Del, Silas, and Arielle shortly after the birth!

Silas Ezekiel Griffith

After 12 hours of labor it is 5:45 pm and Arielle, Lily (Del’s sister), and I (Del) speed up to the hospital doors in a hurry to transport Arielle into a room.  Our doula, Andrea had just arrived at the door and she helps carry our bags into the hospital.  About every minute and a half Arielle has another contraction and then we stop, work through it and continue moving slowly toward the entrance.  Finally, a hospital assistant shows up with a wheel chair and she wheels Arielle in.

Arielle and Silas

While being checked in at the waiting room she had several intense contractions, numerous disturbed looks from bystanders, and one alarmed wheel chair assistant.  Finally she is checked in and we arrived on the delivery floor.  Arielle is rolled up to a door and is told to wait in order to make sure she is in labor.  After a few minutes waiting outside this door Arielle yells, “I WANT TO PUSH!!!!”  They quickly decide she must be in labor (Ha!) and take us to a delivery room where it is pronounced she really is all ready to

Our first family of four picture

push.  After about ten minutes of waiting for the doctor and wanting to start pushing, a nurse steps in assisting her in pushing.  The doctor showed up and about five minutes later the baby is delivered: Silas Ezekiel Griffith at 6:49pm weighing 9 pounds 7 ounces and 22 ½ inches long.  What a day to rejoice and praise God for this new little life!  Arielle is recovering quickly, Silas is healthy, Ezra is enjoying his new brother, I’m a proud father of two boys, and we all have countless reasons to praise God.

Ezra checking out his little brother Silas for the first time

Silas in his second day of life enjoying a little nap at home

The area of West Africa

are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”  In the same way the cookies were a delight to my senses, I pray that we might be the attractive aroma of Christ as we travel, meet with missionaries, church leaders, and visit a village in the interior of Senegal.  I am excited that God paved the way for me to take this vision trip to Senegal and he has provided for my friend Craig to accompany me on this planning venture.  We covet your prayers as we go on this two week trip to Senegal not only

Let the journey in Africa begin...

for us, but also for our wives who will be taking care of our little children at home while we are gone.

Ezra the birthday boy and Arielle

Ezra turned one on March 25^th!  Can you believe it?  What a first year for this little guy.  The first month consisted of mostly crying, then whooping cough at 4 months, he traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast and lived in Missouri, Oklahoma, and California.  There has been joy, sorrow, happiness, sadness, good times, bad times, laughing and crying.  God has taught us through Ezra more than we would have ever imagined about Himself, life, love, people, selflessness, and diapers. J We reflect back on this year praising God for Ezra’s life and every new day that God gives us with him.

Ezra enjoying cake for the first time!!! And he liked it!

Ezra birthday ducky cake made by Del

Arielle and Ezra having fun during his birthday party

Ezra trying to learn some French on Rosetta Stone : )

One year ago, we were still in the hospital, only a few days old!

The weeks to come will be filled with individual meetings with people, phones calls, emails, studying French with Rosetta

Every week we drive up into the foothills a couple times for church and other meetings. God's creation is amazing!

Stone, and many other various tasks.

Arielle and Ezra enjoying the out doors.

Ezra before he came down with a fever

Del continues to work on his Cherokee write up.  On top of working on his write up he had the privilege of preaching a sermon today.  Thank you to those who prayed as the sermon went pretty well.

Despite being busy, Ezra coming down with a fever, and being tired, God remains faithful to see us through it all.

Del all ready to go preach

The week ahead of us does not look much easier as Del will need to put in countless hours to finish his write up.  It will also be a hard week for Arielle because she will say goodbye to her best friend; she has known her for the past 7 years of training!  On an exciting note, once this paper is turned in, training in the states will be officially complete.  Hooray!!!

Ezra enjoying a ride from dad!

Del continues to elicit new Cherokee words and phrases each day.  After his daily session, he then spends the rest of the day analyzing it.  This makes for long, mentally tiring days.  As for Arielle…she is going to post something later this week.  Thanks for checking out our blog and thanks to those who have been praying for us.

Ezra is starting to be able to sit up

Three weeks have already passed and there are only four more weeks left in Oklahoma.  Del and his partner Joel are going through a bible study with there language helper Jerry.  Pray that God would use this in Jerry’s life to open his eyes to more clearly understand Scripture and who God is.  Del and Joel continue to elicit more and more Cherokee.  Ezra continues to grow.  Both Arielle and Ezra are really enjoying being in one place.  Whenever we come back “home” from church or grocery shopping, Ezra’s face lights and he gets very excited.  God is using this time in Oklahoma to sharpen us and prepare us for church planting in West Africa:  from limited internet accesses, spiders, crickets, wasps, and bees, to learning a new language, and living in sub-par living conditions.  Thanks for keeping up with us and praying for us.

Joel, Jerry (our language helper), and Del

Del and his partner Joel have continued to meet with their language helper Jerry.  Every day their vocabulary grows.  This week they began to elicit present continuous verbs, such as “coughing,” “sneezing,” “running,” and “dancing.”

Trip to Missouri

I don’t know if we have mentioned before that Joel, Del’s partner, is also going to West Africa. On Tuesday night Del and Joel had the opportunity to drive up to Missouri to meet with New Tribes Mission leadership from West Africa.  The meeting was very helpful as they were able to have many questions answered.  They also discussed what it may look like once we arrive in Senegal, West Africa.  Senegal is the country where we will be learning the African culture before going to a tribal location.  Wednesday night they drove back to Oklahoma.  To say the least, it has been a busy (yet fun and enriching) week with Cherokee study, a trip to Missouri, and the festival this weekend.

Cherokee Festival

We are in the middle of the Cherokee National Holiday weekend.  Today, we were able to attend a few events and learn more about the Cherokee people, their games, the trail of tears, and their history.  The commonality that they have with any other people in the world is that they need the gospel.

Ezra, Del, and a friend Joel

Each day we walk in and greet our language helper, “Osiyo!” We proceed to set up our little table next to his lazy chair that sits feet from the TV that plays old Western movies the entire time we are there.  Joel, my language partner, records new language data as our helper Jerry spouts off new and foreign sounds.

Ezra, Del, and Arielle

Jerry reads a verse in Cherokee and then we talk about it afterward.  After greetings and a few new practical phrases, we proceed to show him pictures and ask what they mean in Cherokee.  This gives you a little bit of a picture as to what our language helper sessions are like.

It is hard to believe a whole week of studying Cherokee and living in Oklahoma have already gone by.  We spent the past five days meeting with our language helper for 2 hours each day.  Pray for strength and stamina as the days are long and tiring.  Del is  studying a new language, helping out with cooking and cleaning meals for the group, helping Arielle with Ezra, in addition to getting all the daily things done.

*We only have one Dial Up Internet for all

Ezra at 5 months

of the students studying Cherokee.  If you need to get ahold of us you can call or text our cell phones.

The building we are staying in is next to the grave yard

We arrived in Oklahoma on Friday and set up our new home for the next seven weeks.  Even though it took several days and will take more to adjust to our new living situation and surrounds, we are excited to be here to study and learn what we can of the Cherokee language.  We have two little bedrooms with cinderblock walls and no windows as they are stuffed with an AC, of which we are thankful.

Arielle in our room

Our study area and AC

The past two days, Del and his partner Joel met with their Cherokee language helper for two hours.  They are both excited about the opportunities that are ahead not only learning Cherokee, but how they can point him to God.

*Sorry for the late post as we did not have internet for the past couple of days.  We covet your prayers and are thankful for those who have been praying for us.