Email the Johnsons!

Greetings from the Dust Bowl! The Harmattan dust continues full-strength here in Dano, bringing with it a mixed bag. On the one hand, temperatures have been incredibly pleasant, with cool evenings in the low 60's to pleasant days in the 80's; on the other hand, no one enjoys breathing air richer in dust than oxygen. However, we give thanks to God for the changing seasons, no matter what they look like.

Life here has been good. We enjoyed a great Christmas dinner with our teammates as we celebrated a truly Feliz Navidad with a Tex-Mex feast. We were also able to ring in the New Year with good friends of ours from down south. The Ries and the Reeves families made the trek from Kara, Togo, to spend a few days with our team. We enjoyed the fellowship with them and really enjoyed catching up.

Work among the Dagara continues to be a blessing. Andy has been maintaining his weekly visits with the Mebar, Dano-Pari, Nyi-Kpier, and Sorian churches. He has particularly been enjoying reading to them from the recently-released gospel of Mark in Dagara. Please be praying that all the Dagara churches would be filled with a zeal for spreading God's word.

Melissa's pregnancy continues with relatively few difficulties and relatively few bizarre cravings (although she would do just about anything for a Chick-Fil-A to move to Dano). Please keep her and the littlest Johnson in your prayers. We would actually ask for your prayers over our entire family's health, as both Andy and Elijah are recovering from bouts with malaria.

Thank you for your prayers for us and for the Dagara. The lost are being found, and, while all the glory is the Lord's, much of the work is being done by you on your knees before the Father.

Blessings.
Andy and Melissa

Email the Chankins!

Happy 2007 to you all. While our Christmas was probably warmer and dustier than yours, we still enjoyed a great day complete with lots of gifts (thanks to all who sent packages) and a Mexican Fiesta with our team. We also had the pleasure of ringing in the New Year with our friends, the Reises and Reeves, from Kara, Togo. We enjoyed their visit so much and Emma and Jack loved having so many kids around. It was a little too quiet when they left. Thanks for all your prayers for health. God has been answering them faithfully. We have enjoyed good health this month and ask you to continue to pray for that blessing. In other family news, Jack took his first steps this month so it won't be long before he can catch Emma - we think he is looking forward to that.

The village work is back in full swing. In Yo, we had our fist meeting after the harvest break. They were excited about meeting again and are hoping to start teaching in a new village. Mou is still going well and has had more interest in baptism since Donatien's sister was baptized. Donatien is doing a great job teaching. Archie asks that you pray for leaders to grow and mature quickly in both these villages. While many young Christians are excited to share the story of Jesus there is a great need for mature Christians to lead the churches on a day to day basis. Please pray that leaders will rise up in the congregations and that they will be filled with the Spirit.

Train and Multiply work is moving along after the holiday break. Thanks to Chad who has been working on the largest book, we now have some unified language to use throughout the project. We are sixteen booklets from having the entire curriculum translated. This is exciting because it is the curriculum that we will be using to train leaders. Please pray that it will move quickly from rough draft to useable form so that we can begin training tomorrow's leaders.

May the Lord bless your new Year,
Archie, Mandy, Emma and Jack

Email the Burks!

We are transitioning into a family of four. We promise, we will send pictures as soon as we kif you would like to get in touch with us while we are in the states, you can contact us at 210-744-5667.

May the LORD Bless You and Keep You,
Aaron, Andrea, Daniel, and Dylan Burk

Email the Carters!

Thanks to God's blessing and your prayers, the pregnancy is going great. Amy has found the pill that helps with nausea and feels much better than she did with Noah. Noah is amazing everyone with how much he understands. He signs away but has yet to form many clear words. Chad feels a little bit like Gomer Pyle in these recent weeks. Everything has been, "Surprise, surprise, surprise," as we collect information on baptisms and attendance from churches in order to
review "the numbers." It seems that the Spirit does not feel the need to check in with our team before a church experiences exceptional growth or a new church is born.

We were excited to share the holidays with Chad's dad and his dad's friend Vicky. They were able to share the gift of hospitality helping host a Christmas party for all the families that work for our team. Also they were stretched in their ability to receive hospitality. They probably set a new record for the most presents in such a time period: a chicken and two giant yams from Nyinyime, a guinea fowl from Muturi, free dolo from Nakar, and a gourmet meal of couscous
from our Fulani landlady.

Please pray for this dry season. Pray that the churches will take advantage of this time to have large evangelism drives in their own towns and surrounding areas. Pray for Bayuo. He is the Burks nightguard and is engaged in some serious spiritual warfare. We do not know all the details but he is a young Christian that is being tested.

In Christ,
Chad, Amy, Noah, & ?