UPDATE - Kossi & Agathe Anika, National Church Planter and Children's Ministries, Togo 7/14/10

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you" (Philippians 1:3)
We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We hope this newsletter finds each one of you in very good health. By his grace, our family is doing well. We are grateful to those who think of us, pray for us and support us in the ministry. God bless you.

As usual, it is our joy to write and keep you updated of what the Lord is doing in our ministry at Apedokoe Village. We are glad to see that many children are confessing the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. That is the aim of our ministry here. You all know that a children’s ministry without games does not go too far. For that reason, we have transformed a small part of our compound (60x40 ft) into a soccer field; its name is "Jesus Saves Soccer Field". These facilities host many children almost every day for soccer matches or other games. The agreement with the various groups is this: "Come and play for a Bible message during the pause". It works. There will be a tournament for six or eight different soccer teams from among the club before the end of the summer vacation. We hope the Lord will use this program to draw many more children to Himself.

We are presently enjoying summer vacation. The club attendance has gone down. Several children have traveled. The other reason is probably the FIFA World Cup soccer matches played on Sundays. However, we count a minimum of 70 children every Sunday evening. Our summer camp program cannot take place. We have not been able to raise more than $50. However we decided to send two children to another camp program conducted by a fellow Christian group to meet the need the fund was raised for, and also to raise an alert among our group for next year.

One month ago, we started our preparations for Christmas. Club members (those who can afford it) are requested to bring a weekly contribution of 5 cents. It is moving slowly. In order to reinforce our capacity for Christmas celebration, we have collected some firewood during the soccer field preparation work for sale. Next week, we will launch a "used plastic bag collection program"; the product will be sold to a plastic recycling unit. Through these small-scale projects, we want to teach our clubbers the sense of gain by working. Please, be in prayer with us.

We would love to express our gratitude to those who have promptly reacted to our SOS call for the "little girl’s leg surgery" project. The patient reached the hospital yesterday. The immediate feedback we received from the hospital was, "The surgeon who was supposed to do the operation is gone". However, we have been assured that a new surgeon is announced for August 2. In the meantime, the $200 deposit has already been made and the schedule for the surgery will be revealed shortly. Please, keep the little girl on your prayer list. Her name is Reine (Queen). Any new donations will be accepted, because Reine will need to go through a rehabilitation program and additional care. Thank you in advance. We are also pleased to announce that this issue is giving the parents the joy of being in Christ, because they have never seen this kind of love before.

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, the field is ready for harvest but the laborers are very few at Apedokoe Village. May we urge you to continue to pray for the two of us, so that the Lord could send more workers to join the team. We are aiming at efficiency and not simply a good attendance.
We would also appreciate that you prayerfully consider our needs:

• seats for 140 children at $6 each.
• 25 acres of land for campsite at $200 per acre.
• spare parts for our aging vehicle.

Brothers and sisters, once again we thank you for being interested in our ministry at Apedokoe village. We will keep in touch. God bless.