Daily Life

Greetings!  

When we last wrote a post, we were doing language studies in Tanzania after a few weeks at a Christian medical conference in Greece.  We have now been home in Congo for 2.5 months and are settling back in well.  

Our lives continue to be filled with many things (like your lives!), most of them wonderful, some pretty hard.  Patrick and I continue to care for the ill at the hospital and teach doctors and nurses daily.  

In this post, I wanted to share some snapshots of day to day life outside of the hospital. Enjoy!

Miriam came up to me a few weeks ago with her doll perched on her head saying proudly, "Look Mom!  I'm African now!"

Our dear friends, the Cadds, the directors of MAF here and surrogate grandparents for our kids, have blessed us so much.  A couple Saturdays ago, Jon asked if he could take Luke out for an adventure to the market.  Jon bought him a goat herding stick that has been worn and smoothed by years of use by the local herding tribe, the Hema.  Luke came back elated and didn't put his stick down all day :).

We try to get away and have some special family time every weekend, often on our Sabbath.  Last week we went down to the muddy gold mining run off river, but enjoyed cooler breezes and the kids had a blast throwing rocks in and wading around.  Simple pleasures!

Denise, Luke and Miriams nanny, continues to be one of the biggest blessings of our lives.  Here, Luke and Miriam hug her while she shows off the necklace that Luke lovingly made for her with an old wire and scrap metal.  It was a 'cold' morning, so she is wearing Luke's sweatshirt! She was getting ready to prepare the pumpkin leaves on the counter to the left- our favorite meal!

Luke and Miriam spend hours with their friends creating villages with magne-tiles, duplex and legos.  Here Luke and Jonas proudly show off their most recent creation.  Jonas has been a good friend of Luke's for the last 3 years.  We're really grateful for many sweet friends.

Every other Sunday afternoon/evening one of the missionaries hosts the rest of us for a time of prayer, Bible study and fellowship.  Kids are running around, so its never contemplative, but its always a sweet time.  We're especially grateful for the chance it gives our kids to worship in English.  They amazingly do great at Congolese services, but they don't understand most of it.

Luke's birthday!  We celebrate with 45 of Luke's friends, 6 of them ex-pats.  At this point in the party, we were at the game: "throw water balloons at Luke and Patrick and they defend themselves with masks and shields.  It was a blast!

Birthday party feast!  Denise and Mama Have made up a delicious meal of meat, rice and beans.  Luke requested goat as his first choice, but couldn't find one, so he had to compromise with cow :).  It was a really warm, joyful time!

Luke reached a really big milestone recently: I taught him how to read, and we both lived through it!!!!  He finished his reading book and is doing great with simple readers.  I never wanted to formerly teach our kids, but I learned a lot and I think we are all stronger for it!