Dear Prayer Partners,

On April 24, Jeff, Pastor Rochaud, Pastor Francois and I left the comforts of modern day Benin and drove two hours west to the bush village of Akpomey (ak-poe-may).... If you've been following our ministry stories for years you'll remember that Akpomey is the village in which Paul, a Christian school teacher sent to this remote village by the government, was challenged by Voodoo groups to join them. His refusal resulted in their bewilderment as they sought him out to ask, "What power do you have?" I'll attach the story to this e-mail...

The ground was dry for want of rain. The bamboo huts of the small village stood three feet off the ground sporting slippery bamboo ladders created for entry into the tiny doorways. The water of the river, way below us now, didn't seem the terrible menace that it apparently becomes each year during rainy season.

The people were delighted with our presence and ran to alert the men of the village, deep in their fields, that we'd arrived.... Warm soft-drinks, and cookies were presented to us on a small table with a baby goat tucked underneath. The goat wasn't a gift! It was hiding from all the children that had gathered around us. Paul has since moved on to teach in another village and Emmanuel has become the pastor of the church. The children should have been in school, but the teachers show up when they do and don't when they don't.

While the men sat on benches under the shade of a huge tree in the middle of the circle of huts, I greeted women, worked with one to take the skins off her newly roasted peanuts, held a newborn baby and was offered just about all the children in the village to take home!

The plan was for Pastor Rochaud, Jeff and Francois to teach the men and women in the afternoon and evening. But as afternoon came, the women did also, but not the men. They set up benches next to the church in the comparatively cool shade and suddenly I was assigned to teach!

I'd come somewhat prepared and earlier had discussed with Pastor Emmanuel what he would want me to teach. He startled me by saying he wasn't even sure if the women were Christians for they'd destroyed a preaching point "with their mouths". So, after prayfully considering I shared with them the story of the adulterous woman in scripture--we acted the story out--then we discussed Christ and His forgiveness. As a side note the women told me that they couldn't "write in the dirt" for if one did they would become crazy. How do ideas like that start? I assured them if Christ stooped to write in the dirt, they could, too, without fear of insanity!

After asking the women how they merit salvation, and after each one gave incorrect responses (!)--rather than saying that they were forgiven of their sins through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and their confession of sin and surrender to Him as Lord of their lives, I invited Pastor Francois to step in. He is 100% an evangelist and I could sense him nearly jumping out of his skin to get involved! And in the end all the women, about 12, prayed clearly to give their lives to Christ.

We were given our own hut for the night and while a bit of daylight remained we set up our cots; mosquito netting and relaxed a bit before the next event.

At 8:00 pm, under a sky lit with a multitude of stars and Pastor Rochaud's notes lit by a dim lantern, he taught both men, women and children on the family.

It was very late when the time to close the door on our hut came around. Although we sweat profusely in the airless room, the sweat didn't keep me awake, but the gnawing and squeaking did. "Do four-legged furry things practice rope climbing like the marines--and would they use the interior of my mosquito net for practice?" rattled around my brain. I made sure the bread we'd brought for breakfast was securely zippered into our small suitcase and tried to block the scampering and clawing from my mind.

Dawn seems to arrive earlier in the villages and as the first rays filtered through the cracks in the bamboo we were up. Jeff headed down to the "man" side of the river to bathe while I decided that body-wash wet-ones were sufficient for me since I haven't yet mastered partially clothed bathing.

I was to meet the women at church, but Jeff, Rochaud, Francois and some others hiked to another village 4 miles away over footpaths no vehicle can pass to speak to a group gathered there. While they were walking over the rough terrain, Jeff preaching the story of the Israelites and the serpent on the pole, I was teaching the women. Before the women had all come together I spied from a long distance a boy carrying a book--a Fon literacy book! Rebecca, Emmanuel's wife, had learned to read Fon with it! When I discover people hidden in the bush who read the Fon New Testament because of that literacy book, a thrill races through my heart.

Four miles there and four miles back. Preaching,

teaching, eating and then we were heading back home to Calavi (kahl-ah-vee), arriving just before dark. The next day we'd be teaching 50 people up in the village of Abomey how to teach Fon literacy....

As you pray God uses our lives to impact others. May the joy we experience in response be yours, too!

Laboring where the laborers are few,

Barbara and Jeff