1. The highlight of having Masters adjunct lecturers Dr. Joe Wasmond (Spiritual Warfare), Dr. Peter Colman (New Testament Theology) and Dr. Jim Anderson (Theology of Rest) at WATS came at a dinner celebration on Thursday, August 7. It was enjoyed by students, spouses, and the WATS staff. One staff member wrote: "These three adjunct lecturers were fantastic. They were friendly and warm-hearted and their great sense of humor made them very approachable. . . . During the party students testified about the impact they made on them through their teaching; the WATS management expressed our gratitude to them; and we shared our normal token of love with them." THANKS, guys!! You really did this one with an impacting flare.

2. In August we normally bring back our "bishops" for the MA in Christian Leadership modules. This time Dr. Daniel E. Finch and Dr. William Sillings both excelled as they took these top church leaders through 80 hours of intensive leadership training. Toward the end of the month Dr. David Seiver arrived to teach History of Christian Spirituality, and Dr. Gary S. Maxey launched into another session of Holiness and Revival, while David Adeleke took MA in Intercultural Studies students through another intensive period of Arabic language.

3. Another August highlight was the visit of two teams: from Alabama and Georgia. First was the return of Mike Jones - with his son Joshua—to again help bolster our film evangelism outreach. Mike is the international director of Drive-In Ministries, based in Alabama. WATS continues to benefit greatly from the two film evangelism vehicles that go out frequently to spread the Gospel. Plans are under way to begin combining this outreach with medical ministry, as early as October. Thanks, Mike and Joshua, for making this possible!!
4. The second team, accompanied by Dr. Dan Finch, came from 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville and Hamilton Mill United Methodist Church in Dacula. The five member team accomplished much, including work in the library, office remodeling and VBS for fifty children. Dr. Dan Finch was the key note speaker for a spiritual leadership conference for 3,000 pastors in Lagos. Tyler Gardner taught a workshop to several hundred singers and musicians on "Leading Worship In Spirit and Truth." Several members also joined the film evangelism team as they went into local communities.

Thank God for great encouragement from these people!

5. Thank God for a donor who pledged $1,500 to get the WATS Massey Ferguson 290 tractor from Crawford, Texas, to Moline, Illinois! The transfer will be made this month, and soon thereafter we will load it onto a 40’ Nigeria-bound container along with lots of other needed items.

6. On Monday, August 11, undergraduates began streaming back to WATS for another great semester. The temporary chapel space (awaiting the new chapel - hopefully by October) is now crowded to overflowing. Three new teaching faculty members (Frederick Luogon, of Liberia, Olusanya Akinola and Abimbola David) were added to handle the increased teaching load, with one or two more still needed in order to give our teachers more reasonable work loads. Thank God for our great teaching faculty at WATS!

7. On August 29 a historic first for WATS was an all-day meeting of the Governing Council and Trustees, called to discuss means and strategies for increasing the Nigerian fundraising for the seminary. The Governing Council chairman, Bishop Emmanuel Gbonigi, led the meeting, which was highly productive and practical.

8. On August 31 three WATS undergraduates were ordained by the Anglican bishop of Awga/Aniri, in Enugu State, Rt. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Ugwu. The ordinations were inspired in part by the outstanding work these three young men did on their WATS Springboard missionary assignments. They successfully planted churches in an unreached area of eastern Nigeria in the face of huge obstacles. Congratulations to all three of them!

9. On the personal front, Emma Lou and I enjoyed a good month, culminating with our 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday, August 23! Earlier in the month I spoke on a panel in Houston celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Africa´s greatest novel - China Achebe´s Things Fall Apart, preached in Longview, Texas, and danced and celebrated in Ohio with Dr. Acha Goris, our son-in-law, as he and Rachel launched plans to get back to Africa next year. Hey, GOD IS GOOD!!

1. September starts with a bang at WATS—with our annual Missions and Evangelism Conference, September 3 – 5. The highlight of this conference is always the receiving of reports from WATS short-term Springboard missionaries. This year a record THIRTY missionaries went out, both inside and outside Nigeria. The special speaker this year is Dr. Maurice Watson, pastor of Beulahland Bible Church in Macon, Georgia. Dr. Watson has excelled in evangelism outreach and church planting in the US, and this is his first time to visit Africa. Pray for strong impact from this special time of missions and evangelism focus!

2. Pray for Dr. Seiver, Dr. Maxey and David Adeleke as they finish Masters modules in early September. Also, pray for those adjunct people starting Masters modules September 23: Dr. David Boyle (first timer, from Memphis, Tennessee, teaching Biblical Hermeneutics); Professor Oumar Danfulani (University of Jose, teaching Africa Traditional Religion); WATS´ own Kalu Okechukwu, teaching Greek Syntax and Grammar, and Jacqueline Hoover (returning from Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon, teaching History of Christian-Muslim Relationships). Pray that these people will teach with great effectiveness.

3. Pray for teams from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and the National Universities Commission (NUC) coming to WATS this month. The NUC is making strong efforts to guard the quality of tertiary education in Nigeria, where we are nationally overrun with scores and even hundreds of bogus degree-mill institutions and many others that are operating far below international standards. Pray that WATS will find favor, and if possible will be granted institutional autonomy to operate directly under the NUC.

4. Pray for the building of the WATS chapel! All planning has been completed, due in part to a return visit of Dr. Ira Pence. Working with Engineer A. O. Aina, plans are finalized for a chapel seating 1,000 people as a mezzanine level above offices and classrooms in our main building. GOOD NEWS: it can be done for $35,000! The not-quite-yet-good-news is that we are still looking for the funds. Pray that God will send it PRONTO! We hope funds will be in hand for the arrival of a building team from North Carolina in October.

5. Pray for God´s increase in student scholarships to meet the waiting list of students and to reach the goal of 50 new scholarships before year´s end.

6. Finally, pray for a fresh outpouring of REVIVAL FIRE at WATS! We are the only seminary in Nigeria specifically founded with a revival vision, and we will never rest until we see a continuing rise of revival fire. Nigeria is RIPE FOR REVIVAL, and WATS must play its role. PRAY!!

1. WATS needs expert carpenters to lead Nigerian teams in decking our mezzanine level. Is that YOU?
2. WATS can use a wide range of tools, which can be carried over by work teams or shipped from Illinois: carpentry, masonry, painting, mechanical.
3. Check www.watsonline.org for giving online!