anything new?

Well, today the girls got a first-hand look at poverty and were really touched by it. An old lady who was obviously blind in one eye and looked dirty and, well, just plain poor came up to our taxi as we were at a traffic light. The girls looked all over the car for something to give her. They asked many questions and prayed for all poor people tonight. This is the kind of thing God can use to help these kinds of people. For a number of years, Elena remembered the street kids in Nairobi who lived on a roundabout in the middle of the city. She was so touched by their plight that, some years later, she wanted to give some money to help them. We made Christmas ornaments and sold them. After hearing what they were for, the kid's club Elena went to, matched the amount. It was all sent to a home for Street Kids we know of in Kenya. They in turn sent a thank you telling how many bags of beans , rice and corn the money bought. It was all because a little girl was touched by what she had when she was about 4 years old and it had stuck with her. Maybe our girls will be inspired to do something similar now.

Interestingly, I haven't seen the abject poverty here that I saw in Kenya. For one thing, there don't seem to be as many street kids. Another is there don't seem to be any slums. Maybe that's part of it, I don't know.

On another note. How many of you take something to the bathroom with you to read when you know you'll be in there for a while? Come on, admit it, you do it, too. Well, for us here, bathroom reading has taken on a whole new meaning. We now read the toilet paper. We've bought recycled paper produced in Ghana and the big game is to try to find as many letters still on the paper as possible. We have quite a collection so far! Next week I want to make a chart to hang in the bathroom. We can tick off each letter--upper and lower case--as we find it!

Tomorrow will be our 4th Sunday here (tho the first one was the day after we arrived so we just stayed here in our little flat that day). It seems the Togolais like to begin worship early. We have to get up at 5:45am to be at the church (about a 15 minute walk) by 6:45am! Personally, I find it almost unholy. I mean WHO gets up that early, or rather, who gets up that early and wants to socialize at that hour? Honestly! At least we then have basically the whole day ahead of us. Depending on how long the service lasts.

2 weeks later

Has it only been 2 weeks since we arrived? It seems like much more. We're still here in the SIL guest house as we haven't found a house of our own, yet. We thought we had one but were "out bid" at the last minute when someone else (the grapevine said it was a German--go figure) came along with cash in hand which was TOO tempting to the owner. I'm sure it was also for more than we had been promised we needed to pay. Anyway, we had to begin the search again. We've found one but it still needs a bit of work so we will see this week how long that work will take and all.

I wanted to put a few first impressions. The girls say, "It' s different." --Elena; "Really hot!"--Fiona; "I see lizards and gecko's and all animals that we never saw."--Sydney; "It's loud and smelly."--all 3 in unison. I (Kathy) have observed that all 3 are a bit "unexcited" when they leave the compound. They don't like being stared at and Sydney in particular, gets the lion's share of the cheek tweaking and hair stroking. She even had her hand kissed today! That's what ya get for being cute. Roger and I have our own observations as well. I can't believe the number of motorcycles! They swarm on the roads like bees. I don't think I could drive here. It looks too scary! Roger, on the other hand is enjoying that part and has even driven our colleague's car a bit. We'll see. I just don't want to be responsible for someone's death, even if they did pull out in front of me.

First impressions

Sydney taking a bath in an Action Packer

Fiona & Sydney looking for geckos

Elena catching the longest worm in Togo

moving right along

As usual, we haven't kept up with ourselves here. However, here we are again. Now we are in Togo, our final destination for the last year and a half--or so. We have just arrived and are staying at a guest house here in Lome, looking for a place to live. The following is a little blurb about our trip getting here and a few photos of it.

We left Wichita amidst tears and excitement, at 6:30 am Thursday. Our flight to Houston was fine and we only had about a 2 1/2 hour layover there. After that, it was off to New York. That flight was a bit longer--5-ish hours, I think--but it was also fine.
We had to claim our 10 boxes and a suitcase and take them from Continental arrivals to Royal Air Maroc's departures. It all sounded easy until we realised that they were in 2 different terminals and that we* couldn't *"hire" a Skycap to haul them on his big trolley thingy. We had to rent 3 of those carts (why do we always have to pay for them in American airports? In any other I've been in, we just borrow them for free). Anyway, we balanced, rather precariously, 3 per trolley, along with some of our hand luggage (one box had come open somewhere between Wichita and Houston and didn't come to NY until later). We had to push these from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 via a train system (we could see T1 from where we claimed our bags in T2, it looked do-able). Roger pushed one, I pushed one and Elena was pushing the last one. Fiona and Sydney pulled hand luggage.
We finally made it up to the train and waited. There were a lot of others waiting to get on and Roger, with F & S, went to one door to wait while Elena and I waited at another. Now, these are those computer operated trains that only stop for a certain amount of time and begin to shut the doors after that time is up. They are also just far enough from the platform that there is a gap in which wheels hang up. I coached Elena that if we got separated, she only needed to get off at Terminal 1 and made her repeat it to me several times. When the train came, I helped her get on. The front wheels got stuck in the gap and boxes started to fall. A man came and helped me get Elena on--as the doors tried to close on me and the trolley--but I didn't have time to get on myself. Just as the doors closed, I fearfully asked the man to please help her get off at Terminal 1, the next stop. As soon as the train left, I stood there and fumed and fretted about why we couldn't find any help. Then I looked at the little display which told about the train they had all gotten onto (by the way, Roger and the other 2 had gotten on the same train, just further up) which said NOTHING about Terminal 1. It was going in the opposite direction!

Then my prayer changed. I began to pray earnestly that I'd catch up with Elena somehow, fearing that we'd both just get lost in the vast JFK Airport. Here I'd sent my 9 year old along with a bunch of bags she couldn't lift, and a man she didn't know to get off at the next stop, which wasn't, after all, the next stop. I got on a next train 5 mins later and prayed I'd find her.

As we pulled into the next stop, I saw her standing there waving her hands on the platform and the man was with her. He was getting off at that stop and had helped her get off as well to wait for me (fortunately, he understood the more intricate workings of JFK than we did and knew that it was best for Elena to wait and get on the next train with me--tho. I really think he was the angel God sent to watch over Elena). He and I helped her get back on--of course the boxes were not stacked on the trolley any longer as they had fallen off again--and Elena and I left, not knowing where we were headed. Somehow it didn't matter much to me any longer as I was so happy to be with her again. We could then start to laugh about the whole mess. Here we were, sliding all over a train at every curve with boxes falling off and getting squished but we were together again so we were happy. As it turned out, the train went to the end of the line and turned around, so we just tried to prop ourselves against things and enjoy the scenery of the vast JFK airport--it looked like a lovely day. We finally got to Terminal 1--about an hour after we first got on the train--and Roger, Fiona and Sydney were there to help us get off. (By the way, I had realised after trying to get Elena on, that it would be best to go on backwards as the wheels were larger and wouldn't get stuck and it worked, so I didn't loose any boxes until the first curve sent everything flying, it also helped us get off with everything in tact).

We all took off for the ticket counter and told our stories all at once. Roger, Fiona and Sydney had also ridden the train all the way to the end and back to T1. He had had no idea Elena had started out on the same train as his boxes had also fallen all over when getting on the train and he was worrying with Fiona and Sydney as well. As it turned out, they only had to wait for us for about 5 mins.
We found Royal Air Maroc and decided to spend the money to have our boxes shrink wrapped. Too bad it wasn't an option in Wichita as they would've stuck to one another very well that way and not fallen off the trolleys. AND we wouldn't have lost one due to it opening. Oh well, it wasn't an option.

After we got all but our missing box checked in (some 5 hours or so after arriving in NY), we found the food court and splurged on Pizza and salad. The girls and I then went thru the security check and Roger headed back to Continental to pick up the damaged box and check it onto our Royal Air Maroc flight. He made it back just in time and we got on the plane for Casablanca.
While there for our 14 hour layover, we had a really nice time with friends who had come down to meet us. We swam in their hotel, played at the beach and ate some tasty fish--which had been fried with their heads on, eeek! (where He leads me I will follow; what He feeds me I will swallow)

We had another uneventful flight to Lome and all slept most of the way. We got to Togo at about 4:30 am local time 42 hours after leaving Wichita. The girls were so tired--as were we--that they almost lost it while waiting in the heat and humidity for our visas and luggage (another hour or so). That one box had gotten lost again so we had to wait in line to report it. While getting our boxes from the baggage claim, one of our colleagues came back and helped us thru the process which was really great. We were in no shape to try our broken French and had no idea how things work here anyway. He helped us get thru customs with them only having to look inside one box!
Now we've been here about 33 hours or so, it's 1:30 pm Sunday, and the girls slept until around 11:00. Roger went with our colleagues to get the last box, the girls are happily playing with toys we've dug out and we are doing ok for now.

Thanks for all your prayers. We saw God's hand in all our adventures, especially in the angel He provided to guard over Elena while we were separated. Praise God for His provision. He even provided for us when we got here as the men had bought some food and found a lady who would make lunch for us as well as buy stuff for today. It was amazing.
That's about it for now, take care and continue to pray for a house for us and all. God is with us and we are grateful for your prayers.

What I really wanted for Christmas

I’ve been wanting the Joy of Christmas real badly this year. I actually wanted it for a long time. Why? Well, it’s actually quite simple, although it’s a deep theological truth. The first article of the Westminster Catechism states, that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Okay, now I know why I’m on earth, but what does that have to do with the Joy of Christmas? Patience, I’m getting there.
Not too long ago I discovered, mainly through the works of John Piper and Jonathan Edwards, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. You see what I’m getting at?! By wanting to enjoy Christmas, I, the old Bah humbug, was actually going to fulfil my duty of glorifying God. So, I went out of my way, to find the Joy of Christmas.
I watched “Songs of Praise”, something that I usually don’t do to myself. But desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose? Those sappy songs somehow caught me off guard. Okay, I admit it; they did make my eyes water a bit. But really, those weren’t the emotions I was looking for.
Ever since Thanksgiving we’ve been listening to our Christmas music, all 15 hours of it, repeatedly. I realise, that they all sing the same songs, more or less. But by now I feel as if I had enough of that genre for at least another year.
What else did I do in my pursuit of joy? I spent a whole day shopping online, only to find out, that some of the stuff would not be delivered in time. So, we still had to go and brace the crowds on the worst shopping day of the year. Yeah, that did create strong emotions in me. But not the ones I was looking for.
I’ve seen the eyes of our children, when they opened their presents on Christmas morning. I enjoyed that a lot. But than I thought of all those children that didn’t get anything this year, and I realised, that stuff can never deliver the Joy of Christmas.

I’m sure, by now you want to tell me to look to the child in the manger. Somebody told me not long ago, that: “Happiness is situational. Joy is positional.” So. I tried to position myself closer to Jesus. But to be honest, I haven’t gotten real excited yet. I’m sure it’s not his fault. I think my soul is hardened by decades of well-meaning yet unhelpful Christmas traditions. I know the story. I’ve read it. I’ve seen it acted out by children. I’ve heard it over and over again (it’s most numbing when it comes out of tiny speakers in big shopping malls). No genuine joy has laid hold of me this season. In fact, as far as I can see, it is outside my power to obtain. How can I get a desire that I don’t have and I can’t create?

Some weeks ago I started to read the book “When I Don’t Desire GOD”. John Piper stuck a cord in me: “Now there was only one hope, the sovereign grace of God. God would have to transform my heart to do what a heart cannot make itself do, namely, want what it ought to want. Only God can make the depraved heart desire God.”

I know what I am continue reading this year. You should check it out for yourself and go to Piper’s website where you can download FREE e-books! (By the way, I’m not paid for this advertisement.) Maybe we can both discover the real Joy of Christmas, incase you were also searching for it. That would personally be my favorite gift this year.

Roger's podcast

Fiona takling

Here we are with only just over 3 weeks to go here in Germany. We, as usual, have put off many things and now have loads to do. Ugh! Oh well...

We had a really nice half term holiday. We got to visit a number of friends and sleep in. We also had great weather most of the time which was a major plus. We are now really cold and had to break out the heavy coats--which I was hoping we wouldn't have to do before we leave here.

Elena had her birthday and Fiona's is next week. She's of course extremely excited. She tells everyone she wants a new Barbie, a computer, a digital camera and an MP3 player! Nothing complicated about her. Unfortunately, she won't get these. However, I'm sure she'll enjoy the day despite that. One thing she gets to do is put her new earrings in.