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!

Hello from Nigeria!   Things are going great here; we hope you are all doing well. We have been keeping up our hard work here in Kogi State. Jamison has become a general handyman, fixing the classroom block drainage problem, and dealing with several electrical problems that have come up. In order to make room for the new couples that are coming on the September 29^th, we needed to move the dining room table out of the dining room and out into the assembly hall. Jamison installed a ceiling fan, a light and some outlets to this new extension of our home. It is really nice to have such a great workspace outside where we can watch the cows grazing in the front yard and be more available to the children that come to visit. Here is a picture of one of the students here watching over his family’s herd of cows. This is right out in the school yard, they cows come through here on their way to the creek at the edge of the school property. It is very exciting to be right in the middle of all that is going on! We don’t think the Nisoma is going to be built while we are here, there isn’t funding for it. We are feeding the children every day, traditional Nigerian food, and they are very thankful for it! I am still working on editing Phyllis’ movie about life in Nigeria. After that is done, we will begin filming another one that will tell the story of the little shepherds of the school. While we are doing that, Phyllis has one of the Fulani couples that live nearby building Fulani style huts on our compound. It will be a Fulani camp for boarding Fulani students. There is a clan that lives in a different state that wants to send their children here, but don’t want to move here. Once these huts are finished and a bathroom facility is built, they will be able to come and live on our compound. It is very interesting to see how the Fulani build their homes. Here is a picture of me sitting inside one of the unfinished huts. We are excited about all the wonderful things that are going on here. We are very thankful for all of you praying for us and supporting us. We could not be here without you! Thank you, we love you and miss you!