Wow - hard to believe it has been a month!

We are now just days away from Christmas and I realize that it has been a month since my last post. Here is an update on our lives: Luke got his cast off and his pins removed. It is healing great - most of the swelling is gone and it feels pretty normal. Thanks for your prayers. The outreach was a huge success. There weren't a lot of people saved, but who was saved that made it a success. On our first night, the chief of the village came forward along with 2 young girls. The next night only a few came forward. The following week, we received a text saying that the chief's wife also accepted Christ, so the process begins!! I was driving once again for VBS and we went to 10 villages and saw around 2500 people. It was exhausting as the sand was deep and I felt like I was driving in snow for 2 days! Ron was on the foundation and brick team - they finished the foundation and made several hundred bricks.

Our next outreach is January 20-22 and we are so excited that a team from our home church Northwest Baptist Church will be joining us - can't wait!!

We will be starting our second semester January 11th and that only leaves 5 months until we leave for the States for our stateside term. It is hard to believe it is that close. We are in the process of getting ready - a lot is in place, but still need to work on some details. We are very excited to be able to spend that 6 months in the States with our family and friends. We would love to come speak at your church if you have a missions Sunday or Wednesday - please let us know. When it gets closer, we will post our contact information or you can leave a comment and we will contact you!

We miss you and wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!!

Outreach

Update on Luke - got another x-ray and the second doctor was pleased with how it is healing. He had the upper part of his cast removed and is awaiting the bottom half to be removed - maybe Thanksgiving morning! Thanks for your prayers.

We are with preparations for our Thanksgiving outreach weekend. This is going to be a big group again this year -- about 140 of us, including a group of 15 students from Faith Christian Academy in Colorado. There will also be 10-15 Senegalese pastors and lay people who will join us in ministry when we arrive in the area. During the days, we will be busy with a number of ministries:

1) the drama team and children's ministry team will be traveling to a number of villages

2) a team will be painting a church in Bikol (the church of which we laid the foundation and made bricks by hand last Jan.)

3) a team will be painting a mural on the front wall of a church in Diofane (the church we built last Nov.)

4) our medical team which will include 3 nurses and a Dr. will minister in Diakhao

5) a team will be digging & laying a foundation and building bricks by hand in Diakhao

6) we will be staying at the YWAM center in Niakhar and a team will be setting up camp

7) a small team will be building 20 benches for the new church

In the evenings, we will be holding evangelism campaigns in the following villages:

Fri., Nov. 25: Diakhao, Gandiaye, Poukham Tok

Sat., Nov. 26: Mbelakadio, Ngouloul Peul, Mbouscene

We REALLY covet your prayers. We will be ministering in an area that is predominantly Muslim and we'll be ministering in villages that have just begun to hear about Jesus. Please pray for open doors and open hearts. Pray against spiritual resistance and that God will prepare the way for us. Pray for protection in travel, both Ron and I will be driving there and Chris will be working with the children's ministry where she will be driving all over the bush in and out of villages and at all the ministry sites.

Sun. morning, we plan to worship on our way home in the church that we helped build last Nov. in Diofane. We're looking forward to the blessing of worshiping with our African brothers and sisters and seeing the results of our labor there last year.

Luke

We have had an interesting week this past week. It started Friday night during an event called "Harvest Fest", a fundraiser for the Senior class. Luke was in a water balloon battle and was being hunted and ran backward and stumbled and tried to break his fall with his left hand. He proceeded to start crying and thankfully a nurse was sitting right there. They helped him up and got ice and tried to clean him up. His wrist swelled immediately and was very distorted looking. They ran to get us and we took him immediately to the hospital. Thankfully they called ahead because the radiologist and the orthepedic surgeon were waiting for us when we arrived. They did an x-ray and quickly it was determined the wrist was broken. The surgeon spoke ridiculously fast french and whisked Luke away. We panicked and called our mission nurse wh0 came to the hospital but after Luke was taken up to the surgical floor for the doctor to reset his wrist. It was so frustrating to not be able to understand what the doctor said!! We went back the next day and saw the x-ray and found out that he put pins in his wrist - what??? They explained that his growth plate was broken and it needed to be set with these pins. The doctor said that they set it right, but we had a second opinion. The other doctor said that it was set well, but not excellent. We need to go back to get a x-ray Thursday to see if there has been any shifting - if so it might need to be reset. Please pray that it doesn't shift and that the pins hold it in place and that his arm will heal perfectly.

Update

We are continually amazed at how fast the time flies here. We just finished our first quarter and only a 1 1/2 months until Christmas break. The kids did great this first quarter. Zach received straight A's, with one of his classes being AP French. He is really wanting to be on National Honor Society, so that really motivated him. He was cast in the play "The Curious Savage" and that happens in 2 weeks. He is nervous, but really excited. He was also selected as 1 of 12 high schoolers to be on a peer mediation committee. He had to be recommended by the faculty - we were very proud of him. He continues to grow in the Lord and has quite a reputation for spiritual maturity. Luke did well on his report card - with all A's and B's. He probably won't be the scholar that Zach is, but has so much personality teachers love him!! Luke has really thrived in the dorm. His dorm Mom says that he is her right hand man and is constantly in the kitchen helping her cook. He really has taken an interest in cooking - he even joined the cooking club. Faith loves being in the dorm surrounded by all of these girls. She did great on her grades, earning all A's and B's. She loves her teacher and still loves being in Africa. She is on the junior basketball team and really likes playing.

Electricity has been much improved in the last month. Although we have lots of brown outs, we rarely lose power. That is great! We have heard that this is just until February when the elections are being held. You can pray about that - pray that it is a smooth, fair process.

We are excited to be in the process of coming home for furlough. While we love being in Africa and know that this is where we are supposed to be, there are days it is hard. We are excited to be back in the States and see our family and friends. We are continuing to work on figuring out schooling for the kids, living arrangements, travel, visiting churches, etc. We know that time will fly and we will be home before we know it! We love and miss you all greatly and look forward to when we are hanging out!

We have finally settled in and really feel like we are in a groove! Our transition to the girls has been a smooth one and we really feel like this is where God wants us! We love being with the girls and love discovering all of the differences between parenting both. School is in full swing and has started with a bang. In addition to being dorm parents, we are also in charge of student senate. We host our first event this Friday night and are hoping it goes off without a hitch. Zach is a rep for the sophomore class and really enjoys being part of this leadership team. Luke is finally adjusted to being downstairs and has settled in to the role of helper. He loves being in the kitchen and helping his dorm Mom and she loves his help too! Faith is playing basketball and learning piano and is doing really well with both. She loves being with all of the girls and is totally included in their lives. She has been given a secret sister and loves writing and receiving notes and gifts. The kids are really thriving here and are growing in their relationship with the Lord!!

We are continuing to plan for our time in the US this summer. We are happy to report that friends of ours are letting us use their mini-van, so our transportation is covered. We are still looking for a furnished apartment or in-law suite, if you know of anything please email us!

Life in Dakar continues to march on - power still has been an issue, despite tons of money being dumped into the economy. The economy still continues to be an issue with the nationals. There is an election slated for February and it promises to be interesting. Our current president Abdoulaye Wade wants to run again, but has already met his time quota. Some want him to continue more want another leader. The people are tired of no electricity and staples being so expensive. We pray that it is a peaceful election!!!!! Many of the staff here have gone through an evacuation and nobody wants that. We are preparing for the worst - praying for the best! We will continue to update as the time gets closer!

We love and miss you all!

School is here

Our 3rd year of dorm parenting started Wednesday with the arrival of our 12 girls. They arrived with lots of luggage and hugs and giggles. Faith has loved being with the girls - she definitely feels a part of the dorm. We have some younger girls, so that has been nice for Faith. The boys are down stairs and are loving being in the dorm. They have come upstairs often - so that has been nice for us! We definitely miss them being in our apartment though. But the fact that they have amazing dorm parents with 23 years of experience, I think is going to be such an great time of growth.

School started Thursday - so we only had 2 days of school and then the weekend. That was nice to be able to get started, but then have a break to get settled. We are finding the differences between boys and girls pretty great - not that we didn't know that with our own children, but when you have large groups of boys and then have large groups of girls, the differences are vast. The biggest difference of course is food - they barely eat compared to the boys. However, I did discover they can chow down on some brownies!! I have heard that the first week is a little bit weird with nervousness, etc. So hopefully it will increase a little bit once they get settled. Another big difference is communication - in these 4 days the girls have talked with me about missing their parents, periods, nervousness, etc. Boys tend to keep it tucked inside. But so far it is great - we love the girls and think it is going to be a great year!

PRAYER
Here are our girls names if you ever want to pray for them: Erin, Susanna, Akinyi (pronounced like bikini with an a), Yea Lim, Hannah, Rebecca, Heather, Gloria, Ha Young, Grace, Allison, Yea Rang.

Pray that they would transition quickly - especially the new girls. Pray that the home sickness won't last long.

We continue to make plans for our stateside time - pray that the detail will come together.

Thanks again for your support and prayers for our family!

Zach took this and edited it - the roman aquaduct in Segovia.


Royal church by the palace

Royal palace

In Mallorca

Statue in the park

Went to the bull fighting arena - there are bull fights every Sunday



Streets of Madrid - 11 o'clock at night

In Segovia



Mallorca


Met this priest and his brother who is a baker and baked this bread for communion - they loved Faith!

5 days left

Well, summer here is officially winding down - we have 5 days until the girls start showing up. We have had a great summer, full of fun and lots of memory making things. Kids had a great summer, but are ready for their friends to come back. Faith is excited

We have 12 girls in the Fall and then 2 more come in January so it is not too big. We have 2 seniors, 3 juniors, 1 sophomore, 4 freshman, 4 middle schoolers. So it is a pretty young dorm. We are very excited to start this new transition and look forward to experiencing the differences between parenting a group of girls versus guys.

The electricity has been a constant source of aggravation for us - it is a little bit better now, going off for 2-4 hours a day. Unfortunately alot of those times are at 10 pm - ugh. It hasn't rained that much for rainy season, so I suspect that there will be a lot more rain coming soon - hopefully it will help the heat - we start sweating the minute we wake up, gross!

We have only minor things to do for the dorm to be ready thanks to our predecessors! We will try to be better about blogging - our internet is a little slow, but will try to post pictures soon.

Our plans for furlough are starting. We will be leaving here around June 10th and flying into Washington DC - we will be in Maryland and also go to North Carolina to visit our friends there!
I know it is a while until that happens, but want to get things lined up - does anyone have a vehicle that they would be willing to let us use/rent for the 7 months we are in the States? We are trying to reserve a vehicle with some of the companies that rent out to missionaries, but they are all booked right now, but will keep looking. We are also looking at some options for housing - anyone have a guest house, missionary apartment or in-law suite (preferably with separate entrance or kitchen)? Please email us if you have any information - we are just starting our planning, but wanted to throw it out here first.

We are starting our planning for visiting and speaking at churches as well, if you would like us to visit your church and speak, please email us!

Summer

Wow - it is hard to believe that it has been a month since I last posted. We have been jet setting in Spain, moving, taking a French class and trying to relax with the kids by the pool. We had an amazing time in Spain. We started by going to Madrid for 3 days and enjoyed some museums, parks and fast food. We then flew to Mallorca - a little island off the coast of Spain. We rented a car and drove around this amazing little island. We saw beaches and mountains and lots of beautiful countryside. We spent 5 days here and we all felt that we could have stayed longer. The beautiful Mediterranean Sea was absolutely gorgeous. We then headed back to Madrid for another week. We saw more museums, went to malls, drank Starbucks, walked through parks, went to a zoo, and enjoyed amazing architecture. Overall it was an amazing opportunity, one our kids will hopefully never forget.

As soon as we got back, we started a French intensive course at the university. It is 8-12 everyday for 5 weeks. It has been a huge boost in our language, but our brain hurt at the end of the time. We also joined a pool here and that has been fun. We meet the kids here after class and hang out for a few hours to play and swim.

In the midst of all these things we moved to another apartment. Our new apartment was painted, and it looks great. It was a good opportunity for us to clean out some things, go through clothes that were too small and reevaluate what we are choosing to keep around us. So overall it was a really positive experience.

The kids are having a good summer too - they are spending the night at friends house, enjoying some independence while we are at class and love being lazy. Ron has been taking the time to hang out with some of the nationals and practice his French while drinking tea. It has been good to try to build some good relationships.

Well, in the next post I will put up some pictures from our summer. Internet and power continue to be an issue, although this week the power has been much better. The president promised to keep the power better since the last riots and demonstrations. So hopefully it will continue! Enjoy your summer! Drop us a line if you have some time.

Off to Spain

We are heading off to Spain tonight - we are very excited. We will arrive in Portugal and spend the day touring Lisbon and then we will head to Madrid. We will spend 3 days in Madrid and then we fly to Mallorca. We have rented an apartment and will basically soak up the Mediterranean sun and relax as well as see the museums and culture. We then will travel back to Madrid where we will spend a week touring the city and getting a little Western culture. We arrive back on the 29th and then proceed to finish moving upstairs to our new apartment. We are really excited about this opportunity and will post lots of pics and info when we get back. Thanks for all your support for our family. Love and miss you!

4 more days

We are winding down the year here and only have 4 more days until graduation. The kids are taking exams as I write this! Graduation is Thursday and then we end the year with a 50th anniversary celebration. Our summer plans consist of 2 weeks in Spain and then a French class at the university. It has been an exciting year for us filled with challenges, but lots of good things as well. Our internet has been less than stellar, so I have been having a hard time posting, so sorry for the lack of communication. We will be sending out an update soon, so be on the lookout for that! But here are some current pictures:


Faith sporting a new hat from Nana.

Zach's soap carving of a Raven!

Faith won the French award for her level.

Luke as Mr. Incredible for a Disney party!

Luke played intermediate basketball this year - he really liked it!

Beauty and the Beast

Zach was cast as Lefou in Beauty and the Beast this past weekend. We wanted to show you one of his big solos. He had 2 other solos, but this was the biggest. So if you are interested, enjoy! This was more for the grandparents!

8 weeks to go

The year has really flown by. It is hard to believe that we only have 8 more weeks of school before the we will have completed our second year of dorm parenting. It is amazing how much this job teaches you about yourself and others. We have lots of events that will eat away the time - spring musical, Junior/Senior Banquet are two of the big ones. I know that I will be sitting here with my head reeling in June wondering where the time went. For the past 2 weeks it was Spring break. I sit here now at the end of it and wonder where the time went. We enjoyed a week at the beach at a little villa outside of town and just relaxed and swam and hung out with our kids. It was nice to have that time away.

The electricity has been better and as we speak the generator is being installed. The man installing it allowed us to put a deposit down and we are continuing to pray for the money. It will be a huge help in getting all of the laundry done and not having to walk around with flashlights! The internet has been painfully intermittent which makes communication challenging. It is not strong enough for a decent skype call most times, but hopefully that will improve with time. In a place where the infrastructure is growing beyond the country, it makes it difficult for the country to keep up. I think that is where Senegal is currently. Internet, electricity, water all continue to be a challenge for the ever growing country. It is still our biggest challenge, one that we continue to have to be stretched to not go crazy by it! There have been many days that I would have packed it in, but I know that this is where we are supposed to be so we deal with it!

We continue to miss our family and friends and though we haven't started counting down - realize that we will be back in the US in 14 months for our furlough. We continue to thank you for your prayers and support of our family.

Happenings

Life continues to be busy here at school - below are some pictures of an event called Sr. Cafe, where acts perform and all the proceeds go to the Senior class. I performed as well as Zach. Zach is in the Chamber Choir and also performed a little medley - both videos are on Facebook.
Also Zach and Faith participated in a 3 school tournament which includes track and field, volleyball and soccer. Faith ran the 800 meters and did so great. She lacks my competitive spirit so we were working on that with her and she got 4th out of 10. She did great! Zach's volleyball team got 3rd in his age group and he played great!


Faith dressed up as a cat for the cafe. The theme was Jammin in the Jungle.







Spring break is coming up for us next week - this is where all of the boys go home to their families and we get to relax for 2 weeks. We are really looking forward to this time to regroup as a family. The electricity has been horrible - last night we lost power for over 12 hours. The day before we only had power for 4 hours. The school is in the process of trying to raise money for a generator for the dorms. When we have no electricity - no laundry gets done, when it is in the evening, the boys have to do their homework by a some lamps. We are currently running a battery setup up but with the long outages they are not able to keep up. We are praying that God provides the money as it is very difficult right now. We are praying that Senelec (the country electric co.) can figure out what needs to be done, but we have heard that it is only going to get worse. It is very trying on everyone's patience!!! The school is putting in a generator today for the school, but they don't have enough money to cover the dorms as well. So please pray with us that the funds will come in.

Thanks for continuing to lift our family in prayer and we continue to thank you for your support of our family!

Fast Food Anyone?

Here is a ceeb (rice and sauce) restaurant. They are all around - you must bring your own container and you order per person. Here is our former team mate Patty waiting for our rice.



Here is our favorite "fast food" restaurant - not your McD's, Burger King or Hardees, but delicious nonetheless. We order a "meat" sandwich and it costs around $2. It is mutton with onions, spicy mustard, spices on a baguette. This is him preparing the sheep - they use everything. Not sure who eats the rest of it, but we do enjoy the meat part - not the organs, intestines, head or other choice parts!

Video of our day at Accrobaobob

Here is a simple video of our day shot by one of the guys - he was at the back of the line with Ron and I, so you see a lot of us.

Outreach - Accrobaobob

It has been an exciting time since school started in January. Ron went to Turkey to finally finish his classes for his Masters of Divinity degree. He is 1 paper away from completing all graduation requirements. While he was gone, a team from Northwest Baptist Church came in to go on outreach and serve here with us for a week. A huge surprise was that his Mom came and surprised us. She has never flown and didn't even have a passport before this trip. After seeing her walk out of the airport, I looked up to the sky and said I was looking for all of the pigs!! She did great here - we were so proud of her. The team - Bob, Charley and Mark worked really hard on outreach and then after observed and helped with our Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW). They are praying that a team from NWBC will come next January and do the same trip.

After they left we had some time to recuperate, but then we had our weekend that is reserved for the dorm students. We went to Accrobaobob - which is a high ropes course through the baobob trees. It was pretty terrifying for an old girl like me. The guys just whipped through and I tentatively made each step. We were so proud of our kids - all of them went through the big course. Zach is not a big fan of things that are scary, and Faith is little still, but both tackled this with no problem. You do the whole course attached to wires and carabiners and several zip lines. When you walk through one area, you unclip each carabiner and attach it to the next wire. Stepping off of the platform for each zip line is a pretty intense feeling. It did get easier with each one and by the end of the course I started to relax, even letting go of my death grip. It was a great day! Below are some pics from January: