Sunday, March 11, 2007

A Heart for Africa


Highlights from week 6!

This week has gone fast like all the others! Hamsatou came Monday to teach language to Lornel, and cooking lessons. For our cooking lesson we made rice and sauce, and she shared with us she is engaged to be married, Saturday March 17.
Wednesday we invited Hamma over for dinner. He is part of the Fulfulde translation team. We enjoyed hearing his testimony, and sharing a meal with him. Lornel made her famous chocolate cake for dessert! She made it two layers and in the shape of a heart. Lornel had given a section of one of the layers of cake to Hamsatou earlier that day. Lornel told Hamma the the cake was missing a piece because we are leaving a piece of our heart in Africa. At which time I noticed that the top layer of the heart cake resembled the shape of Africa. Take a look at our web album and see what you think.

Language Bloopers…
Monday night we ran into a man who greeted us, and said hello Madame and Mousier, and we had no clue what he said as his accent was thick, and we didn’t know if we should repeat the phrase as it could be a new Zarma night greeting. Finally, the lights went on in Scott’s head, but not mine, then he had to tell me what he said, then, the lights went on, and the man said in French, it’s good! We laughed as we walked home.

…earlier that day I had another blooper in my language lesson. Hamsatou has been teaching me the names for all the parts of the face, eyes, nose, mouth, head etc. In a sentence pointed to my head and said, Dum wanni Hordema. I said, that doesn’t sound quite right what is the name for head? We discovered I had said, “this is my big spoon” We both laughed really hard!

Praises
  • We had a refreshing safe time in Torodi.
  • We have observed many aspects of translation, ministry, and Niger.
  • God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think!
  • For YOU! We cannot say it enough! We are so thankful for your prayers and encouragement!
  • The dictionary is progressing well at 3500 of 6000 complete.
  • Scott's finger is doing better. This week he alternated using the mouse with his left hand and right hand.

Prayer requests
  • Pray for safety as we will be taking a ministry exposure trip to Marodi on April 3rd – April 7th. We will share more on this in the weeks to come.
  • The Dictionary project ½ way done! Pray God will help Scott as he works on this task!
  • For Hamsatou as she Marries Boubakar, a Muslim man who proposed to her about a year ago.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Breaking in a new pair of sandals


Hello from warm and sunny Niger! We have been so encouraged in our time here! I am titling this weeks blog entry as breaking in a new pair of sandals. Just before we left Chicago, we went to an REI garage sale and found some cheap sandals for me (Lornel) to wear in Niger. We found some that were super cheap, but they were a bit small. We thought they would work, and 5 weeks into our trip, the sandals are starting to feel comfortable! I really like Africa! It is such a needy place, and we have not scratched the surface of the needs, but we are making friends. Language has been an important relationship building tool. No matter what mission field God calls us to full time, we likely will have to learn 2 languages, so this is really good practice!

Trip to Torodi
This morning we are taking a long weekend trip to a town about an hour away from Niamey. It likely won't be an hour drive, as we are getting ready to board a "bush taxi" within an hour.

We are visiting a missionary family that works in literacy among the Fulani.


  1. Praising God for his steadfast love and faithfulness in our lives.
  2. Praising God for you! When I miss home and friends, I look at the refrigerator, and read the names of people who are praying for us! Many of you said, that our picture is posted on your refrigerator, so I thought it would be appropriate to put you on ours! You encourage us, and we cannot state that enough!
  3. Praising God for his good plan He has, and that He will show us all the unknowns!
  4. We are still very healthy
Please pray for safety as we travel today Thursday- Sunday
Scott's Dictionary project progressing, he is having alittle pain in his finger due to use of it on the project.


We love you all!