Saturday, August 6, 2005

Anthony and Maureen Parker
Thanks for your prayers for our family's health. We are doing much better now, though Maureen is still struggling with her cough. Anthony discovered that in addition to flu symptoms, he also had malaria, but is feeling much better after prayer and a course of medicine. The sickness has restricted our productivity this week. Anthony was able to meet with the Tabligbo leaders and pray with them for the elder who is struggling in his marriage. He also made progress on the Train & Multiply materials.

Pray for a great annual gathering for the Watchi churches. This is always a good time of fellowship, encouragement, and vision-casting for the movement. The late nights, local food, and sleeping on hard floors can be a bit rough on the missionaries, but it's a small price to pay for the encouragement the local Christians receive.

Now that they are well, Jeremy and Jonathan have enjoyed spending some good times with the Mathew and Stephen Crowson this week, including a trip to the beach and a spend-the-night party at the Crowson house.

Jeff and Brenda Holland
This has been a good week. Our biggest event occurred when Komla, our house worker returned to Tabligbo. He has had three strokes and still battles high blood pressure and immobility in his arms and legs as well as difficult speech. He had stayed with his family for many months. His family took him to witch doctors and other spirit healers. They didn’t want to use the medications, which had been prescribed. His health deteriorated over our furlough. Because of that, we brought him back to Tabligbo and provided him someone to cook, clean, and help him with daily therapy. He is already doing better. Please continue to pray for him to have a full recovery.

The kids have all struggled through colds this week. We praise God that they are doing better. Brenda has made some long term plans with our new literacy coordinator, Daniel. He is volunteering to help follow up on those who completed the literacy teachers’ training course. He will be traveling to various villages to help improve the teachers’ skills. This week, in addition to Jeff’s normal leadership training, he found himself working with a church to straighten out some relationship problems. Prayer, renouncing of sin and demonic strongholds, and the invitation of the Holy Spirit to produce fruit among the members were the primary elements of the meeting. At this time, things seem to be going well and relationships are healing. We praise God.

Continue to pray for our teachers. They leave the States on August 20th. Ask God to oversee their travels and prepare them for their teaching. Also pray for the large conference for all of the churches we work with. It starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Ask God to send his Spirit upon the meeting with might and power so that the Christians are encouraged and ready to return home in mighty proclamation of God’s glory.

Murphy and Christine Crowson
This has been a busy week for our family. The mechanic came last Saturday and looked at the car but he could not find what was wrong. He said that we needed to drive the car to Accra so that he could take the engine out and do a more thorough search.

Christine and I brought the matter before the Lord and while we were praying God gave me the idea that I should call S.I.L. (Bible Translators), and ask them if they knew of a good mechanic in Lomé. After we finished praying I called them right away and found out that they had a good mechanic that they have used for several years. So I got his number, called him and made arrangements to take the car down to Lomé on Wednesday. I went back on Friday to look at the car and he had the engine sitting in on an old tire under a shed. He is still looking for the problem. We are praying that he can discover and fix the problem so that the car can work for a long time.

We also feel led in prayer to look for another used vehicle for the rest of our time in Togo. My car has been in the shop four out of the last eight months. I'm tired of missing work days in the village due to a broken down vehicle. Please ask God to help us find a long-term solution to our mechanical difficulties.

In addition, one morning this week when Christine came back from her running she found our dog, Buster, crying and shaking with a high fever. We called the local animal inspector to look at him and he said we needed to take him to the vet in Lomé. The challenge was getting a 90 pound strong dog into the back of our truck. After almost 2 hours of trying we finally got him into the truck and headed off to Lomé where we found a good veterinarian. It took four of us to hold Buster down while the vet gave him his shots. Buster is not just a dog to us; he's a part of our family. Thanks be to God he's much better now.

Please ask God to bless the all-church conference coming up next week. It's going to be an exciting time of worship, Bible study, and fellowship. Pray that God will anoint the meeting with his Spirit, that hearts will be changed, faith increased, and passion ignited for the lost.

Marty and Louise Koonce
The Koonces are visiting with family and friends in Alabama this week.