Hope House kids

working on a craft

Chris un, love his smile

a team telling a Bible story

Walter was picked to play Goliath

A smaller child was picked for the role of David

Hannah on the left and Quinn on the right trying to convince  Gloire to jump rope

Gloire has other ideas!

Henrica gives it her all... definitely an over achiever!

I loved these shots when Mama Natalie (who runs the HH with her husband Pastor Israel) got out there and played a little b ball!

Victoire looks so innocent with his water balloon...

But Joshua looks mischievous with his!

everything you own

now take it out and put it on the front lawn...

a guy did this in rural China...

http://enpundit.com/rural-chinese-families-photographed-with-everything-they-own/

I have more than all these people and I don't even have a house!

crayon monster

Mbina or Bean as we called her although I think her parents named her Stephanie.

At the Hope House, coloring a big quilt.

Joshua (Joe's way) in the background... doesn't seem concerned with the crayon monster.

flip through fast

i love clouds

Sam's boxes

As the Samaritan's Purse Christmas Shoebox is coming soon, I thought I would show a few photos from where you send these boxes!
So Gabon had one person in charge of it all, and that used to be Pastor Jean Marc until he became the Regional Director!

I am not sure what the process is in other countries, but here is how it goes in Gabon...

Last year I believe they receive five containers of gifts.  Those get stored in a warehouse in the capital of Libreville until they can get shipped to other parts of the country.

It was cool to actually see where that check you put in the box goes to.

In Gabon, most things are done with diplomacy and a little flair.  This is no different.  It is not just hand boxes out... oh no!  It is a celebration!  It was never less than a 2/3 hour affair.

So this one started with drinks and cookies...

and of course they have to dance!

I really wonder if this is how they teach patience.

But then the real event starts.  But first the list!  In order to receive a gift your name must be on the list!

Then we give gifts!!  The good part...

Olivia... an intern or the cookie monster!

And then the moment they have been waiting for finally arrives!!

the smiles make the day...

Moving

Photos are really my best writing...

If you have ever been here, you probably wouldn't recognize it now.

Hannah are not the only ones moving... Hannah has also moved her blog... she is the wanderlovestory blog on the right.  Here she is sporting Joseph's sunshades.  Take off the tag, but why?  Just because it blocks my vision?  

A little differently

Many of you might not know the details to our leaving Gabon, but Envision closed their site there.  

We had to sell all our stuff, which was actually quite a bit.  There were a few families before us who did a wonderful job at outfitting the place, and then as people would come they would often leave things.  So in the end we ended up with quite a bit of stuff... for example... over 100 towels and 40 sheet sets!  
We made a listing of the big stuff (couches, refrigerators, etc.), that we sent out to other missionaries and nationals, and had two yard sales to sell the little things.  It was craziness!  Think of black Friday madness in your house!  One guy who Hannah observed to have just picked up a basket of things without looking at them, came back days later complaining that the stuff did not work.  We said we would refund him if he brought the things back, but he really just wanted us to give him a deal on a chain saw that was not actually for sale.
There is a book called "African Friends and Money Matters" by David Maranz which I highly recommend if you ever go to live in Africa.  Unfortunately I actually read the book the last month I was there!  I definitely wished I had read it the first month!  This book describes a lot of the cultural differences between Africa and the Western world.  One of the big differences is how you do yard sales.  Actually to be accurate I'm not sure they actually do yard sales.  But we learned that the way we did it was not the best way to go about it.
But in the end after we had it all sold and understood that we had not gone about it well, we had one person who was thankful because they normally did not get the chance to get stuff, but this time they did.