Wedding

Some of my Buddies

Couple of my Friends

This is the pastor and his wife from the part of town I go to once a week.

WAITING! :)

Dancing, Twirling Fun!  That's my friend Naomi right up front!

This are some pictures of our "royal" wedding.  The president of the Baptist Union for our country got married last week and we spent the day celebrating with him.  It was a hot, sweaty day, but at least it didn't rain.  Much fun was had by all and we had the great joy of introducing a few friends to their first African wedding!  It was definitely one of the big parties of the year.

Heather

Trimming the Tree

Decorating the Christmas tree is always a fun event at our house.  We pop in Muppet Christmas Carol and go to work.  Since our tree here is a little on the short and scrappy side, we can usually finish all of the work before the movie is over!  This year, Ben was looking through our photos on the computer, always a favorite pastime, and found last year's Christmas picture.  He's been asking every day at least 5 times a day to put up the tree since September!  He was overjoyed to get down the boxes and put up the decorations.  Now his only hourly request is to go to the circus!!!  I think that one will be a LITTLE harder to knock out!

With a little Christmas love,
Heather

Thanksgiving 2012

Bamba and the boys before lunch

Everybody Tasting New and Old Favorites

The Feast Table

Big Mike and Little Mike

Waiting for Everyone to Show Up

We shared our tradition of everyone giving thanks for something that God has done throughout the last year.

Karis and Baby Mike

Having a house full has become a Thanksgiving tradition here.  I think we had less than 30 this year, but continued the tradition of having more African friends than American.  We are learning to grow and live and thrive in their culture, but sometimes it is fun to let them share a little in ours.  We all pitched in together to have some TURKEY!!  It was great!  We missed getting to be with our family back home, and hope you all had a great day!  We are thankful to God for our African friends and for all of our other friends around the globe.  May God bless each and everyone of you! 

With love,
Heather

Heather's Trip

Pyramids at Giza

I didn't get to ride a camel this time, but thought they were neat looking.

Sphinx at Giza

This lady showed us how to use papyrus to make paper.

We got to eat lunch on the Nile River.

This is a church that was blown out of the rocky mountainside.  This structure is not where the church is, but a pretty sculpture in front of the man made cave where the meet.

Pretty carvings were all around in the rock face.  I liked this one of the women at the empty tomb.

Here's where they meet.

This was another neat one of Jesus coming on the clouds.

This the citadel of Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea.  We also went to the catacombs and the library at Alexandria.

In November, I went to a language conference and got to do a little sight seeing during the middle weekend.  I needed the training to be able to help those that we have coming here to learn French.  I even got to have a few tastes of home, while I was there.  My flight left a day later than the conference went, so I was able to eat in the food court a few times.  Let me just say that french fries and a fountain drink have never tasted so good, but Egyptian Subway, not so good.  I managed to snag a couple of bags of chocolate chips from a grocery store and 2 cans of cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving celebration.  I was so sad to have to leave behind beautiful flats of strawberries!  I wanted to try to smuggle them in, but that would have meant packing my pillow instead of carrying it in my carry on and since I had to spend the night in an airport, I knew I'd need it.  Besides, if my strawberries had been confiscated on the way in, that would have been a worse trauma than never having had them!!!

I missed the family so much while I was gone.  I'm not used to being the one off at a conference while they are at home.  They had some hard times while I was gone with household things breaking and a string of armed robberies in our neighborhood.  Apparently word is out that this house has nothing worth stealing as they hit the neighbors house, but left Mike and the kids alone.  Of course with you all praying for the gang here, the protection could have easily been an army, of the Father's making, standing watch outside our gate.

I am very glad to be home. 

With love,
Heather

Fun in the Sun!!!!!!

Hey Sis lets swim in my pool!!  Now you stay there for just one second!!!

BENZI !!!!!!!!!

and AGAIN!!!!

SPLASH DOWN!!!!!!

Fun with the Team

Ben Making Friends

Ben preferred to photograph his food this day instead of eat it, although it was very tasty.

Karis and her Buddy

Ben holding the baby.  Right after this photo, he tried to push the baby off onto the ground so he could see the picture! :)

Hanging out before dinner

This particular friend didn't want a hug!

Seidou and Oumou

A couple of the guys from the Bridges of Hope team.

We had a wonderful team at our house in October from Tennessee.  We shared a lot of food, fun and Jesus.  Many people heard and several choose to follow Christ.  We shared a meal with a Muslim family that Mike has been sharing stories with.  We had a great time and look forward to having them with us again soon.

Our gang is looking forward to Thanksgiving next week.  Although that is an American holiday, we will take the day off and spend time together as a family and with friends to celebrate how we are thankful.  I don't know if we'll be able to get a turkey or not, but we'll have lots of good food, even if it's a bit improvised, and enjoy the day together.

Hopefully soon I'll be sharing a few stories about my time away from home this month.

With love,
Heather

Kids

Ben playing with a friend in Vridi

I think he's receiving communication from the mother planet with those antenna

If your photographer won't frame you, frame yourself

Fun at the playground (too bad we have to pay to go)

We've had a busy month with new people coming to town.  It has been fun to meet new friends and start developing relationships.  Our chicken and fry Friday night has gotten a little busier.  Our kids are glad to have new "aunts" and "uncles" to play with.

I got to have a interesting new experience this month.  Because a friend lost her mother last month, I went to the village to support her in that loss.  It was my first village funeral, and I learned a lot about how that works.  Three of us from the mission hopped on a bus with about 37 of our closest friends (hee hee).  We headed out for a 7 hour drive dodging potholes with our horn loving bus driver.  He honked his horn for about 5 out of the 7 hours.   Upon arrival, we greeted the family and sat around under a tree drinking soda and juice next to a tent covering the casket.  After we'd been there a few minutes, random ladies came around the casket "singing" a word over and over that I couldn't understand.  Upon trying to ask about this song, my neighbor looked at me with that "are you crazy?" look, and said she's crying.  If only they gave away a dumb question award, I surely would have won that for the weekend.  There was an interesting little skit done as the "wake" started for the "audience" to discuss back and forth why we were all gathered.  As the night passed we danced and drank coffee and eventually the guests were allowed to sleep, since we had a journey home the next day and wouldn't be able to sleep.  It was around 2:30 when I turned in.  We were in a room of 5 women, with two beds (a twin and a double).  One of the ladies that turned in early got up at 5AM to do her quiet time, which a little lacking on the quiet.  Our ladies like to pray loud and sing as well.  I was a little less than joyful of her exuberance, but I repented later, so don't worry.  In the morning, we ate a breakfast of boiled root with hot sauce, which was very good.  I had a second breakfast of rice with skin sauce, yes skin.  My particular cow was one that had black spots, which only made the idea of eating the poor little Chick fila proponent harder.  After looking at my sauce for a good 15 minutes, I finally poked my neighbor and said, "So, I got a little more skin here than I can eat, would you like some?"  Thankfully she said yes and I passed my skin down the line! ;)  The cemetery scene was a tough one.  This particular group does a lot of wailing and throwing themselves down to show their grief and love for the departed, so an already hard day was a little tougher for this girl.  After the eventful day, we hopped back on the bus and headed home. 

Even with the sleep deprivation, it meant so much to my pastor's wife friend that I was very glad to have gone.    And speaking of sleep deprivation, I suppose I should hit the sack.

With love,
Heather

October, Where did you go????

 October came and went in a blink of an eye.  We were so busy that we didn't post one time this month.  Our supervisors came in one week and we had meetings all week with them and also with our National Pastors.  Not longer after our supervisors left a team from McMinnville, TN came and ministered in a small section of our city that doesn't have a church.  They came with the idea of planting a church in this area.

 Pastor Dewayne, Olivier and David sitting in a small shoe shop where we have one of our small Bible groups that is trying to become a church. 

 Caleb got in on the action and went with Pastor DeWayne and David and told the story of Creation to Christ to those that would listen.  This was also in support of one of our small Bible groups already started.

 Petit Bassam is the name of this part of the city without a church.  4 ladies accepted Christ and 2 guys wanted us to return because they have questions.  Petit Bassam is known for being an Animistic area with a lot of Cults mixed in masquerading as churches.  One of the biggest cult churches is in this area.  Please pray that the 4 ladies and 2 men will accept Christ with all their heart and we will be able to plant a church here.  We feel God is working in this area.

Pastor DeWayne was amazed at how the ladies in Africa carry stuff on their head without dropping everything.  He tried it himself, for a few seconds anyway.