Life in the Fast Lane

The last three weeks have passed in a complete blur. We've been living life in the fast lane. We've had a team of 26 college kids come through who will spend a semester in West Africa to minister and see what it would be like to be a missionary out here full term. We helped as best we could with them to relieve just a little stress from the missionary family assigned to that task.

After that we met a new (to us) member of our West Africa mission family. We've had a house guest for a week and a half that has been helping us do research on the people group we have been assigned. He is fluent in their heart language and has been a tremendous asset to us.

He has brought into our life meetings with Mossi believers, worship in Moore, and a host of insights into African culture. We have now experienced tou and sauce and African beans and rice. We've eaten guinea now. I have to say there's nothing quite as amusing as eating fowl with about a dozen chicken running in and out from under your table while you do so!

We even have our first ever near arrest story, but that will be for another post. For now just rejoice with us that we walked away an hour later with laughter and thanksgiving that life is never boring here!

Please pray with us about our ministry. We will be faced soon with some decisions about direction. We want to walk solely in the path God has laid out for us.

Heather

New Year in a New Land

These are some pictures of our gathering on the 24th.
The new year is here and and we are getting back to our normal routines. We are still spending most of our time every day learning French. It is fun to actually be able to put some sentences together to make a mini conversation. Of course the listener has to be willing to do a little piecing together of incorrect structure and it helps if they are very good at playing charades too for when I get to words I don't know!
We've noticed some odd behavior already in our little MKs! As you'll see below, Koolaid has become a much cherished posession. Someone sent us some packets from the states and you've never seen two kids more excited about a packet that flavors water!
Life in Africa is life that is lived in community. The little church we've been attending wants us at all functions now. They seem to be enjoying having the white people at their church. Mike and Karis have joined the little dance group during our praise time twice now. I got invited last week to join, but they just don't know that this little Baptist white girl has two left feet!
Below also is my friend Asatou and the little girl with the drum is her daughter, Faritah. Her husband has died and she lives with her daughter with her father's family. She is a Muslim like many people here in Abidjan. She thinks that we worship the same God and how we worship him is just different. Please pray that I'll begin to know how to show her that Jesus is the only way. She came with us to church on Christmas and I visit her many times a week. She's very patient with my French and is anxious for me to finish French so that she can teach me Moore.
The new year in West Africa brings with it the necessity to bless all of our friends and acquaintances with wishes for them in the new year. Fortunately enough the same blessing can be used over and over. I can't imagine what I would have done if I needed to remember many different blessings. I wanted to bless all of you as I have our African friends. In the coming year we wish you much happiness, good health, prosperity, peace in your family, and the blessings of God on your life. Happy 2008!

New Friends

Karis has met a new little friend. Bethany is 7 years old and lives down the street from us. She only speaks French, so right now she just comes over and she and Karis play without talking. It is quite interesting.

As you can see, our Christmas tree is more complete now. Thanks to help from missionaries here, we painted ornaments, made snowflakes and tied bows on our tree to make it look more festive. I'm really going to hate to have to take it all down.

We've done all kinds of Christmas festivities this weekend. We went to a kids Christmas program at one church and a Christmas day program at another. Here you either go to church on Christmas Eve night really late or you go on Christmas day. It was quite fun to get to worship the Lord corporately on the day we celebrate Jesus' birth.

On Christmas eve we had a little yard party and invited the people that work for the mission and other neighbors and friends. We had about 60 there to eat rice and sauce, cookies and other assorted goodies. I was in charge of making cookie bags to give out as a small Christmas gift. Needless to say, I'd rather not see another cookie any time soon. Caleb, Karis, Noah and Bethany did a little skit of the first Christmas. They mostly acted out their parts while a narrator read. It took a little practice though as it was all done in French.

We had a great Christmas, but of course we missed you all. We opened gifts, took a friend to church with us and then gathered together as a mission family to eat. We got to sing carols together which is great because it's the only time we get to sing in a group in English. I don't think the Africans are big on Christmas songs as I haven't been able to pick out a Christmas theme in the songs we've heard recently.

I have lots of pictures right now, so if I am still posting Christmas pictures in the next few weeks, you'll know why.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

December

We are getting some routines established here which is nice. I remember thinking back in July that it would be a long time before there was a normal again.

The missionary women all get together for Bible study every Tuesday night. The men, not to be outdone by their wives and sisters in Christ, get together to pray that their favorite team wins the football game that was recorded over the weekend that they watch while we do Bible Study! So it is Tuesday night football in Abidjan.

Fridays have become another silly ritual for us. We all get together in the kitchen and make chicken nuggets and fries for dinner. The kids pretend to be little chefs and dip and bread the meat. Then they pretend to take orders for the family waiting in the dining room for dinner and set their table. Then we all sit down when it’s ready and say how glad we are that we didn’t have to cook supper tonight.

Our tutors come most mornings of the week, so between them and home school we are pretty busy until lunch. We usually head out in the afternoons to run errands or find people with whom to speak French. The kids here are out of school on Wednesdays, so this week we found a few kids to come over and kick a ball around and play jump rope in the afternoon.

Almost every evening we go out to speak French with our night guard. He’s gotten very accustomed to us coming and seems so happy to have someone to talk with. He fusses when we are late or miss a night. It makes bath and bed time a little hard to get our evening routine done, but gives us some practice we need.

On Friday mornings Mike goes out with a group of men to share the gospel with whoever they find. He really enjoys getting to be a part of this although he can’t share much yet.

We’ve been to the same church now for several weeks. We are beginning to figure out how the service works and what to do when. They have just poured a cement slab floor which is nice for keeping the sand out of your sandals.

We are now waiting for a season here called Harmattan. It is a period of only a few weeks here where we are that dust blocks out the sun and makes it look cloudy. Since the temperatures are really heating up now we are looking forward to this blessing/curse. We understand that everything is covered in a thick layer of dust, but the cloudy look lowers the temperature in the day and night.

Mike got to go to the bush this last week. He enjoyed his time visiting in the village and took this great photo of a termite mound. Hopefully we can all go next time.

Our missionary friends here have helped us make ornaments for our tree so that we’ll be all ready for Christmas. It is still very odd to think that Christmas is on its way when it is so hot and green. We are missing Christmas Carols too, but our city of West Africa does a pretty good job of decorating for Christmas. We hear that is highly unusual here. The malls, grocery stores and airport all have their Christmas decorations up. They use all sorts of colors to decorate with, and it is pretty cute. It seems that the brighter things are the more they like it!

The missionaries that are still here on Christmas will get together to eat and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Of course we will miss you all, but are thankful that we have people here with whom to gather.

Mike and I will celebrate our 12^th wedding anniversary on Sunday. It is crazy to think that it has been 12 years already. I am thanking the Lord for this special gift in my life. I pray that God will give me the grace and ability to be the helpmeet Mike deserves.

Thank you for your prayers. We love you all and Merry Christmas to you.

It's Christmas Time!

Whew! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. We had a little malaria scare last weekend as you know and it threw us off for a few days!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We hope you did as well. The kids made gingerbread cookies for our celebration with Aunt Barbara. We got together with all of the missionaries here and ate chicken, dressing, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes along with a whole bunch of other things! We thanked God for our new friends and all of our friends and family back in the States!

As you all know Caleb came down with Malaria the weekend after Thanksgiving, but the malaria battle seems to be over. He has made a full recovery and is busy as usual! Thank you for your prayers for him. Just as I posted that he had malaria and it was know big deal, Karis ran over to tell us that he was throwing up. His fever went very high and he lost all of the contents of his stomach, but very suddenly the vomiting was over as quickly as it came. I can't help but think that was due to the prayers of those getting our email. By all accounts from others, that should have lasted a few hours. His fever remained high through the night, but he was able to sleep without having to get up to toss his cookies! It's funny that you can get so excited about someone not throwing up!

We had a great prayerwalking experience on Wednesday. We went to the little neighborhood where we've been attending to walk and pray. We had a volunteer team here that went with us. Many got to share the gospel although none responded. We were able to pray with many individuals about needs in their lives. We also got to meet the chief of the Mossi there in that area. That was a scary and fun thing. He is a Muslim, but allowed us to pray for him. He did not stick around while we did it, though. He sent us on with his blessings saying that we serve the same God. We pray that the Lord will open his eyes to THE TRUTH.

It is in the 90s and yet we are putting up our Christmas tree today! The kids are so happy to be putting up the tree today as it means Christmas time has come again. The stores here are decorated in really bright colors and lots of tinsel! It's definitely Christmas and this is definitely Africa!

We pray that the Lord blesses you as you begin your preparations for the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

Heather

Sunday With the Mossi

Actually saying that we were at a Mossi church this morning may be stretching things a bit. There are supposed to be Mossi at the church, but it isn’t made up completely of Mossi. We are very interested to know exactly how many Mossi there are there. The service was not in Moore, but French. In any event, we had a great time.

We had a bit of trouble getting there as one of the roads we needed to go on was closed and we had to find a different way there. We finally made our way onto the tiny dirt road that we needed to be on. The path was very small and not necessarily made for cars. People and little shacks crowded the road on both sides. At one point we squeezed through with merely centimeters to spare on either side. We were quite a curiosity passing through in our big four wheel drive vehicle. We drew stares from both sides of the road all of the way down.

When we arrived at our destination, a cement block building with red doors, we hopped out to a sea of smiling faces and even an English “Good Morning”. We were a bit late due to the detour, but were ushered up to the front of the room where the kids and I were deposited on the front way and Mike and Jeff taken on up to the front of the room facing out at the crowd.

Music today came from 4 microphoned singers and what appeared to be a homemade drum set as opposed to the keyboard and guitars we’ve been encountering. It was actually quite nice. Most of the drums were square shaped today as we’d been told that many Africans do to distinguish a church instrument versus a ritualistic drum. After a little while I was joined by a man who translated most of what was said for me into English. They had a great “Conga” line this week with a little one dancing around in the center. All of the other moms had their wee ones tied snuggly on their backs as they danced.

The pastor preached to his congregation about the comfort of God through suffering and how we should hold one another up as we experience trials. The church had lost a deacon in the previous week due to cancer. I couldn’t help but think about how much suffering and loss that the congregation must face every week, that I’ve never had to face.

After the service we had a huge hand shaking line that began with the pastor and those seated with him at the front and continued on to include the whole congregation. After you shook hands with those already in line, you joined the line. It was quite fun.

We managed to attract more than a little attention with our camera at church. Mike had pulled it out to snap some pix of the drummers and then others began to ask to have their picture taken. We got a smile from all as they saw their face appear on the screen after the picture was taken.

Our kids drew an immediate kid crowd too. They were quickly joined by all of the small kids there. They had a good time sharing their names with us, which is about all that we can really do yet unless someone wants us to count to 100, name some veggies or conjugate a few verbs! One kid around Caleb’s age took on the role of protector. He ushered our kids outside by the hand and then as it was time to go, pried Karis loose of all of the sweet little girl hands that had her and deposited her over to the car. It was funny to hear one of the little girls comment to another as Karis walked away: “Elle(she) parle(speaks) Anglais (English)." They stood in a little pile and waved goodbye as far as they could see us. In translation later on we were told, the adults told Jeff they want us to come every week. Right now, it’s where I’d love to be. It is the warmest welcome we’ve received so far. We so want to be among those we came here for.

Another week in Africa

We’ve had a good week. Learning French is very tiring and frustrating, but we are having a good time anyway. There have been several sounds in words this week that my American mouth just can’t seem to form. After many, many attempts with my tutor’s corrections, he’ll just smile shake his head and go on!

Caleb and Karis got their bikes this week. They had needed a new bike in the states, but we just put it off as we knew that we could not bring it with us. So we headed off this week to make the purchase. We couldn’t find anything worth buying in the stores, so we headed off to a little neighborhood that has open shops along the streets where you bargain for goods. We found some pretty good bikes for them, but Karis’s is a bit large for her. They didn’t really have her size, so we had to go a little big. After much discussion in Frenglish, we had the bikes and were on our way!

Mike and I both had some pretty neat encounters this week. Mike went out with one of our missionary neighbors and our night guard to do some street evangelism in our neighborhood with local shop owners and neighbors. Mike followed the conversation as best he could and prayed and joined in where possible.

I had an arranged meeting with a lady that sells fruit about a half mile down the road from our house. One of our missionary friends walked with me early in the week to ask if it would be OK for me to come and sit and listen to her talk with her customers because I’m trying to learn French. She quickly agreed that not only could I come and sit, but that she would have her sister come and walk with me up and down the street to talk to people. When I arrived on Friday, all alone and very nervous, the sister was there waiting for me. She walked with me to some nearby vegetable stands where she told me all of the names of things and made me write them in my notebook. Then we continued down the street for nearly a mile, all the while I’ve got no clue what we are doing or where we are going. She took me to a huge market and paraded me through the whole thing, talking away as we went about what things were. Finally we headed back to the fruit stand where I took my leave. I was so appreciative to God for bringing this kind woman to teach me things. I understood very little of our conversation, but that’s OK for now. My new language helper’s name is Wassa and hopefully I’ll see her again this Friday.

One of our missionaries here had a funny experience this week, at least funny after the fact. Greg and Laura have been in Abidjan for 4 months now and attempting the whole time to get their Ivorian driver’s license. After much frustration they finally got it last week. On one of their first trips out with their new licenses Laura got pulled over in a routine traffic stop, very common here. By the way, the police here have no cars; they just stand on the side of the road and point you out and motion you to stop. Anyway, upon this officer’s examination of Laura’s brand new license, he told her it was no good and that she’d have to be arrested. He said that he knew this because he had seen on TV that the new licenses are no good, only the old ones are good. Because Greg and Laura had their little one with them, Greg got the officer to take him rather than Laura. After a call back to our office, one of our office workers here came and managed to get Greg free. So that was it for their morning of ministry. Apparently God had in mind for them to be ministering to police officers rather than Hausa people that morning. There’s never a dull moment around here.

We are very thankful right now for God’s provision here as well as in the states. All of our language and other needs are being met in exciting ways. Thank you for all the prayers you are lifting on our behalf and for the Mossi people.