Parts of the body

Romans 12
³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your^[a] faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,^[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

I'm reading through Romans right now, and I came across this verse today.  I am continually being challenged to grow in my role here.  I'm learning to let go of the control that I think I have!  To let the other parts of the body do what they are good at!!!  This week I am down in Bongolo with a small team while Hannah and Eric are in Libreville with a team of 12.  It is actually a great way for us to start out the summer, me having to trust and let go and them having to take charge!  I'm really excited by what God will do in and through each of us! 

Please continue to pray for our team...
Dan and Alicia, Hannah, Jean Romain, Eric, Vicki, and me. (Eric & Vicki came out for the summer to lead teams)

Butterflies on my ankle

news update...

Olivia left me... ok us, and she was scheduled to go, but she did spend three months with us... so we were a little attached to her!  I have added her blog on my list to the right.

Rose... a friend from Whiteville is moving to Uganda for a year!!  So excited for her... I added her blog on my list as well. 

We received a care package!  From our first team... do you remember me telling you about that group of guys?  Well they sent us a package with muffin mixes, a drill!!, a digital photo frame!! w/ a 16GB card!!, and a bunch of other things... can you say Christmas??  They also sent a devotional book with their picture taped to the inside covers!  Great idea!  We love it - Thank you FAC!!!

Other's blogs

So I opened my blog this morning... not so much to write on it, sorry.  But to look at the blogs that I follow (see list on the right, scroll down a bit).  I found that everybody, or almost everybody - but I'm not mentioning any names... Jeanne, has updated their blog!
I am very proud of all of them... but I am especially proud of Alace because she has started writing again, and she is a fabulous writer!  I keep encouraging her to write a book... I'm waiting.  Anyway, on her blog she writes about dancing, but she didn't include any pictures - what was she thinking??!!!  So I decided to post a picture of her (on the right) dancing with the birthday girl - Hannah!  You can thank me later Alace!!

Relationships

Have I mentioned that one of the big things here is relationships?

With Christ – challenging people to grow in their understanding, knowledge, and relationship with Him.

With the people in the house – learning to live with people in community.

With the Gabonese – to develop relationships with people from a different culture.

Well let me just tell you that you can only lead a horse to water – encourage him to drink, tell him how healthy it is, have him read a book on water, etc… but that does not mean that he will drink!

So when we have people that “drink” in the relationships here it is neat to sit back and watch.

This past weekend we had two new interns come in.

Hannah and I were quietly working upstairs when we hear this commotion in the yard last night. I sneak out onto the terrace to spy on them and I found Cirque de Soleil performing in our yard. I don’t know if they were doing trust exercises or what, but they seemed to be having fun!

And then the other night we had Hannah’s third and last birthday party for this year. It was with our ministry partners… I should have known it was going to get wild when Joseph came early and left a case of CDs and a good size amplifier! The fun really started when Mama Jeanine pulled out church flags and everyone stuck them to their head!! Congo line anyone? Is it really a Congo line – as in the country next to us?

 Ok, I got a comment on a post that just reminded me of all the other things I wanted to share about the Men’s team…


For my first year in Gabon I attended a church. Every Sunday they give the statistics of how many men, women, youth, and children were present. “Men” were always the lowest number.

So when a group of twelve men come on a missions trip to Gabon it was a huge encouragement to me. Yes! There are still men of God who want to serve Him and grow in their relationship with Him! And to top that - two of the men were 72 years young! Proof that you never stop growing in your relationship with Christ!

So the team of twelve was split into two different teams: a medical team and a construction team.

The medical team was highly praised by the people that worked with them and those who had the benefit of their consultation (including me – sinus problem). But more than just being good at their job, they were also teachers. They were fantastic at training our medical ministry partners in medical stuff* (*- highly technical term). Sorry for my lack of knowledge as to what they taught, but the more important thing to me was that they were taught! Even if we don’t have a formal continuing education system, we need to continue in educating!

The construction team actually had some guys who were in the construction business! It was impressive to see how well they operated as a team during their work on the guesthouse at CFTAC (Bible School). I was very proud that these guys understood that it is not all about the task here but more about the relationships they build – they took a minute to play some football with a youngster that showed up.

The entire team also went to the Hope House (abandoned children’s home) and gave each kid a comprehensive physical exam… eyes, teeth, ears, height, weight, range of motion, checked for scoliosis, etc. They also played football with them and did those cool balloons that you can make into shapes! They made us a bouquet of balloon flowers!

We also trekked into the jungle as a team to put up four concrete posts at the PK27 property.

I'm going to become a sailor

Since I was a kid we've always had a boat... 22ft Catalina - it had a small cabin; but we only spent the night in it once. The next boat was a 19ft Flying Scott, which my dad still has. So I have some experience sailing… I know what a jib is, and I know how to yell “coming about! hardalee” (although I’m not sure how to spell it). I think I’m ready!


About now you are thinking... "Where is Leanne going with this?"

I have a decision to make... my boss has asked Hannah and me if we wanted to apply for the position that we now occupy. Apparently our status cannot remain "temporary" forever. Now please understand that it is an application process and just because we apply does not mean we will get the job. Nevertheless we are approaching it as if we would and how that affects our futures.

I tell you this to let you know what is going on in my heart and to ask for your prayers!

Please pray for guidance in making this difficult decision.

If you've heard this before plug your ears... I love seeing things/people grow! This past team reminded me why I love this ministry so much! To witness how the Holy Spirit works through another culture and people to touch hearts and lives is amazing!
But it is difficult living 6000 miles from dearly loved family and friends.
Torn is the word that comes to mind.

So I'm thinking a happy medium would be to become a sailor and travel from the US to Gabon. Dad, do you mind if I borrow your boat?

It's raining men!!

Last week we had a team of 12 men here from NJ. 

Twelve men who understood that their time here was limited.
Twelve men who were focused on how they could serve the church here - through construction projects and through the medical ministry. 
Twelve men who were focused on how God would move in their hearts and lives to make them more like Christ. 

It was amazing to watch the Holy Spirit guide and use these twelve men! 

One felt the LORD guiding him to reprioritze his life and to really take a look at what matters the most to him!

Two other men who did not know each other before the trip decided to form an accountability partnership!



Our best silly poses!  This was a fun team!




Mixing the dry cement mix on the side of the road... then hauled it into the jungle to mix it with water.





Mark and John (behind the grass) hauling the form into the jungle



We divided up into 4 teams to mark corners of a new plot of land.  Here is the finished post!

We had our ministry partners over for dinner one night!  After this picture the singing and dancing started!

It was a priviledge to serve these men and to be a witness of how the Spirit moved in their hearts during their time here.