Greetings! We want to thank everyone for their prayers and concern. We are happy to report that God granted both of our prayer requests last week. Not only was Dani able to spend time in the village, but also we both enjoyed good health this week.

A Plug for Urbana
We recently registered for the national missions conference “Urbana.” Every three years tens of thousands of missions-minded Christians convene for 5 days of inspiring worship, motivating speakers, and myriad enlightening seminars. It is also one of the largest gatherings of missions/sending agencies in the US, a great time to talk to many organizations all in one place. We enthusiastically recommend this conference to our friends & readers. The meeting will take place in St. Louis, MO from Dec. 27th, 2009 – Jan 1st. It only occurs once every three years, so don’t miss it! Check out their website at: http://www.urbana09.org/ .

Phil’s Research
Planting corn, pigeon pea, and groundnut is finally complete on all 15 participating farms and the research station! This week Phil and the technicians began growth analysis sampling. Phil has spent the last two days cutting out fabric to make sample bags. He is a jack of all trades, a farmer turned tailor.

Phil measuring the fabric for crop residue decomposition bags

Dani in Kperisi
Thankfully, Dani was able to go to Kperisi with the summer missionaries this week. She stayed with a family in the village. During the day most adults in the village are busy working on the farms. So, daylight is a great time to interact with the children. The team spent lots of time playing with the children, providing medical care, and even teaching them a few songs. Their favorites were “What a Mighty God We Serve” and “Jesus Loves Me.”

Singing with the children and playing a game like “limbo”

Providing some medical care in Kperisi

At dusk the adults come back from the farm. Thus, evenings are a great time to share the Good News, tell Bible stories, and disciple new believers. Although it is dark, several young men come each evening to be taught about the Bible. We asked one young man to read certain books of the Bible: the Gospel of John, Romans, and Daniel. He enthusiastically set about his task, reading the entire book of John that very night. He was so engrossed he stayed up in our room using our flashlight until late in the night. We weren’t able to go to sleep, but it was worth it!

Dani even had some time to do a little work on the farm...

Dani harvesting bean leaves for dinner

We are thankful to God for the opportunity to spend a little time in the village, encouraging the new church and sharing the Good News.


-God bless & Shalom to you all-