Last Days of Summer

This little girl is practicing for when she grows up.

Her Dad is the one I mentioned that was lost in the bus accident. Her family seems to be doing OK but can use your prayers.

Wearing Mom's head cover!

Caleb's favorite spot.

Unpacked the slip n' slide

Soccer with the boys

New Hat

Where's the CAKE?!

If it weren't for the kids' school, it would be hard to remember that you all will be moving on towards fall soon. We live in a state of perpetual summer!

Mike and I are concentrating on a couple of areas of town right now with our ministry. I've spent a lot of time in Vridi due to the bus accident. I've made many new friends recently and am excited to see where those new relationships might go. Most of them seem to be women whose origins are from a neighboring country, Burkina. It was that local language that I learned and I am still quite the oddity because of that. I can do a little chit chat and when people first figure that out, women come out of the woodwork to see the white lady do a trick! I am hoping that some of these new relationships will bring new opportunities to share. So far, my success rate with Muslim women is a big zip, so pray for me as I try to explain the gospel. Women are more than willing to listen to me, but I have trouble helping them see what the gospel requires. Beyond that, their social status here is a bit precarious. For a Muslim wife to accept the gospel, she'd likely be divorced and sent packing without her kids. My access is to women, but for them to accept we need to also get to their husband.

I think everyone is getting used to being back in Africa. It feels like we've been here forever again instead of just arriving. We look forward to seeing what God will do here in Abidjan in the coming months.

Serving Him,
Heather

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Karis' Birthday Friday with a quick day trip to the beach/pool. The day time temperature is only around 81 right now, Mike would point out that there is LOTS of humidity, but that still feels too cool to me. The pool was just too cold for Ben and I, but that didn't stop Ben. Twice he stayed in until his extremities were blue and he was shivering. Caleb, Karis and Mike kept enough energy going that they were fine and had a blast!

Sick Day

This is Ben's sick face. He was actually on the mend by this time, but throwing a tantrum just seemed to be a habit at this point! ;)

Daisy's back!

Welcome Home Daisy

She's already back to taking a Sunday afternoon nap with Dad.

Benjamin loves it when Daisy says, "Please!" I'm pretty sure she gained a few pounds that day.

Playing Wii with Autumn

Our little Ben used up a sick day last week. He got malaria and so we had some scary moments. We are getting better at enduring those terrifying fevers now and with the prayers of many, he came through just fine!

We enjoyed a farewell visit from our old teammates. The kids played wii, board games, watched movies and threw water balloons. It was great to have them all together again! Ben loved babysitter Autumn. I really think she should just stay with us!!! I was able to go out and not worry about him fussing. Guess we'll have to find somebody here that he enjoys spending time with.

School is officially in again, so we are all learning to juggle schedules. Come on out and we'll show you do it!

Love to all,
Heather

Volunteer Fun

Caleb on the Basketball Court

Ben crashing the game with his own game of chase

This is a painting by a man depicting some of the horrors of the war here in the spring.

We've been having a great time with the young man, Zach, that came from our home church. We haven't been able to do quite as much due to more worries of security and just a smaller number team. We don't often get to host just one person, but we've been glad to have him.

Mike and sometimes Ben and I as well have been hitting a few of our favorite spots with him trying to drum up new interest and find seekers. The guys have done fairly well. I can't say that Ben and I have found a lot, partly due to his inability to sit still. I have enjoyed my time in Vridi reconnecting with old friends and greeting new ones.

Because of the bus accident I mentioned a few days ago, there has been much sadness. I have been glad to see that my friend who lost her husband seems to be dealing OK. She was so distraught in those first days, that I was worried. I still feel so bad for her, but it looks like God has wrapped comforting arms around her. The first of last week, I found out that another acquaintance of mine was in the bus. She is someone I spoken with often, I just hadn't gotten around to sharing stories. I had thought on Wednesday about how open she seemed with me right now and had thought I'd try to see if I could sit down with her next time I saw her. On Friday of that same week, she was on the bus. Now that is an opportunity I'll never have. She also left 3 small children behind.

The kids and I have taken the last couple of afternoons to do our own work in the neighborhood, or at least attempt to. Thursday we tried a little Bball game. Caleb got in some play time and so did Karis, but the court was in the sun. Our play time choice of around 4 wasn't so great. They got a little too hot to fast. I think we may try a little later next time. Ben led a parade of children around the court in the middle of the game. They followed him like the pied piper wanting a chance to play with his soccer ball, or touch his hair or his skin. He thought the whole thing was quite amusing. With all of the madness going on, I didn't get to talk to anyone. I kept my eyes glued on the little running white baby and tried to keep from losing sight of him. I didn't even get a picture of Karis playing because Ben was so hard to watch. It was fun, but stressful. I'd hoped to sit and chat with some ladies while the kids played, but there was a lot going on and too many danger zones! Friday we just walked around the neighborhood greeting those we've missed. Walks with Ben are never dull.

We are now waiting for our old teammates and sweet little dog to arrive. They are on their way from Ghana and we can't wait to see them all. Ben is so excited about something named Daisy, that he can't seem to place, but wants to meet. It will be so good to have a dog again!

We are looking forward to a few more good days with Zach and lots of catching up with the Moodys! Hopefully I'll have more photos and stories soon.

With Love,
Heather

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Bamba and some ladies he's been sharing with and Ben

Ben and Mike ready for Vridi, guess who picked the hats!

JB's bullet This is a stray that hit our gate near where our guard was sitting.

Ben's favorite time of day is when JB comes every evening!

Here's Zakariah with his new chair.

Who needs a moving van when you've got a bike!

Ben Cooking

The Bus Fell in the Water

We've been enjoying our time back in Abidjan even though a lot of our time over the last few weeks has been hearing the difficult stories of friends from their time during the crisis here. I had wanted to write here some of their stories, but there were some pretty terrible things that happened and so I've decided to cancel that idea. We knew they'd lived through hunger and thirst, fear and gunfire. I was a little unprepared for the torture that happened right in the street.

Our Vridi friends had been glad to tell us that although they suffered hunger and fear, for the most part, they suffered the crisis without permanent loss. This week, loss came to Vridi.

Mike, Ben and I arrived in Vridi Friday morning to visit some people. Ben hadn't made an appearance yet at Vridi and he is a BIG attraction! Soon after we'd gotten there one of the people that passed us in the street stopped us to say that "a bus had fallen in the water". The French at Vridi is always interesting and she was indicating another part of town, so I couldn't figure out her story. Besides that, I didn't know her from the man in the moon and so we moved on. Upon arriving at the stall of my market friends, I was not even greeted properly before the whole story came rushing out. There was a city bus crammed full of people, many of them from Vridi, that had an accident on a bridge and as a result, tipped over the side and plunged into the lagoon. 37 were quickly found dead and 10 survived. The numbers will most likely rise to around 100 men, women and children, as this was a busy time of day for the bus. For me the worst of the news was that the husband of a friend was among those on that bus. She waited around 36 hours to hear the final news. Her name is Marie and she has a daughter just younger than Ben. She is Catholic, but has listened to many of my stories. Pray for her tonight as she deals with her first night of no hope! Pray too that I can be an encouragement and a comfort to her in the coming days, weeks, months.

Heather

Catching Up

Belcarra Park

I thought Caleb was the only mountain goat in the family.

Celebrating Mike's Bday with a few more days in Vancouver

Ben loves water, expecially falls

Karis, Ben and I went to Bridal Falls while the other two took the trailer for the biker church.

Here's Ben and Karis at the bottom of the falls.

Lily Pad Lake!

Happy fisherman getting his gear ready

bird

Caleb chipped his front tooth in a scooter trick gone wrong the second full day in Africa.

Chicken and Fry night is back!

Potato Chefs

Ben knows how to carry his liquids in carry ons.

Last picture in Vancouver

I guess it's time for a little catch up. As I mentioned last time Mike hurt his knee a few days before our departure date and we did indeed receive a 2 week 1 day delay in our return for him to get physical therapy. Thanks to your prayers, the injury wasn't as significant as first thought. I think it is entirely possible that miraculous healing took place as all of the physicians were thinking it was BAD! What was found on the MRI was not nearly as bad as first thought. We are all glad to now be on the field instead in line for surgery somewhere!

While in Canada for the extra weeks, we moved to a different house to save the company some money and so our internet was off and on for that time. Here is a little run down of some of our adventures.

Caleb convinced a colleague with a vehicle to help him get his fishing license, which we'd tried to do earlier, but were unsuccessful. The laws were tricky and finding some place that could actually print a license was quite time consuming. Armed with his new fishing license and later on a new pole, we tromped here and there so that he could use it. One such adventure was at my expense and chronicles how many of my adventures, or misadventures as may be more suiting a name, go. I'd worked all day with the kids of a new group of colleagues coming to Vancouver and upon arriving home, found Caleb chomping at the bit to fish. I quickly made supper and then phoned a friend that had said she would be heading out and could drop us off at a lake. Unfortunately, I called too late and she was already gone. So Caleb, Karis, Ben and I headed out for the bus. We had just missed it and so had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. Upon finally arriving at the location the computer directions had told me to get off the bus, there was no lake in sight. So we started walking after a good 10 minutes, we found a sign for the lake. As we tromp off into the woods, still not seeing a lake, we hike for another 20 minutes and FINALLY we see the lake. Please remember we have a 21 month, and not too keen on hiking, in tow! So we get there to a small dock and for about 50 yards out the lake is all lily pads. It's now approaching 8:15 PM and Caleb is trying to get his rod ready to throw out. I am no help at that as I haven't done too much fishing myself. I'm trying to keep Ben amused so he doesn't fall in the lake, but he is tired and cranky by this time. He picks up Caleb's tackle box, which I figure is OK because it's latched, and quickly heads to the edge of the dock and chucks it as far into the water as he can. Horrified, Caleb runs over and is prepared to jump in if he can't fish it out as his grandfather gave it to him. Fortunately he gets the tackle box out with the rod as it continued to float for a few minutes. Now it is nearly 8:30 and Caleb is just starting to fish. He can't get the line out beyond the lily pads and loses one piece of bait after another casting, getting stuck, pulling the line out and starting all over. By close to 9 we've all had it, dark is approaching and we still have to hike out to the bus stop. Nobody is in a good mood at this point and Caleb is sure he knows a better way out to catch the bus. So we try it. After 30 minutes we finally hit the road just to see our bus pass us. Not good, but there is another bus on that road so we still have hope at this point. We hike/jog along the road for nearly half a mile trying to find the bus stop. Just as it comes into view, the second bus passes us!!! So now, it is really late. The two buses have just gone by and we are really tired both from the hour of the day and from all of that walking. We have to wait over 20 minutes for the next bus, and everyone was so glad for that day to be over, that Caleb didn't ask me to take him fishing the rest of the time we were there!!

We caught a few more provincial parks while we were there the extra time. Mike and Caleb got to help a Biker church get their trailer to a big rally called Sturgis North. We also got to dogsit for a colleague so our kids are ever so anxious to get their own dog back now.

When we were cleared for travel, there were no good tickets available. We were offered a ticket that would have us traveling the wrong way around the world to get to Africa with three days travel or a ticket way in the future. Since we have a volunteer coming the first week of August, we didn't want to wait and come just before him, so decided to go the torturous 3 day option. Everyone did fairly well on the trip, but we have all hope to never to do that again.

Now we are back in our old house. Thanks to the help of a national, we had most of our belongings back in place in just two days. There are still a few boxes to unpack, but we covered a lot of ground in a little time. We are beginning to catch up with a few friends. We hope to see so many more this week. We are already hearing terrible tails of the trials they've suffered in our absence. I'll have more of how God answered your prayers of protection for them in the coming days and weeks.

Everyone is so happy to be home. The kids are acting like all of their toys are new and amazing. It is so much fun to see Ben learn about his new environment. He loves the ants and lizards and frogs! Just a blown kiss or a little goodbye wave gets him cheers from the crowds and feeds his baby ego!

I'll be sure to write more soon although our internet is not great right now. We are borrowing from the mission and hope to get our own hooked up soon so that things will move more quickly. Even at that, it won't be as fast as I'm used to. I'll have to learn patience again.

With love,
Heather