Six Months in Africa

3 Weeks in Africa

And now 6 Months.

18 months away from our passport country.

2 continents.

Insane travels.

Residency in another place. A faraway place.

Amazing.

New language.

New church built.

Team hosted.

House settled. Second holiday season passed…

Puppy fun.

The Bible placed into the hands of our guard for the first time.

A million battles to lay our lives as we knew them down before our heavenly Father who can do something great where we feel so incredibly inadequate and weak.

That is 6 months in Africa.

Day-to-day survival.

Clean water. Safety. New mercies.

Relearning how to live. How to make decisions. How to think through the moments of the day. How to interact with each other. How to wrestle with God, wrestle with poverty and wealth, wrestle with have and have not, wrestle with need and want, wrestle with calling and obedience. Wrestling in ways we’ve never wrestled before.

Seeing God in completely new ways yet feeling His abiding sameness all at the same time.

Watching our girls battle culture, language, differences… challenges that break my heart yet make me proud to be their mom.

Stepping out of comfort zones, into wide open blank spaces and trusting God to guide every step.

Realizing that the long haul is longer than we thought, harder than we can handle and bigger than we are capable of managing. And learning that it’s okay ONLY because our GOD IS big enough, strong enough and more than able.

Praying for a bigger heart, more love, expanded dreams and the patience to see those dreams grow.

Fear, caution, knowing… catching glimpses of the pain and suffering bearing down on West Africa through disease, war, terror and utter lostness.

Enduring car searches and paper checks by guards with guns just to get into a store parking lot.

The realities of life.

The daily understanding that it can happen here, at any moment. Prayerfully going about our days with a hesitancy and expectancy and a much deeper trust.

Not living in fear. while being quite fearful. and handing that fear to the One who holds it all in His hands.

Remembering that every morning I wake up, I choose a willing heart.

Willing to stay. Willing to walk through the day. Willing to be used by God as a tool in the master plan and in His passionate heartbeat for the lost world around us.

And knowing that there are so many things we love about being here!

The people are so kind and welcoming.

Our house is a sweet oasis in the desert and we love it.

This Michigan girl is thrilled to live next to a HUGE body of water. It is comforting and amazing… Home.

The girls LOVE school and we have all made incredible friends within the mission community here.

Jeremy making ataya tea in the village… shocking them all that a toubab can do such a thing and do it well.

We laugh at the cows walking down the road with leaves stuck in their big, wide horns. We giggle at the huge trucks way overloaded with rocks or bags of grain.

Smiling kids everywhere and happy laughter floating through our neighborhood.

The sound of the wind in the palm trees.

The slower pace of life, the delivery of eggs and fresh produce to our door, the beautiful tropical flowers… so much to love.

6 months into life in Africa.

14 months to go in this term. Praying that is goes really fast because we miss our friends, family and America so much… all while praying that it takes forever because there is much to do here and we are just getting started. This is starting to feel like home, just seeming more normal. The work is just beginning and we don’t want to lose ground.

Knowing God’s timing is perfect.

Trusting Him through it all.

Thankful for YOU.

For your prayers, your love, your giving, your support.

6 months in and we are more and more grateful for YOU every single day.

6 months in Africa. What an incredible journey…