Remembering Again

A year later, we remember, and thank God for...

114,115,116... little boys in bowls, a stove to cook in, water carried by my husband in "bedones"

117. thorns in our men's skin...for hearts to share the Gospel

118. Valentine planning and cooking by young adults!

119. a fun uncle to miss

120. the power of God

121. good water

122. safe crossing of rivers

123. little boys in laundry tubs:)

124. sun hats

125. a wonderful shaded porch and home borrowed to us and for those who loaned it

126. beautiful people to watch, 

127. a mom who taught me to love watching people

128. being taught how to bumbo Abraham by American and Guinean women

Join the Gratitude Community by clicking on the banner below...a deliberate effort at thankfulness to God!

Guinea -Part 3

We continue on with life at home as the men are away. The children pick up extra responsibilities - pumping more water, working in the garden...the day nears end. The men call on the satellite phone, they will be home soon. We are relieved, thankful. They arrive home and share of a fire they passed on their drive back. The mountain they had prayed on last week, set ablaze over a thousand feet, a snake-like path of fire where they had been. Thank you Lord for protecting them.



I take Abraham to our home, heat the teapot for bath water and we read a few books. Abraham plays on the ground. I think on an earlier day when a poisonous centipede crawled on the cement floor by our feet, minutes after he had moved from that spot. God gives this mother peace. Thank you for protecting us this day again. Forgive my doubts, Lord, overcome my fears.



Bath is done, little one is sleeping, I rinse out dirty diapers in my three bucket system. I'll spare you the details. I sing He Leadeth Me, somehow it helps with the grittiness of this least favorite job. I can't remember all the words, so I hum. Job soon done, I sit in the quiet living room, grateful for solar powered lights, and type away some thoughts on Brother's borrowed laptop, charged during the day by a solar powered inverter.


Two thoughts I have... First - missionaries need encouragement. We know this so much more deeply now. Many are out on the front lines...they need prayers, they need encouragement. If God has not called us to go...he HAS called us to send. Let us do this enthusiastically!


Secondly, God may call us to suffer - to go to hard places - even to die for him. May we count it all joy . . . May He give us the strength, joy and grace to follow wherever He leads. Behold - he is with us always, to the end of the age...


"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith." 1 John 5:7


And Jesus said to them, " All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

Thank you for reading, friends!

Guinea - Part 2

Missions has excited me since I became a Christian my senior year at Lakers. As the flame in my heart slowly grew smaller, so did that desire. If I was to do missions, it would probably be to Eastern Europe, somewhere cold. Not to Africa. It's hot there, and there are snakes. Neither of which do I do well with. Then God's calling came for Guinea. Peace came at just the right time when we had to decide whether or not to go. We would go. And now we are here. We cannot go back. Too far away to run to safety. God pries at my heart. It hurts. What really is safe...where is my security? "In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8


The first week is so hard. I cry over our son's safety. An image of a black snake terrifies me. Can I trust God to protect our family? Can I trust Him still if He allows Abraham to be killed by a snake. Life is hard here. Hard. In our weakness He is strong. I talk with Mom American. She shares with me how Satan uses fear to paralyze us. Yes, that's what I feel - paralyzed. I continue to pray and seek God. Each day, each walk outside, each night, I pray, laying our family at his feet. I realize more and more clearly, Jesus alone is security. We meet a missions evaluator, visiting from the States. She and her husband raised their 2 daughters until their teens in Guinea and then moved back to the States. A year later one daughter and her husband were killed in a car accident. Is it safe? We are safe in Christ, wherever we are, and only in Him are we secure. Is life in Guinea hard, yes. Is God's goodness evident. Yes. He is so good. He is so able to keep us wherever He calls us, and as Helen Roseveare said, "it is a privilege to suffer."

We awaken each morning to roosters crowing. There is no electricity here. We brush our teeth with filtered water and carefully choose the day's clothes. After being washed by hand and dried on a line, clothes must sit 3 days before being worn. The Americans learned the hard way about the little mango worm eggs present in clothes worn too soon. We eat a homemade breakfast of muffins cooked in a kerosene stove. Milk powder is added to everything for nourishment as dairy products are a rare luxury here, so unlike our Michigan home! Dishes are piled up in tubs and taken outside to be rinsed, washed in water - warmed by the sun in a black jug, bleached, then dried on a rack. Caution is taken...our hearts ache as we hear of the sickness these dear families have suffered...


The children begin school. Fresh fruits and vegetables are chopped for lunch and dinner. A papaya is picked from the yard...the orange and banana ladies might stop by with heavy loads balanced on their heads, babies on backs. Meat is thawed from the solar freezer. Beans are soaked to be cooked in a pressure cooker. Bread is kneaded and set to raise. Our hands labor, Abraham sorts oranges, the pace is demanding yet peaceful. Mom American chats with O., the woman who helps her around the house. She arranges family to help with our laundry while here. A huge blessing to us.




Jonathan helps American Dad with mechanical things around the house and yard and they are off...traveling 20 miles in 2 hours, driving through a 4 foot deep river to greet new leadership. Respect for authority is hugely important here. "Greeting" is taken seriously before entering an area to share Scripture. They have spent different days doing such and other days and nights praying on top of mountains. High places are real here. Jonathan feels as though he's living in the Old Testament days at times. The darkness is heavy for our men especially as they pray and praise Jesus in places His name has not been proclaimed before.

One final post, part 3, to follow soon...

Guinea - Part 1

A view from our temporary home...

A view from our hearts...

The following is what Angela shared at church about our time in Guinea. Names have been changed to "Brother" and "Americans" and some details removed in order to protect the missionaries in country and to not bring any antagonism against their efforts.

For those who don't know, in January we traveled to Guinea, West Africa, for 7 weeks. We went desiring to obey a calling we felt from God. The plans that we had were to encourage and assist Brother, and the Americans, the family that Brother tutors. Brother and the Americans live a 9 hour drive from the capitol of Guinea, a country nestled between war-torn countries such as Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Liberia. They are there living amongst a Muslim people group that is vastly unreached with the Gospel. Brother tutors the Americans' children and assists the Americans, as they are there to spread the word of God amongst this people, largely through trekking.

Trekking includes everything from greeting local government officials, to hiking with backpacks into remote areas where there are no roads and few non-Guineans have ever traveled. A bit shocking, isn't it? We can purchase a ticket to fly around the world with a few clicks of a mouse, we can buy grapes from Brazil for a couple bucks at the store, we can even sit at home and watch live webcams from 7 different continents...yet there are still places on this earth that must be walked into...places where the love of Christ is not known...Places where NO seeds have been planted...People who have not heard.

Here is a glimpse of life in Guinea...

We arrive in Conakry, the capitol of Guinea, in the late evening. As we walk off the plane onto the tarmac, our 14 month old Abraham's first word is "hot." His curls stick to his neck from the heavy, humid air. A mixture of French, Pular and other native languages surround us as we pass through Customs. We are grateful to be traveling with the Americans with their fluent tongues. Our little alarm clock shows it has been 37 hours since we left home, our bodies are confused and tired as we wait and learn one of our bags didn't make it from Belgium. The bag full of Abraham's cloth diapers. Thankfully the Americans still have theirs, even though their youngest is 7 now. When something is brought over to Guinea...it does not easily get sent back. Things are held onto, well used, and lovingly shared. We sigh in relief. We arrive at a missionary guest house to stay the night. The kids mention how we've parked in the spot where they saw "that poisonous snake" the last time they were here, as we get out of the Landrover. Protect us Lord, be our security...I look under beds, plug every hole in the room and let Abraham run around in his diaper. Jonathan unloads the mountain of luggage and the Americans realize - they haven't packed any Mefaquine, an anti-malaria medication. Saturday is the weekly day to take it and their dedication to that helps us realize the seriousness of the disease. It's decided, Mom American should take the one pill I have packed. Recovering from extensive surgery 10 days post-op, her body needs the protection the most. The rest of us can wait until we arrive "home" in 24 hours to the larger pantry supply of Mefaquine.

Sleep, we long for, Abraham isn't interested in. We explore the room and bathroom, and Abraham gets his first bucket bath by flashlight. The capital city - and power is only available certain nights of the week. Tonight it won't be on until midnight. Midnight comes, our little one is finally sleepy, we gratefully turn on the fan and sleep.

Sunday morning, we begin the 9 hour to where we will meet Brother and be "home." Our little traveler does so well even taking an unheard of 3 naps during the trip. Thank you, Lord! We stop part way and load up on pineapples, watermelon, coconuts, apple bananas - special treats grown only in certain parts of the country. These are our food for the day, along with French bread bought alongside the road...Guinean fast food... and some leftover Gorp.

We gratefully arrive in "home" around 8pm, over 60 hours since we left our Michigan home, and are greeted joyfully by Brother and friends, two Baptist missionary families, the other long-termers in town. After a simple, nourishing meal of beans and rice we are taken to the house where we will stay until March. Next door to the Americans, we are blessed to get to stay in the home of a missionary out of country for a few months. Not knowing fully what to expect, I am delighted to find a working solar refrigerator, screened windows, and covered porch, yet overwhelmed...tears come as I survey the indoor toilet and buckets of water to flush with, the small bowl to do dishes in, the large cockroaches on the kitchen wall, and hardest of all, the large gap under the screen door. A 2inch gap...so small, yet it so boldly exposes the fear, the doubt, the treasuring of comfortable living - in places where scorpions and cobras are avoided, in my heart...

Sharing Guinea

Tomorrow morning Jonathan and I will be sharing at church about our time in Guinea. This has been difficult to prepare for, as has sharing on the blog. After tomorrow we hope to share more on the blog. Thank you so much for all of the support you friends and family have shown us.

Please join us at 9:30 at Pigeon River Mennonite Church if you're in the area! Prayers for our sharing time would be greatly appreciated...may we share only what God would have us share!

So You Know You're in Michigan When...

You regularly have email and internet!:)
Thank you so much for praying for us. We came back Thursday night and God blessed us with great travels home. Not sure how to share yet, but more details should be coming soon!

Guinea A Bit Later

We'd love to have you pray...
-In two days our family was scheduled to leave for Guinea with plans to assist (brother #6) in his ministry of tutoring and trekking.
-The mother of the children that Brother tutors has been through some very intense medical testing and surgery this week.
-This has delayed their departure date from the States by at least 10 days.
-We were to travel together, meeting up in Brussels, this Friday.
-Both of our families are praying for wisdom as to when to now leave.
-The earliest that it seems wise to leave is next Friday, the 16th.

What this means???
-Lord willing we will all be in Guinea in about a week, instead of a couple days.
-Life for Brother will be a bit more complicated in arranging our travel in-country.
-Prayer would be so appreciated regarding these details, especially for the health, healing and encouragement of the mother of this family.