WOW!! We can't believe it but 1 year ago today we boarded a plane and left America!! Praise God with us as we celebrate 1 year of being in Africa. It is so hard to believe we've been on foreign soil for a year now. It has been a year of changes, some fun and others not so fun, a year of challenges, and a year of learning more about God and drawing closer to Him. Before we left we had two wise men (Arnett's Uncle Ralph and my Papa Jim) tell us basically the same thing, their words of wisdom..."You kids will have some of the best times of your lives but you'll also have some of the worst!" Not something I wanted to hear! We were moving to Africa and things were going to be great! We were doing what God had called us to do, there was no way we were going to have a bad time, yet alone some of our worst times. However, their wisdom did, in fact, prove to be right on the money!! We have had some of the best times of our lives, however, we've also had some of the worst! We knew life here would be hard but we never imagined it would be this hard!! At first, life was hunky dory. We were in the culture shock phase known as the "honeymoon phase". We were ready to live in Africa for the long haul, if that's what God had planned. While things here were different we saw them through rose colored glasses. We were on a mission from God and that was all we needed!! Then we entered into the "negotiation phase" where everything in the new culture is terrible! We were in this phase for months!! At times we felt like we'd never get adjusted to life here. We were starting to question if we had heard God right. Was He sure this is where we were supposed to be?? Those rose colored glasses were gone and we were left with reality!! While the people were friendly and hospitable, frankly, they were just different and life in Africa was a far cry from life in America. Arnett hated living in a city of 3-4 million people and would rather move to the bush, while I was not crazy about the city, I was extremely not crazy about living in the bush full time!! Finally, we hit the "adjustment phase", where we began to be more comfortable here and life was looking up!! Arnett, still hates living in the city but he deals with it. I've gotten used to going to the bush and could see us living there at least half the time. Life is still hard but we've adjusted rather well. Even though, we still have "ticket days", where we are ready to board the next plane outta here. They are definitely, once again, few and far between. A long cry from the time period where they were at least 5 days out of the week!! We take refuge though, in knowing, despite all the difficulties and hardships, we truly are where God wants us. Even though there are days we still wonder why He's called us here we know that His ways are higher than ours!! And He does indeed have a purpose for us!!
So, now, our plan is to continue learning Bambara, something we thought we'd be done with by now!! We'll start focusing more on learning Bible stories and less on learning language to survive. Praise God, we've been able to get that down pretty well! Our hope is to start building relationships in a village outside of town. We hope to have an open door there to start "storying groups". Arnett focusing on sharing with the men, while I focus on sharing with the women. Arnett will also be helping with our team's farming project this year. So, between those two things and keeping up with Zeke we'll be busy, busy!
Here's a picture of us taken right after we got here.
Praises:
- We've survived our first year!!
- We're pretty comfortable living here and are able to get around fairly easily.
- Zeke, children are such a blessing!!
- The Malian friends that we've made throughout the year!!
Of course, I can't type a blog without sharing a few pics of Zeke.
Prayer Requests:
- The work we hope to start in the village, may the villagers be open to hearing about Jesus.
- The farming project, may it go better than last year and may we have workers to come and help with the project.
- Our language learning, may we be able to speak and hear Bambara clearly!
- For good health, physically, mentally, and spiritually!
We thank you for joining with us in this journey. We couldn't have done it and still can't do it without your prayers and support. Until next time...
