Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Canada encounters and other happenings this week
When I first arrived here I could not understand why Suzy would forget the past. It seemedif she tried to remember what happened yesterday or the day before or maybe even the same morningshe had a hard time. Now I know, because I do the very same thing. So much happens here that once a day finishes and the sun sets in the western sky, it's gone. That's why I journal. Of course thereare special events and happenings that are easy to recall, but I sit down here to write the week'shappening and there is too much to write about or too little, but these are minor problems, Itry not to spend too much time fretting over it! This has been eventful week, it seems there won't be an uneventful week ever here. LaurenceJohnson our field director arrived here on Friday afternoon, to check out the project and go overproject planning and details with us. It's been really wonderful to have someone to connect withand discuss over spiritual and practical issues. He was a pastor for 13 years in the UK beforethis position, so he has the experience and knowledge to help greatly. Since there are two missionaryteams right now in Africa (Mali and Benin), as the rest are on furlough or fundraising, we were hissecond stop. On Sunday night we went out to eat at a very neat restaurant. It is built likea traditional tata. The huts in the villages are the orginial, orginal. The ancient homeswere tatas and they are like a cave inside and have a little wood ladder to the roof. They have thickwalls. It was really neat, we ate on the terrace however because in the tata is a bit hot and crowdedfor our amount of people. Manny is also here now and he has been adjusting very well. He has commited greatly to learning French and is progressing fast. He practices with all the young people that pass by the houseand church members at church programs. He also helps the students with spanish and english. Soonwhen he gets a good grip on the language he will start medical work among the people here inthe form that will most feasible and suitable. But even while he doesn't do this medical work,hehas teaching the pathfinders how to play the recorder, helping with Suzy's travels to differentgroups near here, sharing household duties like cooking, dishes, and playing with the kids. For meI have been blessed to have someone to share with and pray with everyday. Together we work on languagelearning which helps him learn to speak and me build my vocabulary! It has been amazing to be around the people here and the amazing way God works. This pastI had an amazing contact with a non-local, well several actually. I went to the internet cafewith Manny and entering in there were about four white kids my age working on the computers. I'll admit I have developed a fear of foreigners here. Hey don't laugh, I want to put all energiesinto working with the people here, so I worry if I say hello to someone who is like me, I mightget to know them and loose focus. It's not really a realistic fear, most ex-patriots don't mix,they are tourists, government workers, UN task force, peace corps, so all with different duties andprograms so they just don't cross paths much. We do have regular contact with other missionariesof many denominations in the area, but that's about it. Plus even in Canada I get nervous approachingstrangers in strange places, like at church I'll go up to anybody and say hello, but in a malland I think I should talk to someone, oh boy! Well I glance at one of their computers and he wason a canadian website, I could see the red maple leaves. Well now I had to talk to him. So I musteredup the courage and asked, he said he was from Canada. I told him what town I was from and he wasamazed, he lives in a city twenty minutes from me and the other two girls with him where from 10 minutesaway! The whole municipality in one cafe in the north of Benin! They had been volunteering in another part of West Africa, and were touring through West Africa before heading home. We wishedeach other well and I gave them my blog and email. So perhaps they are reading this. I pray yourtrip went well and God bless!!! It really was interesting to meet them, a little lift from God duringthe week. Manny and I had an interesting encouter this week with a lizard. I call the little guy theignorant lizard, more because of our ignorance not its. We were going to fill up our water withour couple buckets but one of them had a lizard inhabitant. He must have fallen in and couldn'tclimb out. We were like cool, a lizard. I was even wondering to myself how I could cage him andkeep him as a pet, might be interesting. Manny thought to trying to give it water by sprinkelingwater on it. Our landlord saw us and came over to see. He looked in surprise at the creature. Informing us that this kind of lizard was poisonous like a snake, he has a bad bite. Well we quickly got rid of it.So know that you think we pick up everything in site and are probably on the brink of danger everyday, it'snot true. But now we will certainly be more careful. In one of the children's stories I shared I toldthe children God protects us even when we aren't too smart, but we should do all we can to besmart and not take unneccessary risks. It seems I am learning from my own story! Thank God for His protectionand for giving us a brain as well, I'll try to use it more! Church this week was packed, some visitors, but it seems everyone was able to come was more ofthe reason. The French choir sang and I was able to sing too, since I had practiced for a month with them. They didn't do it like we do. The choir shared eight songs inbetween Sabbath school andchurch service. Standing not in front of everyone but to the side, standing in front of their respectivepews. I thought that was nice, instead of the choir physically being the focus, the song and wordstook precedence, and also people felt better to join in when it was not like a "performance". Tome it seemed more like we shared music than just performed for an audience. I appreciate thatidea.
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3 comments:
Dearest Eric:
Great again to read your blog and once again I am so grateful for the Lord's protection over you and Manny with that lizard... who would think that a lizard could be poisonous!! People are constantly asking us how you are doing and so you can be assured that people of thinking and praying for you. Hopefully the packages will arrive soon...Please let us know as soon as you get them.
We will definitely miss you over the Christmas holiday but happy that the Lord is using you for His glory.
We love you so much and we really enjoy reading your blog entries.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you in His loving care.
Please say Hi to Manny for us and let him know we are also praying for him as well as Suzy and Ulri.
With all our love,
Maman :-
Grosses Bises
Smile, God loves you! :-)
Wow. Sounds absolutely crazy and amazing. Isn't fun to talk to other foreigners. I always liked that cuz they were so surprised to see another American. lol. I'm so glad Manny has finally made it! Tell him hi for me if you will. I'm sorry I haven't written you or anything....life's been kinda crazy and up and down and all that good stuff. Been thinking of you and praying for you! Send me an email sometime if your not to busy. Hah! Like that ever happens in the mission field. lol
Father, I plead that You will continually protect Eric from all harm and ask that You would strengthen Eric physically and I ask that Eric would not lose his focus in ministry but that he would have his priorities ordered by You. I pray that Eric will continue to set his mind on things above and not on the things of the earth (Colossians 3:2-3).
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