October 30

Ghana conference: I was thankful for time to consult with others involved in the "people care" aspect of living overseas. I was thankful for time to consult with skilled and trained counselors, with coaches and encouragers. I was blessed to be able to take pictures of ocean-sunrises for five days. I enjoyed sessions of learning more about depression, anxiety, healthy sleep and other topics-- and am looking forward to integrating the material into my life and work here. I was blessed with reunions with long-time friends, and developing relationships with new friends. I'm more encouraged and motivated for the work of the days ahead! Thanks for your prayers!

Note!

My time in Ghana was very special. I'll write more in the next few days, but meanwhile, I've been posting some of the pictures on my "lifesights(plus)" blog if you are interested! May God bless you with His peace and joy today!

October 16: in transit!

Yesterday I flew from Dakar to Abidjan (Ivory Coast) , and from Abidjan to Accra, Ghana. Today I'll go by road to the conference center where I'll spend the next five days at a retreat and consultation for people involved in support and care roles for overseas workers. I'm excited about the people who are part of this time, and looking forward to spending time with them, in consultations, worship, and times of refreshing together!

(and I'm loving the guesthouse garden!)

October 11: update

Dear praying friends and family,

Greetings from Dakar! We are blessed and thankful to be based in West Africa, working with SIM. We long to see joyful overseas workers effectively spreading a passion for God's glory in West Africa, and to serve them by offering quality leadership and administrative support. What has that looked like in our lives over the past weeks?

October 9: Joey

Joey used frequent flyer miles and took a quick trip to MN this week-- where he had surgery to repair his collar bone. We are thankful for Aunt Tracy and Uncle Lee, and for Dr. and Mrs. Cole-- who helped him so much in different ways.

We are praying for him to recover full strength and agility in the days ahead!

October 4: normal Dakar scene

Construction in progress. Big houses or apartments, built using rudimentary equipment. Satellite dishes galore. The horse near his cart, having some down-time. Sand. Concrete. Trash strewn everywhere.

October 2: softball pics

Just a couple pictures for you to see some of the faces that make softball special to us here in Dakar!

October 2: bullet-point update

What's been happening this week?

• Dave has been in Ghana for Mobile Member Care Team board meetings. He left on Sunday and will return (Lord willing) on Friday evening.
• Junior varsity softball has started. I recruited a few girls who are needed for the team, and have been enjoying watching the practices and supporting all the kids (especially the girls!) Dave will be one of the coaches when he returns.
• The last day of Ramadan was celebrated on Wednesday, it was a no-school day for D.A.
• Joey's collar bone: upon review by an orthopedic doctor, surgery is recommended to align the bones correctly. (They are now overlapping each other.) He'll fly to Minnesota for the out-patient surgery next week with a surgeon we know and trust. What a blessing!
• It's been busy for me in my job at Dakar Academy, and our househelper has been on vacation so it's been extra work at home too.
• One of Jacob's teachers at D.A. resigned, and now the administrative leadership are working to get teaching arrangements worked out... lots of complication!
• We have had electricity almost every night for the past week, although it's been off between four and six hours per day. Being able to sleep with fans/air conditioning is a huge blessing!

September 24: endurance

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36)

My sister-in-law Tracy pointed out today's verse, a good follow-up to yesterday's! We needed endurance today at school, where the power was off ALL day... oh my goodness.

God's words sure are encouraging, what a blessing to think He gave us words like these that help us hang on through days or seasons where it seems like too much!

By the way, internet access has disappeared for some of our friends and colleagues, we are praying and hoping that we will continue to have our access... but we are learning to be ready for anything!

Tuesday September 23: Rejoice in Sufferings

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” (Romans 5:3-4)

That was today's "verse for the day" and it made me chuckle a bit. In the grand scheme of things, our sufferings are pretty small.

Nevertheless we are finding it fairly stressful to be in the midst of the hottest and most humid time of year in Dakar, with only sporadically working electricity! It's discouraging when the things in our refrigerator don't stay cold... and it's difficult to sleep without the benefit of air conditioner or strong fans. (and in answer to Kristen's question from the mosque picture-- we do wake up when we hear the call to prayer-- perhaps the only benefit of not having electricity is that the mosque IS a bit quieter!)

It feels like suffering sometimes to be far away from family-- from my Mom, and Dave's Dad, from our university-aged sons Danny and Joey, from our sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews. We are sad when we can't be on hand to celebrate the arrival of new babies, and birthdays, or to offer assistance with some of life's difficulties. We miss them.

May the Lord use these small sufferings to produce endurance, character and hope in us today! May He give us the grace we need to REJOICE in these sufferings.

September 19: surprise visit!

Dave was blessed with a great surprise on his way back to Dakar from his conference in North Carolina. His time in the Atlanta airport "just happened" to be at the same time as Danny, Leah, Alexis and most of Leah's family were travelling to a wedding in Ohio! Dave only had a few minutes with them, but those few minutes were sure special! God is very good to give us these surprise gifts!!!

Welcome Levia Rose!

We are rejoicing today in the news received of the birth of Levia Rose, to our dear friends and support team members Karlyn and Haddon. Many blessings to this dear family. We wish we could be with you!

Joey update

He got a better brace, and pain meds today! (In case you missed the original post about Joey's injury, here it is.)

Refresh!

It's the theme for this school-year at D.A. I love the song written by "Uncle Evan" and the video created by him and others to illustrate! (Look for Jacob in the last few minutes too!) (I think between 4:10-4:20 (?)