Ronurie

On Sunday we went to a village we have been working in called Ronurie.  There is a fledgling church there.  In the timne language, the word 'to baptize' means 'to drown.'  As such, it was somewhat funny in translating

"who wants to be drowned(baptized)?"
"I drown(baptize) you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost"

We were able to baptize 41 people in this community! It was awesome to be a part of!  It seemed like one of the most joyous baptisms I've ever been to because the whole community would start laughing as they came up out of the water, partly due to their reactions.  Most people in Africa bathe in rivers, bringing the water up to them to rinse of soap instead of being submerged.  So at each baptism, there was often a look of panic and thankfulness that they did in fact come back up out of the water! Everybody watching thought it was hilarious.

Our Jesse Tree

John and I have always disagreed on how to celebrate Christmas.  Jokingly I call him a Scrooge but he truly just wants to celebrate Christmas in a way that honors Christ.  If that means zero presents given and received from/to us... then thats what he would be prefer.

Me... well my love language is giving/receiving gifts so Christmas has always been a time to love and be loved by friends and family.  However, I do agree with John that the focus often shifts to gifts/materialism and away from Christ.  Coming up on 4 years of marriage in January, we have wrestled with each other over how to keep the focus on Jesus.

Now that we have Aden, we are trying to put our plans into action as we start our own traditions.  We want him to be able to see the difference in the way we celebrate Christmas as Christians as opposed to how the rest of America celebrates it. 

We decided to make a Jesse Tree in place of a traditional Christmas tree.  If you don't know what a Jesse Tree is, it is based off the verse Isaiah 11:1:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Basically you can dress up a regular tree with ornaments that represent each day of Advent where you read from the word all of the genealogy of Jesus as well as other important events of the bible.  It goes from Creation to Abraham to Moses to Daniel to Mary and everything in between. Since there are no Blue Spruces or firs or pine trees here, our Jesse tree is made out of paper that I colored and cut out. 

Each day has a corresponding verse to read.  I can't wait to do this with my children when they are older and can participate.  Instead John and I have been doing it together, although we haven't been perfect about reading it each day (I know I know... I'm slapping my own wrist!)

And like all Advents it ends on the day of Jesus' birth!

What do you guys think of the Jesse tree? Do you do one or would you ever? I am hoping that if we ever move back to the states that this would replace our 'Christmas tree' and that we would just have ornaments that represent the days of Advent with maybe a string of lights.

Blanket Time

John and I are planning to follow Growing Kids God's Way... a parenting style per se.  The secular version is Babywise.  I bought the Babywise II version because its cheaper and I can get it on my kindle. 

Anyhoo, Babywise II is for ages 6-12 months.  One of the biggest things I liked about this book was the idea of "blanket time" or "playpen time."  The idea behind blanket time is that you can start putting your child (once they are 4 months old) on a blanket by themselves for some independent play.  It fosters independence from mom and dad and gives them some focus time for creativity and learning.  This becomes more important as they get older.  Basically, I put Aden on a blanket (starting for 5-10 minutes) with a toy or two and then leave his line of sight.  I also put a timer on for however long its going to be and then let him at it. 

Aden has done really well with this so far, partly because we've unintentionally given him some independent play time under a mobile since he was quite young.  The reason for the timer is so that they know when the timer goes off, play time is over.

As Aden gets older and can crawl, we also add playpen time where the concept is the same but there are the confines of the playpen.  What is interesting to me is that you still have blanket time when they move, you just teach/train them to stay on the blanket and play within its confines.  I'm not exactly sure how one teaches a crawler to stay in a 4x4 foot area but I'll let you know if I figure it out.  I did watch this youtube video of some 13 month old twin girls having separate blanket time and staying put so it can be done!

Here is Aden during some blanket time right before I swoop him up!

I don't know if you can see it, but there is line of drool coming out of Aden's mouth.  I don't know why but drool seems to be a lot cuter in pictures to me.  And obviously drool is only 'cute' on your own kids.  Its every other kid who is a slobbery mess.

Outfit from Vicki... Thanks Vicki!

Blessing in Disguise

So I had told you all about our dirty water problem... well there is more and it all unfolded 2 days ago.

But first let me tell you about our water filter.  As I had been putting this dirty, mucky water in our filter it was taking forever to drain and I could see the filters covered in the muddy red dirt.  I knew we would have to clean it out soon so it would start to drain a little faster.  I also had noticed the filtered and 'clean' water was starting to not look so clear as it once had.  I told John that the water was starting to look dirty but I think he misunderstood what I was saying.  I thought maybe he just thought it was harmless.   So we continued to drink the water until about 2 days ago...

I approached John again saying "I really think we should clean out this filter, the water in the bottom just doesn't look that clean to me" I must have said it differently this time because he said "oh no! There must be a leak!" So we start cleaning out the top of the filter and it is just filled with dirt.  Our Berkey can hold 4 different of these ceramic filters but we only were using 3 and we plugged up the other hole. 
On closer examination, we saw that two out of the 4 ceramic filters were broken!!!! We had been drinking contaminated water this entire time!

John and I were shocked! We each did get sick once (what we always attribute to food poisoning... we get a fever, lack of appetite, sometimes vomiting and almost always diarrhea).  But for drinking the 'city' water GUMA for almost 2.5 months with no filter that is pretty good! I can tell people have been praying for our health because we have had friends who have drank the GUMA water once and got sick just from that one time.

So we tossed the two filters away and got out another filter but it was broken too! We had let a friend borrow it while we were away and it must have broken on her bumpy journey up country.  Needless to say, she felt AWFUL that they were broken.. and we will FOREVER give her a hard time for it, but it really was no big deal.

One of my first prayer requests that I tell people when they ask is for health for John, myself, and especially Aden.  I give all the praise to God for answering these prayers because it is quite miraculous in my opinion how healthy we've been despite drinking contaminated water.  Also, we live in a compound with 3 tanks and for some reason... the ONLY tank that got the dirt in it was the tank that feeds our house.  The other tanks didn't get this soot in their water.  If not for this soot, we would not have ever checked our filters to find out that they were broken.

We are now using a Katadyn filter that we luckily found on the streets here (a very rare find indeed!) and we have 4 Aqua Rain filters on the way with the next mission team that is coming! 

Peek-a-Boo

We may or may not have had our video camera stolen out of one of our windows with a stick while we were gone Sunday :(   We left one of the windows open and the mosquito screens unlocked thinking nothing of it and trusting the Sunday daytime guard/groundskeeper.  Its not too big of a deal... just disappointing we are in this predicament and having to confront the individual.  I am going to tear apart the house tomorrow/clean just to make sure we didn't misplace it by accident.  I am hoping for the latter.

We first noticed it missing when looking for a camera to record this most fun peek-a-boo session... We were able to use our computer's webcam in a pinch!

Without further ado...

Why We Drink Filtered Water

Left: Our Filtered Water

Right: Water out of our Sink

I wish I would have done this earlier in the day because it was worse... by midday most of the dirt had settled in the tank so it looks a lot better.  I think this next picture does it better justice though.

Hey Blue Eyes

This Would Be Funnier If It Happened to Someone Else...

Someone from the UK recently bought us a pound of coffee.  I had been off of caffeinated drinks since I found out I was pregnant.  The later half of my pregnancy I had a decaf coffee 1-2 times a week.  Since returning to Sierra Leone... John got me hooked back on the stuff. 

Because coffee is hard to come by here, John and I eek out every last ground of it.  We grind it fresh from beans using Chad's grinder and put the rest in a little ziploc baggie to use for the next 2 days.  This story is about a baggie experience going horribly horribly wrong.

So rewind to a couple of days ago... I had just ground a small batch of that new UK coffee and was looking for that baggie that we re-use.  I see it in the spice rack with a few grounds from the old batch.  I think to myself "oh I guess I didn't finish up the last batch."  Today I go to scoop out some coffee for the french press and I notice I get some of the old grounds in there.  I think to myself "ooo, I wonder what this flavor combination will taste like.  It could be from the lb. of Starbucks Verona that we brought in with us on the plane!"

I sit down to do my bible study with my coffee in hand and think... "wow... this has a very distinct cumin-like flavor.  How odd!" Supposedly this stuff from the UK was supposed to have chocolate undertones.  I continue to drink it and now I detect some real spice.  "Wow... its even spicy!" But... I continue to drink it as my mind wonders what is going on with the coffee... "I have been having a lot of cumin lately... am I just going crazy and think everything tastes like cumin now?" "I don't remember the coffee yesterday tasting like cumin and being spicy" "Is it salty too?"

And then it hits me.  I had put the freshly ground coffee in a baggie that had TACO SEASONING in it!  The chili powder had made it nearly the same color as coffee and that early in the morning... I'm sure things were a bit fuzzy.  At this point, the great debate runs through my mind as whether to continue drinking this Mexican Coffee (not as good as it sounds!) It KILLS me to waste this precious commodity.  But then .5 seconds later I was dumping out the french press and grinding some new coffee. 

Now I sit here with some new delicious coffee (with the promised chocolate undertones) thinking I have to share this story... although it would be a lot funnier to me if it had happened to someone else!

Rolal

John and I spent last Sunday in one of the villages that John dug a well in last April. 

Our friend (also named) John led a church service this day.  In the picture, John is signing the village's guestbook.  I've rarely seen this practice done except in Africa.  If you go almost anywhere, even more so in Tanzania than in Sierra Leone, you will be asked to give your name, phone number, and address and what dates you were visiting said place.  Its hilarious!

Somebody conked out after an eventful church service!

These little sweeties were eating the rest of our lunch that we didn't finish.  We had granat (peanut butter) soup with these cut up fish in it.  They cut up some fish (maybe a small trout size) and leave the bones in them.  John always was telling me about how he hates it when these fish are in the local food.  This Sunday was the first time I had it and I didn't mind at all.  I took out the main vertebrae but ate the smaller bones because they were quite soft.  I also ate a fish head! I heard they are good for you and if you know me at all... I will try almost anything in the name of good nutrition! lol!

A beautiful day!

Surprisingly Thankful

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1Th 5:16-18

I know I am a little late on this whole Thanksgiving business, but I hope this holiday season as well as my day to day life is marked by recognizing that I have been given so much to be thankful for.  A bible study I was doing recently took a look at 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  Particularly the part that says give thanks in ALL circumstances.

God's will is that we are to be thankful even in circumstances that seem inconvenient, frustrating, or unfair. 

Here are a list of my 'seemingly unpleasant' things that I am thankful for here in Sierra Leone:

No Electricity- We have weeks at a time when there is no electricity and weeks when we get electricity 5 days a week.  When we lack electricity, it helps me to identify with most of the third world, especially when it is really hot outside and we can't run fans... I know how they feel.  I also spend more time reading because I spend less time on the computer and the internet.  And finally, it makes me really appreciate electricity when it comes, something I take for granted in the US.

Cool/Cold Showers-  I am thankful for these because it helps me to cool down after a hot day or after I workout.  I waste less water because you only want cold water coming down at you in a trickle rather than gushing out.

Food Poisoning- I can identify with illness and suffering in others more now.  I get to relax and take it easy on the couch and watch movies.  My jeans fit a little better afterwards.

Slow Internet- teaches me patience.

Conviction of Sin- I am so thankful for the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  It always hurts deep when I am first convicted and I often run away from dealing with my response to it, but it eventually leads me to repentance and a closer, more intimate relationship with the Father.

Washing Aden's Diapers by Hand- Makes me feel like Laura Ingalls-Wilder (loved loved her books growing up).  Gives me some ammo to say to guilt trip Aden when he grows up and forgets to call "I labored for these many hours AND I washed all your poopy diapers by hand" (Haha, I'm totally kidding... I vow not to resort to manipulation with my little or grown children to the best of my ability)

Spending Frugally- John and I have spent a lot of our nest egg that we had saved up to move to Sierra Leone with the moving, the baby, and this past container.  We have decided to try and be really frugal with our spending to save up for another trip back and for future kids (which may coincide with each other) We aren't going out to eat as much or at certain places because we can't afford it.  Each purchase we make we think "do we really need this?" etc.  While spending frugally isn't quite as fun as having all the money in the world, it makes me appreciate the occasional treat more.  I put my focus instead on the blessing of people in my life and not material possessions.  We are not poor by any means compared to the people we are serving, but we are not living the life of luxury either.  I am thankful that Aden will get to see this way of life and not be spoiled by much of the materialism that defines America.  I am thankful we are 'livin on love'  Thank you Alan Jackson.

And now to my list that I am thankful for because they are obviously wonderful things in my life (including my long list of foods they have here lol!:)

John- innovator, companion, laughs at my lame jokes, put a fan inside our mosquito net so we can be cooler at night, makes me coffee and breakfast often, reads fantasy books with me (Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, and yes I made him read Twilight with me--- that is love people!), pushes me in my faith where I need to go but don't want to

Aden- laughs and smiles at me, is healthy and chubby, I love love love the biggest smiles when I wake him up in the morning and from some naps.  He has reset my priorities in a good way and giving me a new purpose.

My parents-they skype us almost everyday, send us care packages and do whatever errands we need stateside, are so generous

John's family-John's sister Amy is coming to visit us (partly on assignment from her school) in March and I CANNOT wait!

The Courtney Family-This family is so generous, kind, and open their home and lives to anybody.

Gabe and Sada- The dentist and his wife, who has become a close close friend.  Sada and I have really bonded over the raising of our young boys and is someone I can always call with questions.

Ernest-He works at our compound, is so kind, and washes our laundry by hand every week.

CCOF, CCR, and all of our friends and supporters

electricity- when we have it and I am thankful we will be getting some solar with this container that is coming in a week (hopefully!)

fridge and freezer- The Courtney family gave up their extra fridge that has a tiny freezer in it!  We have electricity every night (we run a generator) so even if we don't have electricity during the day, it stays pretty cold as long as we don't open it all the time.

fans
internet
Skype
WOTH bible study
our weekly women's bible study
ice
cabbage
oatmeal
avocados
tropical fruit
Choitram's ice cream
chocolate 
pumpkins

I could go on and on but this will suffice.  What are you surprisingly thankful for?