Dear Praying friends,

We made it back to Yamoussoukro and are up and running. We've been messing with cars that wouldn't run and unpacking some of our last crates. When Barbara is here, things just get done around the house. There were 10 crates sitting in the house that hadn't been unpacked due to lack of storage, but now they're all put away. Where? I don't know.

We went to Gbegbessou yesterday, Tuesday, and were encouraged by the progress that they are making. Some of the "sects" in surrounding villages are beginning to get intimidated by the success of the church in our village and some rumblings have begun. Please pray that this local "oppression" will not escalate into anything damaging before we have a chance to make some serious inquiries about planting new churches in the region. These are exciting days in the new work in Gbegbessou and we're thrilled to be a part of it!

Tomorrow we return to Abidjan to do some shopping and pick up our son's motorcycle. It's been there since he bought it over a year ago January, but now we'll be able to bring it "home". It'll be great to have it, but he sure misses it. He never even got to use it before he had to leave. One of these days I'll probably buy him out, but right now it's not a possibility ;-)

Please continue to pray with us about the new works. Gbegbessou, Toumodi, Adzopé, and soon in Yamoussoukro.

Oh, there is some new "noise" among the divided factions of the country. The new French Colonel has said that if the rebels try to reach Abidjan that they won't stop them. This is a new development since the 4000 French troops have been here to keep them apart. The real problem for us is that there is an important military base about a half mile from our house and the rebels would have to come right through our town to reach the South. We want to be proactive with our prayer and ask God to intervene before it escalates into a problem. Pray with us please.

Thank you for your continued prayer. Where would we be without you?

Tim & Barbara

We've had to change our trip to Abidjan to tomorrow (Friday) due to some political turmoil there. There is a very large protest march planned for today against the United Nations. This will probably be huge, but with very little violence. We just didn't want to get caught in it and run into trouble. They plan to march to the UN headquarters and stage a sit-in in protest to the UN presence here.

Continue in prayer.
________________________
Tim & Barbara Downs
B.P. 1444
Yamoussoukro
Côte d'Ivoire, Africa