The beginning of Market, "deep breath" start walking in to find some veggies! And then, start bartering.

Life here in Senegal is overwhelming with countless every day activities we can’t accomplish. Thus celebrating little victories becomes a necessity to stay positive.  For example going to market and buying something as simple as a head of lettuce feels like quite the accomplishment.  To say the least, it is not quite like going to your local grocery store   Here is a little journey through our week, enjoy the pictures of our little victories!

Buying fruit at the local fruit stand and slowly building a relationship with the owner

The local bakery where we buy our bread every other day. One baguette is about 35 cents.

Bought a 8 X 12 piece of lumber, had it cut, and carried it over a quarter mile on my head (This one is not every week)

Bought some cock roach killer at the pharmacy, you can get all kinds of things there

At the boutique, a little bit of everything

Riding in a taxi, successfully told the driver where we wanted to go and settled on a good price AND arrived at our destination

Successfully took this form of a bus which is called a, "Car Rapid"

Arielle and the boys on a refreshing outing we took to a nice mall yesterday for Mothers day

Arielle asks Ezra, “What did God create on the first day of creation?” a little pause and he replied enthusiastically, “LIGHT.”  Arielle says, “Wow, you were listening yesterday!!!”  How awesome it is to see Arielle making big foot prints on his little heart!  This past week Arielle started a learning time with Ezra centered on teaching him about God.  Every day of the week she prays with Ezra, reads a story about God, teaches him a song, works on a color, tries to teach him a shape and number, colors a picture, does a little craft to help reinforce what is being learned that

Arielle trying out the "native" way to wear a baby

week, and once she figures out how to download books from the internet in English will read a fun book of the week.  This is only a tiny window into the influence that Arielle is having on our boys!  I praise God for my wife who is a mother influencing my boys to know and love God.  I recognize the magnitude of influence my mom had on my life and it had barring on where I am today. So mothers, what kind of influence are you having on your little ones?  To all you

Ezra filling in a circle for his learning time : )

mama’s out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

Arielle and Silas riding in a Taxi

Ezra riding in what he calls, "Taxi cars"

Arielle and Silas on mothers day

Silas

Ezra enjoying our time next to the beach

Ezra loved playing outside

Arielle and our "nanny" Suzanne

Arielle eating a yummy wrap with beef and other goodies called a "shawarma"

Arielle and Ezra singing during learning time

The beautiful and refreshing ocean! God is good!

Ezra showing his car

Imagine with me for a minute:  Walking up the dusty stairs to our apartment, I begin unlocking the door and I hear a little voice calling out “Daddy, Daddy is home, let’s go see.”  My two year old son Ezra comes running around the corner and says, “Daddy come, come, come see,” and we run off to where he was playing with his toys and he shows me what he has been playing with and doing.  On the way, I walk past our nanny, Suzanne, and stop to ask how my son did, how long did he sleep, was he a good boy, what did he have for a snack, but no words come to mind.  I don’t speak French yet and the hardest part about it is; I can’t even ask how my boys did while I was gone.  Even if I were able to ask her, I most likely would not be able to understand her response because I don’t usually understand the responses to my questions in French anyway.   Suzanne is doing great with the

The boys

kids from what we can see and from what Arielle tells me.  It is on many different levels similar to this that I feel disconnected and in a sense left out not being able to speak French.  Where does this leave me? In the arms of God crying out to him to comfort my heart and remind me of truth and He does!  It is a continual reminder of my need for God and my need to learn French.

Silas

We took a fun family trip to the ice cream shop

It was yummy!

Ezra enjoying learning time with Arielle

Ezra and Silas having a good time

Enjoying some yummy chicken

Ezra ready to blow the candles out on his motorcycle cake

2 years ago today, we welcomed Ezra into this world.  Life through the eyes of a two year old brings joy, laughter, and lets be honest, some hard times too.  His dark brown inquisitive eyes help us see life from a fresh perspective.  During his birthday party he found great joy in blowing out the two candles on his birthday cake.  Today, on Ezra’s birthday, we praise God for his life and the blessings that he brings to our little family.

Ezra, Levi (Ava's cousin), and Ava (Ezra's cousin)

It was a pizza party : )

Ezra eating pizza

Ezra's motorcycle cake : )

Ezra opening gifts

Racing motorcycles

Lily making homemade ice cream : ) YUM!

Arielle, Del, Ezra, Silas, and Dan at NTM headquarters

Yesterday we took an outing to the NTM USA headquarters for New Tribes Mission in Sanford Florida.  While visiting with a leader from NTM West Africa, we walked over to a playground.  After a while Ezra’s face started turning red from playing in the sun.  Across the park was a water fountain area for kids to play in.  He turned to me (Del), and pointed at the water park saying “water.”  In excitement we marched over to the water.  Ezra and I ran in where about 50 water geyser like fountains were shooting up from the ground at random.  I set Ezra

Ezra

down to walk through the minefield of shooting water and he looked up at me with terror in his eyes and said “up please!”  I could tell he was thinking “I will go, but not with out you. If you don’t set me down, we will have fun.”  Then, in daddy’s arms–with excitement on his face–we proceeded to play in water for about half an hour.  He clung on the entire time, but with joy on his face.  A few times, I tried to set him down, but he clung even tighter.

As we are on the threshold of leaving for Senegal, with uncertainty in our eyes, God picks us up, comforts us, and carries us. God is the one who will go with us, hold us in his arms like a Daddy, and bring us joy that we can only find in him.

Our happy camper, Silas

Ezra and his cousin Ava having fun together

The Family: Del, Arielle, Ezra, and Silas

Do you ever wake up in the morning and wonder, what on earth am I here for?  Recently, I woke up in the morning and wonder what am I doing taking my family to West Africa?    Why would God want to pull me away from my family?  Why would God want to take my kids away from their grandparents?  Why would God want me to take my family into the unknown?  This last week, I was reminded of a passage that realigned my thinking.

Arielle and the boys

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9

I can rest with confidence in the fact that we are accomplishing the purposes of God by taking the gospel to West Africa.  Are these my thoughts?  No way!  If deciding what I want is better for me than what God wants, then I’m saying that my thoughts are higher than Gods thoughts,

Arielle reading a book to Ezra

making God subject to me.  My friends this is NOT right!  Even when God does things that make no sense to my worldly mind, I am still called to humble myself before God.  Each day we must wrestle with this question:  Are you going to humble yourself to God’s thoughts and what he wants for your life today?

Silas is looking cute these days!

Silas at 8 weeks. We were trying to take a passport picture : )

After the holidays, we made a few contacts in Senegal and confirmed that we can proceed with a March departure date.  Wow, that is only about two months away!  We promptly realized that there is a COLOSSAL mountain of tasks to accomplish before we leave.  Monday rolled around and we hit the ground running, looking into plane tickets, picked up Silas’ birth certificate, applied for our boys’ passports, and crossed off a slew of other things on our “to do list.”  Every day our pages of “to do list” seems to grow, but we are making head way.  There are days of feeling overwhelmed (to say the least) and days of progress and extreme excitement to what lies ahead.  Right now we cannot do all of this on our own strength or time (especially with two little boys keeping us very busy).  God sure has a way of reminding us of our continual need for him in every stage of life!

Ezra and Silas

Celebrated the birth of Jesus as our little family of four

Opening "stockings" from our shoes, a tradition originating from Europe

Attended a Christmas Eve service. Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at the Weinberger's house

Ezra's excited smile on Christmas day!

We traveled to Sacramento on the 26th to celebrate Christmas with the Griffith side of the family

Silas and his proud mother

Silas is already a month old!  How crazy is that?  As we contemplate Ezra and Silas growing up so fast, there is one thing in life we can be sure of–time marches on, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, and year by year.  This begs the question, what are you doing with the time God has given you?  Are you using the time God has given you wisely?  Each one of us are created to be in a relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ and it is only in a relationship with Him that we can truly

Silas is a month old

redeem the time.  God created us to know him and make him known to those around us.  It is easy to get lost in the decorations, gifts, and even family events during our holidays.  May we keep our eyes on what truly matters as we enter the Christmas Season–Jesus!  And yes, Jesus came as a baby like Silas.

Ezra loves bath time especially with bubbles

Del and Silas sleeping

Ezra and D'Arcy on Thanksgiving day

Whenever Ezra sees a turkey he says, “gobble, gobble.”  Ezra was thankful for turkey and delicious food this Thanksgiving.  In light of Thanksgiving we asked ourselves, what are we thankful for?

Ultimately we are thankful, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” I Cor. 15:3b-4

It is on the basis of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that we can be thankful

Great Gandpa Frank and Silas

this season and all through the year.  We deserve death for our sins, but Christ died in our place, was buried, and rose to life.  Now we too have new life in Christ.  We give God thanks because our source of life rests in Him and not us.  We thank God for blessing us with two sons, Ezra and Silas, and both sides of our families!  We also thank God for all of you who are supporting us in what God is doing through us.

Uncle Ben and Silas

Delicious Glutten Free Thanksgiving Meal

Silas