New Creation

The hard good-byes are upon me. Today, I say good-bye to our house - our home. After today, we will be a homeless family for about 4 months relying on the hospitality of family and friends. This is one of the hardest good-byes because it means giving up a certain level of independence. I absolutely love the feeling of being home and doing my own thing. From now on, I’ll have to make sure that our family’s plans are not intrusive to the others that we are living with.

I’m also saying good-bye temporarily to blogging in the style that I prefer. (Often and with photos!) We are having computer troubles. (It’s a long, boring story) Along with the computer stuff, I’ll have the challenge of Internet access while traveling. I have a bunch of pictures that I really want to post, but will be unable to for awhile.   So, please bear with me during this transitional season. I promise to post as often as I can to let you know what’s up so you can be praying for my family during this stressful, exciting, sad, joyful transition!!!

Only 4 more nights until our family is officially homeless.

Only 19 more days until we leave African soil.

Any suggestions on what I should title my future series on adjusting to life in America?

It’s almost here.

Girls’ Weekend!!!!

There’s nothing quite like a day at the beach (with no kids!) to celebrate friendship.

Andrea, Nicole, Becky and I had a great time shopping at the grand marche, eating out, and relaxing on the sand. The weekend would’ve been better only with the additional company of Jane and April. (We missed you!!!!)

It’s hard to express in words how much I am going to miss these godly women who have journeyed with me on a challenging yet joyful path for many years. We have seen each other through mountain top experiences and heart wrenching valleys of depression and sadness.

But, mostly we have lived daily life with each other. (Can I borrow a block of butter? What school curriculum do you think we should purchase for next year? I need help with gas money. Oh, I thought I already paid you that. Would you like to come over for dinner Friday? And on and on….) Anyone who has been in a long-term relationship knows that the daily stuff can be difficult at times. Relationships grow stale. Irritations build up. Feelings get hurt. We have honored each other to the best of our abilities and even then failure has come. Of course, that’s when God is glorified most evidently through humility, forgiveness and reconciliation. God has been good to knit us together as sisters in Christ. Over the past 10 years these women have become my heroes of faith. They shine brightly for the Lord.

“Goodbye Charger!!! We love you!” We said our final goodbye to our family pet, Charger. It was difficult to watch Bryan drive off with him today. However, I take comfort in the fact that he’s going to live with a really great dog-friendly family- the Koonces in Tabligo. They have a female Rhodesian Ridgeback named Penny so I think Charger will be very happy.

Whew!  We had our BIG yard sale today and I am so glad that it’s over!  Our goal was never to make money, but to simply get rid of stuff.  So we sold our items for very cheap prices.  However, there were a few frustrating moments especially when our neighbors discovered the “free” toy box.  There was a massive dog pile for the stuff.  It was embarrassing and a little bit scary to witness.  Other than that the sale was orderly, thankfully!

Our house is becoming bare: pieces of furniture are missing, pictures are gone from the walls, closets are cleared out and the fridge and pantry are holding less and less food.  Strangely, I am not really even sad to see these pieces of “home” depart.  I’m ready for a fresh start.

I will continue my Reflection on Togo series soon.  Stay tuned!

This past week has been a comedy of errors.

To start off, I misspelled two words on the weekly spelling list - constrast and fragil.  Becky pointed out to me that I had done the same thing a few weeks ago too - exclaimation.  Where is my brain?  It’s in stress mode that’s where!

We tried to start our farewell tour to village churches on Sunday, but the truck was dead.  All of our teammates had already left for their morning visits so there was no one to give us a jump-start.  So, our family returned to the house and did what else but turn on the game-cube.  Can anyone say avoidance?

Our dog, Charger, broke a nail and trailed blood all over the house until I discovered what was going on.  Imagine Graham yelling in a fascinated-panicked tone, “Mom! There is blood all over the place!”

It hasn’t been all bad though.  My gas bottles are miraculously staying usable.  I had just enough forks (11) to host a dinner party last night.  (Remember all of my plates and silverware are already in Dallas!)  The goodies that PRCC brought haven’t run out yet even though my kids are eating them constantly.

And best of all…I figured out all by myself how to change my blog design!  (If you know me well, then you know that I gave a triumphant squeal as I saw the results of my amateur skills!)

We said good-bye this morning to our friends from our sponsoring church, Preston Road Church of Christ. We had a great visit with Holly, Teresa, Angela, the Chambers and the Sanderson families. They were everything great visitors should be and beyond! They listened to us and prayed with us concerning our transition. They were engaged with the Kabiye Christians during villages visits. They brought tons of goodies from America for us and our teammates. Plus, they carted off 13 full trunks to Dallas for our family! A special thanks to my teammates for hosting a part of the group. I am blessed to be in a community that supports one another so fully and sweetly. Thank you PRCC for making the effort to visit us in Togo, we enjoyed every minute of it!!! Another step in the leaving process is completed…sigh.

I’ve started a new series! Or more accurately a spin-off of the Long Good-bye series. In TV land spin-offs usually don’t do as well as the original. I hope in blog land it’s different. (At least I’m not making any money off this thing!)

So, why am I reflecting on this season in my life? Because the books told me to do it. I’ve been reading about reentry and the authors unanimously suggest reflecting on your mission field experience before you leave the field. (Like I don’t have enough to do already!?) I’ve bought into the idea obviously because I want the end result- a nicely finished chapter entitled “Togo Missions” and a new chapter entitled “?”- umm, it’s actually untitled at this point. Anyway, these experts stress the importance of reflecting on the highs and lows. May God be glorified in all that he’s carried me through!

I’ve decided to break it down into sections by years. Let’s go way back….

Fall 1995/Spring 1996 - Bryan and I are engaged and meeting with other missions minded couples at Harding University in hopes of forming a team to go somewhere in Africa. This is an exciting and idealistic time in my life. I have the desire to do something “BIG” for God with the guy I’m head over heals in love with. Emotions can’t get any headier than that. Oh, and I graduate with a B.A. in Elementary Education.

Summer/Fall 1996 - Immediately following graduation, I head off to Uganda to follow in Bryan’s footsteps by experiencing my own missionary internship. I am shaken to the core and humbled by the extreme poverty contrasted with immense joy in the local Christians. Through this month long internship I am constantly wondering if I have what it takes to be a real missionary. (This of course causes me great stress!) However, I now “get” why he wants to be a missionary.

Bryan and I are married on August 2nd! We tie the knot in San Diego but move to Memphis, TN right away. Bryan begins to work toward his M.A. in Missions at HUGSR and I’m a 3rd grade teacher. We attend the Holmes Road Church of Christ and Bryan serves as their part-time youth minister.

1997- Life continues as above…school, teaching, ministry. Now, add into the mix team formation as other team couples begin to move to Memphis. We are four families at this point: Matt & Andrea Miller, David & Becky Reeves, Mark & Nicole Kennell and us. Mentors such as Monte Cox, Gordon Hogan, Evertt Huffard, Mark Berryman and Tom Moore guide us through personality tests and other spiritual formation exercises. This is probably the first season in which I start thinking that this whole team thing is going to be really hard!

Summer takes me back to Africa this time West Africa. Bryan stays back in the States due to job responsibilities. I travel with the rest of the team to Togo and Burkina Faso to survey possible places to live and work. This separation from Bryan was especially difficult. I remember lots of tears.

In October we discover that we are pregnant with our first child. It’s not hard to describe the emotions I felt: disbelief, surprise, shock, scared…really scared to be a mom. (Can you tell this was unexpected?) I continue teaching as my belly grows bigger by the day. With this pregnancy I realize that my life plan isn’t going according to my life plan. The plan was to wait until we lived Africa for a least two years and then have children. This is an important object lesson from God- hard at first to accept, but the sweet baby at the end of nine months was a blessing.

Okay, that’s enough reflecting for one post. More to come later.

Listen, if you’ve read this much why not go ahead and leave me a comment? I’d love to hear from you!

Life is cruising along at a break-neck speed with the Preston Road visitors here! They have experienced the local grande marche, village visits, the swimming pool, fellowship with the team and (unfortunately) delayed luggage arrival. The group has already been a huge encouragement to our family. At the moment, Bryan and the rest of the gang are enjoying safari at the Pendjari Game Park in Benin. They will return on Saturday afternoon. Therefore, I am blessed again to be at home alone….packing!!! Before they left this morning Isaac found me in the bathroom brushing my teeth and said in an observational tone, “Mom, you like having a break from us don’t you?” Is it that obvious?

Below are two pictures from Graham’s family birthday party. Graham requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and peanut butter creme filling. (That’s the same cake Owen had!) We gave our budding artist his own sketch pad, colored pencils and drawing pencils.

I took the ladies of the PRCC group to the big local market. You can practically buy anything there! We spent most of our time in the fabric section choosing just the right patterns which is a challenge because there are so many to choose from.

L-R: Darla Sanderson, Teresa Boyd, Chrystal Chambers, Holly Thigpen and Angela Boyd

Stone Sanderson and Graham have enjoyed playing baseball together every spare moment!

More pictures and news to come!

This past week was a little bit different than most. Bryan and the team guys along with Murphy Crowson and Marty Koonce from Tabligbo went on a 4 day safari. (Not so different actually.) The different part is that Christine Crowson, Louise Koonce and their children stayed in Kara to visit! The Tabligbo school teachers Miss Emily and Miss Rachel also taught all of the school age children all week for Nicole and me. Needless to say, I was glad for the break to prepare for our move and our Preston Road visitors that arrive tomorrow! Plus, we got in a lot of good “girl time”.

I truly regret not having a picture to show my dear friends’ glowing (read sweaty) faces and sweet servant hearts as they helped me pack on Tuesday morning. Then again, it’s hard to take a picture of a servant heart. I guess you’ll just have to trust me. Louise, Christine, Becky, Andrea, Nicole, and April all contributed in some way to relieving my packing stress. They somehow made a really daunting task fun and uplifting. Thanks to these great women I am nearly packed and ready for the PRCC group to cart off our trunks. I am grateful.