The Hofer family

A week ago, I was in the midst of planning a large Employee Appreciation meal for all those in the village who work here on our center…a total of 57 people.  Lots of meal planning, shopping, arrangements, small gifts…and last Saturday was to be the day for the big event.  I was sitting with a group of ladies peeling huge amounts of potatoes when one of our co-workers came running out to say that their little girl had fallen and broken her arm.  They needed someone to take them to the nicer hospital about an hour away.  I went over to see how bad the situation was and Steve grabbed his bag to head to the hospital.  This was definitely an emergency…her arm was not only broken but the bone had come through.

Steve spent all day at the hospital with them while Elise went into surgery.  Steve was so encouraged to see how Brian and Sherri kept reminding Elise and themselves that in the midst of uncertainity God was ever present.  It was a very long day and in the midst of the surgery, the doctors came out to say that not only did Elise have a compound fracture and a broken wrist, but she had also severed her artery and had cut into her bicep muscle.  The surgery continued for hours as the bone doctor worked to repair the artery and muscle.

The next day the doctors came to say that they felt that the muscle and artery damage was more than they could deal with in Guinea and so we began making plans to get the family out of the country.  At the end of MANY long discussions, it was decided that Steve would fly with Brian and Elise to France to see the specialists there.  Sherri would stay here in Guinea with their two younger sons until we knew what they were saying in France.  To make a long story short, the surgeons there were very pleased with the surgery that Elise had had in Guinea and felt that she could go on to the States without having surgeries in France.  This was such good news!  Elise’s spirits perked up a lot once she was out of the hospital and together the three of them enjoyed a day of sight-seeing in Paris.

While I didn’t compltely enjoy his facebook posts about all the great food he was eating and sights he was visiting…I was so relieved to hear that Elise was being given such a good prognosis and that they would be able to head back to the States.  Brian and Elise headed to the States at almost the same time that Steve headed back here to Guinea.  Sherri and their two boys, along with our co-worker Janel, headed to the States from here on Saturday.

What a week…it was a crazy week for the kids and I here without Steve too.  But, that will have to be for another post…I have lots of stories!

Thanks for all the prayers said for us this week…it was a huge encouragement in the midst of all the difficulties!

Brian and Elise right off the bus in front of the Eiffel Tower

Steve in front of the Eiffel Tower

Our friends new baby (to be named on the 8th day)

What a week.  Honestly I think every day I have said to Steve, “I’m not sure I’m going to get through today”.  It’s been a week of extreme emotions – going from overwhelmed to excited to discouraged to relieved to…I know that we all face tough situations in our lives, but being here has the added challenge of never being able to escape those tough situations.  You can’t leave the problems at the office.

It kind of started with our generator being stolen last week.  I know it’s just a “thing” and honestly we weren’t worried about the actual generator (although it would be really nice to get it back!) but more what the theft represented.  The generator was being stored in a shed on the other side of the mission center – sometime in the night the fence was cut, the shed door busted and the thieves carried the generator away.  We wouldn’t have heard anything.  Someone told us the next day and we’ve tried to go about things in the right way.  But, it’s been very discouraging to know that someone would steal it.  It’s discouraging to know that I’m sure someone in the village is very aware of who the thief is.  It’s hard to not want to just tell everyone that I don’t feel like helping them if they are going to steal.  But, one of our co-workers reminded us that Satan is going to use anything to discourage us and keep us from being there for the people we came to serve.

A week of many sick people isn’t unusual, but many of the sick have needed a lot of attention.  Our friend, Kinda, has been making great strides to recover from illnesses, but he continues to remain very weak and infections keep bothering him.  Steve has been taking him to the hospital almost every day to changes bandages.

Our friend, Maimouna, also needed to be in the hospital this week.  She was in the last days of pregnancy and not feeling well.  But, she hated being in the hospital (which is understandable) and so we kept visiting every day.  Thankfully, just a few days ago, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl!  Steve brought them home right away from the hospital and mom and baby are doing well.

We’ve been helping a young man be able to live in town and go to school this year.  But, no matter what we do, how much we help – it’s just never enough.  He always wants more and more and more.  He is a young believer as well and so we’ve really struggled with how to help him understand that at 20 years old, he needs to be more responsible.  He became very angry at us this week when we wouldn’t agree to giving him a very large financial gift and said some hurtful things.  But, then a few days later, he came to tell us that he had “been sick in his heart” for those days knowing that he was wrong.  He asked our forgiveness and said that he would do what he needed to in order to show us that he was truly sorry.  I’m so thankful to see God working in his life…

I went to visit the twins we are providing food for.  It was like a celebrity had come to their little village…very humbling.  EVERYONE wanted me to take their picture.  My little twins are doing so great.  They are growing so big!  Then sadly, I found out that a woman in the village that we had been medically caring for, was diagnosed with AIDS.  She is the mother of one of the teen boys who hang out at our house all the time.  I can’t say anything to the son, so we’re just helping how we can.

There have been deaths this week in the village.  Many more sick people needing us.  It seems that everything is a good with a bad.  It’s just been so much this week.  This post is long and not even close to all the situations that have come up this week.  Trying to handle all the requests and needs is so huge – and trying to do it all in a culture so different from our own is an added challenge.  Trying to communicate effectively in a language that is not our own is another challenge.  So, I hope that you can see how much we need your prayers.  How much we need to know that we have people who know our struggles and want to encourage our hearts.  Keep those prayers coming!

Visiting one night out in the village

One of the twins, Alisan, looking a little scared of the camera

The twins back home in their village. Ladies put the mud on their heads because they say it makes the softspot harden up.

The parents of this village wanted a picture with all their kids holding up their religions prayer tablets. I didn't quite know what to say, so I indulged them.

Learning the ropes of being a blacksmith

We’ve just given my mom a new reason to fear for the life of her grandchild…maybe not quite that drastic, but we’re definitely making her nervous!  Malachi is completely fascinated by all things dangerous.  To him, if there’s no element of danger to something then why bother doing it?  So, it comes as no surprise that he thinks the blacksmith in our village has the coolest job.  Burning coal, pounding out burning metal, and making it into tools and weapons…how cool is that?  Steve has taken Malachi to visit the blacksmith several times as he is always making tools for us to use around here.

Then Steve had the idea that instead of Malachi just watching the blacksmith at his shop – how about we recreate one here at our house for Malachi to use whenever he wants???  Doesn’t that sound like a completely safe idea?  So, we’ve been buying up the needed items to start his shop and we had the blacksmith make Malachi his very own set of blacksmithing tools.  He was so excited to see it all come together.  Then we had Sajo (the blacksmith) come out for the day to show Malachi how to position everything and how to get started on his own.  My boys were completely enthralled with the process.  It’s totally a boy thing as Steve says.

You start a fire and get the charcoal burning.  Then you have a fan that you turn by hand to blow air into the coals to keep it burning hot.  You put the metal into the coals until it’s flaming red.  Then pull it out and quickly start pounding into the shape you want.  After a few pounds the metal cools and back into the coals it goes.  You just keep doing this process.  My boys think it is the greatest thing that now they make their own arsenal of weapons right out back.

This definitely falls under that catagory of “only if you grow up in Africa can you do this”.  I told my mom that Children’s Services would probably be calling if we were home in the States.  As dangerous as it may be, I do love that my kids share in an important part of the culture they live in.  This is how stuff is made and I love that they are learning about it.  I love that it helps build relationships even more with the people around us.  It’s all about sharing in each others lives!

Keeping those coals nice and hot

Getting started on his first project

Merry Christmas

Living here in Guinea, Christmas could really come and go and you wouldn’t really notice.  There are no lights on houses, no TV specials, no stores full of gift giving ideas, no signs of Christmas anywhere.  It can be difficult to think of all the traditions happening without us back home.  It can be difficult to read how everyone is celebrating the season…BUT, there are also great things about having Christmas over here.  It’s much easier to focus on the real meaning of Christmas when you take away all the hype and commercialism.  There was no mention of Santa Claus at all.

We read from the book of Luke several times and talked about how amazing it was that God would choose to send His Son as a baby in a manger.  Luke 2:10-11, “Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all the people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

When we read that I asked the boys why is it good tidings with great joy?  They knew it was because Jesus would save us all from our sins.  Then we started talking about all the people in our village.  I asked if their religion is full of good tidings and great joy?  They knew too that it is not.  All the people around us are just trying to do enough good things to make up for the bad things in the hope that their god will let them into paradise.  That can’t bring joy to a soul.  I just kept reading that passage and thinking how much I long for my friends and neighbors to know true joy.  To no longer strive to be good enough, but to rest in the fact that God already did everything for them.

Of course, with three boys, we did celebrate Christmas with a few traditions.  We made Christmas cookies (even as our frosting was melting And we sang Christmas carols and had some presents for them.  We asked our guard to give us a few hours as a family on Christmas morning without people needing us.  They think it is so incredibly odd that we would want to be alone for ANY reason!

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visiting with our friends and family in the village – giving out gifts and offering our holiday greetings.  It’s a bit hard for them to offer those greetings back to us since it is rejoicing in the birth of Jesus, but we appreciate their efforts.  It was such a wonderful time giving gifts to others.  I had a great time of choosing clothes, toys, and candies for each family.  Our boys loved being a part of it and helping kids with their gifts.  I love that we could share our holiday with our friends this way.  I love that we can bring some of our world into theirs and let them know how much we care about them.  I have tons of pictures, but here are some of my favorites…

Taking gifts to friends and their kids

I loved seeing their excited littles faces as we visited different families

Having a fashion show trying on the new clothes

Visiting my namesake Casey with her parents Mohammed and Mawa.

I love seeing how happy they were to get gifts for baby Casey

Sweet baby Casey and I

it can be about impossible to get a group of Africans to smile for the camera! Our group has grown a little since this photo, but these are our guys!

A few months ago Steve and I started talking about wanting to do a Bible Study with the group of teenage guys who spend most of their afternoons at our home.  It’s a little scary at first to think about doing public Bible teaching in a group.  We never forget that Christianity goes against their religion and their beliefs.  Their religion (and I can’t use the specific title here) affects every aspect of their life…so, openly teaching about Christ is a big deal.  Of course, we share about our personal faith with people on a one-on-one basis, but a group Bible study is a much different story.  We spent a lot of time praying about it and in the end decided that we just couldn’t go on NOT teaching them.  We needed to be faithful to speak up and see where it led us.

It has been such a great experience for our entire family.  Our boys love Thursday nights when the whole group comes over to eat.  They hang out for a while when they first get here – playing foosball with Micah or coloring with Ephraim are the big hits!  Then it’s eating all together…let me tell you, those boys can eat!  One of their moms is the woman who does the cooking for us and when she first told us how much rice she would need each week I couldn’t believe it was true.  But, each week not a drop of food is left over.

Steve is going through the book, “The Lamb”, with the guys right now.  We wanted to start with something that wasn’t extremely threatening to them.  This book is one we’ve used with our own boys to clearly explain creation, sin, sacrifice and our need for a Savior.  Much of the story the teenagers are familiar with – it’s the details that have been changed to suit their religion.  We want to start at the beginning and lay the right foundation so they clearly see where the differences started and what affect it has.  After Steve goes through the chapter he asks questions to see if they are following him…yes, we are using candy as incentive for getting the answer right (hey, whatever works!).  They are asking good questions themselves and we are so thankful that we are taking these relationships deeper.

Keep praying for this group of young men.  Pray that they would see the truth of God’s Word.  Pray that they would have the courage to seek this truth.  Pray that we would communicate in a clear way that brings God glory!

Getting some action shots

Soccer is a VERY important part of life over here.  Soccer is THE sport.  I’m amazed when I see boys and young men running in 120 degree heat gearing up for a big match.  Every boy dreams of becoming a famous soccer player.  The market walls are lined with uniforms from all different countries.  When you live in a pretty remote village with no means of transporation and nothing much to do – a soccer match with a rival village team is a big deal.  Notices are written down, (and then usually brought to my house for me to make photocopies) passed around to different groups, and everyone shows up at the soccer field to watch the big game.

It’s just a gravel field at the edge of the village, just homemade goals, but you’d think they are celebrities.  If it’s going to be a big match then they rent speakers and microphone so there can be announcers yelling loudly through the whole thing.  Our village just had a week long soccer match with different grades playing each afternoon.  The boys who spend their afternoons at our house were playing one afternoon, so Steve went with the boys to cheer them on.  He took a ton of pictures and then when they came over for Bible Study he played them as a slideshow.  They loved it.

It may seem like a trival thing, but we want to be involved even in the soccer games.  Whatever is important to them needs to become important to us.  We need to show our neighbors that we care about the things they care about.  It’s the only way that we can become a part of the community.  Praying for these moments of outreach…

Such serious determination

Presenting the team

Our family at our Christmas dinner during conference

School is out for a few weeks…I’ve been looking forward to this little break from the busy routine.  It’s nice to have time to visit with the people coming to the house because I’m not trying to teach the kids at the same time.  Although, now that they know I’m on a break, it seems that EVERYONE needs to come and ask me something.  I had big plans that I was going to make the kids do more schoolwork during this break so it all stayed “fresh” in their minds, but it just isn’t happening – not that the boys mind too much!

We had our annual field conference all last week.  A guest speaker and his family came over from the States to encourage us during morning meetings.  It was nice to hear a hear someone new share things from a new perspective.  It was a very full week of meetings and events, but our kids loved the non-stop action of being with their friends.  Here’s a few photos from the week…

We had a kids day with games and activities...water balloons are a big hit over here.

Trying to catch those water balloons being launched at them

All our missionary kids!

The kids did a Christmas play and Malachi was a woodcutter

Micah in the play at a rapping Jesus - Ephraim is one of his rapping disciples.

All our missionary kids singing Christmas carols at the end of their play

New experiences

Yeah, I’m not sure why we feel the need to create a fire and roast hot dogs when it’s SO unbelievably hot.  Maybe because we’re from Michigan and this is just what you do in the Fall.  Maybe because I’m really sick of cooking and this was a super easy meal for a group of boys.  Whatever the reason, we created a little sensation with this “meat on a stick” thing.  As is usually the case, our family really can’t do anything just as a family.  This is good in the sense that we have lots of opportunities for building friendships and bad in the sense that it drives us a little crazy – but that’s a whole other post

Anyways, we made our little fire and soon we had very curious boys wondering what we were going to do with this fire.  Yes, they are used to their moms cooking over a fire, but it’s rice and sauce in pots – and there were no pots to be found.  They wondered why Monsieur Steve would be collecting small sticks and sharpening the ends – are we going hunting???  But, then I pulled out the packs of hotdogs and showed them how to put them on the stick.  This whole process of roasting the hot dogs was honestly quite hilarious.  They didn’t like the idea of patiently waiting for the whole hot dog to be ready, so they would heat it up a minute – take a bite and put it back in the fire for another minute.  I have never seen packs of hot dogs be eaten so fast.

For the most part, I love sharing our lives with the people around us.  Yes, there are the moments where I just want to hide when they are calling at the door.  But, we have such an opportunity to get to know people, to show them we care, and live life with them.  That’s what we’re here for!  The next day, people were telling me all about this new food everyone wants to try…but, I’m not sure I’m up for village wide hot dog roasts quite yet!

He's just too funny

Still swollen more than a day later

We’re not big fans of bees around here.  I have shared MANY times my extreme fear of them after Malachi nearly died from an allergic reaction during our first term.  It was honestly the scariest moment of my life when I truly thought I was going to lose my child.  Thankfully one of our co-workers had an epi-pen and we were able to get him breathing again.  We never suspected that he had any type of allergy to bees.

Even Ephraim, who is not allergic to bees, had a major run in with one a few weeks ago that had his eye swollen shut for three days.  Even the bees are tougher here in Africa!  I jokingly said that to someone the other day, but I really think it’s true.

A few days ago, Malachi was climbing high up in a tree when he suddenly jumped out of the tree screaming.  We didn’t have a moment to think of it then, but later realized that he could have easily broken his arms or legs.  He was grasping at his mouth and screaming his lungs out.  By the time we got to him we could already see where he’d been stung.  He started to go into shock and crying that he was going to die.  His vividly remembers the other time that he was stung, the intense hives and his inability to breathe.  We carried him into the shower trying to clean him off and calm him down.  His face was already swelling and the hives were popping out.  We gave him a major dose of Benadryl and didn’t leave his side.  We had his epi-pen ready, but we think that the Benadryl in that large of a dose so close to the time he was stung, probably kept his breathing under control.

He’s had a few days of a very swollen neck and face.  The next day he couldn’t really open his eyes and was pretty out of it.  He loved seeing the reaction on people’s face when they looked at him.  Micah and Ephraim just stared at him.

It’s one of those really hard situations.  I’m sure that many people back in the States would say that they would never bring their child to a country with no medical care in these type of situations.  We’ve had some really scary moments with malaria as well, and I remember people telling me that they could never take their kids away from doctors and hospitals – and instead take them to a country filled with disease.  I understand all those thoughts, believe me, I’ve had the same ones.  Am I crazy to bring my boys here?

But, at the end of the day, I have to ask myself if God is truly in control.  Is He the One who numbers the days of my life – and my child’s life?  Because if He is, then no bee can take Malachi until God says it’s time.  We can keep ourselves only in our “safe places” out of fear of what might happen – and still lose our children.  Or we can put them into God’s hands and follow where He leads – knowing that His plan will happen no matter where we live.

But, we’re still not big fans of bees.

Ending the post on a happy note, swollen but smiling

First day of school - 5th grade, 4th grade, and 1st grade!

This week “facebook” has been filled with everyone’s posts and photos about the first day of school. It’s hard to believe that we are finishing up our 5th week over here. It’s definitely turning out to be a different kind of year for us.
We were so lacking in teachers for our missionary kids this year that all the mothers came together and are sharing in home schooling responsibilities. So, as a mom who never imagined herself homeschooling, I’m now teaching the 4th grade. Thankfully, Malachi has enough excitement over this turn of events to cover both of us. He is thrilled to have his mom as his teacher – he just wishes that we could have school in our pajamas while still in bed. Instead, we are doing school together with his friend, Aidan, out on our front porch. For the most part I think things are going well. The constant interruptions can be hard to handle from folks in the village who have no idea why school shouldn’t be interrupted. It can make for some very long days without any “mommy time”, but we’re surviving. Who of you is ready to make the move to Guinea and take over schooling our kids?
There is one teacher available and she took on the 5th and 6th grades for the year and so Micah is still leaving the house and heading a real classroom. He would not be so excited to have his mom as his teacher! He is Mr. Social and with only me to entertain, he would be devastated. He is enjoying being a part of a class of six (I know, big numbers over here!). He is still completely obsessed with football and recites all the players and team stats for me on a continual basis. He reminds us frequently that he is missing out on the football season in America and he would make the sacrifice of going back to live with Gramma and Grampa if we wanted him to
Ephraim is doing first grade with our co-workers who are also teaching their daughter in the same grade. He is always ready and excited to head out the door in the morning. He is so excited to come home and show us his papers at the end of the morning. He is picking up on reading and getting better everyday. It’s hard to believe that my little boy is in First grade already!
5 weeks down – many, many more to go! I’m sure that this year will be filled challenges, changes and some really great times. We’d appreciate your prayers as we make these adjustments to our ministry and already busy schedule.