Glimpses of Guinea: April

I had great intentions of updating the blog at least weekly but it looks like it's more like monthly! I also wish that I was a motivational writer but I'm not, that may be why I don't update this often! As I sit here and reflect back on the past month many things have happenend. Rainy season is almost upon us. We've had 2 small rains which is pretty surprising since it's not even May yet. They do bring relief from the intense heat. Over the past month the temps have soared into the hundreds F. The highest our thermometer has read was 110F but others have seen as high as 115F. The humidity is high now to so some days are just rough.

In mid march we had our school break for a week. We went to the capital city for a week. It was the first time we had been back since our arrival last June. It was a nice, enjoyable break. We enjoyed eating out and shopping. We also realized again that we really enjoy living in the more of the village setting but do enjoy our visits to the city. Here it's much easier for the kids, they have room to roam, run and play. We're into our last quarter of school, actually we're down to our last 2.5 weeks of the year. In many ways it's really hard to imagine that we're almost done with the school year. It has had ups and downs but we have seen God's faithfulness all along the way. I think this past month has had a lot of down times. Discouragement among our coworkers, lack of personnel for our school for next year, hard times in pressing on in what God has called us to. I'm sure that you all go through those times as well. We do see God working in the midst of these times. Aidan has had a great year of school, he loves school. He also loves climbing trees and can climb really high! The kids love picking whatever fruit is in season. Elianna is holding her own on climbing trees as well. We've been doing preschool this year and she is really getting ready to read. She doing it more on her own than from what I've taught. Aidan and Eli are both great helpers with Ian. Aidan will get up with Ian in the mornings and help him until he needs a diaper change or he can't contain him anymore. Ian is a really fun active little guy. This past month some of our coworkers took us to a nearby river. It's about a 20 min bike ride away. It's a great place to play and swim and play. A couple weeks ago all the dorm kids stayed at the dorm for the weekend and they planned what they would like to do. It was a packed out weekend with such things as sports, pizza, games, staying up late, shopping, eating out, going to the pool, movie, making bagels, going to the river and swimming and boating (we borrowed a dugout canoe), our bagels, bag and keys getting stolen....It was a great weekend with tons of fun. We were exhausted afterwards. Things keep coming to mind. We also enjoyed a beautiful easter sunrise service at a local river with our coworkers. Pete had the privelage of joining in the baptism of several of our coworkers boys. Right now we're working on drying a bunch of mangoes to enjoy when mangoes aren't fresh anymore.

We've had a great year with the dorm kids. Pray for them as 2 of them are going back to their home countries for home assignment. This can be a big unknown for them. We're really excited and know this will be a time that God will use in their lives.

We're hopeful as we look forward to the summer. It will be a break from having kids in the dorm and our 'main' ministry. We'll be filling in some gaps as other coworkers go on furlough etc. We'll be helping with our mission guest home and some other odds and ends. We also have some plans and ideas that we're really excited to see how God uses them. Aidan, Elianna and Faith are planning to work on French. Pray that God will lead us to the right person to be our teacher for the summer, possibly someone from the local church in town. Pete is planning to plant a field in the village with a friend. We're also developing a plan for planting a field to benefit the village as a project. We also hope to be spending more time in the village developing relationships, during the school year we're more bound by a schedule in regards to being in the village. We also have plans to do some projects in the dorm and renovations. Hopefully soon we'll be able to share how God is working through these ideas we have.

Ok, now I'll attach some pictures of the last month. Most of them are self expanatory.