let the teams begin

our first team was a repeat offender... Fellowship Alliance Chapel from NJ
I learned a lot about NJ... it seems a little like Gabon in that you have to know people to get things done

Suzzanne, Ashlee, and Susan helping the widows make peanut butter to sell.

Steve, Ryan, and Doug playing wiffle ball with Janice and the other kids at Hope House.

Ashlee, a black belt in some form of martial arts, taught the kids a few self-defense moves.  Here Ellie is hitting a target.

I just loved Joshua's smile in this one!

This is a toilet that Ryan and Doug installed at the Hope House along with two showers!  Now the 48 kids have more than just one toilet and one shower to use!














Ashlee and Joy both shared at a women's meeting.  I translated for Ashlee into French and then Mama Jeanette (my former English student) translated into the tribal language.

The road to the village where we did our mobile clinic was long and rough.  This is a better stretch of road.  We got stuck several times with a 4x4!

Steve shared his testimony before we started the medical clinic and 22 people decided to follow Christ!  Please pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in their hearts and will provide discipleship for them!

Doug was the group's fearless leader.  He was definitely a servant leader and I learned a lot from him!

Suzzanne was really great at showing God's love despite the language barrier!  Here the ladies of the village were giving her a pineapple and peanuts!

Did I mention that this was a fun group!  We were hanging out and having fun in the kitchen.  Suzzanne was having a little too much fun!

friday night

Its Friday night and I am struggling with what to post on my blog.  I have decided that I am going to try to post every week and I'm going to aim for Fridays.  Let's see how long this lasts...
So tonight as I am wondering what to write about, the following events unfold.
We've had a leak under our sink now for quite some time, but today when Claude came to investigate he actually made it a little worse so he had to shut off the water going to our kitchen sink.  No big deal we have two other sinks.  Or actually the shower would work...

At first I was taking pictures, then Hannah asked me "Do you want me to take a picture of you in the shower?" and of course I replied, "Yeah!".   How often do you get asked that question?  And how much less often do you answer in the affirmative?

 When Hannah was cooking chicken for dinner, she started smelling something weird and then discovered that our transformer was smoking!!  We have two other transformers... they are in the office.

Hannah on the office floor.  Oops forgot to vacuum after dinner!

Then to top off the night... we had found some glue to catch mice/rats with and had put it on a piece of cardboard with a big dollop of peanut butter in the middle.  Right after dinner, I walked past and saw that the mouse has already been trapped.  We spring in to action, hesitantly of course, I go get a bucket of water and Hannah puts a bucket over him to make sure he doesn't get away.  Hannah dons oven mitts and flips the bucket with the mouse stuck to the cardboard.  I pour the water over, and Voila... a dead roommate!  He won't be eating my granola bars again!

He is under there... I hope.  Isn't it appropriate that we used the box of the glue that killed him?

a new boarder

times are tough
you have to make ends meet
sometimes you have to rent out a room
she's small, she doesn't take up much space
you hardly ever see her, in and out like a flash
weird thing, she lives under the sink
i was starting to get used to her until she ate my granola bars!
THAT'S IT!  i've had it!
i'm going to kill her!  or is it him?
to tell you the truth i'm not really sure
but the day i remember to buy a mouse trap
will be his/her last