The week has overall been good - we are adjusting to our new addition of 15 high school boys. They seem to be getting used to us and we are getting used to and really enjoying them. Our biggest challenge and stressor is our dealings with our national workers. Our inability to communicate well - continues to stretch and challenge us. We are still trying to settle in a routine, but we are confident it will come in time.

On a different note, every Tuesday we have a day off. Today we went scuba diving with our supervisor Cal. It was an amazing opportunity to see God's creation up close and personal. Once we got balanced out and breathing, we were able to explore a ship wreck. There were so many cool fish and shells.

Our kids are doing well. They really like their teachers and are doing well in their classes so far. Life is always bustling at the school, and it usually never lacks for activities. We (Ron, Chris, Zach and Luke) are going to be playing handball (think ultimate frisbee with a small dodgeball) and Faith is going to try jr. basketball. She is not convinced of her ability or desire to play, but she is willing to give it a try. Faith loves having all of these big brothers.

Thanks to Northwest Baptist Church and the Kapus family for our recent care package! We love hearing from you and all of our goodies. Thanks for all of your love and support of our family.

Life as we know it...

We survived our first partial week of school. Each day was a little easier than the day before. The whole school has had major issues with a storm that came through. Many dorms lost computers, phones, had water damage and many hassles. We lost our phones. So it hasn't gone as smoothly as we had hoped, but it hasn't scared us off! The guys in the dorm are great and we know that this is exactly where we are supposed to be! It is hard to feel so inadequate much of the time. Language has been kicked into high gear with so much communication needed on a minute by minute basis. It is hard when you are normally a fairly competent person, but when you try to communicate you feel like a goof! Our staff is very gracious and patient, but they do look at me like I have 3 heads sometimes. But all in all it is going well, with many funny embarrassing things to come! Below is a slideshow from our time before starting the dorm. We went to a ministry called Malika Monkeys to buy a drum and hang out with the lady who runs the ministry to help street boys learn a trade. We also went to Snake Island to rock climb and snorkel. It was so beautiful and truly showed God's creation. Enjoy!

Some pics from July

We went to a village and helped cooked lunch - here are some pics of the day:

Here is the fish frying

We are cutting up the onions

Here is the main lady who cooked

We were rolling up little balls of ground fish

Here is the finished product

Sunset on the coast

Luke with a lizard he caught

These pics were from a restaurant where we ate with the team of volunteers

We have 3 days until the boys start arriving. Wow, has time flown by. We are about 95% ready and just have to wait on others for the other 5%. We are excited, anxious, nervous and scared to admit ready for this next step of the journey. This is what we have been preparing and waiting for, for the past 2 years. We probably have no clue of what we are in for, but we can't wait. We are excited to be able to build relationships with the guys in our dorm. We have been busy with our national workers - oh what a humbling experience. It has been hard with communicating. We have 3 workers and 2 of them want us to speak in Wolof and the other in French, so some days have been challenging. One of the workers giggle every time we talk. So we have been doing a lot of charades and pointing. But so far we survived our first week and nobobdy has quit. I have ordered my first order of food and have planned our first week of meals. Pray that I have ordered enough or I will be fixing a bunch of peanut butter and jelly!

Sorry it has been so long since our last post, I hope to be a bit more consistent. Thanks for sticking with us and continuing to read our blog and for praying for us and our ministry.

We are almost done the apartment - we need to hang a few more things on the walls and organize a bit more, but it definitely feels like home!

Still working

We have been busy with getting the dorm and our apartment finished before the boys return to school on August 10th. It has been stressful, but it is moving along. The kitchen in the dorm is still not finished. We are closer with the counters starting to be installed. The stove will hopefully get fixed as well as so many other small details. The staff here has been working so many long hours, so pray that it all comes together. Our apartment should be finished being painted this week. It looks so beautiful. We will post pictures when it is done.

We continue to be excited for school to start and look forward to getting to know the boys better. Pray that the transition for them will be a smooth one! Our national workers return to work on August 3rd. We have made some changes, so pray that we will be able to communicate effectively with them and that they will have a smooth transition to new leadership. We want to have a rally the troops meeting when they get here, so we hope that our language communicates that and not something entirely else! It should be interesting!

Well we hope that you have had a good summer. We have missed spending time with our family and friends this summer! But enjoyed seeing and experiencing things here for our first summer away from the States! Love and miss you very much!

An amazing day

Our supervisors have a team visiting from Alabama. We have been busy helping them and serving with them this past week. Yesterday the ladies from the team went to a compound of one of our believers. They have not been open at all and at times hostile against our believer. We went out to eat and share stories with them. They were very warm and hospitable. We set up a canopy and mats as it was going to rain. While some of the team was helping keep the kids entertained, others of us helped prepare lunch. Was I in for a rude awakening of what it takes to feed a whole compound, plus 10 visitors. We started by pounding the spices, cutting 15 or so onions and carrots, and many other kind of vegetables, and rolling ground fish. This dish we were preparing was called Ceebu Jagga which consists of rice with a red sauce with fish and fish balls and vegetables. In between the cooking there were dishes to wash – hunched over a bucket. Unfortunately it started to rain so the cookers went inside one of the bedrooms to finish cooking. The lady who was cooking was very patient. I did my best to translate to help all of the other ladies take direction from her. It was the most language that I have heard and spoken since being in Senegal. It was a great opportunity to see what I have learned and be able to practice and use the language that I have acquired.

When the meal was served we ate on the mats while the families all ate in their rooms. We ate from a common bowl with our hands. This is the first time that I have not had the pleasure of eating with a spoon. I wasn’t very good at the scoop and scrape into the mouth action, but I get better as the meal progressed. It was hard to believe how much work it was to get this meal together and I was so exhausted.

During the preparations, I was cutting onions. I was cutting out the brown spots and rotten spots and putting them in the sand next to me. After the onions were cut I got the African hand broom and brushed them all into a pile to throw away. Shortly thereafter one of the elderly woman proceeded to get the sifter (it is what they use to do their flour in, but this one was used to collect the trash while letting the sand fall through) and take all of the onions and wash them off and take them into her room. It was humbling to see what was not good enough for my standards are still edible and valuable to them. Another thing that happened was that at the end of the meal, the lady who cooked was washing the dishes. Another woman and I were helping her – I told her to go and listen to the stories that were being shared. I wanted her to hear the gospel! She went and listened to 1 story and then came back to help. When we finished washing, she washed our hands and our feet for us. It was very humbling and hard to let her do – I was supposed to be serving her, but yet here she was serving me. Amazing.

While I was sweating and slaving away at the compound, the men of the team went fishing with some of our supervisors African friends. Although Ron took a Dramamine, he stilled proceeded to feed the fish! The waters weren’t rough, but being out in this African boat (which is like a really long canoe) Ron still felt the motion of the ocean. The other men were able to catch a few fish to give to this African for his family.

After being out all day, the team came back and helped Ron and I organize things in the dorm. They moved furniture, sorted linens and cleaned. It was a huge help to us! Thanks Mulberry Baptist church for your willingness to serve our family. We ended the day with eating fish and shrimp skewers and mango. It was a tiring, but rewarding day. One that I won’t forget!

P.S. I will post pictures this weekend!

Updates

Faith's ear is doing much better. After going back to the doctor, she determined that she just had a nasty outer ear infection. It is still gross, but it is getting better everyday and she isn't in pain any more. Thank you for your prayers.

We are completely moved out of our other house and are still organizing and unpacking in the new apartment. The school has torn out the dorm kitchen, so the dorm is a mess. Our allergies are a mess because of the dust. We are praying that they finish soon. Once our apartment is finished getting the final touches on it, we will upload some pictures.

We are battling with roaches!! We have had ants before, but never roaches. We are determined to win this battle, so any tips are greatly appreciated. There will be some work done in the apartment in a week, so we will move out for a few days and we are going to do a bomb. We are praying that it helps. Ugh!

We all had our first de-worming treatment (not the first for Luke and Zach). Some of us picked up a little souvenir from the Gambia. But since some of us had them, we decided to make it a family affair! It worked!

All in all, life in Africa continues to go along smoothly. We have a volunteer team that we are going to be helping with - we are excited about that. We will be in some of the villages helping the team. Pray for our time and that we would be able to share the message of the Cross!

We are continuing to get ready for the dorm to open August 10th. We will be busy helping getting the campus ready and the dorm cleaned and set up. Pray that we will be efficient and thorough in all of our planning.

Continue to pray for our language. It is so frustrating to see the lostness of the people of Senegal and not be able to share the good news. We are going to start memorizing stories this week. Pray that we will have an opportunity to practice what we have learned.

We continue to thank you for your prayers and support of our family. While we miss being with our friends and family, we love life here in Senegal.