Hello! We hope you are all doing well. Things have begun to calm down here. Phyllis left on Thursday to go back to the States for Jim’s funeral. She will be coming back in a couple of weeks. We are hoping and praying that she can get all she needs to get done in that time. While she is gone, the church and our Fulani friends will be making sure that everything goes well at the school. There is no need to worry, we are well taken care of. Every day people come by to make sure we are well and our guards had a big meeting before she left to make sure they will keep us safe. Though Phyllis is gone, work has moved forward on the projects here. Jamison has been re-wiring much of the electrical system here. The panel was too small and overcrowded, so Jamison installed a new one that will allow them to expand. He also installed a switch to change from power to generator that will make switching power over easier. We got to test it out on Sunday when the power came back on; it had been off for nearly two weeks! But our generator had been keeping the lights and fans on, so it wasn’t too bad. It is really nice to have our air conditioning back! Many people from the village had been coming to charge their cell phones here, since we were one of the only places in the village that had power. The men have been working hard on getting the foundation of the bathroom ready for concrete and working on the plumbing for our new well, which is producing much better than the last one. The women are continuing painting shutters. I have begun working on the mural. I have never done something like this before, so it should be interesting to see how things turn out. I have nearly completed sketching it out; it will look nice when it is all done. Continue to pray for Phyllis as she has much to do in the next couple of weeks. Thank you for all of your prayers, we appreciate them so much! We love you and miss you!

Hello. We hope you all are well. Please pray for us here. On Thursday evening, Jim Sortor died.He had been sick for several days, and the doctors here couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. In the end, his heart gave out. It has been such a shock! The church we go to here has been really supportive, doing anything needed. Phyllis will be taking him back to the US on Thursday, October 16. She will stay there for a couple of weeks, then she’ll come back here. Things have been so hectic in the last couple of days that it is unbelievable. It all feels like a dream. Phyllis believes Jim would want the work to continue, so we will stay here and continue our work. The men are finishing up the foundation for a bathroom for the Fulani village in our compound. The women are working on painting the shutters of the new classroom block. I am preparing to paint a mural on one of the walls of the assembly hall. We also have a crew from near Abuja that has come to drill us a new well, the one we have isn’t producing enough water. Work has stopped on everything for now; we are just trying to figure out what to do. The US Embassy, Free Methodist World Missions and the Sortor’s insurance company have being handling the arrangements needed. Phyllis is functioning, but she’s just in shock. Please pray for her, she needs it. We will do our best to keep you updated on all that is going on. Thank you for your prayers and support. We love you and miss you.

Greetings everyone! We hope you are well. Things are going very well here! Our visitors made it safely on Monday night. There are two couples, Paul and Sue Frazier and Eddie and Jenny Mack. They are from Pennsylvania. Paul and Sue have been working building churches in Venezuela for the last seventeen years. They heard Phyllis speak at the Free Methodist General Conference a couple of years ago and God called them to come. They are here to help finish the classrooms. They are going to plaster the outside of the buildings, put ceilings in and help Jamison fix the drainage problem. Here is a picture of Jenny and Sue painting some of the trim on one of the classrooms. They are very knowledgeable about construction and it will be a great blessing for them to be here. It is great to be surrounded by so many people who are so strong and wise in their faith. I know Jamison and I can learn a lot from them. Jamison is enjoying having something more concrete to do, he jumped right into helping in any way he can. I am enjoying my birthday here, I got to pick out what food I want to eat and the children of the school sang to me during their morning assembly. I also got some packages that people sent with the two couples. Thank you all so very much, it was the best birthday present I could have hoped for. I am nearly finished with the first movie Phyllis is having me work on. We will start filming the next one soon. In the meantime, I am going to be painting a mural of a shepherd and some sheep on the wall of the assembly hall. Since so many of the children are shepherds themselves, it will be very fitting. We are really enjoying being able to get to know some of the Fulani very well. A week ago, a new baby was born, but she had some kind of blockage that wasn’t allowing her to pass anything. We took her to the hospital, where they did some tests. It was some kind of infection, but she is doing very well now and was able to come home yesterday. It worked out nicely, since the Fulani name their children on the seventh day, she is named Haggi. We were able to go and celebrate with them. This is me with one of the Fulani girls, Aisha. They fed us some Nigerian food and some home made butter milk. It was all very delicious! We miss you all and love you very much. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, we are very grateful. Have a wonderful week!