WHAT NOW??

The last few days have been rather......stressful! We started out early Saturday morning with Jon waking up with back pain. No biggie.....I mean he always has back pain. But this time it was different......it didn't go away and just got worst. It was the hardest thing to watch him be in so much pain. I was crying myself because I couldn't do anything to ease the pain! About 10:30 I was calling our team mates to take him to the hospital. Of course, that in itself is a hard decision here.....to go to the doctor or tough it out at home. This time Jon was begging to go see a doctor. Going to the doctor here means staying for hours (or in Jon's cause...a few days); the stress of being sure you understand the doctor and he understands your French; knowing the doctors won't tell you ANYTHING; and wondering why they don't ask you what you are allergic to, medications you are on, etc. But God has always been good to us and brought us through each situation! We now know that Jon has 9 kidney stones. Not fun! He has passed one. Please join us in prayer that he will pass all of them before we load our flight to the states this week!

I spent a lot of the day at the hospital with Jon but came home later in the afternoon to start supper for Autumn and I. About 10 minutes into cooking our supper the gas bottle was empty. Well, that isn't something I have learned how to change yet.....so I got out the electric skillet and cooked the meat on it. So, we had meat and bread, minus the mashed potatoes!

About 9:00 I decided it was time to head to bed for some rest, but I heard this horrible noise outside. I went out to see if I could find where it was coming from and I heard water gushing. I looked over at the pump house and saw water going everywhere! I called our team mates again (thanks Mike!) and he came over and turned the water off. Well, he got a free bath out of it! Water was shooting everywhere because the water line had busted! So, now we are out of water until I can contact the office in the morning to send someone over to fix it.

Life isn't always easy in Africa...but as always, God is still in control! Please pray for Jon and our travels this week. We want our travels to be uneventful...nothing like the chaos of the last couple of days!

Guess I better get off here and try to get some rest.....you never know the electricity might be off in a few minutes! :)

Love,

Teresa

The reason we are here........

As we are getting more comfortable in our surroundings and can understand more, we are beginning to see why we are here. It is really encouraging to be able to go out and carry on a conversation and share the good news of Jesus Christ! We had a friend that we haven't seen in awhile come to our house for a visit last night. The last time we saw him, our french wasn't great and we sometimes had problems understanding all that he was saying. Last night we was able to carry on a hour long conversation with the chance of sharing the gospel. He has always been open to listen to the stories of the Bible, as many missionaries from the past and we have shared with him. But as most muslims here, it is hard for him to see the difference between them and us. They believe in Jesus, but just not as God. That is a big difference! I think last night as he was reading some scriptures that some truth was being revealed. He didn't say anything but you could see a look on his face. Pray that God will reveal the truth to S. and to our many other muslim friends in Abidjan.

We are counting down the weeks until a much needed vacation in the states! As we are only a little over two weeks away, it is sometimes hard to keep focused on what we need to be doing now. We are so excited to be able to celebrate the Resurrection day with our church family in the states! Just being able to understand the entire sermon (no preaching in French, Bro. Kevin ;) will be a great blessing! We are beginning to be able to sing the praise songs a little at church, but I am looking forward to being able to worship in English! Start now praying for our travels. You would think that being missionaries that we wouldn't mind flying, but none of us are very fond of it! Autumn actually likes it better than Jon or I! I am good as long as we can have a smooth flight....no storms are necessary!

Hope you have a wonderful Lord's day!

Blessings,

Teresa