Partnering with Parents

Congratulations Yunin!

2011-11-19T10:39:00.000+01:00

YUNIN won the Table Tennis Championship this year. It was a double elimination tournament which lasted two days! The competition was tough, but Yunin rose to the challenge and beat out Chunghyun in the finale. Congratulations Yunin!

Tea Party

2011-09-17T09:08:00.005+01:00

Mikaylah received a tea pot from our friend Cathy Bliss. It has been her favourie thing, lately to make and drink tea. Recently our big 18 year old senior, Asyncrite joined Mikaylah and Jayson for a spot of tea.

Consider it pure joy...

2011-09-09T18:45:00.013+01:00

New Dorm furniture all assembled in our common room when we got back to NiameyBeth and the new furniture
Jayson's first day of Kindergarten with his teacher, Mrs Riggs

Mikaylah and Jayson on the first day of school, Kindergarten and grade two!

Zeb's birthday celebration!

September is already upon us, first let me apologize for such a long wait! We have actually been in school three and a half weeks. We are enjoying new kids, new furniture and by this time next week a new mission board!
Yikes! Yes, many of you may already know that the 24th of August we received news that our mission board was folding due to lack of funds and we would have ten days to find another mission board! God is faithful!

Tim and I had decided in early August that our theme in the dorm this year would be JOY. Our theme verses are from the first chapter of James, verses 2-5. God does have a sense of humour... Consider it pure joy my brothers (and sisters :)) whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him.

We have had the opportunity to practice what we preach! And the kids are watching... always watching. After many sleepless nights and many questions He has given us peace, peace that passes our understanding and, miraculously, joy.
Girls singing Karaoke!
Cora, Amy, Marette and MiYoen at the dorm outing.
Deborah reading at the dorm outing at the pool
Boy pyramid at the pool at our dorm outing, Asyncrite, Zeb and Josh on top!

Deborah with Mikaylah and Jayson at the Terminus Pool
Three boys on one bike, John, Zeb and Josh!
The whole gang on the monkey bars...

Amelia turns 12

2011-08-30T09:22:00.001+01:00

Our youngest Brit turned twelve this week. She wanted chocolate cream pie instead of cake! We aim to please, Happy Birthday Amelia!

Trip to Virginia

2011-08-08T20:28:00.000+01:00

At the end of our vacation we took three days to scoot down to Virginia to visit Tim's brother Ron and his family. Their son Brian and Jayson bonded and both kids enjoyed hotdogs, cotton candy and icecream at the Washington Nationals baseball game. We also celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, then we made the ten hour trip back to Toronto before our trip back to Niger.

Trip to Michigan

2011-07-07T20:42:00.000+01:00

We spent five days in Michigan visiting Tim's sisters and parents. The kids enjoyed fishing, bouncy castles, swimmiing and jumping on grandpa Phillips' trampoline while Diana took us shopping.

Niagara Falls

2011-07-03T23:20:00.000+01:00

American side of the Falls
Rainforest Cafe
Captain Jayson
The Gray family
Captain Mikaylah
Jayson on Maid of the Mist

Mikaylah and Jayson on the MOTM
Waiting in line for the MOTM
One foot in the US and one foot in Canada
Tired boy on the way back to Grandma and Grandpa's.

For the fourth of July Weekend we spent two days at Niagara Falls. We walked across the bridge, had one foot in the US and one foot in Canada and enjoyed a ride on the maid of the mist. We ate at the rainforest cafe and visited with Andrew and Nikki Gray and their three children. The Grays are raising support to come to Sahel to take our place while we are on home assignment next year. It was great to touch base with them and to meet them. They are a wonderful family and we expect they will do a fine job next year.

Canada Day

2011-07-02T21:23:00.000+01:00

Mother and daughter on the subway train in Toronto
Cotton Candy or candy floss depending whether you are in Canada or the USA!
Wanna share?
Dairy Queen ice cream cones! Yummy!
See our Canada tatoos?
Janice and her sister
Our family

The cousins and aunt and uncle took a mini train ride that actually derailed!
Mikaylah and Jayson on the glass floor of the CN Tower
Cousin Joey at the bottom of the tower

We took the kids down town Toronto by subway on Canada day. The MacLeod cousins came too. First they went up the CN tower, ate cotton candy and icecream then they rode a mini train and capped the day off with fireworks at the church.

Sackets Harbor, NY

2011-06-29T21:06:00.001+01:00

We visited our friends at their campground in NY. They took the kids for a boat ride and Mikaylah caught her first fish!

trip to Paris

2011-06-26T23:03:00.000+01:00

Here we are off to Canada via Paris.

Mikaylah and Jayson weigh in at the airport in Niamey

Here we are on the plane to Paris. Since we had an eight hour lay-over in Paris, we told Mikaylah we would go see the Eiffel Tower.

Mikaylah and Jayson both loved the moving sidewalks. By the time we got out of the airport and on the the train we figured we would have 15-20 minutes at the Eiffel tower before we had to take the train back to the airport to catch our flight to Toronto.

Jayson enjoyed the train ride.

Jayson loved traveling with Sharlene. We thought we were getting off the train at the Eiffel Tower, but when we came up above ground we were three kilometers away from the tower and right outside the Cathedral Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

Jayson and Mikaylah posing in front of Notre Dame. We didn't have time or money to get back on the train and go all the way to the tower...

Here it is, the Eiffel tower... three km away!!! Can you see it on the horizon? Actually I think we adults were more disappointed than the kids were!

On our plane to Toronto we got put up in the bubble. Mikaylah got a window seat. She was amazed how the clouds seemed to turn into mist as we flew threw them.

Mikaylah standing in front of our plane to Toronto, notice the bubble? That's where our seats were, up the staircase! It was so fun to see everything through their eyes.!
The cousins were at the airport to meet us! We have been having a great time here in Canada!

Goodbye, I'm bluer than blue...2011

2011-06-14T10:38:00.007+01:00

Learning how to do goodbyes is one thing. Teaching your children how to do goodbyes is a whole other ball of wax. Looking forward to our time in Canada this summer helps enormously. Now they can experience "the leaving" and not just "the being left behind".

Jayson manages to just kiss and hug his way through. Mikaylah is more contemplative and perhaps she better understands the ache of missing those who are now absent. We lost five students this week, plus one alumni who appeared for seven days and is now gone again. They won't really realize the entire loss until they welcome the dorm kids back in August and figure out that Bethany, Josh, Hannah, Elisheva and Spencer are not coming back.

We just finished the very busy grad week filled with exams, special dinners out, birthdays, year book signing, parties, a soccer game, a banquet, bush dancing, a reception, and a graduation ceremony, not to mention the flurry of cleaning, packing and deciding what to keep and what to discard. Now that the students have vacated the premises the let down begins.Here are a few photos from our busy and emotionally draining week:

Our dorm assistant, Cindy's birthday was the last one to be celebrated this year, June 8th.

Asyncrite and Spencer's room. Trying to sort, pack and study all at the same time.

Bush Dancing in the dining hall became a favourite pastime this year.
We took our two seniors, Elisheva and Spencer to the Indian restaurant to give them their special dinner out and their grad gifts.

Eli and Spencer were happy to receive their quilts to keep them warm in America.
Creating a bottle band was just one of the creative things Eli wanted to do before leaving Niger.

We took Beth, Josh and Hannah out for their farewell dinner.
Dressing up in funny clothes, hairstyles and make-up was also on the list! Eli and Melinda...Rufus graduated last year and has been studying pre-med at ORU. He was on a mission trip in Togo for three weeks in May and instead of going back to the US he managed to take a bus up to Niamey for a week to enjoy the end of the year festivities and renew relationships. He will resume his studies at ORU in August.

Elisheva and me at the grad banquet. She will be studying at Seattle Pacific University in the fall. This young woman has been a great example to me and an inspiration to me and many others as well. We will really miss her joyful exuberance.

Spencer giving Jayson a squeeze at the grad reception. He is going to Taylor University in Indiana. So we will be able to see him during our home assignment.
After their whirl-wind trip around the world, the Sim family will return to Australia.

As a dorm family we prayed especially for those who were leaving us. Rituals and words help us to cope with loving and leaving. But this life of transition also reminds us that our home is in heaven, and when we finally arrive, there will be no more good-byes!

If there was no dorm

2011-05-23T20:47:00.003+01:00

This is our fourth hot season. Hard to believe we only have one more year before our home assignment. One of the reasons for delaying our HA is that there was no one available to take our place. Andy and Nikki Gray are preparing to come to Niger to replace us for our year of HA. Right now they are trying to raise funds to make that happen. Tonight I asked the kids to say in a couple of sentences why the dorm is important to them. The Grays are hoping to use these quotes to help raise funds to get them out here. The kids were delighted to pray for the Grays and to contribute to their fund raising efforts. Here are some of their quotes:

My parents work hard all day. My dad is a project manager and my mom is a guesthouse manager in Benin. If there was no dorm, I would not be able to go to school here at Sahel. I would not want to put extra pressure on my parents by home schooling. Please support the Grays with their mission to become dorm parents. > Parents minister in Benin

The dorm allows me to attend school with people my own age. If there were no dorm parents, I would probably go insane. Without the dorm, my life would be pretty awful. > parents work at a mission Hospital.

If I couldn’t live in the dorm then how could my full time working parents, who work day and night saving lives spiritually and physically do their job? > parents work at a mission Hospital.

I am glad that we have a dorm because of my education. If there was no dorm, I would not be able to pursue my educational career. The type of education I get at Sahel is profitable for me Spiritually as well. Moreover, I can only be here if there is a dorm and dorm parents. In Benin we do not have any Christian English schools. If there was no dorm, I would not be able to go to Sahel because I would not have a place to stay. Thanks to this dorm, I can study, learn, experience different cultures and grow spiritually. I believe this will help me in the future. May God bless you abundantly for helping other kids grow. > his parents church plant in Benin.

If I can’t live in the dorm, I can’t live in Africa anymore. I would have to go back to South Korea (which can be good news and bad news) um… just… mercy please! > his parents church plant in Ghana.

If there was no dorm, my parents would have had to go back to Australia with us years ago. I would never have met many of my friends and I would never have experienced life at Sahel. > his parents work in Benin.

If there was no dorm, then I would not be going to Sahel Academy. The dorm provides a second home for out of city students, like me. It provides a way for me to interact with kids my own age at a great school. I am able to be a part of events and have experiences that I never would be able to without the dorm. If there was no dorm I would be in a small town in the middle of an African desert with no kids my own age. The dorm has been one of the best experiences of my life. > her parents minister in the interior of Niger.

I’m glad there is a dorm because with out it I would be living without kids my age and my parents work all the time at a hospital leaving me all alone. I don’t want my parents to stop working to help me with school, so please support the Grays. > > her parents work at a mission Hospital.

If there was no dorm, I would have never gone to a proper school. My parents work in Ghana, in a remote town called Tamale as church planters. Their work in the villages is often frustrating and hard, yet God has blessed and encouraged them with a dorm and a good school for their kids. ☺ I am very thankful for this blessing!!! Without the dorm it wouldn’t have been possible for me to go to college ☺> her parents church plant in Ghana.

I really appreciate the opportunity to live in a dorm because it is an experience that I feel, greatly prepares me for future life. Dorm parents help that happen. > his parents are translators in Benin.

For sometime (since I was twelve) the dorm has been my second home and family. It has also been the reason my parents have been able to stay on the mission field. We need dorm parents as much as we need a dorm. Thank you for your understanding. > Her parents minister in Benin.

We need the dorm because we can focus on schoolwork and here at the dorm we can make good friends. Its gonna be great!!! > his parents minister in Ghana.

The dorm is important because we can go to school while our parents are gone and that we can have more dorm brothers and sisters. > his parents church plant in Ghana.

I think the dorm is good because we get to be with our friends almost all year round. The food is good and it’s a big campus. > his parents church plant in Burkina Faso.

I’m glad there is a dorm because it allows me to go to an awesome school as well as make good friends. If there was no dorm, I would not be able to go to school but have to be home schooled out in the middle of nowhere- where my parents work and live. The dorm also helps me to grow spiritually as well, teaching me how to deal with people. > her parents work at a mission Hospital.

The dorm is very important to me ‘cause I don’t have much other options of school in Africa. > his parents minister in Ghana.

Without the dorm, the hospital where my parents work would have no pharmacist and would have to turn away dozens of patients because of lack of staffing. My brothers and I need dorm parents so our parents can bring the Gospel to the sick Thank you for your support! > her parents work at a mission hospital.

Dorm parents have an important ministry. Not only do they support missionaries by caring for their children, they also minister to this unique people group, MKs. > parents minister in Niger.

Easter Sunday

2011-05-03T15:33:00.011+01:00

This year Easter came after our Spring break so we had all the dorm kids here in the dorm for Easter. We had to plan carefully to get everyone over to the Goudel School for the sunrise service as we can not get everyone (legally) in our two vans. Despite our careful planning one child got left behind... our seven year old, Mikaylah! Thankfully our neighbours brought her home and she didn't even realize she was overlooked!

For lunch we all went to the river property (our kids call it Mango Camp) for a picnic and a relaxing time under the canopy of mango trees.

Some of the kids went to the sand bar and even waded in the Niger River.

After that we decorated Easter eggs and had an easter egg hunt!

Later in the afternoon we went to the Winsor's house for the baptism of 8 children from our church.

Jonathan Wright, from our mission was the eighth child. It was an emotional, beautiful service. In all it was a fantastic day to remember HE IS RISEN!!

Have Passport, will travel, Lord Willing!

2011-04-19T20:20:00.006+01:00

Received a wonderful phone call this afternoon from Haoua, our Canadian Consulate person. For the first time since January, she didn't have bad news for me. This time the news was that my passport had arrived from Ouagadougou! After over three months and MANY visits, photographs and even SIM air flights, I am once again the proud holder of a valid Canadian passport! They returned my old passport and all of the photos I had submitted over the months. Never take your citizenship for granted, or even the proof there of!!
Don't know why they thought the pictures were too shiny!

Very glad and relieved to finally have it in hand! Praise God!

Backyard Baptism

2011-04-12T11:15:00.006+01:00

Greetings once again from Niamey, Niger! As I sit to write this letter, our temperatures are continually in above 100 degrees and the humidity is creeping back in to make it quite uncomfortable, unless you like high heat. But, with that we are so thankful for so much. This past week, we actually had a rainstorm.

Not a big one, not one to do much to water the land, but it was rain before May. And it was with thunder and lightning! I was reading the other day in Psalms 65 when I got to verse 9 and realized that we need not to worry about the lack of rain because it is all in God’s hand. The passage reads like this:
You care for the land and water it, you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.
What a great promise of God! We truly have so much to be thankful for in our ministry here at Sahel Academy. As we watch the drama unfold in Cote D’Ivoire, in Libya, in Burkina Faso and other places where elections and decisions have been met with war or some major protests, we were able to witness a very smooth transition of power to a newly, democratically elected president. While a bit over a year ago, if you remember, we were under lockdown because the military captured the president who had abused his power and dissolved the constitution so he could remain in power. The military leader said at that time that he would stay in power until elections and then he would step aside to the new president. As you may imagine, that fell on some very skeptical ears. Elections came and went, and this week, the country of Niger inaugurated their new president. There were no protests, no gunfire, no former president holed up in a bunker still claiming he is the president. Praise God, it was all smooth!
We were also able to witness a great event here just behind our dorm in our swimming pool.

Eleven Sahel Academy students were baptized! Three of whom were from the dorm!
Bethany

We are praising God that these kids desired to make this public profession that they are followers of Jesus Christ in a land where this is a bit bizarre.

Josh

What a great testimony- not only to us, but to the African believers as well.

Hannah

As we have about 8 weeks of school left before summer break, I ask that you pray for our kids. Our seniors, Elisheva and Spencer are both going to the US for university. Spencer will be going to Taylor right there in Indiana and Elisheva is still making that choice. She wants to go into medicine and she has her choice of scholarship! Now she is trying to figure out which one will give her the best education and keep the costs down for her dad! We will really miss those two kiddos. We will also be saying goodbye to three of our Australian kids who have been here almost since we have been in Niamey. Beth, Josh, and Hannah Sim will be returning to Australia to attend school there. Those five are going to have many transitions to make. The seniors, of course, welcome it because of university, but the Australians know Africa and Sahel Academy. Breaking into a high school and all that goes along with that will not be easy. So, please, if you will, be in prayer for those five especially, as they wind things down here at Sahel. The rest will be returning to be with us, along with some new faces next year!
As far as our family, we are excited to return back to Canada this summer. I don’t know if you follow us on facebook, but Jayson informed us the other day that he needs to go back to be able to know his grandma because he doesn’t really know her except for on the computer. This trip was the deal we had made with Janice’s parents because we were supposed to be on furlough this next year. The school asked if we could stay another year while another couple raises support, but Janice had already planned to attend her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary! Wow! So, we will be coming home, to Canada, for almost 6 weeks. During that time, we hope to meet with as much of our family as possible. I know many are anxious to see how much Jayson and Mikaylah have grown. As we wrote in our last letter, we will be returning back to the States for our year long home assignment starting in the summer of 2012.
Lastly, please pray for Andrew and Nikki Gray. They are a couple from Western US who desire to come to Sahel Academy to work for a couple of years. They are willing to step into the dorm for a year while we are on home assignment. Please pray for them as well as they begin the task of support raising, packing, selling, buying, and saying goodbye for a bit to their family. It is never an easy thing, but we are thankful that they have answered God’s call in their lives to serve. They have three children coming with them as well.
I don’t know if we tell all of you this enough times, but THANK YOU! The number of people who pray for us every day always humbles us. We love to hear from you back home as well. We love to keep up on the news from home when possible. I cannot even imagine how early missionaries did it without internet, email, texting, etc. How they left their country to live in another realizing that it would be a long time before they returned, if at all. Nevertheless, we do live in a much smaller world today because of technology, so we can communicate more often. We are amazed at the faithfulness of God’s people who sacrificially give to our ministry despite a recession. Thank you doesn’t seem adequate to describe just how awesome that so many people would support this ministry through finances and through prayer. Therefore, we thank you.
In His Grip,
Tim, Janice, Mikaylah and Jayson

Leaving Day

2011-03-20T10:33:00.007+01:00

Time for March Break!

Most of the kids left yesterday morning.
Only Deborah left on Friday afternoon as only her parents were here.

John went to his friends' house Friday night.

Asyncrite & Jayson
Tim took Asyncrite to the bus depot at 4:30 Saturday morning. At 6am Kevin picked up eight of our kids who were flying SIMAIR, three going East and five going West!

Eight Flyers: Cora, Josh, Yeon Hoo seated, Yun In, Dae Yoen, Zeb, MiYoen and Marette
The Sims arrived Friday afternoon and took their three kids to Benin at 6:30 Saturday morning.
Three Sim kids So we only had Chung left. We all went to the Rec Center in the afternoon so the boys could play ball and our little ones played in the pool. This morning Tim took Chung to the airport to see if his flight would leave or not. I just heard from Tim that his flight took off 10 minutes ago!!! PTL His mom and dad will be so glad to see him!
Spencer
Elisheva
Spencer and Elisheva are still in Burkina on their senior trip. They will get back Tuesday, then Eli's dad will drive her and Spencer home to Galmi for the rest of the break. The kids will be with their parents until school starts again April 4th. time to spend quality time with Mikaylah and Jayson, colouring, playing LIFE and CandyLand, swimming in the pool and baking cookies!

Gratefullness

2011-02-22T11:32:00.003+01:00

So often it is easier to complain than to rejoice. I am becoming painfully aware of this fact as I parent these kids :) We have so much to be thankful for. And in our reading from Philippians we discovered the age old truth that when we are thankful the peace of God guards our hearts and minds! This past weekend many of our men accompanied our kids to their annual trip to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso for the softball tournament. While they were gone we had received a "tip" that there were terrorists about, and were advised to cancel our church services. It all turned out to be a false alarm, but we used the opportunity to be thankful for all that we enjoy here in this place and time of our lives. The children who were still here were thankful for the following... a day off school, family, air conditioners, a generator, ability to play :), swimming pools and ice cream!

I did make banana splits for the kids who were left here, of course it is a little more work than doing it in the states, but we are thankful for bananas, strawberries, electric mixers and freezers. Instead of complaining about everything we are trying to turn everything around to praise and thanks.

Thank you.

ps still am in country without a passport... the lastest snag is that they didn't like the shine on my face... so I had my picture retaken with tissue in hand to do last minute blotting!! thankfully the studio only charged me half price this time since it is the third time around!!! Keep praying that passport through!!

Thank you!

valentine's banquet

2011-02-20T13:39:00.000+01:00

February 12... A night of asian cuisine and fun and laughter... here are some of our kids
Jayson trying to use chopsticks
Success!!
Eli & Ryan
Uncle Tim & Aunt Janice
Ray & Melinda
Rotimi & Jayson "les jumeaux"
Asyncrite & Hafsa
Spencer & Charity
Brendan & Bethany
Joel & Deborah
Zebadiah & Cora
John & Tanika
Gibbo and Rebecca
MiYoen & Daniel
Rachelle, Hanna, Deborah & Mikaylah
Bethany, Hannah & Marette--notice the shoes we bought!
Jayson & his best buddy, Richelle

Passport

2011-01-28T08:56:00.002+01:00

Don't ever take your citizenship or proof of citizenship lightly. Right now I am trying to get my passport renewed. I didn't think it was going to be this hard! First the pictures I had taken were too big (37 mm instead of the 31-36 mm required... the photographer said my hair was too buffant!!! imagine) so after I fixed that problem they said they needed more ID in my married name (since all my Canadian ID except my current passport is in my maiden name). So I searched for two more pieces of ID with my married name and turned that in. Now they are telling me that I have to produce my marriage license!! Strangely enough, I did carry my marriage license around with me while I lived in the US, but when we packed up for Niger I put it safely in the lockbox which is located somewhere in Kokomo in one of the many places we have our stuff stored. So I decided to phone the County Clerk's office in Kokomo to get a copy of our marriage license. The lady I talked to on the phone was SO courteous and efficient, she even offered to call our church to see if someone could pick it up in person!! WOW! When I told my prayer group here in Niamey, someone asked, "did you live in a small town?" I don't really consider Kokomo Indiana a small town, but it does have the small town feel and people often go out of their way to help one another. So all this to say, that my marriage license is on its way here, hopefully it will arrive before my passport expires... we shall see...

wild life

2011-01-22T13:30:00.003+01:00

This morning Mikaylah found a baby gecko in the kitchen sink. The porcelain was too slippery for him to climb out. Mikaylah had pity on him and carried him to the back yard to set him free. Jayson, however was busy with Rover, the campus tortoise. It never ceases to amaze me how patient Rover is with Jayson. And he is relatively fast, too!

Dry season also brings out the hedgehogs. They are really cute and curl up in a ball when they are scared. Then there is Jayson's newest addition a crocodile that grows!! "it's okay, mum, it is really just fake!" I am so relieved! Sorry no pictures, I have pictures, they just aren't loading so I am going to post this and try to add the pictures later.

Eleven in 2011

2011-01-10T08:24:00.007+01:00

Here are the Phillips’ Eleven Reasons to praise God in 2011.

#11 Love! The Jeung family re-united. Yun-In and Yeon-Hoo were here in Niamey while their parents were still in South Korea working on getting their visas to Ghana. They finally arrived in Ghana the end of December and were able to be with their boys again after being separated for five months.

#10 Joy! We enjoyed an excellent first semester. The children all remained happy and healthy. While we said an early good-bye to Nathanael and Mikaela Ottosson who returned to Australia in November, we celebrated American Thanksgiving, four birthdays in November and one in December, a Christmas party, and we made and ate dozens of Christmas cookies and a gingerbread house. Our dorm assistant, Cindy Sybesma was misdiagnosed with hepatitis. As this is written, she is recovering from Gall Bladder surgery in Europe. We are so thankful that she did not have hepatitis and that she was able to quickly get the surgery she needed.

#9 Peace and Safety. Just this week two French men in town were kidnapped from a local bar near midnight. The Niger and French police pursued the kidnappers and caught up to them near the Mali border. Unfortunately, both hostages and some kidnappers were killed during the gun battle. We are reminded again that we are completely at the mercy of our Lord who alone can keep us safe and sound. There are elections scheduled for Tuesday, arrival day in the dorm, and we are praying for peaceful and smooth elections.

#8 Patience! The Maytag refrigerator is working again! At the beginning of November the compressor in our refrigerator died. Tim ordered a new one on line, our former dorm kid, Rebekah was able to bring it out to Niger and our electrician had it installed into our fridge on January 5^th! There was much rejoicing! Tim was able to get new lights installed and get the fridge repaired, a dresser fixed and he was able to hire a man to weld the broken windows so the children can open their windows during cool season.

#7 Kindness of family. Mikaylah and Jayson were really spoiled after Christmas when three packages from Tim’s brothers and sisters arrived with lots of goodies for them. Janice is trying to get her passport renewed. She does not have her original birth certificate here and so her mother is trying to get a copy sent out to us before Janice’s passport expires on her birthday in February.

#6 Goodness! No Flooding of the school. In spite of record high levels of the Niger River, our campus has been spared the flooding that is going on all around us.

#5 New Life: New Students in the dorm! Spencer Starke’s younger sisters Marette and Cora will be joining us this week. Marette will be in grade ten and Cora will be in Grade nine. Chung Hyun Lee, also in grade nine will be returning to the dorm tomorrow. We haven’t seen Chung since his family went back to South Korea for home assignment in June 2009. We are looking forward to seeing him again!

#4 Gentleness: Cooler temperatures. As I write this it is only 18˚ Celsius, (64˚ Fahrenheit). Of course it is seven o’clock in the morning, but we are enjoying opening our windows and feeling the gentle cool breezes. The week between Christmas and New years, we went camping at a national park with seven other families. Tim canoed his way down to the park while Janice drove with the kids the following day. We spent a couple of days relaxing around the camp fire, wearing sweatshirts, hiking with the kids and finding deer, monkeys, baboons, crocodiles, buffalo, eagles, heron and parrots. Some people even saw lions and elephants.

#3 Restoration: When we arrived home from camping we quickly got the dorm ready for a team from Green Valley Community Church in California who was staying with us in the dorm during the annual SIM spiritual life conference. This team blessed us in four ways. They ministered to us with their worship team. Their pastor brought us messages that met us right where we are. They organized a program for our children and youth so we were free to worship, and they brought us gifts of coffee, mac ‘n’ cheese, cake and taco mixes and marshmallows. In addition, one of the girls is hairdresser who cut Janice’s hair for her! We felt refreshed for the New Year.

#2 Evangelism: On Christmas Eve Tim was able to help Chris Marine show the Jesus film in Zarma (the local language) for one of our churches here in Niamey. Open-air films always bring large crowds. But the most interesting thing is that the morning Tim was setting the film up to be sure all the equipment was working properly he asked Ladi, our one Muslim helper, to listen to see if she could understand it all. She sat down and watched the entire film! She walked back into the kitchen during the crucifixion of Christ and explained that she could not watch those people being so cruel to Jesus. Ladi has been in our dorm for nearly three years. Pray for her salvation.

#1 Faithfulness: Supporters who remember us. Even though our promised support has dropped from 86% to 83%, we praise God for supporting us through special one-time gifts and extra Christmas gifts. With a recession going on in North America, it is a testimony to the faithfulness of God’s people! Words are not adequate to express the gratitude we have in our hearts for all of you.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:9,10

Frozen Bisap

2010-12-23T11:04:00.001+01:00

Hadiza makes syrup from dried Hybiscus flowers called BisapThe kids like to eat it frozen.
Jayson likes to wear his :)

Gingerbread House Demolition

2010-12-17T09:36:00.001+01:00

This year we learned not to keep the Gingerbread house up too long as last year it got all dusty before the kids could eat it!.. This year we made it two days before the last day of school, during the middle of exams so it could be a break from studying and so it would still be tasty on demolition day! The last day of school was December 17. There was an assembly in the afternoon and when the kids came home at about 2:30 in the afternoon we demolished it! It was a great way to send the kids off.

On the last day of school the grade 5-6 race the derby cars they made
the younger kids came to cheer them on (Mikaylah is in the reindeer antlers).

Dae Yoen made a black car for the derby.

All Tangled Up!

2010-12-16T10:19:00.000+01:00

Jayson wanted Eli to feel how his truck wheels could tickle her cheek. The cheeky monkey got his truck all tangled up in Eli's hair. It took a long time, but we finally got it all sorted out.

All untangled!

Gingerbread House Assembly

2010-12-16T01:42:00.001+01:00

Every year we make a gingerbread house and admire it for a few days before we eat it. This year we made the Gingerbread house two days before the last day of school. The day we planned to eat the house!First we bake all the pieces. Jayson really wanted to eat it before we put it together!
The icing acts like cement when it dries.
Hannah enjoyed adding her personal touches.
Eli made eaves troughs.
The finished product.

Sparkle, Glimmer, Glisten, Shimmer, Sparkle & Glow

2010-12-12T10:29:00.000+01:00

The Elementary choir put on a concert.
It was marvelous.

Christmas Party 2010

2010-12-11T23:50:00.000+01:00

Our Party started with food of course!
Everyone got a Christmas Stocking.
Bubbles are no respector of age!
Everyone got a bottle of bubbles...
The staff was partying at the Blisses and after dinner
we went Caroling at the Blisses.

After Caroling we came home for games. The boys won four on the couch...

And everyone was a winner in our annual White Elephant game!
The shorts went around each round!

Blessing is trying to make a good choice!
Josh and Dae-Yoen showing off their Korean Caps

The kids were pleased with their gifts.

Music Recital

2010-12-09T22:45:00.000+01:00

The elementary recital was December 2. Mikaylah played very well.
Bethany sang like an angel.
Eli sang and played the piano. Aunt Anora accompanied her on the flute and Uncle Tim on the drums. Aunt LaRae accompanied on the piano.
MiYoen played the piano. The older kids played on the 9th of December.
Aunt LaRae provided lots of goodies after the concert.
Eli, Melinda and Julie.

Henna Party

2010-12-05T01:18:00.000+01:00

Mikaylah wanted her hand done in Henna.

Eli was happy to comply

Eli is an artist, she made beautiful designs

Eli painted all the girls' hands.

We are so proud of our Artistic Elisheva

Sharing secrets with santa

2010-12-05T01:01:00.002+01:00

The annual Christmas Bazaar at the rec center is put on by the Women's Club of Niamey. Each year they talk one of their husbands into dressing up as Santa.

When Santa asked Jayson what he wanted for Christmas, Jayson confided that he would like " a wrapped present!" he was so excited and conspiratorial!
I wonder if I will have to put something inside that wrapped present :)
Remembering last year, Mikaylah asked Santa for a candy cane!
Santa was happy to immediately comply~

Goodbye Nat & Mikaela

2010-11-27T21:21:00.000+01:00

Tim and Mikaela. Mikaela was born in Africa. This will be a difficult transition for her.
Janice and Nathanael. Pray for Nat and Mikaela as they move from Africa to Australia.
Mikaela between her roomies, Hannah and Blessing. The three muskateers really love each other like sisters.
Mikaela and Nat by the new stop sign.

Nat and Mikaela had to leave early as their family was moving back to Australia. It was difficult to say goodbye both for us and for them.

American Thanksgiving & Asyncite's 17th birthday

2010-11-25T20:59:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday
Since Asyncrite's birthday fell on American Thanksgiving this year we had turkey and all the trimmings to celebrate.

Even the Australians declared that the Americans had a good idea when they decided to celebrate Thanksgiving! :)
Seventeen candles to celebrate Asyncrite's birthday! Happy Birthday BIG BOY~

Field Day

2010-11-19T20:23:00.007+01:00

Our Annual Field Day is held every November in the big soccer stadium affectionately known as "the Stad".
Trey, Jayson and Zoe enjoying popsicles.
Mikaylah running her race with sunglasses and waterbottle!!
The teams line up to cheer.
Yun In made the Red Ketchup banner.

Joshua G passes the baton to Zeb on the red team.
Mikaylah's standing long jump.

Jayson is Four!

2010-11-16T18:44:00.000+01:00

Four Years OLD!Four years ago on a cold November morning one week before Thanksgiving, our son, Jayson Scott Phillips was born in Kokomo, Indiana.
Jayson wanted a strawberry cake, so we compromised with some precious strawberries from the freezer saved from almost a year ago! They were delicious!
Happy Birthday Big Boy!

Space Penny Fair

2010-11-12T19:09:00.000+01:00

Rocket Time!The Student Council put on an Outer Space themed penny fair this year. They had rides, food and games. Mikaylah had a rocket painted on her face and Jayson had an alien.
Mikaela O had stars around her eyes and Hannah had an alien moustache and eyebrows!
Everybody got prizes in the games, Jayson is fishing for more!

Sweet Sixteen

2010-11-10T19:37:00.000+01:00

Mi Yoen turned sixteen today. She found a hedgehog just outside the dorm.
Mi Yoen wanted her ears peirced for her birthday so we pierced one and then the power went out. I joked that I could use a flashlight to pierce the other ear and MiYoen says, "that would make a big hole!" What a girl!
She wanted banana cream pies instead of cake! Sweet Sixteen! Happy Birthday Mi Yoen!

Tim's Birthday

2010-11-08T20:11:00.000+01:00

Uncle Tim celebrated with a German Chocolate Cake that everyone enjoyed!
Mikaylah and her Daddy.

Tim got spoiled by all the dorm kids! Mountain Dew and Chocolate!!

Is it November already??? More photos to post...

2010-11-02T14:44:00.012+01:00

No hands donut eating contest!
Two toothless Tilly's: Mikaylah and Ereina Totman.
The tortoise, Rover tries to make a nest in our backyard!!
Sunday morning on the top of "mountain" top!
Yun In feeding Asyncrite!
Kids playing in the pool.
Mikaylah reading Jayson his bedtime story.
Jayson in cool sunglasses: "Dude, you knock my socks off!"
Jayson eating his lunch.
Eli and Aunt Janice.
Aunt Cindy and Mikaylah
Tim and Mikaylah in the office.
Deborah, MiYoen and Bethany in Deborah and Bethany's room.
Eli learning how to be a hair dresser with her first customer: Aunt Cindy!!

Mi Yoen and the hedgehog.
Mikaylah and her classmates in their playground village.

more catch up!

2010-10-30T07:37:00.007+01:00

Joshua (aka Gibbo) helping to weed out the softball field
The kids showing off their new pillowcases
A friend in Indiana custom made personalized pillowcases for each of the kids.
Dae Yoen turned 11 in September.
Aunt Janice and the middleschool girls
oops this picture was taken five months ago... showing the kids doing chores
photo scavenger hunt in the marché... this is the peanut butter lady.
Uncle Tim and his Blessing
Blessing's new do... from the front
and from the side.

Spencer is helping to make cookies for the Senior Shack fundraiser.
Spencer shaved his head into a fashion statement for ''back to the future" day.
During the Fall break we took the Benin kids down to Parakou and stayed the week, eating our meals with Neil and Lisa Sim and their three kids... it was fun to see the kids on their own turf.
Mikaylah and her classmates celebrating Cowboy Day
Mi Yoen was Jean d'arc... aka Joan of Ark for Medieval day

catch up... three months worth...ooops!

2010-10-27T23:00:00.011+01:00

We hit the road running, sorry we are so far behind.. so I will just post a few pictures from the last three months...

He's baaaack!

2010-07-15T23:41:00.007+01:00

The children were so excited to have their daddy back.. Mikaylah had her hair braided for the occasion! Chris and Diane Marine picked us up at the dorm in the BIG truck. Jayson was SO excited he couldn't contain himself. We left for the airport at 3:30. The flight from Paris was supposed to arrive at 3:30. It arrived at 4:01. Tim's luggage was the last off the plane. The powers that be at the airport must have thought that our six and three year old children were somehow dangerous since they would not let us into the airport, so we took many trips around the very hot and sunny parking lot waiting for Daddy. Finally Aunt Diane took the kids back to the big truck while Mama and Uncle Chris waited until 5:20 for Tim to finally emerge from the airport!! WE were SO happy to see him! And yes, Jayson is wearing one of those sleeping aids from airFrance! ha ha!

Just Imagine!

2010-07-06T04:42:00.008+01:00

Wow can it be 28 days since I blogged, or more precisely, 28 days since my Husband Tim has been gone! God is faithful! Tim's step-father passed away a couple of months ago and so when school was out Tim went to Oskaloosa Iowa to be with his mom. Our supporting church in Toronto, Ontario provided the funds needed to make the trip. God is faithful! even when we have little faith, we really did not think it would be possible, but God proved us wrong.
During the past month Tim was able to pack up his mom, sell her house and get her to Michigan where two of Tim's sisters will be close by. He is Faithful to do more than we could ever imagine!! On Thursday, July 8, Mikaylah and Jayson will go to the airport to meet their daddy. It has been a long month, but we are imagining the reunion to be sweet! He has been faithful to us here in Niamey. We are all in one piece and ready to be reunited!! If seeing our earthly father after one month can be this sweet, just imagine what that reunion will be like one day in our heavenly home with our heavenly Father!!
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the last two verses of the third chapter.

Graduation 2010

2010-06-08T19:01:00.005+01:00

We graduated seven young people this year. Three girls and four guys. Three Americans, two Koreans, one Beninese and one Chadian/American. One whose parents work in Cote d'Ivoire, one from Ghana, one from Benin, three from Niger and one from Timbuktou, Mali. Four from our dorm, one from a hostel home and two who lived with their own parents. They are going to Canada, Sweden and the United States for further studies. They are only 17 and 18 years old but they have already experienced more than most people their age. They have lived through many transitions and have many more to come. Please pray for these precious young people as they leave the comfort of the known for the unknown.

Is this Heaven?

2010-05-29T00:01:00.011+01:00

Our Four Graduates: Ha Yoen, Rebekah, Joon Hyuk and Rufus

We took our four dorm kids who are graduating out for Supper on Wednesday night to give them our gifts and parting words of wisdom.
We are so proud of them and yet anxious at the same time for the HUGE transitions they will have to make. We are confident that The Lord will not abandon them even when they feel scared, that HE will always know where to go when they feel lost, and His love never fails, even when they are far from home and loved ones. Please pray for these four when you think of it. We love them very much and it will be a difficult transition for us as well!

"heaven means never having to say good-bye" ah yes, that will be heaven indeed!

Bunch of Dorm kids

2010-05-18T10:24:00.004+01:00

What a great bunch of kids eh? Left to right they are Front row: Mikaylah and Uncle Tim.

Second row: Zeb, Bethany, Nathanael, Hannah, Blessing crouching down, MiYoen, Mikaela, Rebekah and Deborah holding Jayson... back row, Aunt Janice, Asyncrite, Joshua, Elisheva, John Thar, Rufus, JoonHyuk, and HaYoen.

The Teagues invited all of us for Tacos!! What a Blessing!

Rain!

2010-05-08T15:00:00.002+01:00

Back up to April 26. Tim took the time to tell the kids that if the first rain happened in the evening we would tell them whether or not they would be able to play in it (depending on the intensity of the rain and the hour of the evening) and what to do (i.e. clean up before coming back in the dorm, etc.). We really thought we had another month or so before it would rain, and Tim had the kids guess dates when they thought the first rain would come. We had each child in order of age (oldest to youngest) choose a date. We told them that if their day won, they would get a milkshake and fries at the rec. The first day was April 29 and the last day chosen was May 30 (except that Tim chose June 1 and I chose June 2). After everyone chose their date I remarked to Tim that our own children never chose a date so Tim penciled them in on May 3rd and fourth because no one else chose those dates.
About 9:30 on Monday May 3rd the thunder and lightening gave way to RAIN!! Buckets of rain!! Mikaylah and Jayson were sleeping, but the little girls, (who had been in bed for an hour already) were begging to go out and play! Of course we all went out to play in the rain!! A rite of passage for most reveling in the arrival of rainy season! At about 11pm we herded them back in as the rain petered out and drank hot chocolate to warm them up again before falling into a contented sleep!
By the way, Jayson got his milkshake and fries at the rec on Tuesday! Rufus doesn't know it yet, but since his day, May 5, was closest (of the dorm kids) he will get his just rewards too!

Pirate Day

2010-04-21T10:43:00.000+01:00

Since today was pirate day Jayson wanted to enter into the fray! Here are a few pics of our kids all dressed up.

Arggg! I Be John Thar!
Blessing, Mikaylah and Hannah in their finery

Jayson and Aunt Cathy Bliss in the library

Life is an adventure!

2010-04-10T20:20:00.007+01:00

Mikaylah was overheard explaining to one of her classmates, "all my dorm kids are back!"... Finally on Thursday night we were a complete dorm family again. Thank you for those who prayed for Ha Yoen and Mi Yoen's return. All of our dorm kids returned to the dorm for the fourth quarter of the school year on Monday, April 5. All except our two from Ghana. Since their car broke down they had to be towed to a town close to the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Eventually they were towed back to their home town, then they took a bus the next morning to the border, then borrowed a car to the capital of Burkina Faso where they got on a plane which brought them to Niamey in time for supper Thursday night! Phew! Makes me tired just talking about it! Ha Yoen's words about it were "It was an adventure!" It was a reminder to us how God takes such fantastic care of His children!

Counting our Blessings

2010-04-01T21:24:00.007+01:00

Well it is April... the last quarter of the school year always seems to FLY by... someone told me that there is only 47 school days left! Wow! Hard to believe that our four seniors will be leaving!! All four of them will be going to university in the United States, but only one of them is actually American! It is wild to think that we only have nine weeks left with them to make sure they are truly ready!! NOT... ENOUGH... TIME !!!!
Of course they are all chomping on the bit. We are so blessed to have such great kids! Please pray for them as their last year of high school winds down and life as they know it changes DRASTICALLY!!!

Ha Yoen J.

Rufus J D.

Joon Hyuk K.

Rebekah H. (on the left, her sister D is in the green)

Mikaylah's birthday party

2010-03-21T14:18:00.008+01:00

Mikaylah's birthday is March 27, which falls during break. However, Mikaylah really wanted to have a "kindergarten" birthday with her classmates before the break.
My sister designed the invitation.

We invited all the classmates for lunch. Kindergarten is only a half day, so it seemed easier to have them all walk over after school.

We had pizza and koolaid (foster clarks) and carrot sticks. We played Musical Chairs, paste the face and duck duck goose. We opened presents, and followed clues to a piñata filled with candy. Everyone got to hit the piñata and since it still didn't break Tim had to break it to the delight of the kids. They were so sweet to share equally with each other I was really impressed! What a great group of kids! Jayson wanted to know where his birthday presents were. I told him that he would get a present (loot bag) at the end of the party. That made him happy. Mikaylah felt fêted but wanted to know if there will be more presents on her "real" birthday!

Coup d'étât Day

2010-02-23T11:11:00.006+01:00

Thursday February 18 was my dad's birthday. It began as a normal Thursday morning, getting the kids out the door in time for school. Mikaylah came home from Kindergarden at noon, and by 1pm we had just finished lunch when we heard machine gunfire. Then a few minutes later we heard the school siren announcing a lock down. I was just wondering if it was another drill when we got a phone call from Dave Totman telling us this was not a drill, but to stay inside the dorm. When Mikaylah and Jayson wanted to go out to play, I nonchalantly told them it was too hot, let's play a game... my children were bewildered at mom's strange response but not afraid. The lock down lasted three hours, in which we heard many military helicopters and more gun fire outside the gate. We discovered that there was a coup d'étât happening. To my recollection of a few coups happening in Côte d'Ivoire, this was the most calm, and quiet military take over I have ever experienced. At no time did we fear for our well being. God's peace passed all our understanding and we were able to be in contact with parents. The dorm kids all came home at 3pm and when we told them that school was going to be suspended on Friday, they (most of them) were happy to be able to sleep in. There were a few disappointments: The outreach planned for this weekend was postponed, Neil and Lisa Sim (parents to Beth, Josh and Hannah) were not able to cross the border from Benin to Niger, and the accreditation team scheduled to come in were all rerouted all over the world (well, at least in Africa and in the US). So while those of you have been having your snow days, we here in Africa had a "Coup d'étât" Day. Just not as fun to play in!

One of our seniors, John's parents live in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and they have been experiencing a coup of sorts as well.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for peace, please continue to pray for Mali and Côte d'Ivoire.

Une Nuit à Paris

2010-02-16T04:46:00.011+01:00

Our Student Council recently sponsored a banquet that many of the kids claimed was a Valentine's banquet. At any rate, it was an opportunity to dress up, and our kids did a great job of that. Here are some of the photos Tim took of our kids on their way to the banquet:
Zeb and his sister Elisheva Zoolkoski are Americans whose parents are at the Sim hospital in Galmi.
Sisters, Bethany and Hannah, and brother Josh Sim are Aussies from Benin.
The two oldest of the Ottosson family, Nathanael and Mikaela, are also Aussies whose parents work in Burkina Faso.
Our own kids: Jayson and Mikaylah pose for Papa
Not only was it a night of good food and fellowship, Amanda Winsor taught our kids how to waltz Shelby Winsor and Mikaylah had a great time!
John and Bethany whirled around the dining hall, if only we had a disco ball!! HA HA

Even Tim and I dressed up and had a great time!

Girls' Hall

2010-02-07T14:01:00.012+01:00

Our Girls' Hall has the most rooms (three) in the dorm and can comfortable fit six girls, though occasionally we will put three girls in "the big room" at the end of the hall. This year we were going to have to find a bed for one as we had eight on our list. When the girls found out, they all agreed they would rather be squished than lose one of their "sisters". This blog is in dedication to our eight girls down our girls hall. They are, Hannah, Blessing and Mikaela in the small girls' room,

Elisheva and Rebekah in the BIG girls' room, and

and Bethany, Deborah and MiYoen in the middle-sized girls' room... now I am starting to sound like Goldilocks and the three bears!!

Isaiah 58:11

2010-01-20T11:08:00.006+01:00

One of our new students, 12 year old Mikaela wondered if she could plant a garden, "not a flower garden, but food". So she and one of her room-mates, Blessing have hoed and watered a patch of ground that they call their own. Monday Mikaela planted the top of the pineapple I had cut up for snack. So we will see how it progresses!

"... He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land... like a well watered garden..." Is 58:11

pictiondictionary

2010-01-16T21:56:00.003+01:00

Our first Saturday night in the dorm after Christmas vacation and the kids are not bogged down with a lot of homework (yet), so we played a game of piction-dictionary. Everyone starts with a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil. Each person writes a descriptive sentence and passes it to the person on their right. The next person draws a picture of what is described in the picture, folds the paper so the original sentence can not be seen and passes it to their right. The next person writes a sentence that describes the picture and so on all around the table until you get your original piece of paper back. Then each person reads their original sentence and all the hilarious mixed up pictures and sentences that follow. The kids had a great time seeing how their sentences got morphed!

Celebrate good times!

2010-01-15T20:50:00.008+01:00

I know that it is important to celebrate joyful occasions, and so this week we celebrated!!

My good friend "Tanti Hadiza" who also helps me in the kitchen three days a week asked me if she could bake a cake for her friend who just had a baby. She had gone through the labour and delivery with her friend, so she was given the task to name the baby. She chose the name Arielle. Then she asked if I would decorate the cake for her. This is Tanti Hadiza with her cake for baby Arielle.

Joshua turned 13 in December (two days before Christmas) so we had an "unbirthday" for him on Wednesday. He asked for hamburgers and French Fries and Banana cream pie for dessert! It was a fun Supper, and Josh's parents were still in town so they got to celebrate with us too!!

On Thursday Rufus received a letter from Oral Roberts University that he had been accepted into the pre-med programme!! Whoa, are we proud or what?? John has also been accepted to ORU, so I baked a cake (chocolate since John brought us 20 boxes of cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire!! (Rufus on the left and John on the right)

Happy New Year 2010!!

2010-01-01T14:25:00.003+01:00

Wow, hard to believe that 2010 has arrived!! Doesn't it seem like we are living in the future??
Tim and I spent Wednesday apart, which is unusual. Tim was over at the McIver's helping to build the new climbing apparatus for our playground. While Janice was over at the Beebout's house trying to get it clean before their arrival early Thursday morning. We met Jeremy and Susan and their two girls Lydia and Eliza ( aged six and four) in Quebec during our language study. They have become special friends of ours... They went back to America in August to await the arrival of their third child. Abigail was born September 9 (Labour day of course!) and they returned to Niger safely Thursday, December 31!
Thursday morning Tim and the rest of the men who helped create the climber brought it over to our playground and installed it into its cement moorings. After lunch with part of the crew we played our annual softball game, (even Janice played!)
Our friends the McIvers (also language study friends from Quebec) had supper with us Thursday night. Their two children are between our two, so they had a great time playing together. Since our kids are young we decided to have a sleep over!! We have lots of empty bedrooms this time of year while the dorm kids are with their own families. After the kids went to bed we played a game of "ticket to ride" (which was brand new to Tim and I). Chantelle won big time!! At midnight we walked over to the river to watch the hotels' display of fireworks (while most of you were eating dinner in North America). Happy New Year from Niger!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-26T16:18:00.013+01:00

Mikaylah and Jayson met "Santa Claus" at the American Rec Center December 5th.

Mikaylah actually woke up this morning forgetting that it was Christmas!! Tim asked her if she knew what day it was, "Friday." was her response... it wasn't until she wandered into the dining room and saw the Christmas presents that she realized it was Christmas!

Jayson slept in til 10 am!! But Mikaylah was content to eat pancakes and discover her stocking while we waited for Jayson to wake up!

Mikaylah and Jayson with their stockings

We were spoiled by Tim's brother Ron and Janice's sister, Jennifer this year as both sent packages with gifts for us. Janice made stockings and was still wrapping presents Christmas morning before the kids woke up!!

Mikaylah's favourite gift was the roller skates that we got her at a garage sale last summer. Uncle Ron and Aunt Linda AND Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Chris sent knee pads and elbow pads for her so Jayson got the black set and Mikaylah got the pink set!!

Daddy opens the walkie talkies while the kids look on.

Jayson's big tractor truck carrier

Jayson's favourite gift was a remote control car! They were very spoiled! Mikaylah and Jayson in their new swimsuits (and Mika's elbow & knee "caps") and flashlights. We went over to the Riggs' home for dinner in the afternoon. We were spoiled again with chicken, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy!! And then four kinds of pie for dessert!! Plus munching on Christmas cookies all afternoon. We played a "Riggs' special" game the guys vs the girls and the guys won... It was a wonderful full day and we are very blessed! Hope you had a great day too wherever you are and with loved ones close by.

It's Christmas Eve at Our House

2009-12-24T23:19:00.004+01:00

Well, I have to tell you that this Christmas Eve was the first time Mikaylah was begging to go to bed on time. Her pappa had to go show a film in the neighborhood of one of our pastors tonight and he said that she better be asleep when he got home or Santa would skip right over our house. Her response? Don't worry daddy, Santa can't come here because it is too hot and Africa is way too far away from the North Pole. She knows that there will be presents under the tree tomorrow. She was in bed when I got home, but not asleep. I think she is a bit more than a little excited.

Tomorrow, I hope to bring you some Christmas pictures. I am really glad that while we joke about Santa coming or not, Mikaylah knows that it is just mommy and daddy pretending to be Santa. She will probably sing happy birthday to Jesus tomorrow. I will have to video that!

November Birthdays

2009-11-30T20:12:00.006+01:00

November came and went pretty fast! We had four birthdays in November, Tim celebrated on the 8th, and everyone wore black!! Mi Yoen turned 15 on the 10th, Jayson turned three on the 16th and Asyncrite celebrated sweet 16 on the 25th!! We had Lots of Cake this month, especially considering we had no birthdays in October!!!

October

2009-10-23T21:48:00.003+01:00

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

This is just one of the verses that Mikaylah has learned this year in her kindergarten class. What a simple reminder that we often lose sight of when we are in the middle of a very hot, humid place in which we find ourselves. It is very good.

Hello again from Niamey where we actually had 3 inches of rain in October!

This week we find ourselves with our fall break that has been wonderful. We have had a great chance to relax, read, swim, and just hang out with friends. We were even able to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with some turkey breast Janice found in the grocery store!!

However, we began the week with much to do, as we got ready to play in yet another NUTS softball tourney here in Niamey. Now, from those who follow us closely, what does NUTS stand for? This year, there were three teams from Sahel Academy, just like last year. All three teams did really well. Our youngest team played so well together as a unit. Although they bowed out of the tournament in the semi finals, they made the school very proud in how they played. The competitive team had last year’s title to defend. With two more teams in the tournament and all of the competitive teams with the ability to win, we really had some work to do. I will post the longer version on our blog, but to make a long story really short… we were successful in defending our title with a dramatic 8-7 win in the finals.

The school year seems to be going quite well so far. The kids in the dorm all seem to get along quite nicely with each other which makes our job so much nicer. We are really enjoying watching some of them growing spiritually, mentally, and physically. Of course, those who are growing physically are eating a ton of food as well! Right now, we do have 13 in the dorm, only to add 3 more in January. That, in itself, is another story. We have room for one more girl in the dorm with two girls who really want to come. So, Janice and I found some other accommodations for the older girl here on campus only to find out that the girls hall already made plans and sacrifices to get everyone in. They are willing to squeeze three girls into a room made for two in order to make room for both girls to stay in the dorm. That is typical of the kids who live with us. This job is almost too easy at times! Praise God!

Mikaylah loves her class. She comes home everyday with stories of what they do each day. She loves reading and insists that we have to do her reading homework first. Now, she is trying to apply her reading skills to books that she had previously memorized like “The Grinch who Stole Christmas”. She is a good verse learner and seems to be getting along well with her classmates.

Jayson is still a very active little boy who loves to play hard. While he loves shoes, he rarely keeps them on his feet. He often comes crying home limping because he has one of those burrs in his foot. He tries to keep up with Mikaylah with her learning, so now he thinks he can read, too.

We would love to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who support us financially. This week, I was finally able to catch up on some paperwork and look at where our support is as of late last summer. I am happy to report that while we have lost some support due to the recession, we have gained a whole lot more. When we arrived in Africa, we were at 86% and as of now, we are at 90%. Praise God for His faithfulness to us and thank all of you who are aiding this ministry to MK’s.

For those who have good internet, please check out the blog this week to find pictures of our giraffe outing we had this past Friday. The kids thought it was quite unusual to drive around for so long to find these very tall, gentle creatures. Jayson wanted to go for a ride!

I will leave you with some prayer and praises! Thank you all for the prayers for us. We are entering into my favourite time of the year. The coolness of the dry season is such a welcome change from the high heat and humidity.

~Praise God for a good break and needed rest

~Praise God for continued good health

~Pray for the relationships we have with the kids and their parents. Pray that all will bring honour to God.

~Pray for some of the new dorm kids struggling to keep up in school

~Praise for the world’s best supporters!

NUTS...2009

2009-10-18T23:07:00.007+01:00

It is that time of year, again! It is time for NUTS! Are we crazy playing all this softball in 100 degree heat? In Indiana, they would probably just cancel the tourny, but not us crazy people. We began the day last Friday with a pep session at school just before our social team took the field. The whole school was on the lawn cheering all three teams Sahel entered. We had a record 16 teams in the tournament this year. It was a challenge to get all the games in before darkness hit. Saturday night was a close call as darkness descended on us quite rapidly. I think we played the last inning in virtual darkness.

Of course, you must remember that our competitive team were the defending champs from 2008. Of course our team has changed dramatically due to graduation and home assignments. We had, I think 3 guys on last years' team play this year, besides myself. But, we had a great group of guys and girls who played some great defense throughout the tourny. We, however, started the tourny with the poorest permormance of all time committing many errors and lost 13-10. We were all a bit disappointed about that, but realized that if we could win the next 2, we would be first in our pool. So, that is what we did. Although our defense returned, our offense took a rest in a very hard fought 5-4 victory over a team from Burkina. The hero in that game was Betsie Childs who came up with a clutch hit to drive in the winning run! It was rather exciting as we turned a couple of double plays which is hard to do against those athleic, fast Africans.

The final game started out just how we wanted it to, taking a 7-0 lead just to see that evaporate by the last inning. We didn't score at all the 3-5 inning, but came up with a bit run in the bottom of the 6th to take the one run lead. Then defense took over. With the tying run on base, two outs, a ground ball was hit right to Betsie who couldn't come up with a clean scoop and throw out. Rather, she deflected the ball right to second base where Tim Smith, our shortstop picked it up and literally rolled to the base to force the runner out. Tim was seen more than once crawling towards the base to make a big play. That was the game, not quite as dramatic tourney overall like last year, but nonetheless very sweet. The thing I love most about this team was the fact that everyone contributed something at different times to make it a success. I love this team!

Our other 2 social teams did quite well as well. They both bowed out of the tourney during the semi's, but played very well. I was especially proud of the younger team who just played with heart. If you could have practiced with them about 3 weeks ago, you would have thought how in the world this team would even win one game. But, they played so together, it was an inspiration to us all. Well done, Sahel Academy! Go Suns! Now, anyone outside of Sahel community and can tell me the what NUTS stands for, I will blog your smartness on the next blog!

Lions, Tigers, and Bears...no, Giraffes!

2009-10-18T11:56:00.008+01:00

We were able to go outside of Niamey and drive all over the place to find a dozen or so Giraffes out in the wild. The kids were fascinated at how tall they were. We were amazed at how calm they are. With us just walking all around them, they didn't seem too nervous with us there. One time, I think Janice was backing up to one for a photo and the giraffe got a little nervous and bent his head down as if we was going to lick the top of Janice's head. Hopefully all these picks will load up quickly today so you can see some of what we saw. It was a bit funny because this is the only place in the world where you will find giraffes in the wild. I at being said, they are "protected". They also charge you to go out to where they are. I would think that if they are in the wild, then anyone can go at anytime to go see them. Although I will say that there is no way I would have found my way around out there without the guide. Poor guy sat on top of our truck in 100 degree heat and pointed with a stick at the direction I should go. After finding 2 big old giraffes right away, we found a herd of them 10 minutes later. After much driving around again looking for another herd, we gave up because the kids were getting a bit antsy. You can see our guide up in the top of a tree looking for the heads of giraffes over the tops of trees, but he couldn't spot any. So, after we began to go back home, we almost ran into 2 more. All in all, we saw around 1 dozen giraffes. One funny thing that Mikaylah did say was that she was very sure that Noah did not take any Giraffes on the ark because he couldn't build a boat tall enough for them!

The Boy

2009-09-26T22:22:00.004+01:00

Last June when we said goodbye to our three seniors and "see you later" to the rest of the dorm kids Jayson was a boy of few words. He would say Mama, Daddy, Layla and "Ha Yoen". But he would not say any of the other dorm kids names. He would say "bonjour" to our house workers, and he would respond to questions by nodding his head or saying "no!" But that was about it. I was a little worried because I had big plans to potty train him when we got back from our trip to Burkina Faso, and I wasn't sure how much he understood. Our colleagues Colin and Teena and their 2 year old son (who is almost three months YOUNGER than Jayson) had just been up to Niamey to visit and Ethan was talking in Dinde and in French and in English AND he was going on the toilet too!!!

We went to Burkina Faso and Jayson learned a new word, Ouagadougou... okay now you try to say it... wa ga do goo... not so hard, just like baby talk right?? Well this started a trend, he began to rapidly add words to his growing vocabulary... in fact in the last three and a half months he has not only learned words, but is now speaking in full sentences! AND he is going to the potty!! YAY!!

When the kids came back to school Jayson calmly greeted them all by name!! The kids were shocked and delighted. He even asked about the graduates, wanting to know when they were coming home...
Now that Jayson has discovered language he has not stopped!! He is very descriptive. Waking up in the morning, he comes to me with wonder still all over his face, "Mama, I waked up!" Coming in from outside, "Mama I am home!!", "Mama get out, I need privacy!" He was doing his business on the toilet, "Okay Mama, you can wipe me now." But he isn't always very polite!!

However when ever I scold him he immediately looks at the ground and says "Sorry Mama", whether or not he is sorry it still gets the desired result! and he is good at stalling at bedtime too... "I need cold water!" and "I need a hug and a kiss" and "Nighty Poo, Don't poo in your nighty!"

August!

2009-08-02T08:25:00.003+01:00

It is August so Mikaylah announced that she is ready for school!! She is SO excited to begin Kindergarten!! We had to tell her that school doesn't really start until August 12!! And the dorm kids arrive August 11! She is very excited about that, and Jayson started naming the kids who will be returning! He was only saying one name when they left in June, now he recognizes their pictures and is saying their names!! I think the kids will be surprised! So we are ready for them (emotionally) but we still have a to do list that needs to be accomplished before next week arrives! Staff meetings start this week. and Monday and Tuesday are national holidays!! so we are again understaffed but have plenty of work to do :)

We have just heard that our short term dorm assistant Cindy has raised enough funds and is 100 % supported! Hopefully she will be here by September. She still has to get a visa, shots, etc. But we are excited that she is on her way!! Anybody have any new recipes I can try? Remember that we only have access to basic ingredients...

Eight Years and counting...

2009-07-28T08:04:00.001+01:00

We have just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. We were remembering that after our honey moon in Canada we crossed the border into the US on August 5, 2001. Janice was fingerprinted and cross-examined and finally allowed to enter US soil on humanitary grounds!! One month later we had a celebration in Kokomo, Indiana so Tim's friends who couldn't make it to the wedding could meet Janice. Two days later, nine eleven happened and some of Janice's family who came from Canada for the Kokomo reception were stuck in Indiana for a few days as no one was being allowed to cross the border!!! Great timing for us, if we were six weeks later in crossing the border they may not have let Janice in!!!

Last day of school etc.

2009-06-17T10:34:00.004+01:00

The last day of school was actually a week long... including grad banquet, graduation and Leaving Day. Just some photos for your perusal!!

Graduation

2009-06-05T04:33:00.002+01:00

Tam, Philip and Esther
Yes, we had four graduates today... Philip, Tam and Esther graduated from Highschool and Mikaylah graduated from preschool! We had a great day. Mikaylah's celebration was in the morning. The teacher had the children demonstrate what they do in the classroom each day. I was surprised that Mikaylah understood so much French. They did some simple phonics and sang some songs. It was fun. She will miss her little friends but will be going to Kindergarten in August. So far there are ten kids signed up to be in her class at Sahel.

Our three big kids started walking down the aisle at 7pm. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful evening outside. Daniel Meade gave the staff tribute to the seniors and did a wonderful job. Our speaker, Tim Tjosvold challenged both the seniors and the rest of us. Each of the graduates gave a speech to thank important people in their lives and to tell us where they were planning to go in the future. Each senior did an admirable job! We were especially proud of our three! After the ceremony there was cake and celebrating in the dining hall. Everyone was having a great time and no one wanted it to end!
Pray for our three as they leave Niger. Both Tam and Phil are going to the United States. Tam to PA to attend Eastern and Phil to NY to Elim. Esther is hoping to go back to Korea.
Pray as they say good bye to their friends here and anticipate the future. Pray that they will each stay faithful. We are so thankful that each one has dedicated his or her life to the Lord.

Car Pooling...African Style

2009-05-17T16:15:00.003+01:00

Just thought I would share a photo that was passed on to me through email. I don't know where it was taken. Thanks Kathryn for the photo. While we have not seen any trucks this crowded, it is not unusual to see trucks that are poorly loaded, or loaded about 10 feet too high, listing to one side and yet there are tons of people hitching rides ON TOP of the whole load. Very scary looking and dangerous, but it is just a way of life out here.

May Showers???

2009-05-12T10:26:00.002+01:00

Well Mother's day has come and gone and we still haven't had a rain to register on the rain guage. According to Dorm Tradition, there is a pool every year to see who can guess the date of the first rain! Of the 15 of us, 9 days have come and gone. Today is Phil's day, but I think he will be disappointed too. Nat guessed May fourteen, Esther the 15th, Tim the 19th, Tam the 22nd and Mi-Yoen the 26th of May. I had guessed May 10th, Mother's day, I thought it was appropriate, but we are still dry... a little humid (50% yesterday) but still no rain. The school year is quickly coming to a close. Mi-Yoen is our only student writing IGCSE exams this year, she has two this week and three next week, then the end of the year exams begin the 26th of May! Graduation is scheduled for the fourth of June! I know the time will go by quickly!! It is very hot as you can see from our thermometer on the left... please pray that relief will come quickly! When it is hot tempers can flare up easily and everyone is a little more emotional at the end of the school year, please pray especially for our three seniors, Esther, Tamarah and Phil who will be leaving Niger this summer to pursue further studies abroad (the US for Tam and Phil and Korea for Esther). Pray for their transition (saying goodbye to their homes and friends and families) and for their adjustment abroad (new schools, church and friends).

Birthday Blowout!

2009-04-15T17:26:00.004+01:00

I finally got this thing to load up. I wasn't sure it even did it at the beginning, so we were hearing from the lands of good internet connections that they had seen Mikaylah's birthday cake meltdown. I guess it did load. Hope you all who can, enjoy the video.

Another Birthday party!

2009-04-15T11:41:00.035+01:00

Before Mikaylah's birthday, there was another birthday party our kids went to for Ariel and Bennet McIver. These are kids who met ours in Quebec during language study. Their dad is like a little boy at times and loves to build and have fun. So, he constructed this obstacle course for the kids, complete with 2 zip lines. One for the young ones and one for a slightly older. This first pic is of Jayson coming out of the "tunnel". He had a great time with almost everything. You can scroll down to see how the end of his zipline went. We was ok, until he stopped. At that point, the

kids were supposed to drop into a pool and get all wet. Jayson thought that if he dropped, he would be hurt, so he hung out until someone came to rescue him! I think he must get that from falling off the playgroud equipment here at school so many times:)

Mikaylah thoroughly enjoyed her time there. She went around that obstacle course a dozen times or more. It was a hot day, so they really enjoyed themselves.

Incidentally, this is when my cell phone was stolen right in front of the guards! Only in Africa, I think:) Praise God, the perps didn't get the wallet that was sitting in the pocket next to the phone! The phone was easily replaced, with the same number even!

2009-04-12T13:34:00.027+01:00

This blog is really for all my canoeing buddies back home. Muskrat, I hope you log onto this to see these pics. 3 years ago, I almost put a small canoe or kayak on the container that came out here. At that time, because I didn't have total knowledge of our mission finances, I hesitated, then decided not to bring one. In hindsight, I should have pulled the trigger. I usually go canoeing at least once a month while in Indiana because of all the great creeks and rivers in that beautiful state. But, since being here, there is one river to choose from and that one is used by all. The Niger River.

You can see from the pics that we shy away from normal tents on these trips because of the heat. I slept under a mosquito net on the sand. I laid down a ground cover, rolled out my sleeping bag that just came on the container and fully expected to sleep just on top on the bag using it for only a cushion. However, during the night, a rather cool breeze kicked up and caused me to climb in my 50+ sleeping bag to keep warm. I suspect that most of you North Americans just coming off winter would not have done that. It was a beautiful night to sleep.

we put in down in Tera about an hour drive from Niamey and we had lofty goals to make roughly a 62 kilometer trek in a day in a half to land right on the back side of our campus. We pushed off around 2:30 in the afternoon only to face a fairly stiff wind. We had a place in mind to camp for the night because one of the guys scouted out a place from his plane the week before. The current on the Niger does flow, but not that fast as compared to the smaller rivers to which I have grown accustomed. So, you have a current with the wind, as soon as you stopped paddling just to look at things, if you didn't go backwards, you stopped dead still. Very frustrating because when one person stopped to take a drink or just to take a break, the other had a lot of work to do.
The girl you see pictured is Charity Bliss, who was my canoe buddy for the whole trip. We rode in a homemade canoe that was made in Ghana. Very nice riding canoe, although I am glad that there weren't too many rocks out there because I hated to hit anything for fear of scratching it. But, it rode so nicely. I would have loved to see what that thing could do on a calm day. Needless to say, we didn't make it as far as we thought we should because of the wind. Very slow. As darkness settled upon us, we had to begin looking for an island on which to camp. Of course, after passing so many islands, when we needed one, we couldn't find one. So, we kept going. The good thing is, is that the wind died down, so it got a bit easier. The down side is that we were paddling after dark. That is bad because the river was on its way down and you never know where the rocks are and you never know where the hippos that look like rocks are! As we came upon this one island that seemed to stretch out for 3 k, we saw many, many hippo tracks up on the island that we thought would not be a good camp spot because the hippos were already there. Hippos do not make for great sleepovers!

Anyway, as we were quietly paddling along this island, it was just about dark. You know where the water looks black and you can only see the fires of the Africans burning to cook their suppers. All of a sudden, this huge snort sounds very close to us to the left. And what do we see? A huge hippo rising some out of the water only about half way to shore. Needless to say, we all found some needed energy. There is only one thing worse than seeing a hippo go under the water, and that is not knowing where he will surface! Yes, Hippos are herbivores, unless they are really hungry or we have come between mommy and baby. With all the stories of those things and the amount of people who are killed by them every year, we like to keep our distance.

The next day was more of the same. You see Chris Chamberlain waking in a tent that lost its poles in the middle of the night. I am sure he will love me posting this picture! It was great to be able to get paddling again. I didn't realize just how much I miss it. Only to have my kayak here. Although, if I did, I would think that would draw lots of attention from the Africans.

Birthday, part 3

2009-04-06T09:21:00.022+01:00

Just thought you would enjoy the remaining few pics of Mikaylah's birthday. You can see who helped make the cake and who helped eat it. Jayson really enjoyed the beaters. Gone are the days of pappa getting those, I think:) That is ok, though.

Mikaylah loved being a princess all day that day. She was just so much fun to watch. How she included everyone, especially the few kids who were there to share all her new toys, including the tent! She loved to share all her new toys, dolls, etc with Lydia. Jayson is a bit of a different story, but she is working very hard on that account. We are certainly blessed to have these two kids. They are very precious to us and they bring us many many smiles and much laughter!

Slippy Slidy Sleepover!

2009-04-02T21:38:00.017+01:00

yes, we have made it to the wonderful world of sleepovers with Mikaylah. Jayson thought he should be included as well, but we made him to go bed and let the girls be girls. These two girls had just the best time sleeping in our new tent which we just got off a container not more than 6 days before Mikaylah's birthday! More on that later. I have no idea if they really got any sleep, but they said they did....some.
Now Mikaylah with her cake. She did help to decorate her cake. I still have even more pictures of Mikaylah sprinkling the cake with her special sprinkles, Jayson licking the beater and that yummy chocalate cake mix, and some other odds and ends pictures. But, I as I said in last blog, I wish I could upload the video. I still need to get in on disc to be sure we always have it because it is going to make for a great video at her 16 birthday party! or her wedding! Janice had lit the candles and everyone was singing happy birthday, but because it was so hot, we had our ceiling fans on. Yes, you have more than one in one room! As we put the cake down in front of Mikaylah, all the candles went out! oh, no, we just light them again, but Mikaylah breaks out into this most horrific cry I have ever heard. It is like the worst thing in the world has happened and she is broken hearted because her birthday was ruined! Her perfect day was in shambles. Well, we quickly begin to light the candles again when we discover, and it is on the video that the fans had a little help by who? yes, you guessed it, little brother, Jayson. Everytime we lit a candle, he would very sublty lean in and blow them out, furthur exasperating Mikaylah because afterall, it was her birthday and she was going to blow the candles out!I can't blame her. I am just a bit worried for her wedding day way down the road if this happened on a birthday:) The picture you see here is just after all of that. She is doing her best to be cheery, smiley and not cry. She is such a cute littel girl...we love her so much.

As you can see some of the other presents that she received were a pooh clock, which Jayson thought was for him! Some hairbands, 3 barbie dolls, fruit chews, a play kitchen and pots and pans, a sippy type cup with Tinkerbell on it, so the next day we had to watch Peter Pan because that is where Tinker bell is! Notice the outfit Grandma? Mikaylah thought that was the very best! She wanted to wear it day after day after day!

During the big birthday bash, as Mikaylah was receiving much of the attention, little brother was busy entertaining his own friend! The little sister of Lydia, Jayson and Eliza were busy hiding in the cabinet where the trash can normally rests! It is amazing, when the kids go to bed at night, and the power goes off, Jayson goes ballistic. He can't stand it totally dark. When it is a surprise thing, he does not like it! But, to hide in a dark closest or cupboard, no problem! Now, I don't know if you noticed, but he is playing with a girl in her underwear! Should we be worried?????

Slippy slidy birthday!

2009-04-02T21:11:00.015+01:00

Mikaylah's 5 birthday party was a ton of fun. What we thought was going to be a bunch of kids to enjoy her new slip 'n slide, it ended up being just the three girls and a whole bunch of adults,...oh, and some teenagers.
Mikaylah calls this not her slip 'n slide, but her slippy slidy. "Pappa, can we play with my slippy slidy today?" she has asked almost everyday since her birthday. Here she is with her very good friend, Lydia Beebout, who she met in Quebec. They have frozen together and now roasted together:)

The rest of her birthday sleepover will come on the next post. I couldn't post all the pics. I will make another post very soon, so you better read fast! I really wish our internet was good enough to upload a video of Mikaylah and the birthday cake. That was very funny. I will tell that story in the next post.

Jayson even like the slide, although I think he thought playing with the big boys was even more fun than the water. Nowadays he loves to run, stop and fall face first into the water on the slide. They have such a great time with it! This is something that we packed on the container to come out here long before Jayson was even born. Mikaylah was a little 2 year old when we bought it for her and we didn't see it again until we unpacked the container on this side of the pond. That was best $5.00 we spent for her birthday. As you can see some of the other presents included Mac 'N Cheese, or Kraft dinner for all the Canadians. That was a real treat since we haven't had that since Quebec. Not that Janice and I were complaining much, but the kids gobbled down a box very quickly the other day! It was like we never fed them. Ok, they didn't eat the box, just the macaroni and cheese. I have to admit, it did taste rather yummy:)

Oh, don't forget to notice Mikaylah's princess crown. She spent most of her birthday telling us she was a princess. Boys are prince's and girls are princesses. I really think she felt very special for her birthday. On Saturday, she asked if it was her birthday again. After we told her 52 more Friday's and it is your birthday again, she was content. Of course, in her mind, 52 Friday's might as well be next week!

Jayson's haircut

2009-04-02T20:43:00.011+01:00

This is a picture of a stage Jayson is going through right now where he likes to walk around being a "monster". He is the friendliest monster I know. He is always smiling all the while he squints his eyes, puts his hands up like claws and roars like a bear! It is quite the sight. Mikaylah always plays along and goes to hide from this hideous monster. When he finds her, he turns her into a monster to go hunt momma and pappa. We have had many good times as a family playing "Where the wild things are". If you don't know, that book is coming out on movie next summer, as rumour has it.

Just thought those of you who follow our kids would like to see the before and after pics of Jayson getting a haircut. I did not include all the during pictures because he was just covered with powder, so the hair would be easier to get off. But he was very proud. I was on a canoe trip when Janice cut his hair, but when I came back, the very first thing Jayson said to me was, loo, pappa(Look Pappa) while he patted his head. He was very proud of his new hairstyle!

Odd Things

2009-03-30T16:09:00.007+01:00

Just thought I would send out some of the fun pictures we have captured of our kids while the dorm kids are home with their parents. We are enjoying our break, but it will end in less than a week. We have enjoyed doing several things as a family, including sleeping in a tent(more on that later). Here Jayson is trying on Daniel Meade's not so small boots and looks like he is going to ride off into the sunset! Jayson is growing by leaps and bounds as you may expect. He talks all the time, although we don't know what his language is yet:) Right now, we are trying to potty train him and he is doing very well. He often comes to find us to tell us, "peepee" He is the little brother often when he pushes Mikaylah's buttons to get her all worked up. For the most part, they really enjoy one another, though. We enjoy sitting back and watching them play.

This picture was taken after our Hippo hunt. Mikaylah wanted to bad to climb a tree. I tried to get her to climb up herself and she tried. She got half way up and then got scared she was going to fall. So, I placed her up on the limb for this picture. Unfortunately, I must be a bit allergic to Mango because the next day, I had a rash all over my arms. Very itchy!

We thought you would also like to see what our kids do every night during bath time. They really like the suds as you can see. If we get called out by the dorm kids, we sometimes leave them to bath on their own. When that happens, we usually have lots of water in our bathroom, all over the floor. They really have fun!

Hippo hunting!

2009-03-23T22:30:00.008+01:00

Mikaylah and I got to do some touristy things here in Niamey. We have not had the opportunity or the energy to go out and do a bunch of stuff like all the short term people here. With two little ones plus the high heat, it doesn't add up to a ton of fun. But, we have enjoyed some things together, like the zoo, the dunes and now...hippo hunting! Janice really wanted to go as well, but we were a little leary of taking Jayson out on one of these boats/canoes without a lifejacket. He would want to go in with the hippos.

It was a rather hot day, well over 100 degrees F, and there was no wind. The boat had a little cover on it, but that actually made sitting watching the hippos very hot. We came across this whole family of hippos all in one place. I took some pics with my digital, but the zoom isn't good enough. I got some great shots with my old film camera which I will post once I get those on a cd, if that is possible here. This family has 2 little ones and some great big pappa sized hippos, as Mikaylah would say.

As they sat there kind of being boring with only their snouts out of the water, the pappa hippo raised up as if we was going to go someplace. Man, was he huge! But, as quick as he came up, he sat back down. But then momma and poppa must have gotten bored because they kept yawning. Now, to watch a hippo yawn is kind of entertaining. You can always tell when a big one is coming because they open their mouths a little once, then close. Then open it again a little more, then close it. What a tease these guys were! But then they would open wide, as hippos do and hold it there as if pausing. I was actually able to get 3 or 4 pictures of one yawn with an old manual wind camera.

We were able to go with a couple who are engaged to be married soon. Daniel Meade is our math teacher here at Sahel Academy. He came out for 8 months to fill in for this year. His fiancee, Victoria Chick(yes, Vic Chick) was able to come out for a little while during her break at Moody to see where her man has been working. Mikaylah took a great liking to Victoria, as you can see from the photo. Victoria only got nervous once when the little hippo went under water and she wanted to know where it was going. Of course, you always hear of stories of hippo attacks. The mommy hippo kept a sharp eye on us, snorted a few times, but was content to stay put.

When I am able to get better photos of the hippos, I will share them with you. Really, those are hippos in the water there!

CHAMPIONS...again

2009-03-19T15:49:00.006+01:00

So sorry a whole month has passed since the winning of our 2nd softball tourny this year. The seniors are very excited to be leaving Sahel as a 2 time champion. This most recent tourny took place in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, just south of Niamey.

While it was hard to get motivated again for yet another tourny. As we began to assemble for practices, of course, the cool season ended and the dust rolled in. So, I had one question for the boys, "are we going to play to win this thing, or play to just have fun?" After a rather dramatic pause, one of the younger guys said, "I guess we have to go defend our title last October" So with that, we began to prepare. If anything could have gone wrong, it did. We lost almost every exhibition game we played. Our defense was bad, we weren't hitting and all of our heads were a bit down. However, there were two bright spots that I saw. First, the boys played better and better defense even in those losses. Second, Tim Smith, the campus ball player and home run hitter was back from furlough to work on the books here at school. However, he had the weekend off, conveniently, just to join the team.

So, on Friday, very early, we boarded the vans at 6am to head for Ouaga. Our trip was rather uneventful and we had the afternoon to rest and watch other teams play. Our first game was at 7am on Saturday..yikes. And it was against the team that beat us up consistently before the tourny. So, needless to say, our guys felt a bit intimidated by this team who could just flat out hit the ball and they had a great defense. True to the past weeks, they ran out to an early lead. I kept all the adults on our team on the bench so the guys could go beat their dads up in the game. We chipped away at their lead and got within 3 at the end, but dropped our first game. That left us with the realization that we had to win the other 3 games to get to the championship game.

It is amazing, that even though we lost that first game, that we actually gained confidence in our play because our defense started to dominate. "Your offense starts with defense" was one of our sayings, and the boys really concentrated on playing hard nosed D. We played another "embassy" team from Ouaga, a Burkina team and a little league team who were much larger than little leaguers I grew up with. They had beaten our guys in previous years at this tourny, so our guys exacted a bit of revenge this go around.

We woke up Sunday ready to go at it again, knowing we play one game at 8 for a chance to make it to the championship game against the same team we lost to earlier. While it took an inning or two to wake up, we had no problem getting to the final game. What fun this was going to be. As a coach player, it was so hard not to be in the outfield. I actually rode the bench and didn't do a good job. I think the boys took 10 years off my life. The first 2 innings saw the same team hit the ball all over the field, over our heads, in between us, for an 8-1 lead. We were visiting team, so we knew it had to start now. The third inning saw us score 3 runs, so the challenge was to put up a goose egg on their side. Wow! they did that for 2 or three innings while we scored 3, 2, 2 runs to tie the game at 8. Then we actually took a 2 run lead in the 6th, to see the Nomad's come back with 2 of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Now, one final inning, we must score and hold them to 0 if we want to win. Everyone was on the edge of their seat because this was a great game! great defense, offense, sportsmanship, etc. There were a few controversial calls, but even so it was great to see how easily they were resolved. God is good! Now, the drama begins.

Top of the inning, our lead off hitter was up, so the meat of our line up would have a crack at it. Trae starts out with a harmless fly out. Well hit, but right at him. Rufus gets on the way he seems to be able to get on all the time...with an error. He got on base 6 times with an error. By far, the most of anyone on our team. Then big Phil gets up and drives one over the left fielder's head, who misplayed it a bit, so it turned into an inside the park homerun giving us a 2 run lead. Not safe at all. We stranded another runner at third.

Bottom of the inning,..They have the bottom part of their line up coming up, so I think we should be able to get through these guys and win. However, they put the first two on with a single and a walk. Oh, no, I thought, here it goes. The big hitters are coming up with their special bat that hits the ball forever. Rufus, our pitcher was confident he could do it. He placed the ball all over the place and the first guy hit a hard smash right at the shortstop who made a clean pick up for an easy force at third. The second guy hit it almost the same place, but the throw wasn't on target, so our third baseman tried to keep his foot on the bag and get the ball. It dropped, but fortunately, we had a tall third baseman who laid on the ground fully extended to keep his foot on the base and reach for the ball just in time. 2 outs. Then the third guy hits the hardest in the gap between the short and third. Justin went after it with a dive, got it, and threw from his back to 3rd. Usually, when he does this, he throws wildly, but this throw was right on target and nailed down the championship for the Sahel Suns. My heart was rapidly beating and then went to celebrate with the boys in the middle of the field. That was the first time since 2001 since our school has swept these tournaments.

Enjoy the pics of the guys. I have included our two trophy's from NUTS(camel) and Sofanwet(turtle) which Jayson really likes!

Our Newest Blessing

2009-02-14T22:03:00.003+01:00

All children are blessings, but our newest addition to the dorm is indeed a Blessing. Blessing is ten years old and her parents work at the leprosarium in Danja, Niger. (about a 12 hour trip by car from Niamey).

Blessing has two younger brothers, Favour just turned 8 in January and Goodness was just born in November. We discovered last week that Blessing's mom and her dorm mom share a birthday. So that was a fun discovery and I was able to remind Blessing to call her mother on her special day!
Our daughter Mikaylah told me yesterday on the way home from school that Blessing is her best friend. Indeed, Blessing has been a blessing to my children, she plays with both Mikaylah and Jayson and almost always has a happy spirit! Mikaylah spent the night in Blessing's room this weekend as her regular room mate is in Ouagadougou with Tim at the Softball tournament. We are so thankful for Blessing and ask that you will pray for her this week as she is our youngest dorm child and her adjustment to being away from her family has been difficult. (pictures to follow when Tim gets back from Ouaga, sorry Jenn, I am computer illiterate--you are lucky to get a posting!!)

School en francais!

2009-02-06T10:53:00.003+01:00

Mikaylah started school the end of January. She LOVES it, for which we are so grateful! There are eight children in the class so the small class is perfect for her. We have noticed that she is much more confident in French now and almost eager to speak it!

Riding the Dunes

2009-01-10T09:45:00.000+01:00

Jayson got down the dunes just fine, Tim had to help him back up!
For our last hurrah before school started again this year we took three vehicles, 8 kids, six adults and a picnic to the sand dunes just 10 km outside of Niamey proper.

These are a few of our favorite things...

2009-01-09T07:50:00.004+01:00

Just thought you all would like to see our kids doing a few of their favorite things like eating a popsicle or an aibaga, as Jayson calls them.
Mikaylah helping Ladi make some rolls for supper. Mikaylah loves to roll things out and then roll up the cresent rolls. We love to watch her do things like this with such enthusiasm, although poor Ladi is slowed quite a bit when this happens!
And of course, Jayson being a boy. Notice where he is laying? Yes, he loves the dirt. He often has a clean shirt on for maybe 15 minutes before he is in the dirt or something:)

Yes, I am still blogging...

2009-01-08T23:21:00.009+01:00

Got a little reproof today when asked on facebook if I still blogged, of course I blog, and then I saw that I have completely missed the entire month of December... oops. Well we do have the excuse that our lovely MAC died, yes, completely, however my Friend's sister had some extra room in her purse for a new hard drive and she was coming to spend Christmas in Niamey, so hurray, we are up and running again, albeit with out my pictures that we had taken... very sad about that, Tim had just downloaded 300+ pictures from the camera and poof, they are gone with the hard drive to hard drive heaven... Yes I call Cathy my Friend with a capital F because whenever she calls Tim doesn't say "Cathy is on the phone" he says, "your Friend is on the phone." and since she is a capital friend, she deserves the honour... I digress...
We had two thanksgivings, two Christmases and one happy new year since I last wrote, plus a tabaski and a Muslim New Year and Niamey's 50 anniversary... plus two visits to the clinic
(which is way better than the hospital) for stitches, one of our boys in the toe and my DH who sliced up two fingers. Chung and his room-mates, Josh and Daniel were playing in the bathroom, since it was Tabaski and so no school so what better place to play than in the bathroom, right? Mind you this was after trying to play baseball in the kitchen and I sent them outside, only to find them playing baseball in the living room, again I sent them outside, only to discover that they never actually made it outside... down the hall they were, of course playing in the boys' bathroom... (remember there is no school so I have to prepare lunch in the dorm and this is about 11 am). Okay time for a period, that sentence was WAY too long, sorry Dad. Any way, by climbing over the stalls Chung inadvertently stepped on the toilet paper holder and sliced his second toe, quite deeply... A quick call to Dr. Ace confirmed which clinic would be open on the Muslim holiday... a Christian clinic... they sent me to the pharmacy to get anesthetic and Tylenol and some antibiotic, when I got back to the clinic Chung was still waiting to be looked at... the doctor put in four stitches and taped him up... we got home about 2 in the afternoon... I don't even remember what Tim did for lunch... hmm I guess they survived... then two days later while hanging Christmas lights the ladder Tim was standing on slide out from under him and crashed through the living room window with Tim's left hand acting as a buffer for the ladder, he sliced his index and middle fingers like one would peel a banana... I was scared! Back to the clinic Alissa... Good thing I had a dry run on Monday and could do it again on Wednesday. My Friend came over to the dorm to keep the kids calm and help them clean up. I was so proud of how they all worked together to clean up the glass and blood and pray for Uncle Tim. Tim received about 15 stitches (should have been 45 in my estimation) and now, more than a month later he is starting to look more human and less "Frankenstein" like. We had a special dorm Christmas party where the biggest hit was the bubbles I got each of them... hmmm we also played a white elephant game, and four on the couch (girls won!) and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas... what a great bunch of kids we have... We said our goodbyes to our three Sim kids who are on home assignment in Australia for six months and will say hello to Nat and Blessing next week! We also said goodbye to our dorm grandma, Jean Campbell who was filling in for one semester teaching grade one and two and living in our dorm assistant's apartment. We also said goodbye to Miss Megan who helped Miss Kathryn cover our dorm on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings.
Our kids both had fun opening presents. My mum and sister sent them new PJs for Christmas that arrived December 24!!! Yeay! Tim had taken some of the kids to Ouaga in Burkina Faso and did some shopping for them... balls and cars for Jayson, puzzles and kitchen dishes for Mikaylah who said she is sharing the plastic tools Jayson got! (btw, Jenn Jay already broke his drill :(...).
We packed bikes for them in August 2006 (Jayson still in utero) which they unwrapped the day after Christmas because they were so content with playing with their toys that we didn't push opening the bikes until the next day! We were invited out for dinner... because of our kids and not in spite of them!! very fun time with them and our kids almost fell asleep before we got home.
New years we played games before midnight then our night owl, Mikaylah came with us to the river to watch the fireworks from the hotels on the other side of the river! we put Mik to bed and stayed up talking to the wee hours of the morning...Jayson decided to hide some rocks in the tailpipe of Totman's Prado... diesel soot is pretty greasy! We had a group of Canadians stay in our dorm that night for the SIM conference and we have one more conference to go before school starts next Tuesday... Pray that our kids will arrive safely (two have already arrived, though they are still with their parents during the conference) and that all flights will go as planned. Happy 2009! PS I am still trying to post pictures but am having TROUBLE so please be patient...

Bonne Chance: Good Luck

2008-12-17T22:54:00.001+01:00

Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 4:54pm
Sorry about leaving everyone hanging... I didn't realize we would be without access to internet for such a long time... Last Wednesday, Dec 10, Tim was hanging Christmas lights in the dorm. The rickety old ladder slipped and Tim and ladder went through the living room window. His left hand was sliced very badly. I drove him to the clinic and he received 15 stitches. He should have had at least 40, but the attending nurse disagreed with me.... here we are a week later and his index finger looks not too bad but his middle finger still looks pretty bad. The worst thing was that after they stitched him up they wrapped up his finger with cotton guaze without any ointment, so the next day when he went to get his dressing changed the clotted blood got all ripped open again!!! This time we brought our own ointment and non-stick bandages curtesy of Dr Ace Cheung. That helped a little, Ace is thinking that he should regain use of his fingers, but no hand modeling in his future!!! Right now Tim is in Burkina Faso where he drove some of our dorm kids. Otherwise I would take a picture for you. When we were in the clinic the first time Tim actually asked if I had brought the camera!! Like I was thinking about that when my adrenaline was pumping!! good night! Thank you for your prayers, it looks like he will have frankenstein hands, but that at least he will be able to use them. He is doing pretty good with his right hand now (for those who don't know, Tim is left handed... figures, eh?)

The Terrible Twos!!

2008-11-29T17:07:00.004+01:00

Yes, we have officially entered the Terrible Twos. I remember when my sister's boys were two and I thought, how can they get in to so much trouble?? We had a very mild daughter and now a sweet boy who has turned two and, is it possible?? Yes, he has changed into a hooligan over night!!
His birthday was November 16, we have been teaching him to say "I'm two". and it is all very sweet and lovable, but this is the same boy who threw a glass mug off the coffee table just to see what would happen (it broke into a thousand smithereens... is that really a word? smithereens, that is). He also opened the refrigerator took out a banana and the whole pitcher of orange juice and proceeded to pour it on himself and all over the floor. He put a chair up to the counter and put a stool on top of the chair and tried to climb up the shaky contraption! He jumped on the high jump mattresses that the P.E. dept had out and landed on the soccer goal (and gave himself a black eye--good thing he is a quick healer). He climbed up on the ping pong table and started throwing glass Christmas balls on the tile floor (well, in his defense, they were "balls") and he took baby Jesus out of the manger scene and tried to eat him! (just one little bite)... but he is a happy little guy, most of the time and he loves to give hugs and kisses... his little playmate, Arielle now calls all white boys "Jayson".... yes, he is famous! and TWO!

Hoola, or is it Hula?

2008-11-29T16:47:00.005+01:00

We have discovered that our daughter is very tenacious. If there is something she wants to do she will keep at it until it is mastered. I thought that it only applied to whining and nagging until she gets her own way, but it also applies to the Hoola-hoop! Yes, our four year old has mastered the art of hula-hooping!! So I had to get her on video for your enjoyment! Hope this will load up! Sorry, we can't get it loaded up. Tim tried to shrink the pixels of the movie, but because we haven't bought all these fancy programs, we can't save the smaller video. Quick Time allows to do everything except save stuff just so we will have to buy from them. Now what kind of free trial is that? I feel another blog being born right now:)

Gooaaaaaaaal!

2008-11-24T20:17:00.003+01:00

Ok, first off, so sorry for not updating for an entire month. Shame on us. I guess track and field day really dominated our time. More on that when I get some pictures. I do not have, unfortunately, pictures of this blog. My camera died just as I turned it on. bummer:( Anyway, last Saturday, I got to experience a soccer match like no other I have ever witnessed before. After teaching at KCS for so many years and watching game after game of soccer, I never really got the big deal of how popular of a sport it was to people, until now. Niger was playing Cote D'Ivoire, yes, an arch rival. In part due to the fact that Niger rarely wins and the Ivory Coast almost always wins.

We had been going to the Stadium for the last couple of weeks and had noticed that while we were all running around practicing for our track and field day, there was the national jr. soccer team also practicing. While we rarely mingled, I found out through the ones who could speak french that there was a game Saturday. However, noone could tell me what time and who. Finally, as we were walking out the door after our field day, I asked a man who was sitting near the door what time the game started. He told me, "Seize heure", like duh, man, what planet are you on, everybody knows when the biggest game of the year is to take place! I then asked him how much it would cost thinking it would be like 3-5, 000 francs, but he said with a big smile, "Mais, c'est gratuit. It was FREE! FREE! No way, this could not be. That would never happen in the states. To open the biggest stadium in Niamey(the only stadium) and have all those people come in, it would be a huge money maker...in the states. But, that is where things are different...they would rather have thousands of screaming, singing, clapping, and foot stomping fans than make the several thousand dollars they could have made. But, there was a catch. I thought, oh, oh, here it comes. The man said that we had to cheer for Niger, if we cheered for the Ivory Coast, it would cost us 5,000francs. I laughed and promised that I would cheer for them even though some of my kids who come from the Ivory Coast would not promise such loyalty.

Normally, the dorm likes to go the American Recreation center to play softball, swim and eat yummy food, but today, many of the kids were hesitating. I asked them if they would rather go see THE game instead. So, I ended up taking some kids to the rec because softball was just too strong of a force for them, but a few more stayed in the van to go see THE game. Kind of ironic, too, that we had THE GAME here just like in Columbus, Ohio, where another GAME was taking place. I digress.

We pulled into the parking lot with no trouble at all since we were a bit early. We walked into the stadium like any other and found some seats and immediately noticed two things. First, an entire section of the stands taken up by the military of Niger who were just having a great time in entertaining the crowd. They were all singing, dancing, moving, clapping all in unison and it was incredible to watch and listen to. The second thing I noticed was that as the sun was starting its descent behind the stadium, the shadows created shade, of course. The line of people in the seats perfectly followed the line of the shade. Incredible. Of course, us crazy white people? In the sun! Fortunately, that didn't last too long.

At four o'clock when I was told the game would begin, I was ready. Come on ref, lets get this game started, I thought. But, again, unlike the states, the four o'clock time was just posted to get everyone there by 4:30, the actual starting time. But, it was quite comical to watch the two teams warm up, sometimes all together, and sometimes not. The most comical time was watching the officials warm up. I could tell who the field judge was and who was going to be on the sidelines, just by the way they warmed up. They were almost in perfect unison, did the same thing back and forth across the field for most of the time between 4 and 4:30.

The pre game band as they were, was nothing like the marching 100. Those of you who are Buckeyes fans will know who that is. The notes I did hear didn't sound too bad, but I heard like one note before everyone in the stands began to scream wildly as, I can only assume, that their national anthem was being played.

Finally, 4:30 comes and I am getting a bit anxious because I thought that the game would be almost through the first half by now. I told the kids at the rec that I would come get them at 6 so I could watch the start of the other GAME on Armed Forces Network. THE GAME begins....it is soccer, I sit back and relax because it is soccer. I have never really enjoyed soccer because of all the scoring, or lack thereof, and the first half proved my point. These guys ran and ran and ran, working so hard to score, but didn't. What a waste, right? yeah, I know, they were just breaking them down for the second half of one score after another. But, we did get to see a bunch of guys carried off the field on stretchers, because the "EmT" squad had to do its job. After they carried them off, then the trainers worked on the players to get them back into the game. Of course, you still had your "flops" trying to draw fouls, as well. There was a lot of play at the opposite end of the field from where we were, but that was ok to see all those plays open up shots on goal that were either not taken quickly enough, or they missed. Niger most definately had the advantage in attempts on goal in the first half. I felt like the superior team was kind of dominated.

The second half rolls around and the crowd is getting a bit restless for a score. We have had several good chances and just could not capitalize. As this seeminglingly endless, scoreless game continued, the only entertainment became who had the biggest fight in the stands due to the people up top throwing things to the people down below, like water bags, bottles, etc.
So, about half way through the second half, it happened. Something worth seeing on the field. A player received a red card and was ejected from the game! Yes, a player from the Ivory Coast said something to the official as the official was going over to check on an injured player from Niger. The official whipped around as if someone had just slapped his face, threw up the red card and then his hand to signal the ejection. That was all right. I felt as if Lou Pinella himself was there! What excitement! As the fans were throwing things at this player as he tried to exit, my attention was not on the game. Oh, for instant replay because in the one moment I looked away from trying to will a goal, it REALLY happened. The team from Niger scored a gooaaaaaalll! I looked up just in time to see the ball leave the players' foot and go into the net.

What happened next was truly sensational. I thought that the people up top had no more water to throw down, but it looked as if a fire department had begun to spray the crowd down from outside the stadium. There were so many water bags and bottles tossed into the air and broken, that the spray from them all created this mist all over the crowd, who, by the way, was going crazy. The celebration from this one score lasted almost to the very end of the game. In fact, just as the crowd caught its collective breath, the game ended, thus sending the crowd into another frenzy. It was an incredible win for Niger! The amazing thing was through all this is that before the game ended, the ball boys began to pick up the water bottles and things from the track and give them back to the people in the stands so they could do it all again! I thought, " what are you doing? Are you crazy?"

Now, to conclude this rather long story of this milestone, leaving the stadium was another whole adventure. If you cannot read any longer, please come back to read about the leaving experience! I will post another story tomorrow with the exciting conclusion on my complete soccer experience! I am not sure that there is anything quite like it anywhere else!

P.S. By the way, I did make it back to the rec center for the second half of the other GAME where there was plenty of scoring...at least by the Buckeyes! Go Bucks!

First Day of School

2008-11-04T08:48:00.005+01:00

November 3rd was Mikaylah's first day of school. She was pretty excited. she picked out her dress (the uniforms are not finished yet) and packed her backpack the night before. Ethan, a little boy from her Sunday School class is also starting with Mikaylah, here is a photo of them, it was bright so difficult for Mikaylah to look up!

Well the disappointing thing was that even though all the kids were there and all the teachers were there, they could not legally open school because they were lacking one more paper... so the kids played on the playground for an hour and the other parents and teachers and we prayed for a while, then we went back home. Please pray with us that the authorities will sign the last paper. They are stalling because the pre-school is a Christian pre-school, started by a group of Christian educators. They want the name "evangelique" in their name, so pray that hearts will change and the last paper will be signed. Mikaylah thinks school is easy!! I thought she would be disappointed, but she is just taking it all in stride. We are hoping that school will be able to open in January. At least the uniforms should be done by then!

To Glory

2008-10-22T11:24:00.010+01:00

As far as family news goes…I was saddened, yet I rejoice to hear that my grandmother, Lila Muck, after almost 97 years of life passed on to glory to be with her Savior. While we celebrate her new life with no physical ailments, we will miss her here on this earth.
It was difficult to be away from family in the (as Mikaylah calls them, "Ohio States") during this time of remembering my grandmother. However my brother sent us a video of her memorial. Thanksgiving will not be the same this year without Grammy. But life here on earth was getting to be a big burden for her so we rejoice that she can enjoy heaven with our saviour.
Aside from that, things have pretty much fallen into a routine. We wake up with the kids, see them off to school, make snacks and bread and supper in the afternoon, dinner, devotions, and see them off to bed. However, in what seems to be a rather mundane day, is just the opposite! This schedule provides us all kinds of opportunities to talk with these kids, which is why we are here.
September was Ramadan, a month of fasting for the Muslims and two of our three African workers. We praise God that one of our workers, Jean, is a born again believer! But, during the month of Ramadan, we were able to strike up several conversations with Ladi and Mariame about why they fast from sunup to sundown.

Our kids continue to amaze us. I have to get on our blog more often because our kids just say the funniest things. Jayson is really starting to talk now. He knows 2 colors…lellow and puple(yellow and purple). John Kwak, one of the boys in the dorm picked some purple flowers and taught Jayson how to say purple and flower. Now, when we ask him to say flower, he says, “purple”. ☺
Mikaylah is getting very excited about starting preschool next month. It was supposed to be starting this month, but due to some complications, they will begin November 3. This is a preschool that has been started by Cornerstone, a group of mostly Nigerien teachers who are passionate about Christian education in Niger. It will be all French (and some Djerma) for her, so please be in prayer for her. I think she will enjoy very much once she gets into it. She has been learning some French from our workers as well. She has become very accustomed to communicating with the people here on campus.

I leave you this month with some more prayer requests.
1. Continued opportunities to talk with our workers about Christ.
2. Language…as always. Once we feel comfortable in French, we will start Djerma or Gormachi to talk better with our workers.
3. Mikaylah’s school which starts November 3rd.
4. Some happenings in the dorm that aren’t fun to deal with. Just pray that God supersedes everything that we do and that He will show His face to some of these kids who really need Him now.
We praise God for each of you and your faithful giving…especially during this whole economic “panic” in the States. Through all of that, I don’t think we have lost one supporter…praise God☺ Please continue to pray for our finances as we try to make ends meet being under supported as we head into 2009. The Canadian dollar has dropped against the US dollar and that takes more support away since about 30% of our support comes from Canada.
If you are considering giving to this ministry of raising up MK’s, you can do so online at www.ebm.org and go to the giving section. From there, just follow directions.
We thank God for each of you, for your prayers and support. Have a wonderful week☺

Tim, Janice, Mikaylah and Jayson
For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Address in Niamey: Sahel Academy, BP 10065 Niamey, Niger or Mission Evangelique Baptiste, BP 11324, Niamey, Niger

Aigoba

2008-10-17T08:38:00.003+01:00

Jayson will be two years old in one month!! Hard to believe in some ways that two years have almost already gone by. We have been a little concerned for his lack of speech. He just learned how to say Papa a few weeks ago and has no sentences except "I go" and "me too" while copying his big sister!! Yesterday we were having lunch with Chris and Diane Marine and Jayson used his default word for what we thought was his attempt to say popsicle.... Aigoba. He usually tries to open the refridgerater and stands there saying "Aigoba, Aigoba" If Mariame, his babysitter is nearby she will give him a popsicle or a piece of cheese or a cookie... Yesterday Chris told us that "Aigoba" is the Dzerma word for "I want it" or "I like it". Poor kid, no wonder he is a late talker, he isn't just processing English, we knew he was surrounded by French because he was only six weeks old when we arrived in Quebec, but we had no idea he was also processing Dzerma, a language Tim and I do NOT know!!

WE WIN!!! WE WIN!!

2008-10-13T17:42:00.005+01:00

So sorry we haven't been on the blog lately....like over a month. Things here in Niamey during September and October go a bit NUTS. That stands for Niamey Universal Tournament of Softball. Yes, for a month and a half, that means that we eat, drink, and sleep with softball. Now, those of you who know me must be thinking that this was a great thing for me. However, there is a lot of work put into all of this from practicing three or more times a week, playing scrimmage games, getting the field ready, organizing teams, etc. We actually had three teams from Sahel Academy this year. I am told that is a record. I was also told that since I am the dorm dad, I had to play and coach and organize, and drive, and ump, etc.(Yes,Peter, that was a run-on sentence!) While I had absolutely no idea of what I was getting myself into, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Two of our teams played in the social division, and my team, in the competitive. On Friday, the 10th of October, we began with a couple of games, but Saturday and Sunday are the big days. While we only had to play 3 games on Saturday, our youngest team had to play 4 games. Now, some of you players out there may be saying, big deal, I have played 7 games in one day before. Don't forget, this was all during the temperatures of right around 100 degrees. I never looked at the temp that day because I didn't want to be depressed.

Anyway, on to the real news...my team, comprised of mostly high school boys, one teacher, the director of the school, and myself. These boys really put it all together when they had to. I saw all of them really grow up as ball players. Their skills improved dramatically during the tournament. There were only 3 other teams there for us to compete against, but all of them were made up of men and women from around Niamey and Ouagadougou. There were some fantastic hitters from the embassy here and from Ouaga. We only had to play 5 total games to win the whole thing. Only once did I ever think we would not win. I told these guys 6 weeks ago that I thought we had all the makings of a champion. They sure made me look good!

We opened the tournament with a fairly easy win on Saturday morning. While that was fun, we really started getting into the drama of a tourny like this one. Our second game, against the Angels from Ouaga, had our guys looking like deer caught in headlights the first two innings. They scored 6 unanswered runs against us. But, as we took the field, we just simply said, one at a time and let's go have some fun with this. We chipped away and won 12-7 at the end. The following game was against the team that we knew best. Two of the boys dads played on this team from the embassy here. They had some Marines on their team with a ton of speed. Well, our worst fears were realized when they beat us 9-4. We had beaten this team before, but our bats just weren't swinging. So, we were #2 behind that team heading into the semi's. As it turns out, we had to play those Angels again. But this time, the boys had some confidence. However, we still fell behind and heading into the last inning, we were down by 5 runs. Sounds impossible, yes, but all I said was that nobody makes an out, we bat all the way around and win this thing. Several hits later, with no outs our boy Phil hit a triple with the bases loaded and the 6th and winning run crossed the plate and we were headed to the final games against the USA embassy team...again. What drama, after that game, you would have thought we were the Cubs who just won the World Series(or one playoff game:)) We had one hour to wait before the final game and our boys were flying high!

Needless to say, the embassy team stood no chance against our guys. Everyone hit this last game and just kept hitting, It was great fun. They only reason why they scored was because of an error and a questionable call, but that still didn't discourage us, we just went out and had a 2 out- three run rally.

We were behind in every game except for the last one. I guess we were a bit of the cardiac kids, and little too much for my old heart, but I am still alive today.

One thing our boys really wanted to do was to allow Jesus to be seen in our play and I think they accomplished just that. They were always encouraging to one another, the other teams and the umps. Way to go Sahel Suns! I thought as the last fly ball was going through the air, I began my celebratory run in from the outfield (before Ryan even caught it) thinking....for all you Reds fans....And this one belongs to the Suns!

2008-08-31T16:48:00.007+01:00

Well, school is off and running. We have been at it for three weeks now. Lots has happened since then besides all these kids eating everything in sight! We have had lots of rain as you can see from some of the kids coming in from a mud fight during one such storm. We have had one case of Malaria the first week of school. Jayson and Mikaylah, of course, love having all their older brothers and sisters around. There is lots of wrestle time on the carpet!
Of course, since Jayson is the youngest in the dorm, he is often the one who is "dressed up". In this picture you see him posing as superman. So, he is trying to make it through the superfriends! And as you can see, Superman has changed a little bit with some of the girls hair things, His pappa is so proud.

We were able to enjoy the newly remodeled kitchen with some of our parents the first night they were all here to drop off their children. It was nice to chat with them all and get to know them as well as their children. It isn't often we get to sit down and just chat with the parents since they generally live several countries away!

The one picture is something that we had envisioned before we even started to build it. We wanted a counter to where the kids could kind of gather together around food, of course, and just talk with each other and get to know one another. That is happening all the time. In fact, so well, we are having some difficulty getting them all to bed at times:-)

We do praise God for each of these kids as all of them have their own very unique personality. They all do things so differently and yet alike. So far, so good...Thank you all for the prayers for us and for the kids in our dorm. We certainly do appreciate them so much.

Spiderman!

2008-08-10T13:37:00.002+01:00

I walked into our apartment the other day, and this is what I found! Our son had to find some form of entertainment while mom and dad kept working...and this is what he was doing. When I walked in, he had this really guilty look and then he started to laugh. He was so proud of himself! Jayson did make it to the top of the window before he got frustrated that he couldn't get any higher. bummer. Good for mom and dad though.

Could it be?....kitchen renovations #7

2008-08-06T07:22:00.007+01:00

Could it be that you are seeing some of the final pics of this whole project? Why yes it is!!!! Here are some of the final pics. You see us trying to hang these doors and they really turned out nicely. While the painters were staining, Chris would work on some electrical or other things while the doors and cabinets dried.

Pictures cannot do it justice as to what the whole room looks like, but believe me when I say, it is 1000 times better!!!:) I know Janice is really excited to work in this new, more spacious, and hopefully cooler kitchen. It has been a long, and tiring summer. I was telling Chris that I hope not ALL our breaks are like this:) But, God has been very good to us to even have the resources to be able to do this. We are so thankful for that. We do still need to put knobs on the doors and things like that, so maybe after the kids are here, I will give you a complete final project and some before and after shots. Thank you for all of you who have kept up with us during this project. I know many of you have been praying that we would get it done before Monday. Now, we have to get all the things moved into this kitchen.
Next time on our blog? Spiderman!