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Josiah, our first born

2011-09-05T09:47:00.004-05:00

After graduation from Wheaton College this past May, Josiah applied to work with Samaritan's Purse. He was told to go to their website and suggest where he would like to work. Josiah suggested three different places and asked the recruiters to send him where they thought he would best fit. The response came back that he would be going to Japan, to help with the re-building process after the tsunami.

Joel and I have prayed for many months about these "next steps" for Josiah. We believe that it was God who opened this door for him and in direct answer to our prayers. He is loving the work, the country, the people of Japan, his team mates, just about everything about this new assignment. We are thrilled for him! and so grateful. Below is a link from the Samaritan's Purse website where you can get an idea of the kind of work that he is doing. You'll have to copy and paste it in order to read it - sorry about that!

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Samaritans_Purse_Today/post/calloused_hands_renewed_lives/

Living with Limitations

2011-09-03T04:06:00.000-05:00

This week Venus Williams, in the middle of a tennis tournament, all of a sudden, quit. She is a world champion and known to any person who follows sports. The reason she quit was very interesting to me. Williams has been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome and because of extreme fatigue and joint pain, she couldn’t keep pushing anymore.

As I read the articles about this woman who is still in her thirties, I could relate to most of what she talked about with her health. Having been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome myself many years ago, I know too well about the extreme fatigue, the joint pain, dry mouth, dry eyes, etc. SS is hard to understand if you haven’t suffered from it yourself. I love something Williams states in one of the articles: “SS is hard to diagnose because those who have it often appear the picture of health even when they do not have the energy to sit for a portrait.”

Ever since I’ve known that this is what I have, I have not wanted to be characterized by this illness. I usually never talk about it except to family members and no one would ever know that I have a chronic illness except my immediate family. They know only too well because there are days when I can hardly get out of bed – those days are not many if I live with margin in my life, but they still happen. They know because we have humidifiers around the house to help me sleep with a very dry mouth. My children know because when we travel, I suffer terribly with swollen feet and hands, whether it be by car or by plane.

Somehow, reading about Venus Williams’ struggle with this disease makes me feel like I don’t have to push so hard to keep a full schedule. Not that it is bad to push sometimes, but often I condemn myself for not entertaining enough, not visiting enough, etc, etc! I am fortunate to live with Joel who is a peace loving man. Stress is the thing that takes me down faster than anything else and there is very little stress in our home – almost none. I have much to be grateful for!

WE LIVE NEXT TO A GARBAGE DUMP

2011-08-30T09:59:00.002-05:00

When we moved to Dakar and to this neighborhood over two years ago, this is what you saw from our roof top. There was no garbage, no burnings, no squatter houses from this view.

Since then, slowly but surely, garbage trucks and garbage horse drawn carts make their way down our narrow, dirt road to dump their garbage right by our house. At first they used to make their way to this spot after dusk or early in the morning when no one would stop them. Now it is fair game for everyone to dump garbage here. If you look at the picture below, in front of the cement wall in the distance, it is all garbage. Folks have set up shacks right in the middle of the garbage, to collect cans, bottles and even have set up a charcoal making "business". If the wind is moving in a certain direction, we get full black and deadly smelling smoke that fills our house.

You may wonder why we stay in this house? We love it here! It is the only house in this entire neighborhood that is the right price for us - a fraction of what everything else costs here. We also love our roof top and the layout of the house. For now we will continue to live next to this garbage dump.

Nadia's Foot Surgery

2011-07-21T16:21:00.005-05:00

This summer has been sort of a blurr that looks like NADIA'S FOOT SURGERY! Two weeks after we arrived in the States Nadia had surgery and for over two months, most of what I have done is take care of her and her needs. She was a trooper through all of this.

A picture of her foot before surgery:

Nadia was so cute when she woke up after the surgery. Joel and I got to sit with her in the recovery room and here is her Daddy, leaning over to give her a kiss.

What would we have done without the scooter?! This enabled Nadia to keep up with us a little bit instead of the having the bruises that crutches can give. She loved the scooter!

Here is a picture of the incicions before they were healed but after three weeks in a hard cast.

Now the cast is off, she is walking on her two feet with sneakers and this is what the foot looks like...

Nadia, we are proud of you! and so happy that your one foot is straight! now for the other foot!???

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2011-05-14T13:25:00.002-05:00

If you are still checking to see if we write on our blog, you must be a true friend or my family! It has been so long since I have felt like there is routine in my life. In order for me to write on this blog or read anyone's blog, I have to have routine. While in Senegal the very frequent electricity cuts make routine look impossible to find. Since December of 2010, even though the weather was nice in Dakar the irregular electricity characterized every day. We would often get up at our usual time to total darkness. Joel would grope his way to get the matches and we would drink our instant coffee as opposed to the delicious coffee we enjoy that friends send us from America. No way to have quiet time with a lantern - my eyes do not do what they used to do. So those early morning hours were often spent sitting with my husband talking about the day ahead, praying about many things together and enjoying our nescafe. The girls would get up to get ready for school in the pitch dark. How do you find the right color undershirt and matching earrings by the light of a lantern? The electric cuts were bearable because we had cool weather and this kept us praising the Lord in the midst.

We arrived in the US on April 22nd. WOW! the electricity was such a wonderful luxury for us. We kept on saying how great it was to not live our lives by power cuts :) That first week in Amercia a few of my favorite things were:

Regualr Electricity

Thick Carpet under my feet

Raisin Bran with Milk

Orderly Traffic

We have been here now for three weeks and I am starting to take for granted the Raisin Bran, the Carpet, the Electricity and the Orderly Traffic. Oh, they are all still wonderfully appreciated, but a few of my favorite things now include:

Seeing Josiah every day

Looking out our bay window at lucious, green Grass

A Dishwasher

Sleeping with Cold Breezes coming in the window

From a grateful heart....

A TRAGEDY

2011-04-04T13:46:00.003-05:00

Today, like every day lately, I have been listening to RFI (Radio France International) and on-line, reading everything I can about the news from Abidjan. Every day we call close friends who live in Abidjan. We just got off the phone with dear friends who told us of the hundreds of dead bodies that were laying on the roads close to their home. My girl friend said that she had gone out early today to try to find food. She stood in line at a supermarket for 5 hours, only to have the doors close just before she got to the front of the line.

For days now I have had a terrible stomach ache as I try to digest what is happening in Abidjan, what our friends and millions of others, are living. It is truly a tragedy. Joel and I have prayed for them by name, asking God to put His angels around them and protect them. We have invited a couple of families to come and live in our house. The next days will be telling.

Almost 7 years ago we said our good-byes in the midst of a war that was already dividing people and a country. It was bad enough then but I never dreamed it could take the form that it has today. We cry out to God and pray the Psalms of David for the people we love. May our Lord have mercy.

Church....

2011-04-03T11:04:00.002-05:00

It is fun to have the girls involved with us at church. Whenever we have communion, Angele and Nadia help to fill communion cups before church.

Cheesy grins :)

There are not enough hours in the days to visit with all the people we love from church. In less than three weeks now we will be leaving for three months in Wheaton, Illinois. We are really looking forward to "getting away" and to seeing our son, but we will miss this church!

ICF HAS TRIPLED IN ONE YEAR

2011-03-17T02:20:00.002-05:00

Above is a picture I took before the service started on Sunday. This past week was our first week to meet in the gymnasium of the International School of Dakar. Although there are plenty of challenges with the sound and acoustics, there are so many positive things about this move! First of all we have so much room! The outdoors area where we have refreshments and fellowship afterward is much more conducive to this with a small play ground right next to it for the children. (I will get more pics of this on Sunday). Circling the inside of the gym are all the flags of all the nations - a beautiful reminder that the church stands as a light to the nations.

We had dinner a couple of weeks ago with a couple in the church. They began to tell us about when they first moved here (from S. Africa) and how the principal of the school had shown them around the campus and had told them that the school was bursting at the seams. Even now, there is a huge building project going on as expansion is happening. This couple asked about religion in the school and the principal said that they did not propagate any religion at all but that they had a church that met in their school every Sunday. Our friends said to us that day that they believed that ISD was prospering because they had made room for God's people and that He was blessing them. Joel and I had not thought about that before but as they told this story to us, it was very moving to us. We pray for this school, that God would make His presence known there, not only on Sunday's but all through the week!

Power in the Plug

2011-03-15T06:30:00.002-05:00

I just read on someone's Skype chat, "It's a good thing there is power in the blood because there sure isn't any in the plugs!" That made me smile :) Yesterday, our power was off for 13 hours, sort of all day long. It came on late in the evening and then went off again this morning at 6:00.

I was talking to Josiah on Skype and telling him about the challenges of living with such little power..... and then I said to him, "compared to what people are suffering around the world, this is so small!" Josiah told me that he didn't think I should compare my "pain" with others because you can always find someone who is worse off than you are!

This morning I am so thankful that we didn't have power. Joel left early to take the kids to school and then to go straight to a meeting. I was alone with very limited battery power on my computer. I sat down with my books, my Bible and my journal and had wonderful hours reading about and thinking about forgiveness. "Total Forgiveness" by RT Kendall, is what we are studying in small group now. It is powerful stuff! This is my second time through this book and I hope to read it every year.

So, there may be very little "power in the plug" but there is unlimited power in the blood of Jesus that brought me forgiveness.

Forgiven, I stand.

Spirit Week at Dakar Academy

2011-03-12T03:14:00.002-06:00

Can you guess who Nadia is?

We were outside waiting for the girls' carpool ride to school.

Wacky-Tacky Day.

Mary and Martha

2011-03-07T08:35:00.003-06:00

Recently we left our girls over night with some friends as we were heading out of town for a meeting. Last night was the first time in a long time that we had time alone, away from home, with Angele and Nadia. We decided to go down to a little Lebanese restaurant that we like downtown and have supper out. The service at this place was painfully slow which is exactly what we were hoping for. Joel and I wanted concentrated time to listen to the girls tell us the many details of their lives. At one point we asked about the overnight they had spent at our friends' house.

I asked who made the lunches in the morning. The answer was "Nadia". I asked who had made the bed in the morning. The answer was "Nadia". I asked who had packed up and tidied the room before heading out to school. The answer was "Nadia". We all laughed and then Nadia said, "this reminds me of someone in the Bible and I'm not sure I like it." She was talking about Mary and Martha and the fact that she was like Martha! We had a great opportunity to talk about the great qualities of both Martha and Mary with the girls.

Angele's interests are really in music and relationships although she tries to dabble a little in everything. She will spend hours and hours fooling around with her guitar and practicing piano. The other hours she has at home she chats with several friends all at the same time on Facebook. Nadia, however, loves to cook and prepare food. She also is an amazing organizer and cleaner. Her drawers are always beautifully neat and she weeds out her clothes and junk on a regular basis. The two couldn't be more different. The challenge for me is to point out each ones' strengths to the other so that they build one another and appreciate the other for who she is.

I never dreamed that middle school children could be this much fun. They truly are a delight!

A Day in Prison

2011-02-04T01:01:00.007-06:00

Yesterday was one of those days that is hard to capture in words. Let me back up a few days to say that last Sunday was an exhilarating day at our church - International Christian Fellowship of Dakar. We had invited an elegant woman by the name of N'Deye Diouf to come and share about her ministry in the prisons. Everyone appreciated her and showered her with love after the service. It was a great day! As a follow-up to that service one of the South African ladies in our church felt drawn to this ministry and in particular to visit the women in prison from her home country. This lady, whose name is Cornai, asked if she and I could go with N'Deye to visit the women's prison where there are several from South Africa.

I met Cornai and we went together in a taxi to find the prison. We got there early and since we didn't know each other very well we found a place to sit on a step and just talk. Her story was an amazing journey of God's grace and redemption! We talked for a solid hour before N'Deye arrived and introduced us to the prison guards. We were ushered into the prison based on the fact that we knew N'Deye - she is well known and well respected as a woman of integrity and grace. Both Cornai and I were carrying heavy bags filled with sugar, coffee, sacks of milk powder, toothpaste and toothbrushes. These were the things that we had been told would be useful to the prisoners. I was surprised that not one of the guards asked what was in our bags! But I believe this was because they knew and trusted N'Deye.

We were given a place to sit in a very small office with another distinguished woman, Mme. Tall. Mme. Tall is the social worker for this prison. She told us that although she tries to help the women in the prison, she is given no resources whatsoever to help them. The prisoners from S. Africa, Holland, Morroco and one from Mali were called into this tiny office to meet with us, one at a time. The office was so tiny that four of us were sitting in a circle, all of our knees touching! Imagine the three of us, knees touching, huddled together, pressing up next to a big desk behind which Mme. Tall sat, observing everything. The extra chair was where each prisoner would sit with us. There was a policewoman at the door looking in on everything that was happening.

Cornai was able to speak in Afrikaans, the language from S.Africa, to most of the women. The ladies would begin to talk to Cornai and then also begin to sob. It was a very emotional time for all of us. The last lady to be brought in was the woman from Mali. She is suffering from heart illness as well as diabetes and needs medications that she cannot afford to buy. After listening for some time, Cornai asked Mme. Tall if we could pray for her. She willingly nodded her head. Cornai and I laid hands on Aby, Cornai prayed in English for her healing and then I prayed in French. We also prayed for Mme. Tall. We had Aby's hands in ours and when we all looked up after the time of prayer, tears were streaming down Aby's face. Every woman prisoner, before they would get up to leave leaned over to hug and kiss us. They were so thankful for someone to come and visit them, someone who would take an interest in their case. Cornai wrote down phone numbers of each prisoner's family members to call them and let them know that we had seen their mother, or their daughter, etc.

After saying good-bye, the three of us left the prison and found a shady spot to stand and talk. It was a rich time with N'Deye and a time to again hear her heart for this ministry. She is dreaming about building a half-way house where women prisoners can go once they leave prison, to learn a trade, learn about the Gospel and find their way before going back out into the world again. This center will be called "Breath of Life". Our prayer is that God will provide the funds and the people to make this a reality in Dakar!

The DENTISTS Came to Town!

2011-01-26T01:17:00.003-06:00

Recently, we had a dental team come to Senegal from the United States. Their main "mission" was to bless a local church and community up in St. Louis, north of Dakar. There is no doubt that many were blessed through this team! The team was able to treat 175 people while in St. Louis! Our prayer is that many of these folks will understand the love of God through grace that was extended and received.

The dental team graciously agreed to see some patients at our house in Dakar as well. We did this in our upstairs room that we added on to the house.

As many of you know, our electricity in the city of Dakar has been terrible the last few months. We are usually cut about 12 hours out of every 24 hours. There is no pattern to the power cuts so you are never "ready" for them! In order for the dentist to use his drill he must have electricity. The very small generator we have that gives us internet hook-up, is not strong enough to run the drill. Leading up to the day that they were to come to our house, I kept talking to God about this potential problem :) My concern may have been heightened because I knew that I had some major work that needed to be done in my mouth that would require the drill!

The day finally arrived, Monday the 24th. There was this nagging feeling that I kept having that morning that the power would cut at any time. The team got to our place in time for lunch and we had had power all morning. We ate lunch, set up the clinic and Dave Hayward was ready to treat his first patient of the day - me! For the next five to six solid hours, Dave used his drill and fixed many teeth, even pulling a few as well! After he finished working on me, I got busy getting supper ready for 10 people. While I was working I said to God, "OK, this is amazing that the electricity has stayed on for this long!" I said, "God, if when we are all finished this afternoon, the electricity cuts, I will really know this is YOU!" Well, Dave saw 9 patients that afternoon. After the last one was done the team began to clean up their "clinic" and put things away. 15 minutes after the last patient left, the electricity cut and was out for the next 6 hours!

I knew that God had answered our prayers!!

We enjoyed a candle light dinner with the dental team and felt great gratitude for their ministry to us. They were the kind of people that when they left us, we felt like we had been blessed - our hearts remain FULL! and we praise the Lord! Thank you Dave, Barbara, Phil, Candace and Ardie!!!!!

Below, a picture of Barbara, explaining about dental hygiene to Josue. Laura Livingston stopped by for a visit and she is looking on.

Dave working on my teeth...

Dr. Dave and Dr. Phil... they brought a portable dentist chair along with everything else!

Encouragement in a box!

2011-01-08T10:48:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we received "a box", a very big box, I must add! We waited until all four of us were present to open "the box" as it was a late Christmas present from friends of ours in Wheaton. I wish I could have recorded the ooos and aahhhs and squeals of delight expressed by all at the things in this box. These friends know how we like to eat....all kinds of nuts, all kinds of yummy dried fruit from Trader Joes, crystal lite, fun spice combinations, salad dressing seasonings, etc! They also know just what the girls like...... itunes cards for Angele and games for Nadia. There was a game in this box that Nadia has wanted for years now - Banana grams! And there was also lots of coffee and teas. We felt so spoiled and grateful for this wonderful gift. Sending boxes to Senegal costs a lot. The thought and money spent to buy all of these goodies and then to send them to us was a huge encouragement!

Surprise, Surprise!

2011-01-04T13:38:00.003-06:00

I hesitate to use this photo of the four of us as Angele does not like it at all : \ It was a bad hair day for all of us! But, I must admit that it feels good to be back on our blog! I have missed it. Life was happening at a faster pace than what I was able to keep up with for a couple of months. Praise the Lord, January carries a promise and hope of a little more margin.

Robbed!

2010-10-29T04:52:00.003-05:00

On Wednesday of this week Joel and I had planned out our day. We had both been pushing hard and really felt the need for sabbath. After we got the kids off to school we got our sneakers on and started off on our 6 K walk by the sea - a beautiful day! We came home, made oatmeal with raisins and nuts :) and headed for the roof (see picture below) to enjoy a leisurely breakfast together. It was going to be a great day off!!

Joel was ahead of me and I heard him say, "someone was in here" as he reached the room upstairs. Sure enough we had been robbed in the night and we didn't even know it!

Good friends and colleagues had loaned us their generator as our electric has been very sporadic. When the electricity cuts, Joel usually would set the generator outside these doors and run cords downstairs, just to keep the volume down a but. The one night that he left the generator outside these doors, someone was watching. And on this particular night our guard was profoundly sleeping! Someone, maybe two or three people, climbed up over the back wall, onto the roof and forced open the window that you see in the picture. They not only took the generator but also a very large de-humidifier (don't think they would have taken that if they had known what it was) and a lamp. There was a lot of stuff they did not take. They rummaged through everything in the upstairs room and then left the way they came.

There are details I won't give on this public of a website but suffice it to say that we are pretty sure we know who robbed us. This doesn't make us feel any better about it. Not only do we need to replace what we had borrowed but this also took over two full days of Joel's time, to go to the police and file reports, change locks, etc. We also need to increase security around here which is no small task! We are asking God for His wisdom and grace. If you are reading this, please pray for our girls as this was hard for them.

International Christian Fellowship

2010-09-27T05:58:00.003-05:00

Fellowship time with snacks - this is an every Sunday occasion!

One family brings snacks each week...

Sunday school...

The kids go out for SS at the sermon time. Just the adults listening here...

The most significant thing that happens on our planet is that every week groups of people who have been redeemed, forgiven by Jesus Christ and restored to their Heavenly Father, gather to worship God and to remember what the story is all about. Often its' significance goes unnoticed. In the places where this happens men and women are being transformed and readied for a day when all of creation will bow down and worship the King of kings, the Lord of lords. We are privileged to be part of such a group of Christ-followers in the city of Dakar.

At times what we do can seem insignificant. We meet in a small, rented room in the corner of a property that does not belong to us. We don't have any paid staff or glitzy programs. At other times the power of what God is doing is tangible. This group of about 50-70 people that represents about 10 or more nations gathers every Sunday morning to remember that there is a God who created us and who loves us and who redeemed us and is transforming us for eternity!

We feel privileged to be part.... blessings, Joel

Rains, rains and more rains!

2010-09-25T10:30:00.002-05:00

These pics were taken this week in our neighborhood. We have heard that Dakar has gotten twice as much rain as last year if not more and more is expected. The roads are not built to handle much rain as you can see above. Joel and I have had a hard time getting our walks in because it is either raining or so muddy that you cannot slip and slide out to the main road. Dakar generally does not see any rain from November until June so we try to enjoy and savor each and every rain.

Today we noticed a difference in the temperature - it is heating up and we will not feel the cool ocean breezes now until the end of November. This is when our electric bills go out of sight!

CARPOOL

2010-09-15T04:41:00.003-05:00

Angele and Nadia are attending Dakar Academy this school year. DA is about a 30 minute ride from our house, on the other side of the city. There is a family, the Tounger family, that lives close to us and they attend our church. Both of the parents work at the American Embassy. Fortunately the Tounger's have decided to send their two oldest children to DA this year so we are able to share transport with them - a real blessing for our family! Sienna is in 3rd grade and Nico is in 1st grade. Unfortunately for Nico, he now has two more "mothers". It is so funny to hear Angele say, "Nico, is your seat belt on?" or Nadia say, "Nico, please stop burping - that is rude!" and on it goes :) Our girls love these kids and and love carpooling with their family!

What is "normal?"

2010-09-09T06:15:00.002-05:00

It seems like no two weeks are the same around here. That can make life both exciting and challenging! If you are a person of spontaneity or used to chaos, you might thrive in such a life :) But for Joel and me, the older we get the more routine helps us to live life with intentionality for Christ. This week we are finding blocks of time for Joel to read, study, think..... and for me to organize the house, sort my piles :) and spend lots of time reading, reflecting and writing in my journal. I like to think that this is what is "normal"!

Some of the things we are thinking about include how to live life with the girls involved in Dakar Academy. I have not said much about our schooling option yet but will as the days unfold. We missed the girls' first week of school as we were in Ouagadougou for Marriage Encounter. This sort of got me off on the wrong foot with first day pictures, etc! But now we are into the second month and Angele and Nadia are loving DA. That is the good news! But challenging to us is how to help them have another "life" besides DA!?! I want to say HELP!

Last year, both girls entered into a new culture, language, school, etc. and they did it well and with many tears and cries to God for help. Most of the people that they got to know and even to be-friend, still live in Dakar and we run into them all the time. Last night Nadia got a phone call, a friend from last year, Charlotte, inviting her over for a sleep over. Nadia declined, explaining to Charlotte that she will be going to a middle school lock in on Friday night at DA.

In most places, you go to school and then you have a life, right? Not at DA. At DA, you go to school and that is your life. But what about all the people that live in this city that are the whole reason we moved here, and that don't go to DA?

Advice is very welcome! :) I'll try to get "first day of school pictures" very soon! and post them.

More about Marriage Encounter!

2010-09-03T05:09:00.004-05:00

It was a fun treat to work the weekend with my sister, Debbi...

As many of you know, the ME weekend is built around the stories of three testimony couples, representing three themes in marriage. One of our friends who attended said to us, "each testimony couple touched me deeply but when Cathy and Charles started to tell their story they were telling MY story!" We really need to help develop testimony couples from West Africa. This is a big prayer request. Below are Cathy and Charles, working away on the computer before the weekend.

It has been a blessing to hear the reactions and joy expressed by our friends from here in Senegal, about the weekend. We are praying about doing ME here in Dakar. If you are reading, please pray with us!

What Happened??

2010-08-18T01:42:00.003-05:00

What happens during the 48 hours of "marriage encounter"?

The only way to describe what happens is that it is a spiritual experience! The weekend evolves around the testimonies of three couples who have been miraculously transformed first by Christ and then in their marriages. As one of the participants own words, a doctor from Bobo Dioulasso, he said "these testimony couples are heros of the faith!" This weekend Joel and I coordinated the 48 hours of love. We had three testimony couples come to help us from three different countries, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt and Chili. We represented four mother tongues - English, French, Arabic and Spanish. It was exhilarating to work with these couples!

In addition to the testimony couples we had the privilege of serving with Issiaka and Elisabeth Coulibaly, dear friends of ours from Abidjan. Issiaka is a pastor and a professor at the FATEAC seminary in Abidjan. His wife is a gifted teacher. They helped the organization team from Ouaga to serve and plan out every minute of the weekend, literally! The incredible "behind the scenes" work was done with unity and love unequaled to anything we have ever seen in marriage encounter! It was a JOY to serve with all of these folks.

At the end of the weekend, by way of testimonies, we all heard what God had been doing in and through the invited guest couples. It was powerful! The testimony couple from Egypt, Fouad and Mayssa, told us at the end that they keenly felt and saw the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was palpable and so humbling to see Him amongst us, ministering to couples, giving courage to the testimony couples as they told of the healing and forgiveness of Jesus in their own lives.

Although we represented so many nationalities, we were one in God's Spirit - a taste of heaven to come!!

For all of you who prayed with us and gave financially to help pull this weekend off, you will see the results one day before the throne of grace. Without your support, this would not have happened. May God richly and tenderly bless your lives and for those of you married, may He bless your marriages, for His glory!

Here are a few pics:

We invited three couples from Senegal, all pastoral couples, to live the weekend. They were blessed!

Joel worked for days ahead of time with the testimony couples....here are Cathy and Charles Mathieu, refining and re-working their testimony.

The colonel and doctor, Joseph Drabo, served as supervisor of the weekend along with Issiaka.

Prayer meeting before the weekend with all the organizational team.

Here is Cathy Mathieu with my sister, Debbi Clouser and me :) So fun to do this with my sister and brother-in-law!

MOTIVATION!

2010-08-09T12:17:00.002-05:00

Joel is in Ouagadougou since yesterday. He has been working night and day leading up to this week and the Marriage Encounter for August 13-15. Joel and I will be coordinating the weekend along with three testimony couples, from three countries with three different mother tongues and none of those is English. This is the first time that we have put together the manuals ourselves and it is a huge job, especially when you are pulling from many translations, etc!

Tonight is the Motivation Meeting :) If you have never gone to an ME weekend, the motivation meeting is exactly that.... a time when you invite all the invited guests to the local church where the organization team holds a nice reception and where the coordinator and supervisor talk about the weekend, what to bring, what not to bring, etc. It is done in a way that sparks the interest of the couples and "motivates" them to come.

Tonight the testimony couples start arriving and there are a ton more details that need to be done before Friday. I wish I was there to help out with all of this and especially to be with my sister, Debbi. Most of the activity is happening at Debbi and Steve's house/center, so I am missing all this visiting time with her!

This week is also the week that our girls start school. This year they will be attending Dakar Academy and the first day of school is the 12th. We have great friends who have graciously accepted to keep Angele and Nadia for five days while I travel to Ouaga. The timing is not ideal but there was nothing we could do about it. Lord willing, I fly on Wednesday to Ouaga to join the fun.

This morning I took Angele over to DA for an entrance exam for Algebra. Her class mostly takes the pre-Algebra this year, 8th grade, but she wanted to be in Algebra so asked to take an exam to get placed higher. She did great! and is very happy :)

We will be back on the blog with news of the weekend and pictures next week. If you are reading this, we would love for you to join us in prayer for all the details, for the invited couples, for renewing and blessings, and for strength and grace for all of us that are working to make this happen. We have invited three couples from Senegal to come to this ME so they are all flying as well to Ouaga - may they know the power and presence of the Holy Spirit during this weekend, all for His GLORY! Amen.

He is 21 today.

2010-07-29T15:14:00.002-05:00

Dear Josiah, today you are 21. Where did the years go? The memories flood my mind, memories of your birth in New Jersey, of moving to Paris when you were three weeks old, then to Daloa when you were 1, to Abidjan when you turned 3, to Nyack at the age of 4 and then back to Abidjan when you turned 5. I'll stop there but I remember living in 13 different homes with you before you turned 18.

Josiah, you are a great son and we love you and we are proud of you. Our prayer for you is that you will love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Having you here with us for five weeks this summer was a huge blessing and gift to Dad and me and to the girls.

We love you!!!!!

Beautiful Music In My Ears!!!!!

2010-07-27T04:43:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I had something happen that was a delight to me! We have good friends here who have three sons. The youngest, Silmel, is Nadia's age and entering a bilingual school in the fall. His mom asked me if he could come over to hang out with Angele and Nadia and be in an "all-English" context, to prepare him for school in the fall. Yesterday was the first day that Simel came over. The girls and he spent five hours together, playing Wii, playing Sorry, reading in English out loud, talking, etc. I peeked into the room where they were playing every now and then and got to hear both Angele and Nadia explaining, in French, different aspects of this or that game. It truly was music to my ears!!! I think that it will be important to send the girls to Simel's house as well so that they can be more immersed in a "French and Senegalese setting".

This was the last day of school for Nadia and her brother went to pick her up.

This picture was taken at the closing "theatre" of Angele's school. Here is Angele with the kids she hung out with all year long, Dioulde, Maeva and Thomas.

Let the "MUSIC" continue!!

The "after" pics of the new room on our roof

2010-07-21T04:08:00.003-05:00

The room we added onto our house is about finished now. I would still like to get a nice wooden table some day with matching benches or chairs.... but that will have to wait. Here is a pic from the outside part of our roof. the other pictures were taken inside the room. It will be a great addition for entertaining as well as all kinds of other stuff. We told the girls that they will need to do their homework every day upstairs in this room and keep their school bags up there.

What is happening?

2010-07-19T08:29:00.002-05:00

In case you wonder what on earth we spend our time doing during these days, I thought I would write about it :) Actually, our electric is off, has been for over 6 hours now and there is not much I can get done so thought I would write a bit. This morning I took the girls with me to run errands. We went to the travel agent to check on reservations for two of the couples that will be going to Ouagadougou for the marriage encounter in August. I wish you could meet this travel agent. He thinks he is speaking English to me but I honestly understand about two words in each sentence. He does not speak French, he is from India. I have made countless trips to this guy's agency, trying to get through as best I can about the correct names and dates. We are taking three Senegalese couples with us to Ouaga and if I could have a dollar for every time he has had to re-do the tickets for one of these people, I would be able to take my family out to dinner! It is an occasion for me to practice many of the fruit of the Spirit!

Anyways, the girls and I first went to the travel agency, then to Quatre Vent, or a French book store where you also buy paper and school supplies. The girls shopped for school needs and I shopped for stuff that we need for the marriage encounter weekend, such as pens, envelopes, etc. There was no electric at the book store. We bought our things and headed for the eye doctor. Angele got new glasses recently as her eyes had gotten much worse. Now she is dying for contact lenses so I went to the eye doctor in order to order the contacts. There was no electric at the clinic. The secretary told me to come back tomorrow and maybe we could place our order - it was very dark in her office!

From the eye clinic we went to buy vegetables and groceries - no electric in the grocery store. Usually they run a big generator to keep stuff going but that was also broken. When I saw how hot the store was and how dark, I decided to not buy any meat there, not knowing how long it had been since they were without electric! I bought my veggies outside at the lady that sells on the street and then we came home. Still no electric here either! It has been 7 hours now.

This is sort of how my days have been for the last couple of weeks!

But, why does it take so long to get ready for one of these ME weekends?! Joel ran a small generator this morning for 6 hours so that he could work on the computer, proofing texts of testimony couples, and getting the texts ready to send to our friend in Santiago who will put the manuals for the weekend together. One of our testimony couples is from Cairo. Their English is very difficult to understand - sometimes impossible. We carefully went through everything and re-wrote the English, then sent it to a friend who is helping with translation. Once we get it back, we have to go over it to make sure it is saying what is intended and then fit it into a template for the weekend and sent it off to be inserted into a manual. Each couple's testimony takes literally hundreds of hours from start to finish. We are on the home stretch, praise the Lord!

After working on the computer for 7 hours, reading and proofing the French texts, Joel decided to head out to buy more fuel for the generator and said he would stop at another store to get me some meat. As I write, I hear the cries of our kids, "the electric is on!!" That is my cue that I need to get some things done, other than sit here and write :)

More later.....

St. Louis, Senegal

2010-07-16T06:50:00.004-05:00

Jacob, Jonathan and Nadia....at the Davis' house

Angele with Josiah, Karis, Jacob, Nadia and Jonathan

Joel and I with Brian and Michelle Davis in front of their lovely homeAngele and Nadia right before supper

dried sting rays - anyone hungry?

This is the bridge that went across to our hotel

Joel and his girls - the ocean was rough but breathtakingly beautiful!

Typical scene along the river in St. Louis.

We "toured" the town in this little horse cart - really neat!

Picnic on a hill overlooking where the river meets the Atlantic ocean - gorgeous place!

Nadia with her daddy, 11 years old :)

Michelle Davis and daughter, Karis, with Karen Conkle and me - the wind was terrific and the scenery beautiful

In St. Louis...

2010-07-06T04:05:00.002-05:00

Hi Friends and Family..... There are a few of you out there reading, especially my loyal sisters and sister-in-law, Katy :) We came to St. Louis, a four hour ride from Dakar, on Sunday after church. We are having a great time here, visiting with the CMA folks. Yesterday we got to spend about 6 hours alone with two of the families and we see the other family today. I think one of the things that gives both Joel and me great encouragement is to hear people's hearts, to listen ..... and when there is a relational foundation, to be able to talk about the soul - your soul and my soul. How many people in your life ask you how your soul is doing? There is no question I would rather be asked than that one. Everything comes back to that one thing, how is my soul? Nothing like staying right on the beautiful Atlantic ocean and taking long walks to talk to God about my soul!

Angele and Nadia are enjoying the "down" time, hanging out with the younger children on this team, watching movies their brother down-loaded for them, swimming and seeing the sights of this neat city - so much history here!!! This is the city that the French chose to make their capital for ruling all of French-colonial West Africa! Nadia studied all of this in French school so it is really fun for her to see it now and to recognize famous names and places that she learned from Mr. Gueye.

I took lots of pictures yesterday but will wait until we get home to download them and post some of our trip. Our hearts are grateful, for life, for health, for relationships and for purpose that God gives us each and every day.

Nadia's 11th Birthday Party

2010-07-02T14:51:00.006-05:00

I remember when Nadia first started 5th grade in French school. All the little girls would play these hand-clap games during recess and Nadia used to tell me how sad and left out she felt because she didn't know French and didn't feel like she could join in with all the girls. You can't imagine my joy when I saw them playing this game at her party here at our house the other day - all in French and Nadia was yelling out the words in French just like everyone else! :)

Blowing the ping pong ball to try to get it off the other team's side.

Nadia and Charlotte with Siga to the left and Yvette to the right.

Here are the girls that Nadia invited to her party....Naomie, Awa, Isabelle, Charlotte, Yande, Bate, Sukeyna, Yvette and Siga!

Dancing to the music up on our roof :)

THE NEVER ENDING CONSTRUCTION PROJECT!!!

2010-06-22T10:14:00.003-05:00

We finally decided that either we need to move or we need to make this house work for us. We have one living/dinning room that is not real large but adequate. However, with all the entertaining we do we really needed another "all-purpose" room for dinning, playing, studying, etc! We began this (what we thought was small) project a month ago now and were told that the masons would finish their part in one week. A month later, they are still not finished. I will post the "after" photos when the work is done!

celebrations...

2010-06-03T15:14:00.004-05:00

Mother's Day..

So fun to have all three of our kids home for mother's day - we celebrated on the French Mother's Day date. Angele made the noon meal with a little help from Nadia and they set the table with china, etc. So grateful!

Joel's Birthday... his 50th!

I have pictures but am just learning how to use this new Mac and not sure how to find my pictures or organize them! We celebrated Joel's birthday as a family this year - just the five of us. I made a nice homemade dinner topped off with homemade German chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. Everyone seemed to think it was delicious :) The three kids took time a couple days before his birthday to write out a letter to their Dad, expressing their love for him. Josiah wrote his letter, Angele, hers and Nadia wrote hers. WOW! that was a gift that has no price tag. Joel was deeply touched by the letters the kids wrote to him and I was too. This is something he will keep for the rest of his life! We also plan to get him a few gifts but I will have to shop for those when I go to the States.

SUBBING

2010-05-28T03:40:00.002-05:00

It is May 28th and time to up-date our blog!

As I write this, I am sitting in a classroom at the international school of Dakar in Senegal. Joel and I have been wanting to branch out and get to know more people in the international community here in Dakar and there is no better place to do that than at this school. So, I signed up to be a substitute teacher. Yesterday was my first day to sub and I am signed up for today as well as Monday of next week - three days. These first days I am in the 7th and 8th grade Social Studies classroom. These kids are great kids and I wish I could get to know each one. Middle schoolers are wonderful! Having middle schoolers myself helps me to sort of relate to where they are in their development - I am loving it.

Josiah is Home!!

2010-05-14T08:48:00.002-05:00

This morning at 4:20 am Josiah's plane landed. Joel and I left the girls sleeping in their beds and headed for the airport when we heard it touch down. Our bedroom window is very close to the runway for the big jets so we hear them come in every morning. It was so great to see Josiah! We talked for about three hours straight and then he headed to bed. I asked him what time he wants to get up and he said even if he sleeps all day, he will still sleep tonight! This is called catch-up time from finals week I think.

Tonight I am making taccos, one of his favorite meals and it is just the five of us here for dinner. Sometimes I feel like Joel and I have raised two families, one with just Josiah and another one with the girls. It is so nice to have these five weeks with him living at home, to try and "connect" these two families :)

Monday morning, bright and early, Josiah will go down to the Ministry of Education to begin his internship for International Relations. He will earn 4 credits for 200 hours of work on a US AID project, working as an assistant to the head of the project. It should be interesting! The project has been to build and sustain 70 some middle schools here in Senegal using community development, etc. I will try to write more about it in the days ahead. We have heard that this project has been unbelievably successful as far as projects go, here in West Africa!

Technology Margin is MISSING in my life :)

2010-04-19T09:12:00.002-05:00

Well, it happened. I have had this dread for a long time, that my computer would soon crash. It happened about two weeks ago. Our Dell was almost four years old but we had the hard drive replaced just a year ago. One morning I went to get on-line but the computer was doing funny things. Many hours later and after a long phone conversation with Dell, Joel told me the bad news. Our hard drive had crashed. The worst part was that while we had our son back everything up before leaving Wheaton last year, our external hard drive was also not working and even if it were, we had backed nothing up since last June. This is what I call living with no technology margin in my life. I am determined, by God's grace, to learn to back up everything from now on...

But what to do in the meantime? Angele and Nadia cried when they found out about this computer. They had all their itunes songs on there, all of our family pictures, etc... Nadia said it this way, "I feel like I have lost my life!" and she sobbed... I felt like crying right along with them :) When you loose a computer like this, you feel like you have lost your best friend!

I tried to put it all in perspective. Come on, it's only a computer! We have each other, we have health, strength, etc, etc. So what is the big deal? I think the big deal for all of us is that we are slowly trying to make a new home here. We have moved so much and given away multiple times, everything we own, so the computer represents our memories with all of our pictures, it is chock full of the girls music and their music is so important to them at this age :) They have been generously gifted with i-tunes cards and have SO enjoyed buying songs for their i-pods!

Today we wrapped that ole hard drive in bubble wrap and packaged it up to be hand-carried to America and then mailed to our son, Josiah. We are praying that he can get our precious memories off the hard drive and onto something for safe keeping!

I have had the habit of writing regular e-mails out to friends and loved ones and including pictures and all. Until I get another computer, that is on hold. In some ways it has been good for me not to have a computer during this time. I have spent more time than usual reading great devotional books for the soul!, writing in my journal and listening to my kids!

Margin is necessary in every part of life for me. My hope and prayer is that we will even get there in the area of technology - a B I G stretch for both Joel and me :)

April 2010 - Blessings!

2010-04-13T08:48:00.005-05:00

If you are still checking our blog you must be a true friend, or a close family member :) I must start with an apology for letting so much time go by. It is true that the last couple of months have been pretty crazy but they have been really good too. So much has happened! The big picture things that have happened since we last wrote are:
1. Joel assumed the role of "pastor" of this small international church close to where we live.
2. We had John Jackson and Wes Nevius here for 7 days and loved every minute of our time with them!
3. We have been spending hundreds of hours getting ready for the very first Marriage Encounter weekend in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - scheduled for this summer.
As I write this, Joel is in Ouaga, meeting with the couples who will help to host this weekend. Lord willing, he will be home tomorrow night.

I was chatting on skype with my sister today and telling her again about the huge grace and blessing that came our way about a month ago. When I went over the details to her of how this came about she suggested I write about it on our blog. Thank you Debbi for getting me back to blogging! :)

Several months ago we received a letter that came as a huge sruprise. The e-mail was from a couple that we have known for many years. They are members of the church where Joel and I did our home service assignment 20 years ago. In this letter they told us that they would like to use some of their extra miles to buy Josiah a ticket if he needed to come to see us. I was so overwhelmed by this offer. This couple does not know us very well. They have prayed for us for many years and we run into them each time we go to Coudersport but never did I expect that someone would offer this kind of a gift to us. Noone else knows that they did this - it was a gift given in "secret". It was a gift that they could have used to go on a wonderful family vacation, a gift that did not receive a tax deductible receipt, it was simply to bless our family. Our son will have the opportunity to do an International Relations internship here in Dakar this summer. His ticket was bought, the taxes all paid and sent to him by these friends. We are extremely grateful!

Josiah will come to Dakar on May 14th and be here for about 6 weeks. We are really looking forward to being together again as a family! Again, the internship was a grace as well. A woman in our church who works for a US govt. organization has set up this internship for him.

I will give more family news in the next post..... very soon!

Being Called "Pastor"

2010-03-01T06:23:00.005-06:00

Yesterday Elin and I started a new chapter on our journey. We have been asked to step into the role of pastoring Family Christian Fellowship of Dakar. It is an English speaking fellowship that meets at the International School of Dakar. Though I have had the opportunity to preach there on a number of occasions over the last few months, yesterday the congregation voted and then extended to us an invitation to assume this new role. We are excited. We see lots of doors of opportunity.

One of the most delightful things that happened to me yesterday is that someone called me “pastor”. It has been more than five years since I left that role in Abidjan. Though some of the roles I have had since November 2004 have been pastoral I have missed being a pastor. It is a calling, an honor and a delight. To borrow the words of Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire) “when I pastor I feel His pleasure”.

As we look ahead the Lord is planting dreams in our hearts about some of the possibilities. There is lots of potential and some challenges. Pray that we will have ears to hear what the Lord has and wisdom and courage to lead in that direction.

Pastor Joel Bubna

TOYOTA!!

2010-02-11T07:10:00.004-06:00

This is the vehicle that we bought. We want to thank all of you who helped make this happen!! friends, family and churches - this car has already been such a blessing and we are deeply grateful. You may find this picture a bit strange but this is "typcial" in the city of Dakar. We just had a team of four people here from South Jersey. I smiled when they described this part of the city as "chaotic". I think you may get that feel from this angle :) Why are your windshield wipers sticking up? you may ask. Whenever one parks downtown, there are lots and lots of kids who are trying to earn a little cash. They will "wash" your car for you while you are in a store or eating at a restaurant and when you come out, expect to get a tip, hence the wipers up in the air.

Below, Angele and Nadia were on a "hay ride" with no hay. They had a blast in the back of the truck with some of our colleague's kids.

We can comfortably seat five people in this vehicle. When we are more than five, some must ride in the back. The girls are always the first to offer :)

We want to thank you again for your generosity and help in buying this Toyota!

Relationships!

2010-01-29T04:22:00.003-06:00

The joys we reap today from the investments we made years ago in relationships are hard to describe. From the minute that our friends walked in our door here in Dakar over a week ago, we enjoyed every hour with them for 7 days. Angele and Nadia couldn't remember Tonton and Tantie from our years in Abidjan but it took about two minutes for them to warm up to them! Cathy and Charles came to spend a week with us to prepare for the first marriage encounter weekend that we are planning for next summer.

Many, many hours were spent in working through testimonies, laughing, crying and praying together.

Joel and I have often said that our best weeks in ministry have been when we have friends that come and live with us for at least a week, when we have just hours and hours to talk about living this life as we walk with Jesus, in the power of His Word.

We had time to goof off and be silly. Cathy is a "drama queen" and SO MUCH fun to laugh with!!! I love her like my own sister :)

When they asked for the road to go home we told them that if it weren't for their six kids waiting for them, we would have kept them here for another week. They are wonderful friends, people who have been miraculously saved and who are passionate about life and ministry. We are excited about walking with them in ministering to couples.

Dear Blogger friends

2010-01-18T11:00:00.003-06:00

Last night we received 5 couples for a meeting here in our living room.

A couple of our friends have been asking us to do something on marriage in this context. We suggested that they invite a few of their friends to attend a marriage class for four weeks that Joel would lead. They chose the day and the hour and last night was our first meeting. It went great and we look forward to the next one next Sunday. I will try to get some pictures next week of the group. The photo above was taken right before folks arrived.

*****************

Last week I had an interesting outing to Goree Island with a dear friend of mine, Tantie Oumou.
She is the lady in purple (below) and was going to visit this lady in blue - a lady in her nineties! It turned out that Tantie Oumou knows the Imam of the island and he came over to see her while we were there. Visiting and spending time with people is extremely important in Senegal!

We're back! It has been TOO long!

2010-01-07T10:07:00.003-06:00

There are several reasons why I have not kept my rendez-vous with our blog. Among others the most explainable was a broken key board on my computer. I was missing the key "c" for a couple of months and it became more and more frustrating to type. I finally gave up and stopped typing. That is when my dear husband decided that he better take drastic measures :)
He had already called in a computer guy to help but the nice man could not find a keyboard for this Dell laptop anywhere in Senegal! We knew my brother was coming out so Joel called Dell and they sent out a new keyboard with John - we are back in business now!

Josiah and John were both here for Christmas. Josiah came for three weeks and John came for one week. We had a great time! One of the fun things we did was to go out to a desert about three hours north of the city of Dakar. I like to say that camping is not my thing but you can see from the pictures that it was quite rustic ? Here we are after a night in the tent seen behind us. There are plastic prayer mats on the sand with thin foam mattresses on the mats. If you aren't careful your foot or hand will end up in the sand while you sleep.

The dunes were amazing!!! Here is Josah boogy boarding down the highest dune.

The temps dropped as the sun went down. The sand beneath our toes went from quite hot to very cold within minutes - just amazing! Here is my brother, Uncle John with Nadia hudled to him for warmth and Josiah wrapped up in a blanket in the early morning. We were waiting for breakfast :)

A picture of our tents as the sun was going down.

Josiah and Joel up on one of the dunes.

I have posted more pics on facebook if you are interested. It was such a fun thing to do with a big group. I think we were about 25 that all went together - yes, I would do it again :)

Xmas cookies! with friends

2009-12-14T01:32:00.006-06:00

Nadia finally did it!! It takes her a lot longer to make friends than her big sister but when she gets her courage up, she does it in a big way! Last Friday Nadia invited three friends, Yande, Bate and Soukayna over to our house to decorate Christmas cookies and to play. They had a blast! Two of the girls speak very little English so there was a real mixture of English and French the whole afternoon. A couple of the parents came at the end of the afternoon and stayed for over an hour to visit with us!! It was a great first step for Nadia :)

Through the eyes of a 12 year old....

2009-12-06T14:12:00.007-06:00

For over a month now Angele has been planning a Xmas party for the girls in her class. She wanted to do this for lots of reasons but mainly to be able to share the real meaning of Xmas with her friends. She also wanted to try to draw the girls together to do something fun as a group. There are several girls in the class who are from Senegalese families and they talk among themselves in the Wolof language. This creates sort of two “groups” and Angele really wanted to “bring them together” and bridge this gap.

We baked all kinds of Xmas cookies, helped Angele plan games for 12 girls, organized a gift exchange game, Angele made cute invitations and a personal map to our house for each girl, etc. The day finally came and she was nervous. She was nervous because she was afraid some of the girls would not come, especially the Senegalese girls.

Well, it is Sunday now. Five girls did show up of the 11 so there were six with Angele. Angele tried very hard to hide her disappointment while her friends were here and we helped her to modify the games for fewer people. Each one that came heard a story about the true meaning of Xmas and each one seemed to have a great time. But I asked Angele today, Sunday, how she felt about it all. She expressed that she was very disappointed to not have all 12 girls together. Joel and I were so proud of her though, for taking the risk to invite these girls in the first place and to reach out to them in love. Of the 6 girls that were here together from the 7th grade, there were 5 nationalities present! French is the main language that they all have in common along with broken English :) Yes, it was a risk for Angele to initiate this party and we pray God’s blessings on these girls.

Bridge 09 Senegal

2009-11-19T08:10:00.004-06:00

It has been a while since I wrote on our blog! Let me try to re-cap the last couple of weeks. Bridge 09 was a team of African Americans (23) that came out to Dakar on a mission of reconciliation with the CMA. Back in the 50's, policy was written to exclude AA from being missionaries with the CMA. This caused many hurt feelings and misunderstandings. Praise the Lord, this trip was in the intent of reconciling all of that! Pres. Gary Benedict and Bob Fetherlin joined this team to seek reconciliation in a beautiful and meaningful service.

At the end of 4 days together away at a resort, the AA team divided into four groups to dive into ministry here in Senegal. Joel and I were asked to organize a pastor's conference to encourage pastors here in Senegal. We had 8 couples participate and it was a rich time together. Terrance Nichols, Nanxy Wheeler, Gwen Evans and Ottis Brown joined together to teach and encourage the group of pastors that came together. It was a wonderful time for all of us!

Here is a photo of some of the wives that participated. Time of praying for one another.

The highlight was communion together right before going our seperate ways. We each had a large piece of bread and went around the room to break bread with each other. Many things were made right during that time, hurts from the past were forgiven and there was rich and sincere fellowship!!

Here is Joel with Gwen. We really grew to love this lady!!

Joel translated for Terrance for about 12 hours a day! You may notice by his shirt that it was rather hot in that room!

The team all left on Sunday night. We were exhausted but so thankful for a very meaningful and rich time with these folks. Praise be to God, great things He has done!!!

An Ordinary Day.... well sort of!

2009-11-03T02:51:00.005-06:00

The day started out like any ordinary day... coffee, quiet time, more coffee, get the girls up, make lunches, start showers..... and then it happened. Joel walked into our bathroom to head for the shower and his foot went through the tile floor! Yes, there was a hole in our floor. I am one who does not like any sort of bug or insect, much less a rodent or anything that resembles one. Immediately, I began to imagine all sorts of things coming up through that hole!! Fortunately, none of my wildest nightmares came true on that fateful day :)

We called a tile layer to come and help. He was at our home within hours and the work began.

A little later, our friends from Mali, the Nesselroade's, came to visit. Knowing that Joel needed surgery to remove a cyst, Dr. Dan came with his bag in hand and performed the surgery on Joel with Nadia as his assistant. Dr. Dan is a gynecologist but he ventures far out of his specialty to save many lives, and to do random surgeries such as this one! An interesting note is that Joel had this same surgery done in the States. It cost us thousands of dollars and was not done properly - a portion of the cyst was left inside so didn't heal properly and all of that done by a specialist in the field! This is the second one that Dr. Dan has done for Joel, at no cost and so neatly and perfectly, that it is amazing!! After surgery and some good visits we all went out to dinner together. Dan insisted on paying the bill. We got a good laugh when Joel said "where else in the world does a doctor perform surgery at no cost and then take his patient out to dinner and pay the bill?!"

Nadia "assisting"...

We went out to the most western point of the African continent, not far from our house and enjoyed a beautiful sunset with my sister, Debbi, who was here for a visit.

Then we went out to dinner to a nice seafood place with Debbi- she was with us for a week and what a gift that was to our whole family!! Just another ordinary day..... in Dakar.

If you have read this far you are wondering how this all happened in one day. Well, actually, it has been three weeks since I have written on our blog and so much has happened! I pulled together a few of the events just to give you a picture of what the days have held. The girls also were off of school for 10 days during this time, we had three days of team meetings/retreat with the other missionaries on our team, had a visit from Wes Nevius from Texas, for several days, just to name a few of the things going on over the past weeks.

School Notes and Study Dates

2009-10-14T05:39:00.003-05:00

The French academic calendar is broken into five 6 week sections with a 2 week vacation between each section. We are in the fifth week of the first section so after this week, just one week and Angele and Nadia will have a break. They are counting the days! It has been a very long five weeks with promise of getting a little easier as the weather gets cooler and as they begin to understand the French language.

This week is "exam week" for Nadia. In every class she has an exam. We help the girls with homework each afternoon for at least an hour and then they work on their own beyond that. But yesterday Joel decided that Nadia had so much studying to do that he would take her on a "study date". This was more to motivate her and encourage her to really give it her all for these exams. The two of them went to a nice hotel not too far away with air conditioning :) , sat in the lobby with a cold drink and studied. Nadia has to memorize these random paragraphs - so different from what she is used to! We find ourselves (Joel and I) memorizing the paragraphs along with her about Louis XIV and Louis the XVIII, about the geography of Senegal, the names of the moon phases, etc!

Yesterday Angele came home with a lesser grade than she had hoped for on an English test. I asked her what happened and she explained to me that her class is learning English according to the RULES. She, however is not interested in the rules and so does what sounds right. She wrote "closed" instead of "had closed" and it was marked wrong. (I think both answers would have been correct in the US)

At the supper table last night Joel had Nadia reciting her history memorization for me about the kings of France. (She sounds absolutely adorable doing this in French!!) We got to laughing because Angele was mocking Nadia and telling her that she was not planning to learn French

according to the RULES but rather she would learn "friendly French" from listening and mimicking her friends!! She told Nadia that she would be sitting around quoting all kinds of French history while she, Angele, would be really communicating with her friends. We all got a good laugh about it :) It's true that if you try to talk "according the grammar rules", it takes longer - you must think it through first. That is not Angele's style so she is plunging in and trying anything that pops into her head. Nadia would rather die than talk that way!!

Both girls are making great progress and we thank you for your prayers! Today I sent them off to school with a blessing from Psalm 67:1-2 (my paraphrase) "May God be gracious to you and bless you and help you to reflect His glory today at your schools, so that people will see His glory and that many will come to salvation through His Son, Jesus." They left with a kiss and a big smile.

When God Shows Up...

2009-10-13T15:12:00.002-05:00

When God Shows Up…

To say “God Shows up” gives the impression that there are times He is there and other times He must be absent. That is not what I intend to say. Really at every moment of every day if we have eyes and ears the evidences of his being there are on every hand. But there are times when He manifests his presence or intervenes in a situation and it is just so clear that without Him that could not happen.

Unfortunately in our day the Evangelical Church has become a world leader in using clichés. We use and over use certain jargon that has become so pedestrian that it is replete of meaning. For this reason I hesitate to use a cliché however, when we say “it’s a God thing” I think that what we are attempting to express is that in a certain situation the only way we can explain what happened is that “God showed up”. Otherwise it is unexplainable.

Since we arrived in Dakar a few months ago Church leaders here keep asking us about ministry to couples. We feel like the Lord is clearly “pushing” us in that direction. We have been asking Him if we should relook at Marriage Encounter. The only way to know is to step out and see. So this past week end I traveled to Abidjan and Ouagadougou to meet with couples who were part of Marriage Encounter Abidjan between 2000-2004. Before I left Elin and I spent time seeking the Lord and asked that He simply make it clear in front of us. As I look back over the week end all I can say is that “God showed up”.

Before I ever got to my first stop God afforded me the privilege of having more than an hour of rich conversation with a young muslim gentleman that was seated next to me on the plane. The conversation was started talking about the challenges of married life and ended with talking about how one can be reconciled to God. Affirmation of spiritual hunger and how marriage ministry opens doors.

That was only the beginning. The people I needed to see and the things that needed to take place happened with little genius on my part. In fact if I would have had hours to negotiate and plan I could not have accomplished as much as was accomplished in those few short hours. At this point we are looking at having our first week end in Ouagadougou next summer. Believing that God will continue to “show up”.

With Marriage Encounter couples in Ouagadougou

The music is back!!

2009-09-30T11:59:00.001-05:00

For about four or five months there has been something missing. For many years now Angele and Nadia have had the habit of singing whenever we are riding in a car. They sing song after song, verse after verse, every word and do it well. They would sing so loudly many times that we could not hear ourselves talking to one another in the front seat and we would have to ask them to take it down a notch, but we loved hearing them sing!

Those songs have been quiet for a long time now. Last Friday night we took the girls out to a restaurant for supper. We had a great time, just the four of us, laughing and talking. On the way home, right after leaving the restaurant, the music began! It was wonderful to hear them sing all the way home - about a 30 minute ride :) We have missed those melodious voices and we are glad they are back!!

The girls still face big challenges each day, learning in a new language, Nadia trying to figure out who she can relate to as a friend, but they have begun to sing again and it truly is sweet music to my ears. Yesterday, on the way home from school, Angele asked me if she could begin to plan for a party at our house where she would like to invite all the girls in her class. I said to her, "you already feel close enough to those girls to invite them all home?!" She said, "oh yes! Mom, it will be great to have them over!" Nadia is a bit more timid but that got her thinking about having her classmates over eventually as well.

Leaving on a jet plane...

2009-09-30T06:01:00.002-05:00

Early this morning I dropped Joel off at the airport to catch his flight to Abidjan and then Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He will spend 12 hours in Abidjan, seeing friends and meeting with different ones as well as attending a funeral of the father of a dear friend. At midnight tonight he will fly to Ouaga, where my sister and her husband live, Steve and Debbi Clouser.

This trip was planned to meet with several couples who would like to see the ministry of marraige encounter started in Ouaga amongst people of Ouaga 2000 - an up-scale neighborhood where Debbi and Steve live and minister. Joel and I have prayed about this trip for some time now. We prayed that God would open and close the doors ahead of us if the timing was wrong for whatever reason. At one point we thought that the door was being closed when it looked like Joel's place on the plane had been given away! We continued to trust God and the next day, low and behold, our travel agent called to say that she had a ticket for him, going through Abidjan both going and coming with a layover of 12 hours both ways!

You may wonder why that was such great news? Well, originally, Joel had wanted to stop in Cote d'Ivoire in order to meet with some of our friends and folks who have already been involved in this ministry of ME to talk to them about this new possibility in Ouaga. When he checked into getting a ticket with a stop over of a day in Abidjan it was going to cost almost double!! so he decided not to go there at this point. Travel between countries in West Africa is prohibitively expensive. His trip this time will cost almost as much as a round trip to New York from Dakar.

Even though this all came together at the last moment, Joel was able to set up times to see people he really needed to see in Abidjan both on his way and on his way back. The doors all seemed to open and so we took this as God's will for him to make this trip now. He will be gone until late next Monday night.

This morning, like almost every morning :) we were up by 4:00 am to allow our "insides to catch up with our outsides" and our prayer was for wisdom and favor for Joel on this trip. As I am typing this blog, he called me and he was just picked up by a driver of some of our friends. Abidjan is a place where we invested 16 years, and where we have many, many very dear friends. He is off to have a wonderful 12 hours!!! Thanks for your prayers!

A Little Note of Thanks

2009-09-21T09:51:00.003-05:00

Dear family and friends,
This is Angele writing. I just wanted to thank you ever so much for all of your prayers and concerns about Nadia and me starting school. My first day, I wasn't sure if I'd make it, but then it got better and better. The first day my mom dropped me off and I was "assigned" to an eighth grade girl who is from England but has been to this school for five years so she was fluent in both languages. She was very nice but completely not interested in trying to make friends with me. She already had tons of friends with her and I was the only "anglephone" or english speaking person. I finially wandered off and sat in the library (I don't know if you can call it that, there are very few books) which is the only airconditioned room in the whole school. There were two girls there who I had breifly been introduced to earlier. They knew I didn't speak french but had no clue that I understand quite a bit. So I heard them debating for about two minutes whether or not they should talk to me. Eventually, they came over and reintroduced themselves and were extremely friendly. One girl's name was Zoe. Now the best way I can desribe her is that her personality sounds like her name. She's energetic, wild, and very funny. Both of her parents are scientists. She only speaks a little english but we can get along with what I know too. Then there is Maeva (say it Ma-e-vuh). She went to an english daycare for three years when she was small so she can speak a good amount of english. She's very sweet and I have grown to like her a lot. Her father is in the military from what she could explain with her english. Zoe is French and Maeva is half french half Portuguese. The first day was very stressful even with those two girls. They later were officially assigned to be my "translators" for anything in french I do not understand. After the first day I really started to enjoy school. Turns out actually a LOT of my classes are in english. The one annoying thing is some people are afraid to talk french to me. They'll bump into me and start saying Par- (the french word for sorry is Pardon) then look up and see, "Oh, it's the anglephone". So they then say sorry. But most of them want to speak english so they practice with me. I do enjoy helping them though.

Well, thank you again for all your prayers! Or in french, Merci!
Love Angele

Emotions and 12 year olds!

2009-09-16T11:48:00.004-05:00

Angele in front of her school on the first day..

Coming out of school the first day - the words on her lips were, "mom, I've already been humiliated enough today, please put the camera away!"

I promised to write about Angele's first day of French school. Yesterday I felt a bit faint-hearted and did not want to pen my thoughts. When Angele has a semi-difficult day, if you wait several hours, the horizon will most likely completely change. Joel says she goes through more emotions in 24 hours than he does in five years!

Today, the 16th, was Angele's second day. Joel picked her up and when she got out of the car there was a bounce in her step, a smile on her face and a melodic sonnet that went like this: "Hi Mom! I had a fabulous and wonderful day!!!" Oh my......................... I thought - how can one swing from one extreme to the other so quickly?! She spent the next hour telling me about every detail of the day. I praise the Lord. I thank Him for his faithfulness. I thank Him for his peace and His kindness. He overwhelms me with grace. Truly, the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want, He makes me lie down in green pastures, ......

Nadia's first day of school

2009-09-14T11:15:00.002-05:00

Nadia had her first day at L'Ecole Actuelle Bilingue today. The school is located close to our home and is strategic for getting to know people on this side of the city. It is a big step for our girls to switch gears in 5th and 7th grades, to a French school, not only for the language but also because the French educational system has a very different philosophy. If you are reading this blog we would ask you to join us in praying for the girls, that they will have peace about this huge challenge, that they will be "salt" and "light" and that they will make friends.

Nadia came home from her first day, not too happy and not too sad. I asked her on a scale of one to ten how did she feel. She cautiously replied, "about a fivish or sixish". Nadia is not one to ever exaggerate. Stay tuned for tomorrow to hear how it goes for Angele!! She is our sweet littel exaggerator (spelling??).

Thanks so much to our family and friends who have prayed with us about this decision!!
Below Nadia is in front of her classroom with her Daddy.

Here she is in her class.

Nadia in front of her school.

Why do the wicked prosper?!

2009-09-13T11:14:00.004-05:00

Nadia went to Sunday school today, with no prompting from her mom. Quite courageous I thought since everything was in French! The temperature in this room must have been close to 100 degrees F.!

Photo above is of Joel preaching and one of the elders translating from French into Wolof.
************************

We were so glad to go to the house of the Lord today! Joel and Angele were sick all day yesterday with fever, headaches, chills, all the typical

signs of malaria :( I asked Joel several times if he shouldn't cancel his preaching schedule for today but he kept hoping that he would take a turn for the better. We had a lab technician come to the house to take blood just to rule out malaria - good news, it was negative, so we were thankful for flu!

This morning Joel was invited to preach at one of the churches we attend, the Brethren church.

His text was Psalm 73. Before the message however, the singing lifted us up to the gates of heaven!! "Jusqu'au bout je veux te suivre, dans les bons les mauvais jours! A toi pour mourir et vivre, a toi Jesus pour toujours." A loose translation is "all the way I will follow Jesus, in the good and the bad days, whether it means death or life, I will follow Him all the way!" I wish you could have been there this morning to sing this song with this group of believers - it was powerful. Every single person in the room was singing with all his heart - I was sitting towards the front and it sounded like there were 300 people singing behind me!

We meet in a small house (see picture of the sanctuary), about 50 believers, including all the children. The room has windows on only one end. If the electricity is working we have a light and air conditioning. If the electric is off we sing in the dark and it can get very hot! But the joy of the Lord was palpable in that place this morning!! This group has been forced out of several meeting places and they desperately want to buy a small place of their own. Each Sunday they pass a basket around, to collect money for their own temple. It is sobering to witness their passion for Christ in such a context!

Joel preached from Psalm 73, a lament of Asaph. He talked about how we often are tempted to question the goodness of the Lord especially when we see the prosperity of the wicked. The promise of God's presence brings comfort after the lament. It was an encouragement to all of us. Psalm 73:23 is a promise from our God, "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you." Yes, sometimes it seems like the wicked prosper on this earth but we have been promised our Lord's presence and a place in heaven in that day - our true home is with the Lord!!!

Saying goodbye to Mr. Badgi

2009-09-08T10:41:00.003-05:00

Today, Sept. 8th, was the last French class for Angele and Nadia with Mr. Badgi. We wanted to do something to express our gratitude. Mr. Badgi is fasting for the month of Ramadan so we knew any kind of snack or meal with us would not work. Instead, we bought a big box of pastries and some juices for him to break the fast tonight with his family. Angele and Nadia made thank you cards, in French of course to give to him. He seemed touched. He was a huge help to the girls and although they did their share of complaining, they are thankful.

Nadia begins school on the 14th, Angele on the 15th. We have bought all of their "fournitures". The French are notorious for their very long list of supplies that each child must bring as well as all the text books. Now we just need to label everything, pack it up and they will start on a new "adventure" next week.

Putting Roots Down

2009-09-01T07:45:00.005-05:00

This week had ceremonial significance for our family. We went and bought plants, planted them and put them inside and outside the house. I know on the surface that may not seem like an earth shattering thing but it is a significant ritual in our family.

Part of missionary life is moving to new places and ministries. Though it is not unusual in our day and age, for families to move to new places and even new countries, I am not sure any of us is well equipped to live like that. We were created to live in community, be connected and have “roots”. Roots (especially relational roots) take awhile to grow but they are what bring life, joy and ministry.

John Stumbo wrote a powerful article in the most recent Alliance Life about the power of “metaphors” in our lives and our faith. The way we view God, life and circumstances influences us deeply. The “metaphors” that we believe and cling to shape the way we live and minister. One of the images that we have held onto since we moved to West Africa 20 years ago is that of a plant. Wherever God has placed us it is as though he has planted us there. Small insignificant seeds, capable of becoming thriving plants, even trees that change the landscape. Plants bless their environment wherever they are. They bring shade, beauty, air and life. Good plants have to take root. That is a work that is real but not always visible. To take root you have to listen, learn, embrace, give up rights and often suffer. Honestly it is easier to live somewhere and not put down roots. But a plant without roots gets pulled up with the least of wind.

To symbolize this reality, everywhere we have gone, even if it is for a short time we plant plants. We plant them in planters; we plant them anywhere we can. We like plants but even more than that it is a meaningful ritual. We have had some beautiful plants over the years. In our yard in Abidjan we had five fruit trees in our yard that we planted; banana, guava, papaya, avocado and mango. Elin also planted an umbrella tree in each place where we lived during the years in Cote d’Ivoire. We had lots of plants all over the house as well. They were beautiful.

At this time God has planted us in Dakar. The first few months as we readied a house and moved our belongings I wondered if we had the strength to put down roots again. To learn language, culture, build friendships and love. It seemed too big. Slowly the one who planted us begins to pour courage into our hearts and we feel little limbs going into the ground. That is where the ritual comes in. To remend ourselves of this truth we plant plants.

We have planters that we bring with us from place to place. They now have beautiful plants from Senegal taking root in them. The plant you see right when you walk in the gate is a Baobab tree. The baobab is known by everyone here. They grow in dry climates and are like a sponge. They hold literally hundreds of gallons of water so they can survive in dry times. Our prayer is that we will be sources of living water here where God has planted us.

Many times we have been tempted to find an easier way to do this. When roots get pulled up it is really painful. When we abruptly left Cote d’Ivoire in 2004 the pain from the ripping out felt like it would never heal. We asked ourselves if it wouldn’t be easier to do this all another way, to be more superficial. Artificial plants look good to the eye but they cannot grow, they cannot bear fruit and they cannot give life; they have no roots.

So this week we are planting trees and flowers and praying that the Lord will give us courage to put our roots down once again.

Joel

This Baobab tree is about 8 years old.

Joel looking for plants at the local nursery.

Sharing a need!

2009-08-20T15:36:00.002-05:00

This morning one of the things on my “to do list” was to write a note about our need to buy a car. Simple enough! However, I have been sitting for a couple hours in front of the computer trying to write, looking for a creative way to communicate this need.

As I sit here and reflect it occurs to me that I am not “marketing”, I am not trying to sell anything. I am simply writing a note to friends, family and supporting Churches, inviting them to participate with us to meet a practical need that will enable us to do what we are passionate about.

So here it is. We have been in Dakar for about 2 months now. Dakar is a needy place but it is exhilarating to see some of the things that God is doing. We are excited about the doors of ministry that are opening in front of us. One of the needs we have for life and ministry here is a vehicle. As we have looked at it all we have picked out a vehicle that we believe would best suit our family needs and the ministry possibilities that are in front of us. We presently need about $10,000 more to be able to purchase this vehicle. If you feel led to be part of meeting this need you can follow the link below or send a check to the Christian & Missionary Alliance with a note designating the gift to “Joel Bubna Vehicle Special”.

Thanks for partnering with us,

Joel
The Christian & Missionary Alliance
PO Box 35000
Colorado Springs CO, 80935-3500
Bubna Car

Making new friends in Dakar!!!

2009-08-19T05:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we went to Mama Sarr's home to visit with my friend Cecile and her daughter Rebecca. Mama Sarr's testimony of how she met Jesus is a beautiful story that would thrill your heart! Her husband does not yet know our Friend but we pray he will very soon!

Nadia and Rebecca...

Here are the girls with Fatou, Mama Sarr's daughter. We all have fallen in love with Fatou - she is a Junior in college in the USA and a vibrant believer. She speaks English like an American as well as many other languages!

Some of Angele and Nadia's favorite people in Dakar are Aaron and Nathan Babyak, pictured here with their mama, Lauren :)

Lizz Durbin and her husband are also new friends that we have grown to love! Lizz recently took the girls "shopping" and they had a blast :)

It seems we are making new friends every day and loving every minute of it! May we be light and salt in this city. "Greater things are yet to come, greater things are yet to be done in the city!!!"

Seeing old friends and meeting new ones

2009-08-19T04:43:00.005-05:00

The Nesselroade's were in Dakar to bring their 9th grade daughter to school. We spent many hours catching up on each others' lives! They are dear friends that we met in Mali, from the Koutiala Hospital. Dan is the head doctor at the hospital.

Here is Nadia with their youngest, Maggie.

Here are our five girls together. We were at a Lebanese restaurant in town.

Angele began kindergarten with Carrie Brooke Ballard. They were great friends in Abidjan and were separated when we were evacuated in 2004. Angele is thrilled to re-connect with CB!

Us with the Nesselroade's!

In Abidjan we were also with the Cook's. Andy Cook was also in Angele's class and is in the front in this pic, along with CB and Evan Ballard.

We have had a great time re-connecting with these "old" friends from our days in Cote d'Ivoire and Mali!

More French!!

2009-08-14T06:11:00.003-05:00

Thanks Debbi, Katy and Sue for your encouraging words for Angele and Nadia in their pursuit of learning French! It means so much to them and maybe even more to their parents!! I feel like I am a "coach" full time, trying to help them, motivate them and encourage them in learning this language. They are seeing the vital role that this will play in our lives and ministry here in Dakar.

Last Sunday we attended a wonderful church service but it was four hours long - all in French. Fortunately for our girls the pastors daughter who is 3 years old had already gotten to know them on a visit we made to her families home. She sat with them in church and kept their attention during a 2 hour message - all in French.

Last week we had a pastor from here and his whole family over for dinner and an evening. It was a rich time of fellowship and again many hours of French for our girls. I have to keep telling myself (and them) the truth....that this learning of French is the right thing at this time in their lives. For now, until they begin school on Sept. 14th, most of my time is making sure that they keep focused on their classes every morning. I try to sit in on a lot of their time with Mr. Badgi so that afterwards I can re-inforce what they are learning while with him.

This week we up our French classes from three a week to five a week. The heat is on!!! The race will be won when they begin school in Sept. and see how much they already understand!

French Lessons at home

2009-08-10T07:14:00.002-05:00

A week ago we hired Mr. Badgi, who is an exellent French professor, to give lessons to Angele and Nadia three times a week. He comes for 1 and 1/2 hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The girls are learning a lot and really understanding! Yesterday they were with us for a four hour long church service in French. More and more now we are spending hours at a time with Senegalese families, getting to know them and enjoying fellowship. Angele and Nadia are a part of all of these visits and are seeing the value of learning French!

Driving in Dakar

2009-08-03T03:26:00.003-05:00

It seems to us that Dakar is a city that cannot absorb water from rain. This street is close to where we live and after a very short rain, this is what I drove through.

I had a great "victory" a week ago when I drove all the way accross the city to visit Lizz and Ryan, our friends and colleagues. Granted, it was Sunday and the traffic was pretty light. Joel was gone and when I heard that Lizz was sick I immediately knew that I wanted to go and see her. The question for me was, "which is more dangerous, to put the girls and my lives in the hands of one of the daring and fast taxi men, or brave it myself?" We quickly decided that nothing could be more dangerous than getting in a rickety, old taxi with a driver that might weave in and out of traffic at very high speeds! I have driven on "this side of town", close to where we live but never thought I could go that far this soon. Angele and Nadia were very confident however, and by God's grace we were able to drive to see Lizz, spend several hours and then drive home. Each time I go out, I am aware of how much we need God's protection on the roads here!! After each rain the roads are slick and very slippery. Traffic has a pattern but "laws" that are unwritten. There is not one stop light working in the city. The law that seems to work the best is to stare straight ahead and MOVE OUT into flowing traffic. If you look to the left or to the right, you will grip your brake pedal in trembling fear :(

Soon after arriving here we asked several people what the rule was for the traffic circles - they are everywhere! The answer was always, "that depends!" Really, the right of way goes to whoever will take it first! The traffic, although scarry and dangerous, has a charm all of its' own - we are learning it and asking God to protect us from the seen and the unseen.

There is an appearance of lanes but rarely any markings and motos and cars pass on both the right and the left. The motos will sweep by a car at top speed on either side so one must always look in both mirrors to see who is coming. When traffic is backed up, which it often is, motorists will create a "lane" wherever there is space - it is really an experience!!

There are very often gaping holes to the sides of the roads - this one pictured here is small in comparison to many!

These are just some first impressions of driving in Dakar. We thank God every day for His protection!

Let me close by saying that some of our dear friends and colleagues have graciously loaned us their vehicle for this time. We still need to buy a car and as you probably know, cars here are very expensive due to the import taxes. We will need to raise at least $10,000 dollars to add to what we already have for a car. If you would like to give towards this need, let us know and we can send you a link to do this on-line. Any gift will be tax deductible.

By His grace alone, Elin

A Beautiful Lady

2009-08-03T02:47:00.001-05:00

Joel preaching at Riviera Church in Abidjan.

A picture of the church building in the distance.

A Beautiful Lady
On Sunday I had the privilege of participating in a service at the Riviera CMA Church in Abidjan. The Church grew out of a Bible study that began in our living room in 1997. The Bible study grew into a vibrant group and on November 8, 1998 the first service was held under a tent in our front yard.
The Church grew steadily over the next years and was able to secure a piece of property on the top of a hill in one of the fastest growing areas of the city. A number of the things the leadership team had dreamed about and believed God for were happening.
We dreamed about:
… a place where the professionals that lived in that part of the city could come and hear the gospel in a way that made sense to them.
…being a body of believers that represented multiple races and ethnic groups.
… a place where people “participated” in worship and where worship was done with excellence.
Those things began to be part of the DNA of the Riviera Church. In 2004 as we prepared to build the place that would be the physical home for the Riviera Church it seemed like the possibilities were limitless. At one time our group counted more than 25 different ethnic groups and nationalities from around West Africa. We were seeing families restored and people coming to Christ through marriage encounter and having an impact in our community.
In November of 2004, the week we were scheduled to begin laying the foundation we were evacuated from Cote d’Ivoire. The first week we spent in Dakar with our collegues and their families. It was one of the hardest weeks of my life. The first three nights sleep evaded me. There was a soccer field on the grounds where we were staying. One evening I could not sleep and I was walking around the soccer field lamenting out loud to the Lord. In my anguish I was asking Him; “You, Lord, are the one that called us to plant this Church, what am I supposed to do? I cannot live in Abidjan at this time with my family and I cannot abandon the people you have called me to Pastor, what am I to do?” After a time of lamenting I heard the quiet voice of the Spirit saying to me, “Joel whose Church is this?” Though His words did not take away the grief and pain, they were words of great comfort. As though Christ were saying to me, this is my bride, I love her and I will take care of her.
What a joy to return five years later and see that Christ is the one who builds and cares for His Church and she has become a beautiful lady. The building is built and full to capacity. More importantly the worship and celebration was palpable. One of the greatest joys was to see the children of the families that began with us in our home. Many of them are now young adults and participating in the life of the Church. God is faithful!!
Joel

The Unseen Battle

2009-07-30T10:43:00.000-05:00

Paul in his letter to the Ephesiens exhorts us as Christ followers to be mindful that we are in a battle. The battle is not against visible things, is not perceived with our eyes and is not charted on graphs. However, it is real and touches us in the physical world. This battle is happening all the time.
Over the last few years that we have had the privilege of working and ministering in West Africa there have been a couple of occasions when over a period of a few days I have sensed and experienced this battle up close and personal. Last week was one of those times. As westerners we have a tendency to explain life and circumstances as simply coincidental, as though the spiritual and the physical worlds never meet. In general, on this continent people interpret life holistically. The physical and the spiritual all go together.
It all started on Monday. I was preparing for a trip to Abidjan for a Summit of prayer. I was scheduled to fly to Abidjan with Andy Babyak and three Senegalese friends. The summit of prayer was scheduled to begin on Wednesday morning and there were leaders from Churches from all over Africa that were scheduled to be there.
A little after noon on Monday my cell phone rang and it was one of our colleagues calling to inform me that he and his wife had been in a fairly serious accident about 2 hours north of here. They were heading north with a brother and friend to spend a couple days at the beach. It was raining and they crashed hard into the back end of a truck. By God’s grace no one was injured. It could easily have been much worse. We headed north to get them and take care of the truck. It took about 8 hours but we all made it back to Dakar safe and sound. As I went to sleep that night I knew in my spirit that this was not just “an accident” and as I prayed for our friends I sensed the battle waging.
The next day we got to the airport ready to head to Abidjan and anticipating what God had for us all. Andy and I were the first ones in line and when the woman looked at our passports she said; “sorry you do not have visas you will not be traveling today.” I said, “Madam, I am sure we can get a visa at the Abidjan airport just like in most West African countries”. For forty five minutes we tried every angle but nothing moved. I even called the home of the Ivoirian ambassador here in Dakar but at that hour in the day no one could do anything to help us. I went home and again I sensed the battle raging.
We were deeply disappointed and it looked like we were not even going to be able to attend the conference. The next day when we went to the embassy to see about getting tickets and started working on flights, the obstacles kept getting bigger. My friend Andy said at one point, “we just have to keep pushing through.” Once again, by the grace of God, the doors opened and on Thursday morning early we were on a flight heading to Abidjan.
Our days in Abidjan were rich. God showed up. There were beautiful times of worship, of confession and of the purifying presence of the Holy Spirit. The last day of the conference the Lord touched the body of a young man who was lame and he walked out of the room in front of us all. God’s presence is a powerful thing.
We do not always know or understand why the battle rages heavy at certain times but I have an idea that part of the battle last week was to keep us from being present in Abidjan for those days. The good news is that even when we get caught in the fray the battle is not ours, but we do get to share in the victory.

It must be God first, God second, and God third....

2009-07-23T02:39:00.003-05:00

Several days ago I was reading my daily reading in "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. The title of that day was "The Price of Vision". I was struck by these words.....
"Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the 'passing of the hero.' Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died - I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? or - I saw the Lord?

My vision of God depends upon the state of my character. Character determines revelation......I need the surgical operation of external events and an internal purification. It must be God first, God second and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever. In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee....."

Really, this is what life is all about.. it is about God's calling on us, His children. It is about Him calling a people unto Himself. My prayer is that daily, I would "see the Lord" and be willing to pay the price of vision. Acts 13:47 (paraphrased) "I have made you a light...that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth..." May it be so, for the glory of God.

Praise the Lord, that His mercies are new every morning! Elin

New hair styles

2009-07-23T00:59:00.004-05:00

We all know how good it feels to get a new hair style! Our friend and colleague, Lizz, came over yesterday to give us all hair cuts, except for Nadia. She did a cute, new hair style on Nadia and cut Angele's in a new style. It is a challenge to feel "pretty" with sweat dripping down your neck and dirt on your feet at all hours of the day :) Here are a couple of pics of the girls after our time with Lizz!

more "after" pics!

2009-07-13T04:18:00.002-05:00

Sunday night we had the CMA folks in town over for the evening. Our porch upstairs is so much cooler than in the house and great for entertaining! We still need to get some "roof" furniture but one step at a time.

Our bedroom. The mattress will be on the floor for a few months I think. How do you like the navy and taupe?!

our bathroom

If you looked at the before pics below you noticed that cupboard that got in the way of the sink. That is now out in the laundry room.

The furniture you see, we brought from the states - IKEA stuff and so great to have! This is the nicest kitchen I've ever had :)

We still have lots of boxes and trunks lined up in different places, waiting for shelves or closets, but it is looking and feeling more and more like home.

Last night we had our first big rain since arriving. The wind was unbelievably strong and blew right through our bedroom window. Fortunately, that woke us up as the water was pouring in and our mattress had started to get wet already! Joel went out in the rain and closed the outside shutters of the bedroom and that helped immensely. The rain washed the dust away and gave us cooler temps this morning but it also helped our garage to sink another inch - yes, our garage is sinking..... If it's not one thing it is another..... just minor details at this point!

The "AFTER" pictures

2009-07-12T17:12:00.003-05:00

Here is our living room - the couch is from IKEA and the chair we got as a "doorbuster" after new years' in Wheaton.

Nadia is heading up the stairs that lead to our rooftop. The picture of the lion was done in chalk by Josiah when he was in 10th grade.

Dinning room - doorbuster table and chairs from JCPenny. Joel and I went out in a terrible ice storm at 5:00 am after new years' eve :) and got some great deals!

Angele's room - purple is her color! Notice the blanket at the foot of her bed, made by our dear friends in Coudersport! She and Nadia love these blankets.

Nadia's room - her Coudersport blanket is on her bed too :)

A Walk on the Corniche

2009-07-11T04:04:00.002-05:00

Friday evening we went on a 3 mile walk by the ocean. There is a "corniche" close to our home where lots of people walk.

UNPACKING!

2009-07-11T03:22:00.003-05:00

Joel taking a break from the never-ending task of getting our house set-up :)

This is our roof top - a porch that is so nice for entertaining.

Angele and Nadia were happy to unpack all of their barbie stuff!

This is our bedroom - no bed for now but a mat on the floor will do.

Un-packing the boxes from Butler! How do you like the lime green walls in Nadia's room??

To my faceless readers...

2009-07-09T15:16:00.001-05:00

The only people I know that read this blog are a few of my sweet friends in Wheaton and my family. If there are others of you reading, please accept this as a “family letter” and a letter written out of total transition.

We moved into this house on Friday afternoon. It is beginning to feel like a home but we have a ways to go still. The house was like a big “shell” with broken plumbing in all bathrooms, filthy-yucky windows that all needed changed and fixed, doors that were falling apart literally, and TONS of mosquitoes!! The work would have been easy to attack for me and Joel but what we didn’t calculate into the picture was helping the girls cope with their grief and pain throughout this process. They have each cried buckets of tears but also found lots of reasons to laugh and sing!

Last night Nadia crawled up in my lap and sobbed for a long time. She said that she hated this house because everything is broken and there are tons of bugs! It is true that their toilet seat was cracked and the lid to the toilet tank was broken and sitting on their bathroom floor. It was one of those jobs that Joel had not gotten to – the poor guy has been literally running from early morning until nightfall, to try and make this house livable. When he heard Nadia’s cries he dropped what he was doing and rushed to get a new toilet seat on for her J

Yesterday afternoon we were all four in the bedroom trying to escape the high heat/humidity with the A/C on. Angele began to talk about if she were in Wheaton, what would she be doing right now….. as she talked she longingly groaned “I miss America!!!” and then said “that is the first time I have ever spoken those words!” and burst into tears. You see, in the past it was always “I miss Abidjan, or I miss Africa….” And now it was America – I think the realization that no place on this earth is really home just did her in for a few minutes! She sobbed and sobbed and we all cried with her. I told her that I cried for her and she said “aren’t you sad for yourself mom?” I said no, I don’t feel sad for myself, only for my children.

Angele’s theme song during these months has been a song sung by Superchick, “Beauty from Pain”. If you can go on you-tube and listen to it, you may hear the grief of her heart. The chorus goes like this:

After all this has passed,
I still will remain.
After I’ve cried my last
There’ll be beauty from pain
Though it won’t be today
Some day I’ll hope again
And there will be beauty from pain
You’ll bring beauty from pain.

It is a haunting song but so much reflects what she is going through during these days. Both girls hit these lows but God’s mercies are truly new every morning and they woke up singing and happy again today!!

We have been so blessed to be surrounded by two very young couples here, the Babyaks and the Durbins. The Babyaks have three little boys that our girls adore and they are all adorable! The Durbins are a great young couple that we have grown to love. What a blessing to have these two families reach out to us during this time of transition!

How is the unpacking going, you may ask? Well, besides the fact that we are trying to fix all the broken things in this house, we also have no cupboards or places to put stuff so it is basically shifting things from one trunk or box to another to “store” in “cateragories”. Some day we will be settled and feel like we are “home”. I hope we can post some pics by this weekend on the blog.

Thanks for listening!!!! Elin, for all

Before.....

2009-06-30T07:26:00.005-05:00

I wish I had "before and after" photos but the after ones will be a while in coming! Lizzy - I love that name! (They call her Lizz here but I love Lizzy) and I went over early this morning to the house to help mix the colors of paint. Here are some shots of the house and one of Joel with his "moving van". The picture below is the front of the house.

Above is the hallway that you enter from the front door - Lizz and the painters.

This is the kitchen window looking out from the inside.

This is the kitchen... notice the cupboard on the wall - it is in the way of using the sink - I can't stand at my sink and not hit my head on the cupboard. Joel will get that off the wall today :)

there is that one counter that I am standing at in the kitchen and the rest of the kitchen is empty - no other counter tops, but a nice big kitchen!

This is Ibrahima, a wonderful man and painter! We fell in love with this guy! Below is Ibrahima and Lizz - the JCPenny catalogue cover has pants on it, the color of what we were looking for for Nadia's room...

This van could better be known as the "beast". We borrowed some of Nevius' furniture and it is pictured here in the beast. Hey, it works!!

Moving Past the "Missionary Look"

2009-06-29T14:47:00.002-05:00

Moving past the “missionary look”!

I wish I could adequately describe what all is involved in moving into a house here. The Lord provided a great house for us for the right price but much of the “cost” of this house is not figured into the price. Let me try to explain. The wood work in the house, the doors and the windows, were very poorly done with pretty cheap wood (wood is hard to come by in Senegal! and expensive). The windows also were all done with this yellow filigree smokey glass – hideously ugly with brown puddy tackily holding the glass in place! We knew that we would have to re-do all the windows and change all the glass! The house has nothing but walls, doors and windows. The bathrooms will all need everything, toilet seats, mirrors – there are no mirrors in the house nor any places to hang towels. The faucet for the shower is there but no shower head. There are no rods for shower curtains and you can’t get the nice fitted WalMart rods here – you order cast iron to be “bent” to neatly “outline” the shower space. It is days of work to get it livable.

For some reason it has been the tradition, for as many years as we can remember, for missionaries to paint their walls half way up from the bottom with oil paint and then the top half in water based paint. Usually this is some form of white or off white and there is a clear difference between the two! I’ve heard various reasons for this over the years such as oil base paint is more expensive than water base but you need it where hands might dirty the wall as you cannot wash the water base paint out here. Anyways, the house we are moving into was painted in this fashion and yes, missionary “types” have lived there before us. We were going to just do the same thing, don’t rock the boat, keep the walls white, do the expected but I decided to B R E A K out of the mold!! Angele said “YES!”

We went to visit the Durbins the other night, a delightful, young couple that we are getting to know and her house had each room painted in a beautiful color, some very dark colors, etc. Joel and I came home after that visit and said to ourselves, “why should we keep the missionary look?!” why not do something different for once in our lives!! There is nothing sacred about this look!!! So, stay tuned for the pictures.

Another thing we must do before moving into our house is to install water heaters, water filters, power lines to the washer and dryer, put a water filter on the washing machine because of the very dirty city water, and of course heavy cleaning. We thought we would be moving in tomorrow, Tuesday, but now we are seeing that it may be Thursday or as late as Saturday. It will be great to get settled again. We are grateful.

Elin

Could it get any worse?!

2009-06-22T11:03:00.002-05:00

We just got in from a walk in the "park". This park does not resemble anything in Wheaton :) First of all, today is the hottest day folk have seen here in many months. It is only 80 degrees but 90% humidity so before we ever started walking we were already dripping with sweat. Dakar is a city built on sand and even in the park there is more sand than anything else. We were walking along and the girls were both muttering about us making them get out for some excercise. Angele said to us, "I have sand in my shoes, sand in my eyes and now sand in my hair! Can it get any worse?!"

Both girls are struggling to adjust to the huge change of moving from two years in Wheaton, IL to Dakar, Senegal. Joel and I do get quite a few laughs over their horror with the mosquitos, the dirt and dust, the traffic, etc. We have also ached with them while they have cried many tears as they struggle to adjust and deal with the reality that this is now supposed to be their "home". The older children are, the more difficult this kind of transition becomes. It is the prayers of God's people that will carry us all in the days and months ahead.

The good news is that we went today by taxi to their schools - the elementary and middle schools (Ecole Actuelle Bilingue) are in two different locations. As we walked into Nadia's school, she got very quiet and clutched my hand tightly. We were shown around and given an appointment for Thursday to meet with the director. We also went to Angele's school and looked around and talked to the teachers. Both girls were comfortable with what they saw and I think they are going to learn to embrace this big challenge of French school.

Until next time......

2009-06-21T03:43:00.003-05:00

Home Away From Home

I am seated on the plane on the way to our new home. I just finished filling out the card for Senegalese customs. Two of the questions on the card were not complicated but difficult to answer none the less. The first question was “What is your country of residence?” In other words, “where do you live?” Without hesitation I started to write Cote d’Ivoire. Having lived there for many years and having filled out that same card a hundred times my pen just naturally began to write. Then I realized no, Senegal is now our home. Not difficult to write, just difficult to imagine. How can somewhere you have never lived be your home? How can somewhere be your home when you do not even know anyone’s phone number there?

Cote d’Ivoire was my home and I never desired that it would be any different. My kids were born there, many of my friends live there and I was part of a vibrant community of believers there. In 2005 God moved us to a new home in Mali. Though we were only there two years, it became our second home. It was a privilege to live and minister there. Having done this twice, I know how hard it is to make a “home” and really live somewhere. Because I know that, it makes it difficult to imagine that we will one day feel those things about Dakar. We go in faith.

The second question was; “What is your address in your country of residence?” We do not have one of those for the moment. In fact that is one of our first challenges. We need to find a house. We need an address that can become the “place” we live and invite others into and one day call home.

Having just left our son behind for the first time, the follow-up question that was waiting to ask itself was “ is this even all worth it.” The good byes, the transitions, the uprooting, the difficult work of integrating a new culture, Is it worth it?” The answer that comes to my mind is, yes. That’s what our Lord said; “even as the Father sent me, I am sending you.” What is comforting is that ultimately it is not up to me to answer that question, I am not the one writing the script, I am simply called to walk in the script He wrote for us.

The good news is that it all reminds me that none of this will ever really be “home” what our hearts are really longing for is to be “home”. In The Prodigal God, Tim Keller beautifully articulates the feeling and reality of homelessness that is at the core of all of us. All of us left behind the home we were created for in Eden and we are often tempted to go back to the places in our lives where we had small tastes of the garden.

“We may work hard to re-create the home we have lost, but, says the Bible,it only exists in the presence of the Heavenly Father from which we have fled…Jesus did not come to simply deliver one nation from political oppression,but to save us all from sin, evil and death itself. He came to bring the human race home.Therefore he did not come in strength but in weakness. He came and experienced thevexile we deserved. He was expelled from the presence of the Father, he was thrust into the darkness, the uttermost despair of spiritual alienation-in our place. He took upon himself the full curse of human rebellion, cosmic homelessness, so that we could be welcomed into our true home.” (Keller, pgs. 97-102)

Our prayer is to make a “new home” away from home where others can find the road home…

Blessings, Joel

HIghlights of our week at Council, 2009

2009-05-31T19:42:00.003-05:00

We just got back today from CMA Council in Louisville, Kentucky. It was so much fun to see SO many friends again, some that we haven't seen since college days! The week was packed with visits over meals, over coffee, listening to great messages and enjoying up-lifting worship. Our girls stayed home with Josiah until Thursday of the week and then they came down with my niece, Rachel, and her husband Josh. A special treat was spending Friday with the Nesselroade family! Another special treat for Angele and Nadia was to see their cousins from Atlanta! It was great to be with the whole Pierce family, all except Debbi :( We arrived home today, Sunday, and have had time to get unpacked, do all the laundry and get ready to start our last full week at home here in Wheaton.

Here are some pics from the week: Angele and her cousin, Alex
Joel and Jacob

The Pierce cousins! with Angele and Nadia

Angele and Nadia with Emma, Ellie and Maggie Nesselroade! their friends from Mali.

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-18T17:05:00.002-05:00

The countdown... and God's provison

2009-05-18T15:35:00.006-05:00

I am sorry to say that it has been awhile since we have written. Our sincere hope is to write weekly on this blog once we get to Dakar! Today as I wrote the date in my journal I realized that a month from now we will be in Dakar.....that conjures up a lot of emotions for all of us.

The recent days have been filled with doctor and dentist appointments, paying the endless bills, immunizations for the girls, shopping for summer clothes and much deep, spring cleaning in this house that has been our home for two years. The "to do" list is made out each and every day and we are ticking off the many jobs that are left to finish before we board that plane on the 17th!

One of the big joys has been to help Josiah and a friend of his get settled in their summer "home". Josiah has also started full time work and is seeing great improvement in his leg that was injured in the spring - a huge answer to prayer! Here is a peek at his new home for the summer:

This provision is in direct answer to our prayers. The gentleman and lady that Josiah works for have given him this home for the summer free of charge! We bless the Lord for this!!

All of our wordly possessions :)

2009-05-02T16:41:00.004-05:00

This was taken at the end of loading our stuff - we filled the front end of the truck (the first nine feet) and the rest of the truck was empty. This is Josiah and two of his friends from the football team, after the loading was done.

You can see our huge crate here - the dilema was how to get this heavy crate up into the truck!!!

The garage where we kept the stuff until yesterday....

Friday was a big day. The packing was finally finished and the truck came to carry it all to the port. The biggest challenge of the day was hoisting a large and heavy crate up four feet into a truck that had no lift on it. Thanks to Josiah and a few of his football buddies as well as a few other very kind and gracious men, we were able to get the crate into the truck with no casualties. It was my job to film the process but I was so nervous that I turned my back and prayed for safety for all the guys! Joel had asked for 9 cubic feet of the truck and was able to squeeze into that space all of our boxes and trunks.

When Nadia heard that her stuffed animals were on their way to Senegal via the sea she was immediately concerned about pirates! :) I assured her that as far as we know there are no pirates (yet!) off the west coast of Africa, only the east coast! The house is looking empty now and the rest of our "junk" will need to be put in 8, 50 lbs. bags to take with us on the plane.

WE DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-25T10:33:00.002-05:00

We ran a 5K today, Saturday, April 25th. A 5K pales in light of a marathan or 1/2 marathan that our Bubna nephews have been running lately :) but one has to start somewhere! Joel and I and the girls were at Nadia's school early (45 minutes early in true family fashion - both Bubna and Pierce family!) to begin the race with a bunch of other students, staff and parents. I must admit that I fast-walked most of the 5K but Joel and his daughters mostly ran. It was a great way to start a Saturday!

The Power of the Gospel

2009-04-24T05:14:00.004-05:00

Peace-Makers
"Blessed are the peace-makers for they will be called sons of God".

In his opening greetings to the believers in Rome Paul expresses his desire to visit them and have a chance to be with them. He explains that he has been prevented from coming to Rome because he has been laboring among the Gentiles. He expresses confidence that when he does get to Rome he will see a harvest there as well. Then Paul makes this bold statement:

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentiles. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.”

Paul does not say the gospel is an idea or a theory of God, it is the power of God. The gospel is powerful!! The forgiveness offered in the gospel has earth shattering power.

Last weekend I attended a Conflict-Coaching and Mediation training with Peace-Makers ministry. The training was extremely helpful but the reminder of the simplicity and power of the gospel was the highlight of the three days. Because of the gospel, conflict can be an opportunity for believers to glorify God.

The focus of the Conflict Coaching training is to equip believers to effectively come alongside an individual party in a conflict and help them to go to the other party and settle their differences. Instead of running away and denying the conflict or using it to attack the other party a conflict coach encourages the party to walk into the conflict and use the situation to glorify God. The idea is to use God’s word to help people see a specific problem from God’s perspective and to guide them in applying the gospel to that area of their life.

If the two parties are unable to come to an agreement between the two of them the next step is mediation. Mediators are neutral persons who work with both parties with the goal of helping them to come to a voluntary agreement. Though negotiating the actual problem is part of the mediation the underlying goal is to help the two parties see their own part in the conflict and come to a place of repentance and reconciliation. When that happens the actual negotiating is much easier. The instructors gave numerous testimonies of how God had used them in mediation cases; cases with couples, with Churches and with corporations. It was wonderful to hear the testimonies of how God has used this ministry to bring the Gospel powerfully to bear in so many varying conflicts.

The training was teaching accompanied by role plays. It was really very effective and I left feeling like I not only got it, but began to get a feel for how the process works. On the last day we were assigned to a mediation case with a partner. We had to research the case and do a “real” mediation. It is passionate! The way it is done is graciously and relentlessly pushing people to bring the gospel to bear in their own lives and into their conflicts.

On Saturday evening when I was driving home I was talking out loud to the Lord about how this might all fit into what is ahead of us in Senegal. I am not sure how it is all going to fit. I am sure that this is what I feel God calling us to do in some way or another: The ministry of reconciliation in the lives of couples, in families and in Churches.

The mediation that I took part in was a conflict between a pastor and a woman in his congregation that had been deeply wounded by a number of things he had done. The pain was really deep and at times it seemed like there was no way out. Neither one was going to budge from their position. Then God’s word began to open their eyes to their own hearts and the Spirit brought them each to repentance. The dam broke and the waters of life and forgiveness began to flow. No matter how many times you witness forgiveness, it never gets old. Forgiveness really is powerful.

Joel

Spring has come to Wheaton!

2009-04-16T12:18:00.004-05:00

It has been almost two weeks since we wrote so I will up-date this in the hopes that some of our friends and family read this blog. The past two weeks have been spent in packing boxes trunks and a large wooden crate. We pack in our basement and then haul the boxes to a nearby neighbor who very kindly offered her garage to us. The crate is so large that we are packing that over in the garage. Lord willing, we will have the baggage "trucked" to the port on May 4th - just a little over 2 weeks away!

Joel left at 4:00 am today for Normal, Illinois - a two hour drive from here. He will be attending a Peacemaker's conference/seminar for three days. We expect him home on Saturday evening. Meanwhile I continue to go through paperwork here, sort and throw stuff and get ready to hit the packing again on Monday.

Spring is in the air and it is absolutely breath-taking. I walked home from the gym this morning, enjoying all of the budding trees and bushes. I noticed how tender the new branches and buds looked. My prayer is that my heart will become more and more tender to Christ and to people all around me, that the beauty of spring would be found in me. It occured to me though that these tender shoots only come out after the long and hard winters. This helped me to again embrace the many griefs and losses that we have walked through, seeing them again in the light of James 1: 2-4. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Spring has come to Wheaton! It is glorious and I want to enjoy every minute!!!!! Above is a photo of the five of us on Easter Sunday.

TRANSITION!

2009-04-05T16:26:00.004-05:00

It has been 20 years this August that we left the US as new missionaries. Josiah was three weeks old. Probably the hardest times during those 20 years have been the transitions. Transitions to places where you have lived before and where you still own a bunch of "stuff", have many friends and all, are not so hard. But transitions that involve going to a totally new place, meeting all new people, starting over to collect things that make a house a home, etc. are never easy.

We came to Wheaton two years ago with 10 suitcases, mostly filled with old and faded clothing that we thought might still look good on this side of the ocean. Besides those suitcases and a few trunks of African artifacts and cloth down in my parents shed, we owned nothing. It was a rather "freeing" feeling actually. We moved into a fully furnished house here in Wheaton and put up our family pictures and this has become home. It "feels" like home after two years in the same place. When we go to church now we actually know a handful of people by their first names. Our phone rings more than once a month. We love the routine of seeing the same people at the gym in the morning, of hearing our girls laugh and talk about their friends at school. Finally, after two years, we feel like we "belong" here just a little bit.

Last Thursday night we got home from a visit to Coudersport, P.A. and to Medford Lakes, N.J. The trip was 14 hours long so it was very good to walk into our little house here and put the suitcases down. "It's good to be home!" I always say this after every trip because I am so much a homebody! But this time, I had this strange feeling that this place we call home in Wheaton is slipping away from me, rapidly, strangely, taking with it the routine I have grown to love, the friendships I have just started with our small group at church, the familiarity of the girls' schools, their friends, Maggie, Carrie, Natasha, Victoria, Gabby and Kiersten. Soon we will no longer join in the coorporate worship we have grown to love on Sunday mornings at Blanchard. Josiah will no longer be a short phone call away but accross an ocean. Gone will be the fun Sunday dinners when he brings all his friends over to our home. Gone will be the joys I have known to pick up Josiah's laundry at college and return it to him, all clean and beautifully folded :), gone will be the Friday football chapels in the fall, going to the football games with hundreds of other parents, all cheering for our sons!

Transition is overrated I think. Maybe for some it appears as an adventure, going into the "unknown". For me, it is another occasion to hold on with unswerving resolve to the words of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul encourages me in Philippians "to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." He reminds me that my citizenship is really in heaven and what I long for and eagerly wait for is a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is fitting that this is Easter week. The cross and the resurrection - that is what it is all about.

A couple of months after we got to Wheaton, having left her "home" in Mali, Angele wrote a poem in fifth grade. Here is what she wrote:

Moving

Crying softly
Saying goodbye
Takes a plane
Up in the sky.

So sad
Cries more
Not mad
Stops to snore.

New place
So scary
"Hello"
"My name is Mary"

Best friends
So glad
No more moving
So rad!

This poem haunts me now as I see how the girls have found their niche here in Wheaton and look once more at a major transition. God will provide what they need, that I am sure of. If you are reading this blog I would like to ask you to pray for all five of us as we let go of what was for two years and begin to embrace what will be in the days ahead. The moments of grief in this transition process are very few compared to the times of great joy in obeying and following the call of Jesus to "cast our nets in Senegal". We anticipate what is ahead.

Truly, our citizenship is in heaven and that is GOOD NEWS!!!!

Elin

Josiah is Home !!

2009-03-22T11:51:00.004-05:00

The news is good. Josiah arrived home last evening at about 7h30. The flight was a little late but it all went without a hitch. The wound looks to be healing up well. Because of the muscle damage it is difficult to maneuver his leg. He is able to get around a little with crutches but his movements are limited and have to be carefully calculated.

The road ahead is going to have some challenges but we are grateful to have him home and grateful for the people he has put around Josiah and our family to help carry the load.

Blessings Joel

Waiting...

2009-03-21T09:48:00.001-05:00

We are here today waiting. We received word that Josiah and Coach LaVanchy made it to Paris and are now on the last stretch to Chicago. They should arrive here late this afternoon and Josiah will be accompanied by ambulance to our home in Wheaton.

This week has been full of waiting…

· waiting to hear what happened.
· waiting to know if the surgery went well.
· waiting to be able to talk to Josiah.
· waiting for Josiah to get out of the hospital.
· waiting for the long trip home to be done.

Over the last year I have been learning that there are lots of ways to wait. One can wait well or wait poorly. One can be worse for the wait or strengthened by the wait. One can “fight” the wait or embrace it. Waiting is soul work. The work God is doing in our souls is always about learning to trust Him. Waiting is one of the most profound faith stretchers.

Denial is one way to wait. To just keep busy so I do not have to face the questions that waiting brings. The prayer book that our Lord left us (the Psalms) doesn’t teach us denial, but embrace. The psalms do not have pat answers, they have laments. The laments teach us how to walk in relationship with a heavenly Father who in the words of CS Lewis is not always safe but endlessly good. They teach us how to trust.

So, today as I wait; I wait with gratitude. Gratitude that my son is coming home. Gratitude for all the ways that God has been gracious to him and to us. We have been overwhelmed by the kindness of the missionary family in Dakar, Coach LaVanchy and Coach Peltz who have walked with us, the Wheaton College people who have been helping us with all the practical questions that are in front of us and friends and family from all over the world who have been praying with us and communicating encouragement. It is humbling.

In the wait I am choosing as well to embrace the grief. Grief is being honest about loss. I grieve to see the loss in my son’s life and all that is going to mean in the days ahead. My temptation is to want to try to fix everything. Grieving opens the door to tell myself the truth, “I can’t fix everything “. I am hoping the wait leads me to more profound trust.

Maybe all this waiting is all about a greater wait:
“…while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)

Indeed those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.

We will let you know when this part of the wait is over and Josiah is back in Wheaton. Joel

God's Good Ways

2009-03-16T16:10:00.003-05:00

When God speaks to you, almost more amazing than what He says is the fact that He cares enough to address himself to us. Over the last days we have sensed his presence and heard his voice. Strangely it is often in circumstances that we would not choose that we have the privilege to hear him and know his presence.

The last few days for our family were certainly not in the script that we had written. Our son Josiah traveled to Senegal over spring break with a group of Wheaton football guys on a ministry trip. He was having a great time. He was loving being in Senegal and reconnecting with friends there and also enjoying the time to be with the guys he plays ball with. The highlight was going to be last weekend as the three teams that went to Africa met in Senegal for 2 days together on the beach to debrief and talk about what God had done.

On Friday we got an e-mail late in the afternoon that Josiah had injured his leg fairly severely. He cut his leg while participating in an activity with the kids at Dakar Academy. A sharp piece of metal cut into his leg. The cut was about 8 inches long and went to the bone. He was taken to the hospital and the Doctor stitched several layers back together. Today, Monday, Josiah is still in the hospital and our hope is that he will be released tomorrow. He is still unable to bend his leg and that will likely be the case for a few more days. We are praying that he will be able to fly back to Wheaton on Friday.

How has God been present? One of the first people to be there after Josiah injured himself was a nurse who was able to get the bleeding controlled and accompanied him to the hospital. Rodney Dutweiler and a number of his teammates also went to be with him at the hospital. We have been overwhelmed at the way the body of Christ in Senegal has extended grace to Josiah and to our family. Since arriving at the hospital three days ago there has been someone there with him morning, noon and night. We have received letters and notes from many we have never met before giving us news about our son.

We have also received messages from friends from around the world as well as some we have never met assuring us of their prayers. God has been present through his people.

Yesterday morning our Pastor, John Casey, gave a powerful message from Isaiah 28 about God accomplishing his work in us through hardship. God delights in our faith and our trust in Him. It is often in trials that faith is grown. Isaiah uses the image of the farmer. The farmer plows for a time, but He does not continue plowing. The plowing is so he can plant. God plows, but only so He can plant in us the fruits of faith. When God speaks so clearly it is wonderful to hear his words of comfort and even more wonderful to know that He cares enough to speak to us.

“ All of this comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom”. Isaiah 28:29

Joel is home and we are packing!

2009-02-21T08:16:00.006-06:00

February 21, 2009

Last Monday night Joel arrived home right at supper time. The girls had made posters to welcome him and we all rejoiced to be together again! Tuesday and Wednesday he rested and tried to get over a head cold. We kept saying to each other, "it is SO good to have you home!"

"I am SO glad to be home!" Nadia told us we were annoying her by saying this all the time :)

Yesterday the packing began in earnest. Our landlords own a flower shop here in town and had stacks and stacks of boxes and packing materials, such as bubble wrap and the like, so this was a huge blessing. As Joel packs I type the lists in the computer. We have 10 boxes packed and will continue today. It feels good to be getting at this.

We are all getting excited for the big move and transition, even with the many challenges that await us. We step into tomorrow in faith, believing that God has called us and He will make a way. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure or what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Each day in this process is a step of faith. It is good.

A Story Worth Telling

2009-02-06T23:28:00.008-06:00

I am on the road in California. This week in San Francisco, next week in Long Beach and then back to Wheaton.

Someone asked me the other day, “What do you do on these tours?” Great question! The simple answer would be that we visit Churches and talk about mission and report on what God is doing in the part of the world where we live and minister.

The first time that I did a tour that was the way I approached the “job”. I did my best to find some texts in the New Testament that incite God’s people to be concerned about the world. Armed with these texts I went on the road to get folk to give, pray and go. Those are not bad things.

However, 20 years later it looks a little different to me. Some good books and good people and hopefully a little bit of wisdom have caused me to look at the task a little differently. One of the books that I read recently that stretched my thinking is a book written by Stephen Wright entitled The Mission of God. Not a book you can read in a day or two (maybe not even a week or two) but one with a lot of good reflection. Wright is saying that our underlying hermeneutic, the backdrop in which we should perceive life and the world is this “mission of God”. God is on mission. He states that “God does not have a mission for his Church, He has a Church for his mission”. God is writing a redemptive story across human history, we have been invited in as recipients and participants in the story.

This idea has been freeing. I no longer have to carry the burden of rousing the troops, keeping people motivated and preaching 18 different messages from Matthew 28;18-20. I only need to celebrate the fact that the story is transforming me and reminding my brothers and sisters that this is what this story is really all about! I do not have to cajole people to give, pray and go. I have the privilege of inviting folk to lay it all on the line for this story. Amazingly, wherever I find people that are doing that, there is life and joy.
We have a lot to celebrate. There are two things that strike me as I travel and have opportunity to be in CMA Churches big and small:

· This movement is made up of really ordinary people. It has never been a group of wealthy people who did not know what to do with their resources so they decided to invest in God’s story. On the contrary it is an army of very ordinary (broken) people who have entrusted their resources to God and been part of something that has literally touched the corners of the earth.

· God has honored the vision he gave to those who walked before us and multiplied the “bread and fish” that have been given to reach around the globe.

This week I have been in the Chinese Alliance Church in San Francisco. A few of the believers in this Church came to Christ a number of years ago through the ministry of the CMA in Hong Kong (I remember as a child praying for the churches in Hong Kong that had to meet on rooftops because there was nowhere else to meet). Now they are here in San Francisco and leaders in the Church here. This Church is part of a movement that is training young Chinese missionaries to go into Muslim contexts throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Exciting!

I have the privilege of seeing and celebrating and reminding myself and those I meet along the way that we need to stay in this story.

All of this does not answer the question that was asked of me, “What do I actually do on tour?”

What do I do? When I thought back over the last few weeks it is a little scary.

· I spoke to a group of 150 teenagers.
· I was with two awana groups.
· I spoke to four services in a weekend in Northern CA.
· I spoke in a Cantonese service.
· I was with a group that does Church on Friday nights in someone’s living room. Oh and by the way it is broadcast live on the internet.
· I was in a school for troubled teenagers and spent an hour and a half with thirty juniors and seniors talking about Africa, God and life.
· I have shared a meal with 30 or 40 different families and groups.

If I had to motivate all these people or “perform” in front of all these different groups it would be daunting. Instead I simply have opportunity to hear about God’s redemptive story in people’s lives and invite myself and them to keep going deeper in the story. It makes the pain of being away from my wife and kids bearable.

Staying in the Story,

Joel

Cooking is easy in America

2009-01-20T18:54:00.006-06:00

Angele is 11 years old and is ready to learn to cook. She was looking at a health magazine this morning and discovered a recipe for spinach lasagnia. The picture looked yummy so she decided that she wanted to try to make it. I was thrilled with her choice of recipe since I knew it would be low cal :) I bought the ingredients, including whole wheat lasagnia noodles, low fat cottage cheese in place of the ricotta, etc. I helped her from a little distance and let her do the whole thing by herself. Cooking in America is really quite simple when you think that the whole wheat pasta is already cut in a box and the tomatoe sauce can be used from a jar. The cottage cheese is also neatly packaged - we make our own in Africa and that takes a while!

Angele followed the recipe and put the lasagnia together, using a whole big bag of fresh spinach. After it was all done I mentioned to her that it was really going to be a great dish for us especially since there was no meat in it. Her mouth dropped open and she exclaimed "NO MEAT!!! Oh, this is going to be AWFUL!!" That was the first it had dawned on her that the spinach was to replace the meat.

We all three ate the lasagnia and loved it - even Nadia! spinach and all. She wants to make it for her Daddy when he comes home. He will be really proud of her.

The next step will be to learn to make the sauce from scratch as well as the cottage cheese so that she can keep doing this once we move to Dakar - no small thing for an 11 year old! If you want to see pictures look at Angele's blog - angelebubna.blogspot.com.

Joel left for tour!

2009-01-18T11:09:00.004-06:00

January 18, 2009

Joel left on tour a week ago today in the midst of a snow storm. He shoveled for a couple of hours before leaving for the airport. Our first week with him gone has been pretty eventful. The temps in Chicagoland dipped to 20 below 0 and school was called off for our kids on Thursday and Friday because of the cold. Why would anyone CHOOSE to live in this part of the country with the severe winters?? I am still trying to figure that one out!

It was great to have the girls home those days and we were able to get a lot of French study done as well as other things. Their uncle and my brother, John, arrived on Thursday night and we had a great visit with him.

Today, Sunday, we are home from church, two of us with pretty bad colds. It is funny how 10 degrees feels "warm" after 20 below! Everything is relative :-)

2009-01-08T16:00:00.004-06:00

We have had the privelege of living and working in West Africa for almost twenty years. We are humbled by all those who have supported us, stood with us and prayed for us on the journey. We are keenly aware of how blessed we are.

The longer we do this the more we understand how important it is to stay connected. This blog is one more way to attempt to "live the call together." Our hope is to "journal" the journey so that family, friends and churches can walk on the road with us.

Our desire is to give informal snapshots into our world more than to write a newsletter. It will no doubt be Elin who will do most of the posting and we will do our best to keep the "snapshots" coming regularly.

Blessings,

Joel