Marty and Louise Koonce
We the Koonces are continuing on with our furlough in travel survival mode. Marty's parents are watching the boys for the next five days while he and Louise are in Colorado visiting the church in Grand Junction. Marty has now preached at ten of the thirteen churches scheduled for this furlough. We have had really good visits and have been greatly encouraged. The boys are doing well and they have had one excellent summer here in the states. We are getting in our final shopping and our preparations for our return to Africa in three weeks. Please pray for those preparations and for our travel as we close things out here and get ready to head East. It would be nice to get some rest too, so please pray for that as well. God bless you for your love.

Anthony and Maureen Parker
Thank you for all of your prayers for our annual all-church conference. It was a great time of fellowship and encouragement, with well over 500 in attendance for Sunday morning worship. Leaders from throughout the movement met Thursday afternoon, evening, and Friday morning. For the last time, this part of the meeting was led by the missionaries, as we worked together on logistical considerations for the future of the movement, while at the same time trying to help the leaders refocus on evangelistic growth.

Vanloads of Christians began to arrive Friday around noon, and continued to arrive well into Saturday. We were all impressed with the persistence of the Sedome Christians who had three taxi-vans break down on them. The times of worship were most encouraging.

Please continue to pray for Maureen's health.  Her cough is persisting and she tested positive for malaria.  Also, our refrigerator, which we recently replaced, has not been working and we've had trouble getting it serviced. Pray that we will be able to get it to function for the next 9 months that we need it here in Togo.

Jeff and Brenda Holland
What a week. The annual church conference is always one of our favorite events. This year's meeting started off with one day for leaders in "general assembly." The missionaries laid out our plans and the realities of our on-going phase-out. This was the last meeting in which the missionaries will plan and lead the leadership portion. In the future, this will be taken care of by the organizing committee of national leaders selected by the Togolese from each of the four regions of the Watchi area.

The next three days, Friday through Sunday, consisted of worship and teaching for men, women and children from around the Watchi area. We approached 600 participants. All of it was led by the Watchi Christians. Except for one prayer, the missionaries didn't lead anything. Instead, we were edified and challenged by the teaching. I suppose one of the things we will one day miss most about Togo is the praise and worship. The Africans have taught us so much about worshipping from the heart without restraint. Anthony said that we are getting just a taste of heaven as we praise God with people of different cultures and languages. If this is just a taste, what a feast heaven will be!

This meeting was held in a school yard in Dagbati. We met under a brush-arbor, ate the local foods for a few days, and slept on cement floors in classrooms (Jeff slept a little; Josiah and Danny slept one night in a tent; and Brenda and the girls slept at home). After the meeting we all went home rejuvenated even though Jeff and Josiah rode back the 12 km trip on their bikes. Praise God for a wonder-full meeting. Keep Ellianna in your prayers. She tested positive for malaria and has had a little fever from time to time. We believe it is under control but ask the Almighty to heal her completely and put a hedge of health and protection around her. Also pray for our teachers, Jenna and Stacey, as fly to Togo later this week.

Murphy and Christine Crowson
Simon, the new mechanic in Lomé, went to Accra and bought a new engine for our vehicle. It's installed and ready to pick up. We hope and pray that this will be a long-lasting solution as well as a reliable one so that we can continue our ministry without interruption due to mechanical problems. This week I need to go to Lomé to pick up the car, then to the Benin/Togo border to pick up new car papers and then on to Benin to renew my yearly inspection. We are cautiously excited and hopeful that this is the last of our mechanic problems for a while.

The all church conference was a great success. Christians came from all over Watchi land for three days of worship, praise, and Bible study. It is especially encouraging to know that this church meeting was almost completely planned and paid for by the nationals. The Sedome church had a very hard time getting to the conference. The first van that they hired broke down. The second van that they found to bring them to the conference also broke down. The third van that they found also broke down :-) However, they were able to fix the third van and made it to the conference only one day late. Many wanted to give up, but others said 'No we need to keep trying until we get there!' I praise God for their perseverance and know that they were blessed by the conference.

While I was at the conference Matthew came down with strep throat. Please pray that God will grant him healing and all of us good health after a long but good week.

We also ask you to pray for the teachers who will be arriving next week. We are so excited to meet them, thankful for their open hearts to serve the Lord in Togo, and most especially thankful to God for answering our prayers for two teachers

 

Photos from 2005 All-Church Conference

Men's Side

Jeff Demonstrates

Jeff Rejoices

Hammer and Simon

S.T. and Toglo, elders at Dagbati

Vogan Members Arrive

Watchi Girl Reads Scriptures

MKs Hang Out Together

Vogan's Papa

Time Out to Pray

Women's Side

Murphy Teaches

Children Join in Worship

Leaders Meet Before Main Conference

Children's Class

Josiah in Class

MKs in Class

Praising God

Murphy Visits with
Jacques and Daniel


Women Praising