Heeeeello, out there!

Have you noticed how quiet it's been around here?  I am sorry about that.  My words just seem to fall short every time I try to give you a front row seat to this life.  It's like handing you a snapshot when I want you to have a 360 degree view.  It's sharing with you a moment, but Africa is twenty-four hours of every single day filled with the good, the bad, and the ugly.  No matter what I share, it feels inaccurate because there is so much left unshared.  You might think the remedy would be to post MORE, but I took the other option and just quit trying.

Trouble with that is, we need you!  Together we are "joined and held together by every supporting ligament, growing and building up in love, as each part does its work." (Ephesians 4)  We can't do this without staying connected with you.

So, here we go, back to sharing no matter how inadequate it may be.......

First of all, check out Philip's new "work" vehicle!  A moto is the typical mode of transportation for those with employment.  (Cars are rare.  Bicycles, donkey carts, and on foot are more likely modes of transportation than a car.)  So when visiting local families - rather than showing up at their mud brick home in our large truck - he'll show up on a moto just as a Burkinabe in his role would do.  We'll never change the color of our skin, but there are plenty of little ways to "become Burkinabe."

On the more personal side of things, I want you to pray that I've turned a corner in accepting our life here.  I don't know how many times in the last year the words, "I cannot do this" have spilled from my lips, but it's probably in the hundreds, maybe thousands of times.  Just recently, as I muttered once again "I cannot do this," a response from somewhere in my heart said, "You are doing it."  What a difference that made!  It didn't take away whatever was hard that day, but it took my heart from despair to calm in no time flat.

So, "with this in mind, as you constantly pray for us, that our God may make us worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition our every desire for goodness and our every deed prompted by faith." (1 Thessalonians 1:11)

I don't know what living in Burkina Faso is if it's not a deed prompted by faith, and even when it feels impossible, because this is what He does.....we ARE doing it!