Visitors love to stop by!

How many job titles do you hold in a week?  Last night, as I tried to shut off my mind and fall asleep, I started thinking through the events of the last week and realized that we’ve held quite a few job titles in just a few days…here’s just a few…small business investor, wedding planner, ambulance driver, medical care provider, construction foreman, village mediator, homeschooler, and those are just a few!

Maybe some of those brought a question to your mind and you’d love to hear more  Okay, you twisted my arm, I’ll tell you more.  No two days seem to look alike over here.  Sometimes I’m amazed at the situations that come up in an afternoon…when those situations aren’t driving me insane.

I’m all for ladies in our village having a chance to earn some extra funds for their families.  Most are responsible for the needs of their children all on their own and it can be near impossible to meet the needs of those children.  So, as a small business investor, I provide the funds for several ladies to purchase large quantities of an item that they can sell off piece by piece and earn a profit.  Word has gotten out that I’m willing to provide the “up front” money and now I’m investing in flour, manioc, oil and fish sales.

We were asked to be the parents (or the hosts) for the wedding of a young man in our village.  With these kinds of offers comes a million cultural questions.  We never quite know exactly what we’re supposed to do at these events – even when we ask we don’t always understand the answer.  We’ve got a few weeks to get it all straightened out – hopefully with the advice of a few people!  But, hey, we got the wedding t-shirts ordered already…yes, I said wedding t-shirts.

Steve gets asked A LOT to take people to the hospital.  Babies on the way, motorcycle accidents, severe malaria…the reasons are almost endless.  I think that most people here take comfort in having a big guy accompany them to the hospital in town and speak to the doctors on their behalf.  Plus, it usually means we’re paying the bills  We’ve had some severe outbreak of this terrible rash.  It started out in another village and it seems to be spreading to ours.  So, we have lots of people coming by to show me their rashes. (I know, you are jealous aren’t you?)  There’s all the usual sickness as well, so people keep me busy!

Many times Steve is asked to come out and meet with village leaders over issues going on.  It’s been a valuable time for him to learn how relationships work, how problems are dealt with and decisions for the village are made.  Issues over the school, crime, and things like marriage and divorce.

So, that’s a few things.  And that’s when we’re not busy with things like homeschooling our children and continuing with building projects in other villages!  As I write this, Steve is off in another village working for a few days.  The boys and I are here trying to keep up with everything without him.  We’re used to him being busy, but not around at all is a little different.

Okay, so that’s a little rundown on some situations we find ourselves in over just the last 3 days…it’s never dull around here, that’s for sure!

Baby Mawa at her baby naming ceremony - I have yet to get a good explanation on why they put eyeliner on newborns

I love when a new baby is born in the village.  I love babies in general.  I was so excited for my friend, Maimouna, to have had a healthy baby girl a couple of weeks ago.  It’s been a long pregnancy for her with a lot of stress.  You might remember me writing about us doing marriage counseling for a young couple…well, it was for Maimouna and her husband, Younoussa.  I know that not everything is just a bed of roses over there, but they are still together and trying to make it work.  She hasn’t felt good for most of the pregnancy and these past few weeks have left her more than ready for baby to come.

She actually went into the hospital because she wasn’t feeling good.  Her sister-in-law and I had just dropped off some dinner to her at the hospital and headed home when she went into labor.  Her husband came to tell us the next morning about the baby.  Steve headed in to pick her up from the hospital and bring her back home…yeah, just a couple of hours at a clinic and they are ready to go.

The wife spends the first 8 days at home with the baby…basically staying inside her bedroom the whole time.  Visitors come to greet the new baby and offer congratulations to the mom.  She is not allowed to leave until the 8th day, when there is the baby naming dedication.  We’ve written about those a few times and they are pretty the same from one to another.

I sat with the ladies while they finished preparing rice and sauce for the celebration.  It is a definitely a group effort to get it all prepared before the ceremony is over.  Lots of pounding, sifting, stirring and laughing is going on.  Then we all went out front while the baby’s head was shaved and prayers were said.  The actual ceremony is pretty quick.  In the case it was even quicker because there was going to be a funeral later in the day and the ladies were needed to go cooking at another house.  They named the baby Mawa after a relative of the family who had died not long ago. Then everyone gave money to the mother to help her pay for the things that the baby needed.  Then the ladies distribute the bowls of rice and sauce to the different groups of people.  Ours is always taken into the house so we can eat apart from everyone else…no matter how many times we’ve said that we’re fine to be like everyone else.  But, usually, the important guests are all eating in a bedroom somewhere, so I guess it’s culturally appropiate.

Here’s a few photos of the big day…

A large group of ladies from the village shares in the cooking for the celebration

The head shaving part of the ceremony - the mom is the one with her head covered completely

Maimouna and I after the ceremony

I love that I got a picture of Maimouna smiling (not an easy thing to do over here!)

It was a full house

In my last post, I started talking about the Employee Appreciation Meal I was busy putting together when the week turned into chaos. Even with all the concern over Elise’s arm and Steve sitting with Brian and Sherri at the hospital…we still needed to pull off this big meal.

We had put out invitations for the 57 employees in our village who work in various jobs around our center.  We had put together a menu, hired a team of ladies to help with the cooking, put together a small gift for each employee and done a bunch of other things to ensure that the meal would go smoothly.  It was an early morning of getting things all set up outside for this team of ladies to cook rice and sauce and french fries for a large group.  Our guys were going to be heading up the grilling of a LOT of chicken.

I loved seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces as they came to the meal.  The ladies were dressed so nice.  One of the teens who works for us even found a suit jacket to wear…very impressive!  We had everyone find a place to sit and then we missionaries put together plates with heaping amounts of food and delivered them to all our hard working employees.  I took it as a personal challenge to make sure that everyone ate until they couldn’t eat anymore.  It was actually funny to watch.  Most people wanted their seconds on chicken, but only to take home for later.

We took a moment at the end of the meal to thank everyone for their faithful service to the Mission and to each of us.  We handed out a small gift to everyone and then our employees in turn thanked us for the wonderful meal.  The whole thing was a big hit!

Afterwards everyone wanted me to take their picture while they were still dressed up…here’s some of my favorites…

Mamoussou and I with her little girl Mawa...she has been such a help to me with feeding of moms and babies - trying to get everyone strong and healthy! She's been such a blessing to me!

They call themselves "Team Steve". They were so excited to be there for the meal! This is them posing how they think American teenage boys would pose.

Several of the ladies who work here on the center and me happily holding brand new baby Mawa - she was just 9 days old...

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