the souls for the kingdom of God. The Adangbe' cooperative is a successful and hard working group of people. In December 2007, there were 40 members. As they grew we encountered interest in starting a new cooperative in a new village. Thursday, February 21st, a new cooperative started in the village of Didokpo (pictured left). This cooperative was birthed from the Adangbé cooperative. Please pray that God will bless this new group.

(Laté is our Agricultural Missionary among the Watchi. He works with Christians and Churches to develop better farming techniques and to improve life skills and living conditions. Our goal: Christians thriving in body and spirit!)