~ Anthony and Maureen Parker ~

August 2 - The week and a half that our family has spent in Tabligbo has been a refreshing time of reconnecting with people and a whole environment that we said goodbye to two years ago. Now that we have come to the end of our time here, we feel that it has been all too short, but are so grateful for the opportunity that we have had to experience Togo again. We've been reminded of so many aspects of life in Togo -- the slower pace, the spiritual world view, the horrible roads, and the blessed friendships. We have, however, been spared the intense heat that is normal here. August is the cold month, with very comfortable temperatures in the 70s and 80s.

Because we came during school vacation, Jeremy and Jonathan have played virtually non-stop with the Koonce and Crowson boys. Anthony was surprised at how quickly his Ewe language came back, and was able to teach at a men's meeting and offer words of encouragement in several churches. He also traveled to Benin for three days to encourage Christians there. Laté accompanied him and was able to share his agricultural knowledge and build relationships. Maureen enjoyed visiting with ladies in Tabligbo, Batoe, and Kpotonou, as well as spending time with and even going on a Lomé shopping trip with the women on the team.

 

 

The Watchi churches, particularly the leaders, have impressed us with their maturity, as they acknowledge that it is now time for the full-time presence of missionaries here to end, so that they can grow to new levels of responsibility and commitment. There are sure to be struggles ahead, but the work God started here fourteen years ago will continue and thrive. We are thankful for the opportunity to have been a small part of this tremendous movement of God.

~ Murphy and Christine Crowson ~ Crowson's Blog

From Murphy - In late July Marty and I (along with Dave and Matt on the Kabiye team) traveled to Livingstone, Zambia to attend a Church Planting Movements conference with David Watson. Ministry leaders and missionaries from all over east and central africa were there learning new ways and methods to reach more people for Jesus. In the lead up to our transition to Rwanda I have been asking the Lord to mold and shape me into a more fruitful tool in His Kingdom as well as sharpen my skills in ministry. This conference did that and more. My head is still spinning with ideas and new paradigms. I praise the Lord for working on my heart and life.

One of the things we learned at the CPM conference was how to better use inductive Bible study to increase comprehension and obedience. We returned from the conference on Tuesday and Marty immediately put this new idea into practice at the Watchi Men's conference. It worked great and prompted much more discussion and understanding than we've ever had with just strait preaching or teaching. Pictured left is a picture with Sedome leaders doing an inductive Bible study on Phil. 2. The point of all is to let the Word and Spirit do more of the teaching while I facilitate discussion. In this way the Christians are more grounded in the Word and not the teacher.

As many have mentioned, July brought a ton of rain to southern Togo, flooding many areas and washing out at least 10 bridges. The rains also do a great deal of damage to houses made with simply mud. Pictured left is Komlavi's house (he's a leader in the Batoe church). After one weekend of rain, his house completely collapsed. I praise God that no one was inside. Pray for Komlavi, that the Lord would encourage him and help him find a new place to live. Needless to say, he's pretty discouraged right now.

We praise God for $1000 that was giving towards our Rwanda Transition needs. Please continue to ask the Lord to provide for our Rwanda transition. You can find a list of our Rwanda Transition Needs on our blog. You can find out more about our future ministry in Rwanda by visiting our Musanze Team's website @ http://rwanda.harvestfields.net.

From Christine - We enjoyed a wonderful visit from the Parker family. The boys loved playing with Jeremy and Jonathan. There was no school for the two weeks of their visit so the boys had lots of playing time.

I enjoyed taking Maureen to visit the Kpotonou ladies and the Batoe ladies. The looks of love and joy on the faces of the women as they greeted Maureen was memorable. It felt like old times as Maureen and I walked from home to home and visited with Christian women. I believe Maureen was a great encouragement to the women.

~ Emily Dunnagan ~

It has been a wonderful summer break.  I enjoyed many rainy mornings drinking tea and many rainy afternoons watching movies with Rachel.  It has been great to have two fun trips to Lome.  We were able to swim at the Sarakawa and have a girls shopping day at the Hedzranawoe market.  The last few days we have been working on getting school and curriculum ready for our new school year.  It has been nice to meet the Parker family, and hear their stories about house I have been living in for the past two years.

~ Marty and Louise Koonce ~ Blogs: Marty, Louise, 4T's

From Marty - It has been an incredible four weeks for us. After ending up this years internship, we traveled to Zambia to meet up with others from East Africa for a conference on church planting movements. Few conferences if any have challenged me as this one did. We look forward to implementing some of the things we learned here in Togo and then working more effectively in Rwanda. While there we took in the sights of Livingstone, including a Subway restaurant and a lunar rainbow at Victoria Falls. Afterwards we went to Chobe National Park in Botswana.

Since our return we have been blessed with a visit from the Parker family. We were able to put Anthony to work with a men's conference on his first weekend here which was well attended.

For this weekend, at the request of Frank Bunner, I built a rocket stove for the church compound which we cooked on for the meals. We have named it the adokpo Frank in honor of Mr. Bunner (this means the Frank Stove in Eve). This looks to be the hottest home improvement idea to hit Tabligbo for quite some time.

Do be praying for the rains to stop and the ground to dry a bit as the south is flooding and waters have washed out several bridges cutting us down to one passable way to the capital.

In addition to this continue to pray for the Watchi people to turn to Jesus. Pray for our family as we now have only four months left in Togo. Also, continue to pray for people and churches to commit funds for our transition to Rwanda.

From Louise - Since our last posting, we sent the interns back to the States,Marty and Murphy made a trip to Zambia and returned, we received the Parker family for a visit, the boys have been enjoying their two week summer break from school and my head is spinning!

The biggest news is the flooding we have been experiencing here. There have been many homes collapse and people to have to abandon their places. The fields are under water and many have lost their crops. There have been at least ten bridges to crumble in the country (one pictured left). Some of these are on the road from Lome to Tabligbo, so we have had to take an alternate route to the capitol. It is a major concern for the commerce of the country. Please pray for the people of Togo.

~ Rachel Baker ~

It's been a long time since I've sat down to write an entry for the Times and I find myself racking my brain to remember what has happened in my life since the last edition. We've been on break from school the past two weeks, so I've had some much-needed time to just relax a little. I am so thankful for the time off we've had – it has given me a chance to catch up on some reading (and sleeping), look over some new things for the new school year, watch some TV and movies, and make a few trips to Lome. It's been a great two weeks of catching up with family/friends back home online and even getting a few unexpected phone calls. With those calls, I was able to hear the great news from home when my new niece, Nora Jo was born! My sister, Robin and baby both are doing so great! School is about to start back up on the 5th and I can honestly say I'm looking forward to it. The break has been really great, but I'm ready to see the boys daily again.

~ Agricultural Ministry - Laté Lawson-Simlen ~

After the first drilling attempt in Kpokede failed the crew tried again in another place. The ground was very wet though because of the rains and at 14 meters the well collapsed.

After discussion and prayer, we decided that we needed to wait until the beginning of the dry season to try again. It's just too wet to drill right now!

We are now focusing on the upcoming Soya Bean and Pineapple harvest. Ask the Lord to pour out his blessings upon the land and bless the harvest!

Please continue to pray that the Lord would bless Late as he ministers to Watchi farmers.