Birds' Nest Blog

The Wall!

2010-03-08T12:37:00.000Z

Many of you that are runners are familiar with this term. For the rest of us, myself included, let me explain a little bit. I have heard that when running in a marathon, after a certain amount of time you hit "the wall" and your body gets VERY tired and sometimes it can be so bad that you want to stop before you are finished. You have to determine to push yourself and keep going and most times as you clear the wall, you feel relieved that you do. Living overseas can be the same way sometimes as a "clash of cultures" start to take place, even if you have been in that culture before.

We have lived here in Senegal before and knew about the culture and what to expect and we also knew about THE WALL! Unfortunately, knowing things only helps to a certain extent when the wall comes at you like a ton of bricks, pardon the pun. This cultural wall tends to hit somewhere between the 6th and 10th month in a culture that is not your own, and yes, you guessed it, we are in our 6th month here. While things have been generally good, and we are making some good strides here with our language, and have our previous language to fall back on when we need to, are making some good friends and have gained some amazing team-mates/friends through our company, THE WALL has hit us still the same.

I will not go into a negative rant at this point, but suffice it to say that between things in the culture, language challenges, working through a few team things, learning to live with a 6yr old and a 4yr old (who are ALWAYS around), Spiritual battles, the heat, missing friends and family back in the States (you will notice I did not say back home - we DO feel like this is home), the heat, electricity issues, dealing with policy changes that are different than expected/during our last term here, the heat, communication issues and a few other things, the wall is here. We are learning to persevere through most of these things, although the heat and power cuts can be difficult at times, the Father is good and has been helping us get through them.

We have longed for a time of refreshing and rest, and life can be tough sometimes here, and that has not been afforded us just yet due to a variety of reasons. We are learning to take some day breaks and are planning a trip to the capital for a week for our anniversary. Part of that time I will try to use as a sort of Spiritual retreat and plan on having a REAL date with my wife and take the kids to the beach a day or two. Please continue to lift us up as we face this wall and find other creative ways to deal with some of these issues.

A quick update

2010-01-31T16:58:00.001Z

Sorry it has been a while since I have updated,but it has been non-stop action here with little time to catch our breath. Let me summarize the end of December and January. Christmas was not as merry as we would have liked, because William was sick and Lisa was still suffering some from morning (all-day) sickness of the pregnancy. But it was nice in that we quietly celebrated this happy occasion with just our family. Thank you for all your prayers as we celebrated our first Christmas away from family and friends. also thank you to those that sent us cards, care-packages, e-mails and phone calls. WE HAVE VONAGE- IT IS A SHREVEPORT NUMBER!! Ask us for the number if you want it.

On New Year’s Eve we heard that our crates had arrived in country 2 weeks early and we were waiting for them to arrive!! The next week they arrived at our house, but we did not know they were on the way here. We were a little unprepared but we had lots of help from a few friends. We spent the next week trying to get things unpacked and finding a home for everything, which we are STILL trying to do. That next weekend our teammates arrived in country, and then they arrived later that week in town after an adventurous trip down. We took a week off from language to help orient our new team members, and Mariama suffered from a stomach illness but is now feeling much better. She has learned to not drink the water here, and that includes the bath water. This last week found us back in language full force as we prepare for our approaching language evaluations.

That is a short, quick glimpse of our lives this past month. So what is going on in your life??

A funny thing happened on the way into town today.....

2009-12-02T20:47:00.000Z

First, let me start by explaining “going to town.” The city I live in is a fairly good sized one, but it is a medium – small town. There are about 15,000 people that live here and when you say “I am going downtown” it actually means you are going into the heart of the town, which is the large market and all the shops and boutiques that surround said market. It is a VERY active place and usually has a lot of people buying and selling, catching taxi's, waiting to get on a rapid (small bus like vehicle) to take them to one of the smaller towns or villages that surround the town or getting on a bus to go to one of the bigger towns several hours away; So as you can see, it is truly the “heart of the town.”

Back to my story; While walking through my neighborhood on my way into town today, as usual a child saw me and called out “toubaco” which means white person. Now I know what you are thinking, how rude, there is no way we would just call out something like that in America. Well here, they do not see to many white people so that is what they do; and therefore it is ok to answer back “baleejio” which, as you guessed it, means black person. Having learned this term recently, I thought I would try it out. I had just passed a guy before coming upon this child sitting outside a door to a compound. When the child, maybe 4 years old, called out, I responded, much to the child’s surprise, as evident on his face and not knowing what to say next. As he sat with a VERY shocked look on his face, the guy I just passed started laughing….HARD! He entered the compound and started to tell what had just happened, and for the next 5 – 6 houses I could hear the laughter as he retold the story several times.

Hand crafted!!!

2009-11-14T22:03:00.002Z

I have recently had the privilege of visiting some very interesting places. The first place is a wood workers “shop” which is where we bought our furniture.

Every thing you see here is HAND made. That means NO electrical equipment AT ALL was used. Just hand saws, tape measures, hand planers, it was routed by hand using planers and a piece of sandpaper as well as ALL sanded with a piece of sandpaper and their hands. This is all truly a work of art to watch and to see the final product. An interesting side note is that while I worked at Kirkland's Home in the States, I sold a chair similar to this, but for a LOT more and not near as nice as these.

I sat for over an hour and watched these guys hand measure some wood while looking at a diagram and mark up the long plank to be cut. Then, in order to "clamp" it down, they had a boy sit on one side, near the work table as they started to cut the wood. No big deal you would think, except that they were trying to cut the plank down the middle, lengthwise. The guy cutting it was standing at the end he was cutting and carfully watched every stoke of the hand saw as he pushed it through. I watched another guy, the guy whose shop it is, as he carefully hand planed the edges off of a stool that he was making for us. He did not rush, but rather took his time and payed close attention to every pass of the planer. Only after he was satisfied with the smoothness of the edges did he grab a well worn piece of sandpaper and start to use it, followed by a finer grain of sandpaper to finish it all off. After seeing the attention he paid to the details of a stool, I was even more impressed with the beauty of the furniture that we got. Then of course there was the hand carried delivery they offered as they carried all 4 pieces to our house a block away.

This reminded me of Eph. 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." The attention that these guys paid to the things they were making is NOTHING compared to the attention God paid when He created you and me. If He is going to pay that kind of attention to something, you can rest assured that he did not create no junk AND that he has a purpose for you in this life. He gave all of Himself to ransom you and He has not stopped working and perfecting you or me. He has called each one of us to give Him our all and to be used for His glory. Our chairs, while they are beautiful to look at, if that is all we did and never sat in them, they would not live up to their full potential. You are the same way, if you shelve yourself rather than "getting into the game" and never share His love with anyone, than you are not living up to your full potential either. Remember, If you are a Believer and a Follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, than you ARE called to be a minister no matter where you work, what you do, have done or will do.

Be what God has crafted you to be!!

Same....but different?!?!

2009-11-02T17:11:00.000Z

WOW!! I expected things to be different, but I am not sure to what extent I thought they would be the same. We have been here now for one month and already our lives have been VERY busy. We have been studying hard to learn a new language; this language is known as one of the hardest to learn in West Africa. We are at least making some progress!! We have also been trying to get set up in our house, meet neighbors, learn the market and what is available locally. Being in a more remote part of the country this time it is different than what we had available in the capital. There seems to be more fresh veggies here as this is the region they are grown in, but the prices seem to be different. We also are finding that there are some things we have not seem before, as well as noticing that the imported stuff from

France

does NOT make it down here. So that means that we have had to learn where to go to do our supply runs, which is 5 hours away, so we go every 3 months!! Lisa has been getting home-school started and we have tried to learn all we can from our co-worker before she leaves on the 10th of November for 2 months.

It also is MUCH quieter here than in the capital. There, people would be walking the streets outside our bedroom window all hours of the day and night. Here we are in a neighborhood and while most people walk everywhere and there are taxis, the neighborhoods are MUCH quieter as most people seem to go in for the evening around 10pm or so. Then there is the sounds of the call to prayers. Before, there were places on almost every corner and they seemed to compete with each other to be heard, and then there was the Thursday night services that could be heard rather loudly from certain brotherhoods. I have heard the call to prayer here a few times, but they are not near as loud as in our other home. Also the brotherhood that has their night on Thursday is not as well represented here, so Thursday nights are quieter as well.

Our house here is different than last time; it is much bigger here inside, but our courtyard is smaller. Last time we had a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath house with a small kitchen. It was the top floor of a 2 story building and we had the whole 2nd floor and our courtyard was on the roof. The sun rose in the front of the house and passed over the house and set on the backside of the house therefore it heated several large sides of the house and made it rather hot! Now we are in our own house with 3 bedrooms, 3 bath house with a larger kitchen (still smallish though) an we actually have storage room for a pantry. The sun rises on the side of the house where there is a large tree with shade and passes over the house and the side it sets on is another house (we share a common wall). So while it still gets hot here, the house is cooler than last time, the celing fans we have that we did not have last time make a differance as well. Our courtyard this time though is on three sides of the house and rather small though, but the side has shade and the front has shade. The kids play out in the dirt road that runs in front of our house as we have almost no car traffic on it.

The spiritual darkness here is just about the same here though. We are living and working amongst a people that are wandering about in darkness and have not heard the truth, or else have heard it and reject it. They follow what they have been taught by their religious leaders, or family members and most of the time they do this without questioning them. The team here has been telling God's stories from the Bible for several years, with the help from volunteer groups from the States. There are villages that have asked us not to come back and tell these stories as they do not want to hear them. Some though are starting to listen and even asking questions about what the truth is and some are hearing and responding as well!! The Spirit is drawing people here to Himself and people are responding. There is even the beginnings of a local gathering happening here!! We believe that the time is ripe and the harvest is plentiful and we are trying to be faithful harvesters. It is our desire that after our first term that we will have to start to look for someplace else to start working due to the calling out of locals and them taking on this area themselves!!

2007-06-26T00:51:00.000Z

My oldest brother and his wife came to visit us in January, yes it has been a LONG time since we have blogged! He, Jurgen, and I were outside talking and William started playing with Uncle Jurgen and then Jurgen caught William. So we started playing catch with him and he had a BLAST!!

Stay tuned for more stuff soon!!!!

2006-11-03T19:05:00.001Z

Our trip to the village part I

Following our trip to a few villages this last weekend, I thought that I would write about our experiences here rather then take up a whole newsletter. I am VERY glad that we asked you to be praying for us, because as it turned out, we would need your prayers more then we ever imagined, especially the first day of our trip.

A little background information on Islam here in Senegal will help you to understand some of what I am going to tell you. Here in Senegal there are several sects of Islam and the biggest and strongest is called the Mouride brotherhood. The Mourides started from their founder who was persecuted by the French for his work in liberating Senegal from the French government, and he was banished to the southern region of Senegal, which back then was VERY under developed with swamps and few people. He was from a town called Touba, and he is buried there, and the Mourides have a big pilgrimage their every year on his birthday (most will say that if you go to Touba enough, you do not have to go to Mecca). They are very syncretized with traditional African Religion that listens more to their religious leaders then to traditional Islam and are very big into charms, religious incantations for protection and worshiping of their dead religious leaders. Theirs is a dark religion full of fear of the spirits, while trying to control those spirits for their own use. They also are less open to toubabs (white people) and their religion then other sects here in Senegal.

My friend A, whose village we went to first, is not only part of this sect, but his whole village, of @ 1000 people, is a Mouride village. I knew he was, and in spite of that, we have formed a sort of friendship and he has been a big help during our time here to become familiar with the culture of Senegal. What I was unaware of was that the whole village was Mouride. As we entered into the village, the first sign that things were going to be different was that almost nobody came out to greet us, even in the family compound. This is NOT normal anywhere in Africa!! Normally white people are followed by a group of children and when you get out of the car you are surrounded by them, followed by the adults that you are their to visit and their friends and family. Instead we had family members keeping their distance, other than A’s mother and a few others. His father did come to greet us, but did not stay around long, nor was he around almost the whole time we were there, instead he laid on a mat right outside the compound.

This was the way that the rest of the visit would go. There were even times that my friend left us alone while he visited briefly with a few friends or his religious teacher. While normally, children will almost fall over themselves to play with William and Mariama; his main playmates the whole time were the chickens and the goats that he chased after. There was one boy who played with him after we pulled out his soccer ball, but that lasted all of about 20 minutes, and then William was seen kicking the ball by himself. When we went to visit A’s friends, we always had to pass by and greet his religious leader, where you could cut the spiritual darkness with a knife. That night, we did not sleep well due to the spiritual activity. Actually, after fighting with sleep for about 5 hours, I asked God to have our prayer warriors praying for us and covering us with prayer, only then did we get any rest that night. So thank you for the coverage and protection.

That next day we arraigned to meet our friends in the next place we were going to a day early. The whole time we were there, both kids were fussy and did not sleep well, not even a good nap. We were only about 2 minutes out of the village before Mariama fell asleep and slept for over and hour, William lasted about 30 minutes before sleeping for about an hour. We later realized that this village is about 1 hour west of the town of Touba. The spiritual arena in this whole area is VERY active and very dark. This was one of the darkest places I have ever been to.

Thank you for your coverage, and if you were one of the ones that God impressed to pray for us on Thursday evening, especially from about 9pm central time on, I would be interested in knowing that. Thank you for your prayers. To see how the rest of our trip went, see part II below.

2006-11-03T19:03:00.000Z

Our trip to the village part II

The second and longer part of out trip up country went much better then the first day. After leaving the first village, we drove to Kaolack to spend a few days with some fellow co-workers that live there. Our time there was of course MUCH different and was a great time of spiritual fellowship with fellow Christians. We had a great time watching some Bill Gaither videos, singing, and playing cards and eating some great food.

This was the second time that we were blessed with spending time with this couple and have enjoyed every second of it. They have been here in Senegal, working with the Wolof for around 20 years and have some good insights on things. We were able to pick their brains and get some good thoughts on everything from appliances for use here to team work to family life as missys with children in Senegal. We had a great time singing old standards of the Faith while watching the videos and listened to a CD of their home church for house church on Sunday morning. William discovered some new Disney videos and they allowed us to borrow them for a while so Pape can watch them at home in Dakar. They taught us 2 new games and we played them all 4 nights.

On Monday we went to another village to go visit our first househelper, A, who we had not seen in about a year. This village experience was VASTLY different then the first one. This was especially interesting seeing as how A’s father is a Koranic teacher and has several schools through out Senegal. This man came and greeted us shortly after we arrived on his compound, and stayed around us the whole time we were there and talked to us. A’s brother is also a believer and while their father was not crazy about that at first, he now supports his son’s right to choose and is starting to see Christians as people of honor and respect. Pape had SOOOO much fun playing with the children and almost did not want to leave when it was time to go (at the other village, shortly after arriving, he started asking if we could go). A made us one of my favorite Senegalese meals, Yassa Yapp, onion sauce with meat. She even tried to find chicken for the meal, but none could be found. She made this meal knowing it is one of our favorites. We had a great visit with her and her family and we were VERY glad that we were able to see her again before returning to the states.

We spent that night back in Kaolack and had a great meal and a wonderful time playing and visiting and laughing with our friends again. This part of the trip was exactly what I needed spiritually to help get me through the next 45 days or so before returning to the States. Hearing the hearts of our friends, singing, worshiping and having some good time alone to study and seek God’s heart was a great spiritual shot in our arms. You had a hand in that through your prayers, and we thank you for those. They helped us get through the first village, and to get through to the heart of God.

Quotable: How much was that coffee?

2006-11-02T08:40:00.000Z

"Globally, the average Christian gives 15 cents to foreign missions each week. The average North American believer gives 50 cents; the average European believer, 25 cents. How much was that cup of coffee before church?"

-- missions researcher Justin Long, quoted by Erich Bridges in "As U.S. population tops 300 million, is American church still a global force?" (Please click to read all of the article, it is good.)

TOP TEN SIGNS YOU'RE ON STATESIDE ASSIGNMENT

2006-11-01T19:25:00.000Z

Most of you may not understand the humor here, but Lisa and I were rolling on the floor when we read these. Mainly because we know that this will be us in a few months. So read these and watch us while we are there and see for yourself how many of these you can catch us doing.

These are from a West Africa regional newsletter called "The Talking Drum" that is sent to all west african missionaries. If you are interested in getting it as well, let us know and we will see about getting you signed up as well.

10. The Wal-Mart cashier stares at you blankly when you thank her in Pulaar (or in our case, Wolof- I did this SEVERAL times last year).

9. You (or your daughter/son) haven't had a marriage proposal in at least a week.

8. You sit at the gas station a full five minutes before realizing you're expected to pump your own gas. (Yes they still do that over here!!)

7. The salesman won't budge on the price no matter how hard you try to bargain.

6. Your children wonder why African Americans don’t speak French (Or Wolof).

5. You get pulled over for an actual traffic violation (which cost a LOT more then just $6), not just because the cop wants you to give him a Coke.

4. At the grocery store, the clerk gives you change in coins, not candy.

3. You automatically load 30 sticks of deodorant into your basket at Wal-Mart…just in case it’s not there the next time you go shopping. (I did this last year as well--after I got over the shock of ALL the choices)

2. You sit at the traffic light for awhile before realizing that you can turn right on red.

1. You take Contingency Training at the International Learning Center and say, “So what? I’ve been to Abidjan!”

Bonus! Your children are fascinated by the strange new wildlife…squirrels!!!

I hope you enjoyed those at least half as much as we did.

Ramadan, from our prospective.

2006-09-19T16:42:00.000Z

What is Ramadan and the month of fast all about you ask? I will try to explain from my observations about what it means to those who live here in Senegal. During this time of year, the Ms, in an attempt to make up for their sins from the last year, refrain from eating or drinking from sun-up until sun-set. This means of course that, at least here, they stuff themselves early in the morning, go back to bed, then stuff them selves after sunset, and eat a big dinner a few hours after that. During this fasting time, they are supposed to be spending time in prayer with God, but most of them do not, instead they just lie around all afternoon and wait until the next time they can eat again.

You will see even the worst religious person that will lie, steal, cheat and do all sorts of other things you know his religion forbids him to do go through this fast, as they believe that if they fast just right, no matter how bad they were during the last year, God will balance out their record. For them it is not about a personal relationship based on the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid on the cross, instead it is a works based religion; so the more you work, no matter how you were the rest of the year, the better your record becomes even. It is all about balancing out your good and your bad.

Then at the end of the month, they will sacrifice a goat, the bigger the better to please God, and have a big festival and celebrate what just happened. Of course this almost always becomes about how big your goat was and who saw you with the biggest goat. Sometimes I have a difficult time in seeing how God works into most of this celebration time.

There are some though that will seek after God and be looking for dreams and visions of how to relate and get to God better. Pray for these individuals, as it is often reported that through these dreams and visions, God has lead them to follow Christ into His salvation.

Of course, if you are like me, you see some similarities between them and us as Christians and our festival/celebrations. How many people that “claim the name of Christ” that you know of will spend the holiday season coming up, actually thinking of Christ? How many of our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and even fellow church members will only be going through the motions, hoping that their seasonal trip to church will be enough to please God, if they even think about God at all.

Pray for us this year as we are praying about fasting with them from day to day this year. We of course will be spending those times instead of eating in prayer for our neighbors and friends. Pray that God will lead us as to what to do so that we are not just going through some motions, but rather truly trying to draw closer to God and to find a way to reach out to our friends and neighbors.

Let us also pray for those mentioned above that may forget about Him this year that they will remember the sacrifice that He gave. Pray for “Christians” in America to wake up and head the call to wake up, for the time is now to get your self right with God. May those on both sides of the ocean come to see the wonderful price paid by The Son of God and accept that and turn to have a true relationship with God this year.

A photo slide show from Togo - Enjoy!!

2006-09-05T18:55:00.000Z

A blog from Togo-from Mariama's Teachers.

2006-09-04T17:47:00.000Z

This is from a letter that Mariama's teachers wrote us before we left Togo.

Enjoy.

Richard & Lisa

God’s blessings be on you and your family. Thank you so much for trusting us with your precious Mariama. What a doll!!! Her & I formed a special bond& I loved it. The sweetest thing was when I was bouncing her to sleep, if she was fussy, I would start singing “Jesus Loves Me” and she would immediately calm down, lay her little head on me and go to sleep. It was like the name of Jesus calmed her. I will never forget that. Jesus was in the room with us each day!

It was an added blessing to meet you. Richard, the first night when you came to our table to ask if we would have the nursery on Sunday morning was w God thing. He used that the show us why we were there. The joy on your face at the thought of worshipping with your wife showed us why we were here & how much it meant to the missionaries we came to support. Thanks! Our God is awesome and gave both of us just what we needed.

We will be continuing to pray for you as we did before coming. Our prayers for you are for God to build a hedge of protection around your family, for God to bless you for following His plan for your life & to give you many souls for the harvest is rich.

Again, it was a blessing to take care of Mariama. She is a heart stealer.

With love in Christ

Janice and John (Almquist)

Jer. 29:11 “’For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Pray for Rain

2006-08-16T15:26:00.000Z

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, NIV).

The rainy season has just begun in Senegal. For weeks, farmers have been preparing their fields and working the soil. The rains have started, but have not become consistent. It is always an anxious time as the villagers wait for the rains to come, and try to time the actual planting with the rains. If they plant too soon, birds and other animals may steal the seeds. If they wait too long, they may miss the limited and valuable water when it falls. If rains delay, there is fear and genuine danger of drought that inevitably will be followed by hunger and malnutrition.

It is a season that reminds Senegalese that they have no real control over their lives, and that they are dependent on God for all things. Unfortunately, they do not really know Him. Pray that God will use this season to remind them of who He is and what He has done for them. Pray that He will reveal Himself in His creation and provision for them, and that the Senegalese, who follow a major world religion, will have access to the truth of the gospel through His Word and other believers.

May they put their faith in Christ and be anxious for nothing.

A word from our team here now!!

2006-07-11T23:49:00.000Z

Mark Farish is the pastor of Lake Highlands Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and he and Joe Loving are here for @ 1 week. While here, Mark is writing journals, actually a blog, but don't tell him, he says he does NOT blog. Follow this link to read what God is doing while they are here ministering along side of us and our supervisor, Donny.

Lake Highlands Baptist Church - Dallas, Texas

Continue to lift them up while they are out here. Lift up all the teams that we have lined up to come minister with us.

Prayer needs

2006-07-04T19:31:00.000Z

Hello there. I wanted to out-line a prayer schedule for you. I am planning on trying to follow this schedule to go and visit/story. I could use your prayers on the nights before the days that I mention, as you will be asleep when I go to visit with these guys. Pray that the words will be given to me from God to share His love to these friends. Pray that their hearts and minds will be open to hear and then receive the Truth. Pray also that these would have dreams and visions as that is a BIG way that God uses to call Muslims unto Himself.

Mon. Morning: lift up Mommadu
Tue. Morning: Lift up Dramé
Wed.Morning: lift up Ba
Thu.Morning: lift up As
Fri.Morning: computer work/catch-up house work
Also lift up Lisa on Thur. afternoons as she goes to visit/story with the Ba houshold.

Pray also for Spiritual protection for us as well as those we will be talking with. Pray that we will be removed and He be lifted up only!!! We want others to see the Truth and the love of God, most of which goes agains all they have been taugh for all their lives.

Expecting resistance

2006-07-04T18:45:00.000Z

Hello there. Yes it has been a while since I have posted some thoughts, but this week I would like to add some thoughts about warfare. The other day we were at a 4th of July celebration put on by the embassy here, and while watching Pape play, I was standing near some Marines and could not help but hear their conversation. They were talking with another couple that had a family member in Iraq and they were talking about their son and his unit moving south of Baghdad and the mom said that they "were expecting resistance." That was when one of the Marines said "Mame, I sure hope they are expecting resistance. That is what we as Marines are trained for, to expect resistance. If you go into an area and DON'T expect resistance, you become a dead Marine."

This statement first made me fell good that we had solders like that down through history that expected resistance and were ready for the battle so that we have the freedoms that we as Americans, have today. Then I thought about the spiritual implications of this statement, and that was when I started to have somewhat of a heavy heart. Most of us on the Mission field come over, expecting resistance, and that is why we ask prayer warriors back home to be praying with and for us. But then my thoughts went to the church in America, and the training that is given there, on the whole.

A LOT of churches these days seem to be to pre-occupied with making people happy, feel good about themselves or preaching wealth and prosperity to talk about the warfare that surrounds us all. I know because I have sat and heard some of these teachings. Soon the feelings fade and the money leaves. I thank God that for the last 10 years or so, as well as growing up, He placed me in some Spirit filled places lead by some godly men that were not afraid to preach and teach the Truth. These teachings helped to prepare me to expect resistance, both from the world and in the spiritual realm as well.

What kind of resistance are you expecting, if any? Are you experiencing residence now? As pastor Al Meredith from Wedgwood Baptist in Ft. Worth said in a sermon we heard Sunday "If you have never experienced resistance for your witness, you may need to examine your witness." Resistance will come if we are Sons of God. Please continue to lift us up as we face resistance almost daily over here.

Thank you for your prayers!!!

2006-05-26T13:31:00.001Z

Lisa swinging with mariama.

2006-05-26T13:31:00.000Z

Mariama having fun.

2006-05-26T13:30:00.000Z

Lisa playing with Mariama at the playground at a resturant here. Mariama is having a GREAT time!!!

2006-05-26T12:48:00.000Z

Yes, that is his glass...and yes it says what you think. They searve everyone one of these with their water and cokes.

2006-05-26T12:47:00.000Z

This is William's Kids Meal at a resturant.

New videos!!

2006-05-12T11:19:00.000Z

Hey there. I just wanted to tell you a little about the next 2 videos that you will see below. They both are "old-school" Christian Rock videos that I found!! I should note that I am NOT responsible for any neck pains that may come about by old head bangers trying to "bang" to these songs!! You know your age and the current state of your own neck. :) If you enjoy them, I have found a few more and will post more in time.

Just let me know if you are interested. The third video is one of William and Mariama playing on the couch one Sunday afternoon after house Church. At the end of the video he stood up and grined and while laughing said "Be careful!!" Then he got back up and started playing again with his sister. See lisa's blog here for the next video. We hope that you are enjoying the videos that we have started to add.

"Jim Morrison's Grave" video Steve Taylor I predict 1990!! Another old-school video!!

2006-05-12T11:18:00.000Z

Video: Deliverance - Weapons of our warfare- a little old-school Christian rock!!

2006-05-12T11:16:00.000Z

William and Mariama playing on the couch- at the end he stood up and said "Be Careful!!"

2006-05-12T10:44:00.000Z

Mariama one Sunday morning- That is me talking in that voice to her.

2006-05-12T08:53:00.000Z

Another guest blogger!!

2006-05-04T09:29:00.000Z

This is a friend, Mark Snelling, from Washington that has come over with Tyson and done 3 trips here in the last year or so. I asked him to write a little something about his time here and what they are doing, and he actually wrote something!! (if that refers to you, you know who you are that I am still waiting to hear back from :))

You asked me to write a little blog for your blog so I am adding a couple of things and including some of what I wrote above. Please feel free to edit accordingly.

After two great weeks in Senegal, we made it home with no major wrinkles and having all our luggage. It was a long haul and we are tired but have returned with a real sense of joy, a deepened understanding of what God is doing among the Wolof and ever greater clarity as to how to pray for you and the Wolof. Yes, the obstacles to the launch of a people movement among the Wolof are real but at the same time, our God is more than able to break through. It is a real joy to be part of His work toward that day! This was now the third trip we have made as a team with six months in between each trip. We were encouraged by the missionaries who work in the village our church has adopted to come with that frequency if we are to be able to develop a genuine relationship with the people of the village and have a clear sense of the role we are to play in the process of leading them to Jesus. We are now experiencing the initial fruits of these visits through deepened prayer and more focused projects. We have made it a point on each trip to connect not only with the village but also with missionaries like the Finches working in Dakar and other regions of Senegal in order to have a broader perspective on the whole people group as well as a relationship with the families in the one small village we have adopted. This means adding an extra couple of days to each trip but for our church it is turning out to be well worth the time invested.

Until Alll Have Heard,

Mark

An aroma amongst us.

2006-05-04T09:05:00.000Z

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Photo Sharing

A video blog. I think we may start doing more of these as they are much easier and more fun then trying to type to you. Plus this way you can see us and hear us more often.

Video- Jumping and "Yep, I know it!"

2006-05-03T22:14:00.000Z

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Photo Sharing

Here is a little video for you of William playing on our bed. His responses to my questions he learned from me. Hope you enjoy it.

SI.com - Writers - Rick Reilly: Nothing But Nets - Tuesday April 25, 2006 2:05PM

2006-04-29T07:59:00.000Z

SI.com - Writers - Rick Reilly: Nothing But Nets - Tuesday April 25, 2006 2:05PM

OK all you sports fans, click this link to read an interesting story from SI!! Even if you are NOT a sports fan, you will recieve a NET profit from reading this story, (or read it just to get the pun). Here is someone thinking about those that he could easily pass over. See if you feel lead to pass on your nex DVD that you want or to eat a sandwich from home once or twice instead of your favorite fast food place to help out. And just so you know....we helped!

A short video from home

2006-04-26T10:55:00.000Z

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Photo Sharing

Audio of William counting for you!

2006-03-10T19:13:00.000Z

Your prayers and Our needs!!!

2006-03-10T07:23:00.000Z

We have asked you to be praying over many things over the last 2 years. Some of those needs are on-going and some have been answered. We TRULY are grateful and thankful for your prayers, many days they are what kept us going. We have been truly blessed with friends and family that lift us up often. We also thank you for your e-mails, cards, letters and gifts over the years. These too are tangible reminders of your love and support and every time we see them or look at something you have sent, we feel the love and prayers that go with it.

Life overseas is filled with more than its share of needs for prayer; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual in nature. Then, when certain other issues get thrown into the mix, things can get real interesting rather quickly. So when you take a stressful thing and add the stress of potty training on top of spiritual issues on top of physical things, you have a BIG need of prayer.

Now we are quickly coming to a point where your prayers are STRONGLY needed. One of the more pressing needs concerns our future here in Senegal. There are some issues that have come up recently that may hinder our return to the field as quickly as we were hoping originally. This of course has caused a little concern for us as we have been trying to seek God’s guidance, and thought we had an answer. We are hoping to get a resolution, one way or another, within the next couple of weeks, but in the mean-time, we can use your prayers. Pray that either way that we will remain focused on the job at hand until the end of our time here in Dec/ Jan.

We also have a spiritual need as well. Rich has been feeling some spiritual attacks at night in the form of some disturbing dreams. When he wakes up from them he feels very unfocused for most of the rest of the day. Once, when he woke up, he heard William fuss and when he went to go check on him, fear tried to grip him and made it VERY difficult for him to catch his breath. William was just having some dreams, which helped clue him in even better to what was going on. Rich spent the next hour or so praying over the whole family.

These, along with other issues, can start to have an effect on our family. Pray that we will remain close and rely not only on your prayers, but that we will remain a team, clothed in our armor, and stand strong against the attacks of the evil one!

2006-03-09T10:46:00.000Z

This is a collection of our time with our friends while we were in the States. Click on image for larger view.

Photo collage 1

2006-03-09T08:25:00.000Z

A photo collage of our trip!!

Guest Blogger - Tyson

2006-03-08T16:54:00.000Z

I spent the last week of October in Senegal. This was my second trip, my first was in March of ‘05. This trip only furthered my view of Senegal as a land of contrasts. March was hot like, Las Vegas hot and it was very dry. There was little vegetation and you could hardly see where the previous years crops had been harvested. October showed us the end of the rainy season and we experienced one of the last rain storms. This storm was more what I would envision a monsoon to be like. It was preceded by a lightening storm for more than a half an hour followed by a tremendous down pour that flooded the sand surfaces of the vacant lots and streets. All this rain transformed the Senegalese landscape from the city to the rural villages. Everything was green. Areas that we saw goats and sheep picking through garbage before, were overgrown with green vegetation. Farmland that appeared to be barren dry land previously was now full of millet stalks, watermelon plants and peanut plants. But for a person from the Pacific Northwest of the United States, this weather came at a price. A muggy, humid, hot and sweaty price! :) The temperature was the same as March but much more humid. I also discovered the importance of sunscreen for those not used to being so close to the equator. A beautiful drive in the back of a truck out to the villages turned into a great example of why I should always wear suntan lotion! My sunglasses turned my face into a pink and white raccoon pattern. I learned that the Wolof have a name for white people that loosely translates into red ears. (Honk-a-nob)

What have I taken away from my Senegalese experiences spiritually? It is often difficult to put into words because so much comes to mind, that I have a hard time getting it out. So I’ll leave that for part II of my Senegalese experience from October 2005. (Rich's note: Hopefully SOON!!)

Tyson P. DePoe

Camel rides at Pink Lake

2006-02-16T09:34:00.000Z

This is Pink Lake, so called because of the salt content turns the lake a pink color. The foam you see is actually salt foam that has collected on the surface of the water.

We went there with a group of local Missy friends and a Senegalise friend of theirs named Aminata. The other Senegalise are actually Nars/Pulaar, they were our camel drivers.
These guys took good care of us, and the children. William was excited about seeing the camels....but REFUSED to get close to them. So he stayed back with Granpa Dave,as did Mariama, and played with their children. He had a BLAST!!
This is William on Granpa Dave's sholders. This made William happy, finding out he did not have to get too close to the camels!! They LOVE each other!!
Lisa getting on her camel. As you can see there was no room for Mariam, so she stayed behind as well. Thats uncle Carl in front of Lisa, he helps keep things operating machanically for the missys here.Me riding on my camel. They are not NEAR as smooth of a ride as a horse!! It was fun though none the less. That is Aaron, another ISC-journeyman, on the right. Part of the group riding along the beach. That is Carrie on the left (another ISC-journeygirl), Aminata, Lisa and then uncle Carl again.

2006-02-10T17:47:00.000Z

2 O’clock Prayer Time

As you may well know, here the big prayer time is the pm prayer time on Fri. afternoon. That is like our Sunday morning, although usually better attended. Today, on my way to school to teach, I was driving by several Msq on the way and they all were surrounded by hundreds of devout M.s. At first I was struck by their level of devotion and commitment….. then I became rather sad to see it all. I was asked recently what was the good and the bad about living here, and seeing this sort of thing is among the worst.

Let me explain. You see, as a Chrstn, I am ASSURED of where I am going when I die. I know that because of the cost of Jesus, I am going to enter into Heaven when I die. My friends and neighbors here DO NOT know these things. They are almost all afraid of death, in part because they never know if they have done enough good to balance out their bad. I watch them go through so many things and try to follow so many set rituals to try to get better, all along never knowing if it is enough. They could literally miss Paradise by one missed prayer!! This is VERY heartbreaking to me. This is the worst thing about living here, seeing your friends and neighbors starve them selves for a month each year and live in fear of God all their lives. Especially knowing all along if they would just allow me too, I could help point them in the right direction; to a personal relationship with God.

Unfortunately, most here, as in other parts of the M. world, do not realize they have a choice!!! Will you pray with us that God will give dreams and visions and soften hearts of our neighbors and friends? Pray that they will begin to understand that they have a choice, and that they do not have to fear death. Pray also that we will be the examples that we need to be. Pray that in our relationships with each other that they will see God’s love through us as a family as well as in our relations with them. Let me hear from you about your willingness to help lift us up in this.

2006-02-08T20:35:00.000Z

Pape goes to school

In case you have not heard…..our son has started school!!!! We took him with us the day that we registered him and that gave him a chance to see all the other kids and meet his teacher while we were there. This was, in my opinion, one big step towards him adjusting so that the next day when we dropped him off, he did not cry!!! Instead all the kids ran up to him and one boy shared his sucker with William, while he was eating it. Then they all went out to the little courtyard area and started to play before starting class.

His class is small, there are only about 15 students in the whole school, but we like that. This allows his class itself to have about 6-7 students and so the teacher can offer more one-on-one time with the children. Most other pre-schools, and large schools alike, can have anywhere between 25-45 children per class.

Now, a week or so after starting, he absolutely loves going to school. When we walk through the gate, at about 8am, he gets REAL excited and we have to try to stop him from running off to play with his friends just to get our kiss good-bye. They play outside until about 8:30, then they go inside and have a memorization time, art time, play time, snack time and rest time. He gets excited just seeing his vest for school. He even has his own little back-pack that he takes with him and a water bottle with juice to drink.

audio post from Shreveport

2006-01-03T15:14:00.000Z

2005-12-08T20:20:00.000Z

Here is a video I made of Mariama's pictures.
I hope you enjoy!!

Upload Video at JussPress.com

Afternoon pictures

2005-12-04T11:37:00.000Z

For the afternoon, we all had a different outfit that we wore, and had lunch.

This is me in my afternoon robe, with my teacher friend.

This is a picture of Lisa that I played around with.

Odet helped Lisa get William and Mariama changed, and brought them back while Lisa changed.

This is the outfit that Lisa wore that afternoon!!! I loved it and so did everyone else.

Lisa playing around with Odet and some of our other Senegalese friends.

Pape looking good in his outfit. A neighbor friend made this and gave it to us for him.

more ngente pictures

2005-12-04T10:58:00.000Z

HERE ARE SOME MORE PICTURES FROM THE NGENTE!!

Some of the "fellow co-workers" that came to support us.

A., our former househelper, and Pape...they missed each other

A. with Mariama....we were SO glad that she came in from the village to be with us this weekend.

Us with a neighbor man. They ALL wanted to hold Mariama and they all told us how beutiful she is!!

Me talking with the teacher that I am working with.

Ngente Pictures part 2

2005-11-29T13:35:00.000Z

Now it is time for us to start to get ready!!! We each had 2 different outfits for the day.

Pape is ready.... and being silly with his "piggy face"

I take my own picture in the mirror, but without my Grand Boo-Boo

Lisa is getting her make-up on in the bathroom....I like it!!! (Yes, I grew-up in the 80's!)

Mariama is waiting to get dressed.

I just told her that she was as beautiful as her mother

Ngente Pictures part 1

2005-11-29T13:14:00.000Z

The neighborhood ladies are preparing the food the day before

They worked all day to get the food ready!!

They cut and pealed EVERYTHING by hand...it was a LOT of work!

The morning of the ngente, they started back where they left off. This is our househelper, Odet, helping on the left.

Another neighbor hand peeled and cut several pounds of cucumbers.

This is the man that does the call to prayers at the local mosque. They are the ones who do the big cooking for events like this.

My first audio post....with help from William!!

2005-11-02T09:17:00.000Z

A view from the field.

2005-10-20T17:48:00.000Z

Hello there, I know it has been a while since I have written, but allow me to share my heart with you. Let me start by saying a sincere thank you for all your prayers. Those of you that have spent some time overseas, especially in Africa, have an idea of the struggles that we can/do face on a daily basis. The language is different and no matter how well you study and learn it, it STILL is not your language and you will have days that all you want to do is find other Americans and hear nothing but your heart language; English. Then there are the cultural differences, and these involve Religious cultural differences as well. No matter how well you study the differences and TRY not to make any mistakes, you still will. And you will have, almost daily, things happen that make you say “Why in the world are they doing this that a way?!?!” All you can do some times is just bite your tongue and just say that this is NOT America, and there ways are not always wrong. If you watch close enough you might even learn something new or a new way to do things. The physical climate here can also be brutal. While the temps here are similar to what we knew in the States, back home we had air conditioning…EVERYWHERE! Here you have it in some of the big French stores and some government buildings and doctors offices, and if you are lucky your car has it and it works well. So what is missing from that list? That’s right…IN OUR HOUSE!! None of the houses here have it in every room, and those that do have A.C., only have it in the bedrooms. Our house you ask…NONE, only LOTS of fans!! So when the heat rises, we sweat!! Then of course there is the reliability of the electricity here. I had to stop typing this in mid paragraph because the electricity went out…again! Now for the last 2 days our phone has been out. And everyday the phone company says in the morning they will come out in the afternoon, only to change that in the afternoon and say in the morning. We will see.

These are all facts of life for living overseas for anyone. But on top of all that, we as believers have the added stress and pressure of the daily and constant spiritual struggles to deal with. While I know that there are these battles in America, they are NOTHING like what you face when you are in the enemies territory. They tag team with all the other stressors at times to make them that much worse. Sometimes it is just the little things here that can affect you in big ways. Sometimes it is some of the issues and personal things you face in America, only here, well as the mission board truly says “What bugs you in America will buffalo you overseas.” The anger, tension, depression, loneliness, fear, withdrawal or whatever else is dealt with back home comes up and can bite you in the hinny and REALY effect you and your work here.

All of this is where YOU come in. You are our support network, and without you, we would NOT stay here!! We can NEVER say that enough nor explain everything we deal with on a constant basis for you to get the full impact that your prayers have on and for us. You are part of our life line and we thank God for you OFTEN. And we pray for a lot of you by name as God lays you on our hearts, which He does OFTEN. So together we are each others support system and for that, I am TRULY grateful!!!! So keep the prayers and words of encouragement coming!!

Pictures!!!

2005-09-29T21:42:00.000Z

Here are some pictures for you to see!!!! Our first family picture!!!! Taken at the hospital.

William LOVES his new sisiter!!

Daddy and Pape and Mariama

Pape giving her kisses, he does this ALL THE TIME!!!

"...This little piggy stayed home..."
He was actually playing this with her, with our help, but he started it.

My time with my son

2005-09-29T18:12:00.000Z

I now want to tell you about what this weekend was like for me without Lisa. This was not an overly fun weekend for me. Let me start by saying that any time in the past that Lisa and I were apart, I have been pretty pathetic!! While I have used those times to watch some of the movies that Lisa is not interested in (horror flicks and stupid comedies), the night times were ALWAYS the worst time for me as that was when I settled down with nothing else to occupy my mind. All that to say this I love my wife and miss her when we are away from each other for a long length of time. This weekend was only made slightly worse with a son who had a fever and was also missing his mother. He missed Lisa almost as much as I did. Then he had a fever, and here, one of the first things most people do, and we were encouraged to do so, is to treat for malaria. Well, William did not want to take his medicine for malaria, and actually threw it up..ALL OVER THE BED AND HIMSELF!! Then while trying to calm him down and clean him up, the phone started to ring. After getting everything somewhat restored, we tried to eat and I tried to get William to take his medicine again, which he refused, and almost threw-up again. I was at the end of my rope and was ready to lose it do to the frustration of it all. Fortunately, God settled me down and my son woke up from his nap and ran to me and loved on me, as if nothing happened.

We were then able to go see Lisa and that helped us both A LOT!!! We had a fun time that night with bath time and going to bed. He and I prayed and I helped him ask God to bless Mommy, Daddy, Sister and himself ( the next night I added Gamma, Gampa and others), and he went to sleep after taking something for a fever. Sunday was a LITTLE easier as his "missy" grandparents took him for the morning and I went to see Lisa. She though was running a fever and the night nurses seemed oblivious to it. After making Lisa ask about it, they gave her some medicine for fever and started malaria tests (they were negative!!). William and I saw Lisa that afternoon and played some that evening back at home.

Monday, I had Odett, our houshelper!!! That was a BIG blessing!!!!! She took care of Pape that day while I visited Lisa. Fortunately I was able to bring Lisa home on Tue. I also had William checked out on Tue. and the doctor said that he was fine and he probably had the virus that was going around coupled with missing his mother.

Birth of my daughter!!

2005-09-29T17:10:00.000Z

WOW!!!! I have a daughter!!! Lyle Sasser's prayers worked, and as he says "Let the finger wrapping begin." Don't get me wrong...I LOVE MY SON! But there is something about a daughter that I know will touch my heart in a different way. She is a true blessing from God and I know that I will treasure her forever. Here are some of the ways that our/your prayers have been answered in her birth.

Quick conception: It took Lisa and I almost 2 years to get pregnant with William, and after trying ONE month, we get pregnant.
We were blessed with a great doctor that speaks English and was trained in France. Also, we were blessed with a good hospital as well. A very modern hospital with well trained staff (FYI: this is the hospital that all of West Africa uses for births and other medical issues if/when needed).
God blessed us with good language skills so that we were able to go through the entire process without any other helpers. Even though the doctor spoke English, the nurses did not and neither did Mariama's doctor. THIS IS A MAJOR THING FOR US AND OUR WOLOF!!
The whole birth process was fairly smooth, and the rough areas God carried us through.

Lisa started labor in the morning of the 22nd and was given some Pitosin to help induce. We were then sent home after about 2 hours and told to try again later as the contractions were not strong enough and she was not fare enough along. After attending a movie night that the missy school put on, we returned home and William was not feeling well and woke-up every 5 minutes crying, even in our bed. Then, about 11pm, the Pitosin starts to really kick in giving Lisa severe cramps and pain. After an hour of this, she is on the floor in the bathroom in tears and pain and William is scared in our bed. We called "grampa Johnson" and go to the hospital, thinking she may have a virus that has been going around, to find out that she was having contractions. They gave her some medicine to slow down the contractions and the waiting game begin (it is now 2am). When the big time comes, as Mariama is being born, I saw the doctor doing something with her head and he keep saying "Oh my...Oh my!" I found out after she was born why, the doctor told me the cord had wrapped around her head 5 TIMES, and had even tried to knot as well. She was quite, which scared and concerned Lisa, but soon the doctor came back from checking her and said that she was "perfect."

There were other things from the next couple of days, but I will write about them in another blog. Thank you for ALL your prayers and keep them coming!!

Update

2005-09-01T16:54:00.000Z

Hello there

I had not realized how long it had been since I last wrote something. We have been spending the last 2 weeks teaching English in a local neighborhood. I have @ 5-6 that come everyday, most of which have at least some English. So I have been spending a lot of time going over some different parts of speech, vocabulary and will start soon on some slang and phrases. That will be fun as I will teach them some southern terms and general phrases and everyday proverbs as well. So yes, I will be teaching them to say "Howdy y'all, how ya doin' ?"

Due to teaching in the mornings, I have been working on getting things ready in the evenings and trying to spend some good time playing with Pape. As you know, he turned 2 this month and his words have really taken off lately. He also has learned SEVERAL animal sounds. Here are some of the sounds that he knows;

Dog- goes "woof"
cow- goes "mooooo"
Monkey- goes "ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh" (while scratching under his arms)
Gorilla- pats his chest
crocodile- goes "snap" (while clapping hands)
lion- goes "rrooarr" (while raising head and arching eyes)
lamb/goat - goes "baaaa"
snake- goes "ssssssss' (while trying to stick tongue out)
elephant - goes "uuuuuu" (while raising hand into air)
bee - goes "zzzzzzz" (although sounds a lot like snake, but without the tongue)
rooster - goes "oooo-oooo-oooo-oooo" (has sound, but not rhythm-although knows name as chick, thanks to cards from grandma)
Rabbit - goes "Doc!" (one of my favorites....as in "What's up Doc?" I taught him that one)

Lisa will have a list of his words on her blog site soon. I will be trying SOON to add a pictures page to our web-site and some more updated info, I just need to find the time. Well, this somewhat gives you an idea of life the last few weeks. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

My thoughts om Lisa's cooking

2005-08-19T17:55:00.000Z

Hey there, I just LOVE a wife that can cook, especially some good comfort food!!!! For those of you who know me well, you know that I LOVE to cook. Over here though, it is not always the culturally acceptable thing for me to be cooking. So when we came, I told Lisa that I would try to back off, at least for lunches, during the week (for most dinners we eat sandwiches or something VERY lite). I have tried to not make too many suggestive comments, and actually have not made and suggestions in a while. This is because my wife has turned into a GREAT cook, her Grandmother would be proud! This is saying a lot as we have almost NO quick fix items here, other then what we get from home, so everything just about has to be made from scratch. She has come across some great recipes, and has played with the ingredients as if I would, and made them her own. One of the best things she does for me though, is make some good; old-fashioned comfort food. Some of these I had growing up, others are just standard things, but they remind me of home, which I need from time-to-time. Here are a list of some of my favorite comfort foods that she makes.

chocolate-chip cookies (although I do not get them as much as I would like)
Fried chicken
Chicken & dumplings (her Grandmother's recipe)
Sour eggs (something I grew up with-a cream sauce with vinegar & mustard & hard boiled eggs over boiled potatoes)
Chicken with a soy sauce & water sauce with rice something else I grew up with)
Round steak (something her mother makes- I am not sure which is better...They both are AWESOME!!!)
Chicken nuggets (not the store bought kind either!!!)
banana bread/muffins

New comfort foods/:

Texas hash (ground beef, tomatoes & rice)
Curried ground beef (basically a beef stew)
tamale pie

There are others as well, I just can not think of them now. Remember, we are talking about all of these being made from scratch!!! God has definitely blessed me with a wonderful wife!!!! I LOVE HER AND HER COOKING!!!!!!!!!

My ramblings

2005-08-15T11:51:00.000Z

Hello there, I will apologize in advance for any rambling that I will do. I will try to keep this at least somewhat coherent. I am SOOO tired today, mentally, physically and physiologically as well. On the field, we talk about hitting the wall, and there are several walls we hit. The first and biggest is the one that everyone hits 6 months after arriving on the field. Of course I hit that last year, 3 months after my father's funeral, while living in the village. While last year had MANY struggles for us/me, through the prayers and support of our family & friends, I made it through. Now we have been in the city for all this year and have been able to focus in on our new assignment, and had our first volunteer team from FL. Come out. Those things have been a BIG blessing for us and has helped to give us a strong sense of purpose out here.

But lately, the last week or so has been a little tiring. After the team left, we were set-up to hold some English classes at the church that we worked with, for the neighborhood students. Lisa and I prepared for a few days and went up to the church on Monday the 8th, only to have no one show up, no even from the church. We went back each morning for 3 days, just in case, and STILL no one. So we decided to scrap the teaching for the first 2 weeks. Now I was able to meet the director of a local community center and make plans to use the center for the next set of 2 weeks. I can't help but wander if the church has done some of the follow up that they were supposed to do. Several of the youth from the church are supposed to be doing some follow up from after the camp and while doing so, many said that they would remind people about the classes. Oh, well, pray for the next round, which starts on the 22nd and runs through the 2nd of Sept.

A large part of my tiredness has more to do with just life here. On Thursday last week, they started to build on a new room to the studio that is below us. While working, they hit the water line and had to turn off the water. Now we have a LARGE water tank on our roof, for our house only, we used all of that by the end of the day with laundry and other uses. Then on Fri, we found out that the water pressure was so low that our tank was not re-filled, and was bad enough that we had just a trickle, from one faucet all day. Then, that afternoon, we found out that the city was planning on shutting off the water to ALL the city, to work on some pipes. So now we spend the rest of the evening trying to fill up a barrel with water, so that we can have something. I woke up EARLY both Fri. and Saturday to make sure that we had at least some water to wash with, flush the toilet and bath with. After spending most of the evening on Friday and all morning on Saturday, by 3pm, we had about 1 barrel filled.

We did have a good evening though. The President, and his wife (Jerry and Bobbie Rankin), of the IMB came out for a visit. Several of us from our office, Senegal wide, came together to have a dinner and fellowship. As it turns out, we ate Senegalize style, from a common platter, and the wife of the president, Bobbie, ended up sharing our platter with us. I do have to say that I am VERY impressed with them both. They are just normal people that actually would love to be on the field again. They are VERY personable and friendly.

Sunday, yesterday, was a LONG day for me though. Lisa, and the other ladies, met with Bobbie for a time of prayer and worship. So I had another missionary father of 2 small children, friends of Pape, come over for time together. As it turns out, we had a "typical" Sunday here, electricity wise. On top of little to no water pressure, at about 9 am the power went out. It normally does this each Sunday lately, fortunately last week it was out all day, until about 4pm. I say fortunately because that helped me have an idea of how long we would be without power. Well, I spent the morning with 3 children, under the age of 2 1/2 years, playing and helping make sure they share. Since the power situation was what it was, when Lisa came home, at about noon, we went to a restaurant to eat. While waiting on the food, I went outside and played with Pape on the play area, in the heat again. After returning home, we all laid down for our afternoon nap, in a slightly hot house, there was a slight breeze. Lisa had her baby shower that afternoon, and left before Pape woke up. I played with him though for about an hour, reading and wrestling around, getting hot and sweaty, after he woke up. We then went to where Lisa was, to help get the stuff home, but also because I figured they had electricity, which meant fans!!! We stayed there for a while and all returned home at @ 5:15pm, and PTL, the power had returned!!!!

We did have a chance to talk to Lisa's mother that night on Yahoo, which we try to do every Sunday. She seemed a little tired as well though, we seemed to have audio issues from time to time and Pape did not always want to stay in the living room. Since it was Lisa's mom, I tried to keep up with him and try to keep him in the room with us, so Grandma could see him, and to save the rest of the house. We also were able to do what we try to do every Sunday night as well. After Pape goes to sleep, I make a big bowl of popcorn and we watch a movie, we call it "date night."

So after dealing with the water issue on top of the power issue on top of chasing after a 2 year old all weekend, I am tired. There were other issues as well, but this post has become quite long! But a BIG PRAISE; PAPE TURNS 2 TODAY!!!!! We will be having a party at my Senegalize mother's home. Her daughters, my sisters, are here now helping get things made.

A thought for today

2005-08-09T08:53:00.000Z

An interesting thing has been in my mind lately. Here, after saying that you will see someone later, do something later or just reference something to be done in the future in general, it is followed by "EnshAllah" or " Bu soobee Boroom Bi," both of which mean " If God wills it." One quickly gets the idea that most that say it, even the Christains, mean it. They tend to have a better view that all we do is guided by God and that NOTHING happens by accident. The Bible even tells us to have this mind set in James 4:13-15. God is teaching me everyday, more and more that I am NOT in controll as much as I thought I was.

Who is in controll of your life? When things don't go the way you think they should, do you get frustrated and upset, or do you just say, "Oh, well, God id in controll and not me!" Try to at least think, if not say, "If God wills it" next time you talk about what the future hold for you. It will change your outlook on life.

From Rich

2005-08-08T15:18:00.000Z

Hey there, we want to use this to share with you what our daily lives are like here and some of our thoughts from here as well. We also want to hear from you as well, so leave comments on things and we will try to answer any questions that you might have. I will be trying to get a blog set-up for Lisa as well soon, but for now this is for both of us.