Joyeux Noël

Don't tell dad and Caleb, but I stole the remote so I could watch A Charlie brown Christmas!!! Mommy says I look like one of the characters on the show, so I thought I would check it out to see which one she was talking about. Which one do you think I look like????

Three child pile up!!!! Caleb was not impressed with being on the bottom, but Benjamin and Karis thought it was funny!!!!

Hmm, plaid packaging, who could this be from????

Barbie!!!!!!

Christmas morning we did the African cultural thing again and went to a 3 1/2 hour church service. After thinking about it, what better place to go on Christmas morning? It IS Jesus' birthday celebration after all. All the groups performed something for the congregation. This is a dance by the smaller children. If you take a closer look at Karis, you can see she painted herself like the other African kids, the paint just doesn't show up as well on white skin. African paint themselves for "fetes" like Christmas!!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and worshiped the true King. Please pray that in this next year more Africans will come to know Christ and will come to these special services to worship Him. I think my favorite Christmas word is "Immanuel" which means God with us. May he be with us this year and draw all men unto Him.
-Mike

Mission Fete 2009

We once again had our mission party for the workers of the Mission. It included all the guards, office staff, gardeners and anyone who is paid to work at the mission. It is our way of saying thank you for supporting us and working with us through the year. We also invited all of our house helpers and friends that wanted to come, some of whom are not Christians. We had about 30 to 40 people come to this party. This is an early photo before most of the people arrived.

We once again told the Creation story to the Christ child. This story starts with God's creation of the Earth and his special creation man. The story talks about the incredible relationship man had with God, but man disobeyed God breaking this wonderful relationship. It talks about the laws God gave us to follow, but man could not follow the laws. I then talk about the sacrificial system, but this system became ritualistic and did not change the heart of man and the relationship with God was still broken. However, God sent his prophets to tell of a savior God was going to send that would save man from their disobedience. Then the story shifts to the special gift God sent us to restore the relationship with man. God sent His only son who never sinned and lived a perfect life and if we trust in God's son, Jesus, our relationship with God is restored for all time. Please pray that the people who heard this story will accept it as truth and accept Christ as their savior. Some of our close friends are Muslim and they heard this story for the 2nd or 3rd time. Please pray that they will accept this story as truth.
-Mike

Happy 2 months Benjamin

Happy 2 month anniversary Benjamin.
I am sure this shirt was too big just 2 weeks ago.
Now he can't even wear it!!! My how they grow so fast!!

He does have a very pretty smile. He has Caleb's crooked smile!!

2 + 1 = 3

Thought you might like to see some additional pictures of our kids. I know that's why you read the blog! ;)
Heather

Christmas Time Again

We had a lovely Thanksgiving last week, but of course we missed you all. We celebrated much as the Pilgrims did in some ways. We invited our national friends that have helped us survive and thrive in our "new world" to eat with us and join us in thanking our Faithful Father. I wondered as we ate if the Native Americans felt the same way about the food of the Pilgrims as our national friends felt about our strange concoctions!!

Life is getting back into full gear around here. We are learning how to do our everyday stuff with a baby in tow! Benjamin loves to be out and about. On a fussy day, a guaranteed stop to the whining comes with leaving the house. He's quite the little MK right now. He rarely fusses at nationals, but is very often nice and polite with them. He likes to go visiting and doesn't mind being passed around, at least so far.

We took a trip to the zoo this week just for the fun of it. Caleb and Karis have been asking to go for a while and we just got around to doing that.

We had to get the Christmas tree up so that we can start getting in the Christmas spirit. It is a little warm here at this time of year, so the tree is a good reminder that Christmas isn't far away.

We love you and are missing you during the holidays.
Heather

Thanksgiving 2009

The McAfee boys after eating a big Thanksgiving meal. As you can tell it was hot here, about 95 degrees and 90% humidity. But, that didn't stop us from eating alot of Turkey and relaxing after the meal. We always miss family more during these holiday times, so if you were not with us, know you were missed.

The missionary kids eating and stuffing themselves full of turkey and dressing.

Our language helpers in French and Jula. Olivier, on the left, is very used to being around missionaries, so he didn't have a problem getting a plate full and eating as much as the rest of us. Guy-Roger, my Jula tutor, wasn't sure about the food at first so he only got a little at first, but after he tasted it he loaded his plate down. He then told Heather that he wanted her to teach him how to cook like this.

Our table of food with our friends loading down their plates.This is our house-helpers co-wife. Yes they are Muslim, and Heather and Teresa have told them a lot of the Bible stories. Pray that they will accept Christ as their savior. The other day one of them told Heather that even if she was wronge she wouldn't changeg because she doesn't like people that change their mind. Pray that Christ will break their hearts and they allow him to come in and take control of their lives. Thanksgiving was a time when we could share with them why we give thank to our savior Jesus Christ.

A full table is always welcome in the McAfee house at Thanksgiving. My mom and dad always have a lot of family over to celebrate Thanksgiving, so we continued that tradition here in Abidjan. As it turned out we had a womens table and a mens table. We didn't plan it that way, but that is how our African friends sat down. Heather and Teresa had not yet sat down with the women in this picture. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, know you are loved and missed. May God bless you this Christmas season.
-Mike

Family visit

We had to say good bye to family again. I think this is one of the hardest things to do as a missionary. We love for family and friends to come and visit, but it is so hard to say good bye. Ginger, Yvonne and Rebekah came to visit us last week and got to stay for 10 days. They really helped take care of Benjamin. I know it was a sacrifice on their part, but they did it anyway. I'm not sure that Benjamin's feet touched the ground unless he was sleeping and even when he was sleeping someone was holding him a lot of the time.

The family went to church with us and got to experience church the African way. The leaders of the church always ask to get the visitors information and they share a local drink. They give their visitors drink bee-sap or gimgembre. The bee-sap is a sweet drink and the gimgembre is a spicy drink, so of course I demanded they at least try the gimgembre. I eventually had to finish it for them, but it is always fun to watch them try to drink it.

Rebekah came and played games with Caleb and Karis as well as helping with little Benjamin. Hopefully she can come back and see us next year!!! Bekah got to experience go-cart racing the African way too, and I'm not talking about the every day driving.

T.B. Ray just had to have the family over to his house. This picture is actually from our house, but it is the best picture with the moms. T.B. Ray loves Americans and family and it is a real education to visit an African in his house to see just how they live.