Two weeks later....

The past two weeks have been fun filled! We took a 9 hour road trip from the capital city out to where our ministry is in a more rural part of the country. On our road trip I learned how to use a squatty potty, and a bush for a potty…. Both interesting experiences. The other girls that we are working with are a lot of fun and it has been a blessing that our personalities are good together. We spent our first full week out in the bush this past week and our family that we are staying with is great!! I got my African name- Tobo. It means that I was born when it was raining. Brad got an African name too! It’s Jabi which means he was born while his mom was greeting someone. My African mom likes to sing our names together and I sing them with her and she gets a big kick out of that! Our language teacher taught us how to say I want to have dreams of my boyfriend tonight. It’s “mi yiddi mi hoida gitdo am Jabi hande jalem”! Our family just thinks that’s the funniest thing ever too! Our language teacher has really been a HUGE blessing! He is a believer with an incredible testimony. He came to know the Lord through a couple of dreams and suffered some severe persecution from his family. He has the best outlook on life and has kept Lauren and I in good spirits during language class, which happens to be just out under a tree in our village!! Our hut is made out of dead dried grass and it really looks like hay. It’s about 8 feet in diameter and is round just like you would think of an African hut! We decorated it a little bit with some scripture on the inside and that makes it feel more like home :) We live in the chief’s compound with his two wives and a bunch of kids none of who are believers, yet. They are all Muslim and are at the beginning or Ramadan right now. It’s the Islamic time of fasting. They wake up around 4 to eat before the sun rises, fast all day, then gorge themselves right after the sun sets. This is a great opportunity to witness when they notice that we are eating and want to know why we’re not fasting. The family has done really well making us feel welcome and we all like to laugh together. We are not sure right now how many compounds are in our village so the first part of our ministry is going to be prayer walking and finding all of the compounds and mapping them out on a GPS system so that we can attempt to reach them all. We’ll also be taking out a tape player to play some bible stories in the compounds that welcome us in. Our language teacher wants to go out and do ministry with us too, which was an unexpected blessing! He is fluent in English and our tribal tongue and will be of great value in our ministry. He is also working on translating music into our language so we’ll be able to take worship music out into our village and have nightly dance parties! One of my favorite things so far has been shi. It’s African tea, and it’s sooo good! The men usually make it in a small tea pot that sits on hot coals, and it’s served in shot glasses. It’s super strong and super sweet! They usually do it at night and there is so much caffeine in it that we get wired right before bed! There are 3 rounds of it and you’re supposed to slurp it really loud! It’s a lot of fun! Lauren, the two other girls, our supervisor and I all go into town on the weekends to take a break from the bush. We get to go swimming and go to church! I’m really thankful for time to rest and recharge! Please be praying for our people that the Lord will give them understanding. He has really impressed it upon my heart that He is the one who does the ministry. He has the power and is the only one who can bring someone into salvation, so ask Him to do that! For me, pray that I will be content in whatever circumstance I find myself in, just like Paul. Also for our ministry that the Lord would lead us exactly where He wants us to go as we begin to prayer walk and map out our village and that each compound would be open to hearing the stories of Jesus. Your prayers mean the world to me, and it’s so encouraging just know that you all are praying! Brad said that his mom needed me to update more often so this is for you Lynn, glad you’re following! :)

Good news!

Got to talk to our supervisor and she found a language instructor!! He can't start untill the 25th because he has to go meet his new wife's family, so we have 9 days between now and then that we will be with our supervisor shadowing her in ministry, going out to the village with her and watching her and picking up on things that we observe. Then we have our 3 weeks of language then we're on our own in our village! The missionary community here around the compound has really become family. We've already been invited over for thanksgiving and everyone has been so sweet to take us in and care for us. We're so greatful for parents and brothers and sisters in the faith!

A few random funny things that are different here... lizards are like squirls back home, they are everywhere! Not many roads are paved so everyone drives where ever they want, seriously, where ever they want! Goats wander where ever they want too, on the roads on other people's property, everywhere! Most people have house helpers and gaurds to watch their house, this is the norm! The call to prayer is still strange to hear. It's really eerie and a reminder 5 times a day that the people here live in constant darkness and confusion.

We leave to go out to the city our village is in with our supervisor tomorrow, and we are riding in a car with her, not riding on the bus, praise the Lord!

Pray for us to be attentive to the leading of the spirit, for good rest at night, and for our people to be softened to the gospel. Ask the Lord for life giving clarity for our people so that they don't have to live in darkness and confusion. Pray that the light of Christ would pierce their hearts and that leaving family and community behind would be a small price to pay to follow Christ.

Thank you so much for praying! Love yall!

Ready for the village!

Orientation is over!! Praise the Lord! I've learned a ton and I'm ready to get out to the village and use what we've learned! Our 10 hour bus ride got pushed back a few days so we won't leave for the city that our village is in until this weekend. Then there's language study so we don't get out to the village for another 3 weeks. Continue to pray for our people and a softness to the gospel and for endurance while I'm in a learning environment before we get out to do ministry in the village. Our language teacher actually just quit so we don't have a teacher at the time.... pray for logistical stuff to work out with that. There have been a few really encouraging families at the mission compound that have invited us over for dinner so that's been great! The weather has been hot and humid for the most part, but today we got a good rain and it cooled off a ton! Another praise the Lord! Out in the city that our village is in I won't have easy access to an internet connection so this may be the last update for a while, thank you for your prayers! I love you all so so much! Lauren is trying to upload pictures on her facebook so check that out!

first week

I've been in Africa for a whole week now! Orientation has felt long. We're in classes twice a day and learning a ton! We have one more week of orientation kinda stuff then 3 weeks of language study, then off to the bush! We had our "mini bush stay" on Firday and it went great! We stayed with a family in a village about 15 minutes from the compound and the family was really great! There is never a lack of children to play with! They all want to come see the anasaris, the white people! I'm pickin up a little french and a few different tribal languages. We got to go check out the market last week and that was an experience! The Lord is teaching me a ton about being Him with skin on and it's been a lot of fun!

Pray for Him to make our faces shine with His glory! Language barrier is going to be tough so pray for learning and retaining information during class.

Hello from Africa!

I'm in Africa!!!!! It felt like we'd never get here, but we are! Right now I'm in a hotel room for almost a 2 day lay over and it's about 11:30 pm and there is a crazy loud jazz band outside my window keepin us up! We got to witness to our taxi driver today. It was an unexpected opportunity and we took it! There is an obvious sense of deadly confusion here in this place. Being in a muslim country is crazy convicting and it's everywhere. Pr*y for life giving clarity for our people in the midst of deadly confusion. We heard the call to pr*yer outside our window today and it was just a more obvious note of the confusion around us so me and Lauren got to get on our faces for the one true G*d and intercede! Neat stuff:):) We're going to play at the beach tomorrow!! Then our flight leaves tomorrow night for our final destination! We'll arrive there some time Monday morning! Then it's on to orientation and training!!!! My heart is so excited for the work the L*rd has for us!