Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Back Home

We are back in Senegal and have gotten back into the swing of things. We arrived dinner time on Sunday and the kids were back to school on Monday. We were all pretty tired on Sunday due to the fact that Kenya is 3 hours ahead of us. But it is now Wednesday and everyone seems to have adjusted well.

Kenya was amazing. It is such a beautiful country. There were so many amazing flowers, plants and animals to see. The artistry there among the Kenyans is amazing as well. We went to 2 different artisan markets and the talent we came across was unbelievable. It was actually fun shopping - exhausting, but fun since it was in English. Kenyan is not a Muslim country, so it was weird to see lots of churches everywhere - all kinds of churches. If you ever have a chance to go - do it!

Next we need to say thanks to many people who made the trip possible. Thanks to our friends, and a donor from SEBTS who gave money to fund the trip for the kids and I. It would have been impossible for us to go as a family without your support. Thanks to the team from First Baptist Church in Durham. They came to love on us and watch our kids while we were in class. They left us with all sorts of games and books for the kids and some makeup for me. A fun thing that we did while there was shop. They had big stores with a lot of American products. We packed very lightly and planned on filling it up. We were allowed 150 kilos and we came back with 151! We stocked up on cake mixes, syrup, Kenyan coffee, crackers, granola bars, and lots of fun things. We are ready to hit our birthday season now!

As for us in Senegal - Ron and I met with an African believer who will be doing cultural training one day a week with us. He took us to a market and taught us more about shopping and bartering. Some of the things we have planned while we are out are: using public transportation - riding the big buses and small vans, hitting some outdoor markets, learning the streets, maybe some storying, eating in African "restaurants". So you can pray that our time is effective, meaningful and safe. Ron went to his house for a Bible study on Tuesday night - it didn't end up happening, but pray that the other believers come next Tuesday. This group of believers were meeting and then stopped - they haven't met for over 2 years. Pray for our teacher's wife that she would be interested in what is being taught and want to learn more.

We recently had 4 packages from home - THANKS
we had one from my parents filled with some Christmas goodies - love that Chop Wizard!

one from a Sunday school class at Faith Baptist Church filled with great ministry items - coloring books and school supplies, Parmesan cheese, drink mixes - thanks Lewis

one from the youth group at South End Baptist Church (a church we have never been to or met) - thanks so much for our Christmas gifts and goodies - we appreciate your creativity!

Thanks to David Hartman for bringing us a trunk of goodies to Kenya - thanks to those that contributed to that package - especially the Campbell family!

Packages take much longer to get here and are generally opened and searched, but cards and letters take only 2 weeks. Our kids love getting mail!

I am putting together a slide show (I know vacation slides, ugh) - but hopefully it will be fun to watch! I should be able to put that on in the next couple of days.

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