Rehash Wednesday

It is still Wednesday isn't it?

Let's have a long one to make up for my lack of posting this week:

                          THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2004

Round the Mountain we must go, OR, Under the Mango Tree

I think I was suppose to write about the trip up from Lome in this post, but then I went to church up North, and I’ve decided I’d rather tell you all about that. Besides, The trip up from Lome was mostly stories about the mountain pass that we travelled, and we had more mountains to travel over to get to church last Sunday.

Grab something to drink and settle in, this will be a long post!

Marv’s mom passed away last Saturday night. He was able to be there with his family, so that’s really good; He should be coming back to Togo next weekend (the 23rd?). I know the whole family will be glad to have him back; it’s been rough on all of them.
Edith came and told me on Sunday morning that she and the kids wouldn’t be going to church that morning (they were pretty upset from the news), so our previous plans for church on the mountain were going to be put on hold. Dave, the missionary that took Lisa and I out to the village last week, is quite involved in a church at the top of the mountain, and we were going to hike up as a group. Rather than go up on my own with Dave, I went to church with the Crocker family. The Crocker’s are Southern Baptist missionaries who are involved with some pretty serious church planting initiatives. God has really opened up some amazing doors for John and Susana and their 4 kids. SOOOO…. North we went, wow. Really, I can’t even begin to describe what this place looks like, the mountains… the villages, the people… life happening everywhere. I just hope that my pictures will do it some justice.

We drove for about an hour until we reached a point where we had to cross the mountains, (out of the bowl!) The cliffs on either side of us… we had to pull over once because a truck had passed so close and so fast it had knocked the chairs (tied to the roof rack) off balance. … Then came the part where we started to come DOWN the mountain.

Oh, better let you know about the traffic signals… turn your right blinker on if it’s not safe to pass, turn your left one on if it is… and if there’s clumps of dirt or branches on the road spaced evenly and slowly pushing you into the oncoming traffic, it means either there’s a broken truck around that blind corner/rise in front of you… or a wreck, and usually you can tell from the colour of the smoke. Wrecks happen CONSTANTLY; people overload their already dilapidated trucks WELL beyond the point of safe, seriously, I’m talking transport trucks loaded, then a second full load tied to the top… and not tied well. Anytime we take the main road out of town there’s a truck on it’s side, it’s load spilled and a crowd gathering trying to salvage the load. And that’s on the flat part of the road! On the mountain passes there’ll be part of a truck at the side of the road… the other part has fallen over the edge. Parts of the pass ride along the side of a rock face, this is BLACK from smoke, trucks and other unlucky vehicles that have crashed into it. And this is the two-lane section!!!!!!

Ok, down the mountain we must go, but first there’s this sign. Roughly translated it says “stop, look before you descend, 10% grade, drive slowly, sharp turn” THEN it had a picture of a truck out of control going down a hill, with the 10% under the truck and at the bottom of the hill a skull and crossbones! AS IF!

Along the road all the way down were chunks of trucks, too big to tow away, or too damaged to be of any use. We passed a slight turn in the road to the left (the road was pretty narrow at this point, edge of the cliff to the left, rock face to the right) and there were scars in the rock from cars and trucks bouncing off the rock and going around the corner. I thought, “well, that’s not too bad; the sign made it out to be way worse” THEN the road got really steep, and took a sharp turn again to the left. I remember looking at the rock-face, and the ground directly below it and thinking “whoa, there’s been a lot of accidents here… Thank you Jesus we made it down safely”. The corner was LITTERED with glass and scrap metal. We made it to the bottom of the mountain and drove out to the village for church. Susana said that there are accidents there all the time because so few people are able to maintain their vehicles and everyone is so overloaded.

On our way back from church we noticed a dark column of smoke near the mountain. As we got closer we saw that there were lines of trucks parked to the side of the road, and then saw where the smoke was coming from. We started off on a different route home. The road was closed for 7 hours to truck traffic; it was opened after 4 hours for small cars. Two ladies that were visiting the centre said they were some of the first through the pass, a tanker truck containing fuel had hit the corner at full speed, it’s brakes had failed, several people were killed with the explosion, they couldn’t be pulled from the fire. They said that when they were allowed to pass, the truck was still on fire, and they had to drive quickly because the pavement was so hot they were afraid the tires might melt.

The Togo Fire Department is only about 25 minutes from that spot, it’s built near the 2nd international airport.. not the one I came in at. No fire trucks came to the crash because there’s no money to buy any. I guess the fire chief sits in his new building during office hours and stares out at the empty truck bays… there’s room for 8 trucks.

We had a choice of two routes home; the first included a bridge that had been closed for the past two years… no one had heard if it was open yet, and the second included a one lane mountain pass… you go up or down, if you encounter someone coming from the other direction, the smaller vehicle goes backwards in the direction it came from. We decided we’d try the bridge. Thankfully it was all repaired, John said as we were getting near that if it looked “kinda” safe, we could all get out and walk across and he’d gun it across in the land rover…Thankfully it was a whole new bridge, so there wasn’t any racing. One hour and forty five mins to church… four and a half hours home.

OK, so that was all awesome, I loved seeing the countryside, watching the people, seeing the differences in the villages as we travelled from one area to another, but church was defiantly the highlight. We had church in a Ditammari village, under a giant mango tree! It was great, we sat in the roots of the tree, there was a nice breeze, people walked by, saw what was going on, some joined in… it was VERY cool. We started with 20 people and ended up with about 35.
True enough, I don’t have the foggiest idea what the sermon was about, and I didn’t know any of the songs… John spoke in French, (I think it might have been about being saved by grace.. not by works…. But yeah, my French is still lacking) and a Tammari man translated. But, it was neat, really neat. The Ditammari are probably the poorest people group in Togo, but they are also the most easily identified because of their homes, called Tatas… When you go to look up info on Togo, there’s usually a picture of one. It’s like a little castle made of mud! With turrets and everything! They are the only people group who make a two-story home.
I guess they started to build them like that because they were often targeted to be caught as slaves; The Ditammari are the smallest in stature in the area. By building their tatas with the high thick walls, it’s more difficult for intruders. They started to build their homes closer and closer together (round huts) then started to build walls between them, these developed into what they are today. They bring their livestock in at night to the main floor, and they sleep in the second part, this way the livestock can act as an alarm system too! The doorways are really narrow (to make it difficult for intruders) and there are small holes out the sides of the building on the top floor for arrows to be shot through. They sill have the central courtyard area, but it’s in front of the tata instead of inside. Until I can spend some real time online to get my photos on here, you’ll have to use your imagination as to what I mean. :)
Ok I could write another two pages worth of stuff from the village, on Idols and Fetishes and Family alters… The grain silos on top of the houses, The meat drying racks, the jewellery…. *sigh * but you’d stop reading because this is already long enough.
Meh Neh Ta Na, (Hey everyone, how’s it going?)
Meh Na Kay (it’s going great [with us])
Alafia (good!)
Deh Behng (see you later)
Alafia
YO
Ok, I don’t know how to type using the International Phonetic Alphabet on this computer, so just sound it out…. (I started Kabye lessons today)
Write me emails I miss you

Kara Thoughts

If you're of the praying type, or the intentions minded, or the love sending sort... please put those vibes to work.

Last night one of the Friesens (the family I worked with in Togo) posted news that the Kara market had burned down yesterday. (article here) This is incredibly sad for so many reasons... People's livelihoods have been lost, their savings, their belongings...
There are many small markets that will profit from this loss, but I'm sure prices will be driven up in a terrible way. It's so hard to make things work in that country already.

I'll dig up some of my market pictures later and post them. Kara market taught me so much about myself and the people of Togo. This is very very sad.


Here's a link to someone's visit to the Kara Market- They don't have many shots from inside- just the butchers' space... they're missing all the fresh veggies, the clothing, fabric, household goods and fetish sections!   The market building was two stories and had a courtyard like space, there were lean-to buildings around on one side that had all the clothing... oh my gosh, it was an amazing place to explore.

Retro

I've been doing a lot of looking back this week.
I pulled out my scrapbook the other day to work on it and found my travel journal.

Yes I started this blog to share stories while I was in Togo, but man oh man... most of the things I saw and experienced never made it into the blog- or were just the tiniest blip... Like the time I followed a woman down the street - a woman who had a basket on her head... and a live goat tied on top of the basket. .. Or the time I went to the dining room and couldn't get back to my bedroom because there was a HUGE bug (the size of the palm of my hand) in the breezeway, and I couldn't walk around it by walking on the lawn because I was in my bare feet and there were more frightening bugs (read: scorpions and God knows what else) in the grass in the dark... Or about the neighbour family who'd been in Cote D'Ivoire when a peace agreement collapsed (November 2004)- the absolute fear in their faces as they told their story, guns trained on their children and eventual evacuation by helicopter... Or Zachary's surprising English and forcing me to practice conversational French -My roommate's surprise when Zachary started speaking English "but... but...I've known you for years! I've never heard you speak English before! I didn't know that you could!"

Maybe I'll pull some more gems out here.

I've also been watching a lot of "the voice" this week.
CRAP
I lovehate that show so much!
I love the idea, that it's based just on voice- but I hate that it isn't actually. There's some surprising age discrimination that happens based on voice still. Now, maybe I've got it wrong- maybe they had some better ideas, so I'll stop now... I'm not one of the judges/coaches. I also have a hard time with the idea that once the teams are filled, some people won't get heard, but again... I could be wrong.
But seriously, I'm so involved in the show... I yell things at the computer screen. And I cheer.
And I tell off the people who try to conjure up tears and sympathy.
I call them names and swear at them.

back in the day

I've just spent the past few days pouring over old emails and pictures from Togo.

I miss Africa.

out of habit

Sometimes there are things about your roommate that you don't bother to question. Sometimes there are things that they don't question you about.
It just works better that way, and besides... everyone is different.

When I came home a while back... there was a small tin-foil type pan in our oven. It looked like it was being used as a drip try (which is smart, because I hate cleaning the oven) but for the most part I found it was in the way. Each time I cooked, I'd take it out of the oven and put it on the top shelf. Then, when I was finished, I'd stick it back in.

Roomie got a cast iron pan that needed to be seasoned, and she'd read about seasoning inside the oven, so she decided to give it a try, the little tin pan served it's purpose as a drip tray, and the next day as we started to cook, she took it from the oven and said "I hope you don't mind, I'm going to throw this out so the apartment doesn't smell like oil".
"I don't mind" I said... and then I added.... "it's not mine... I thought it was yours"
she looked at me strangely... and we both started to laugh... not knowing where the pan had come from... and then we realized... it had belonged to the girl who stayed in my room when I went to Togo two years ago! We've both been taking it out of the oven each day, and putting it back, not questioning it's purpose....

I wonder how many other things in our life are like that?

and how to make it a little better.

... though not actually made in Africa, nearly as good as the original.

a maizeing

Where to start?
So I was going to talk about the trip up from Lome… but that will come later. I’ve just had the opportunity to escape the bubble that is the Kara Centre, and I am particularly excited about the adventure.
Whoa, Les… Kara Centre?
Right, the Centre in Kara where I live is run by SIL and is a wonderful place, amazing and intelligent people wandering in and out all the time, working on incredible projects, everything from dictionaries to oral narratives, direct language translations to literacy training, phonemes, syntax, tones … and anything else along the way…. A Linguistic Anthropologist’s dream centre. It is however, a bubble. You can live here and never interact with Africa if you never leave it’s walls. But that’s ok, because it was never intended for anyone to live here full time, it’s a guest house, people are suppost to come and go. There’s even a rule about the length of time one is allowed to live on centre (not including the people who are the “centre managers”-those keeping the place going- those being the people who I’ve come here to help with schooling!). That said, pray with me as I decide when and where to move… The details are REALLY up in the air- I am here for a short enough time that I could live here… but I don’t think it would be good for me.
Bubble burst, where’d you go?
Today I went with one of the kids (Lisa) and a missionary named Dave (who is doing some project on compiling data about tones in the Kabiye language…) To help Dave’s gardener (Bleze) bring his maize crop into town. More and more families have sent the younger generations down from their homes into the towns to work, but the families still work together to support eachother. So we set out to pick up Bleze, we found him and two of his friends? (I don’t know who they were… maybe related? My French is so bad I’m sure someone told me but I missed it) and we jammed into Dave’s little Toyota and..
Hold on, why does a missionary have a gardener?
Good question! It’s not like North America where only the rich have gardeners or house help, nearly everyone does, it’s one way of helping people out-providing jobs.. besides, the money needs to be shared anyway, and who has the time for housework… remember, this isn’t Canada we’re talking about, it’s a completely different system, and it’s not a class thing. Families here would have young relatives come live with them who would do the same thing-and the money would go back to the families in the village… OH! almost exactly what Bleze is doing! ;) where was I?
Oh yeah, jammed into the Toyota, and bumped and banged our way out of town (not too many paved roads in that direction) ok. None. Dave though it would be a good idea for us to go to see the family before we drove in to take the maize out, so we parked, and began to walk. We walked for about 10 mins, baobab trees rising out of the grass... this is grass WAY over my head, I’m talkin’ grass 11 or 12 feet high, it bows in and you walk through a tunnel in places. Coconut and Palm, Mango and Papaya in the clearings, groundnut plants growing between them. Scatterings of partly finished homes and decaying huts. (I’ll tell you about buildings another day).
We stopped under a group of large Baobab and Mango trees that were somehow growing out of a tall pile of rocks. The rocks were really smooth… worn from generations of people coming to rest in the shade… it was incredible to think of the number of people who must have sat there to affect the rocks the way that they did. In some places there were large (three feet by two foot) oval rocks that were shaped like basins, but they had holes in the bottom of them. Bleze explained that they were used grinding stones that had worn through! Women use these flat stones to grind maize and millet they place them on the rock, and crush and grind with another rock…. How long would it take someone to wear right through a rock? These were at LEAST half a foot in thickness.
Then we came to Belze’s family’s compound. Homes here are generally set up with 3 or more buildings (one room each) turned so they create a courtyard in the centre.. that’s where all the living happens, out in the courtyard.
Inside we were met by chickens ducks goats and his grandmother, a tiny OLD woman, sitting on a step, her skirt around her, and a little baby toddling around nearby. When we came “in” another woman (an aunt) and a young cousin appeared. We (Lisa and I) were seated while Belze went over to his grandmother to tell her why we were there. Then Dave was brought over to meet her, where he surprised her by speaking in her own language… she thought it was HE-LAR-IOUS, and laughed and laughed and launched into some dramatic story about falling down the day before… and being deaf and why would a white guy know her language? She was pretty excited. Then I was invited over (next in age order) I’ve already forgotten my rehearsed greeting since then… but anyway, a hand shake with my right hand, left hand holding my own forearm (out of respect). Lisa and I were sent back to our seat against the mud bricks, and a young girl brought us some water in a gourd to drink… Dave said just to put it to our lips as a sign of thanks/respect for the gesture; we couldn’t really drink it since it wasn’t filtered. Then she brought us some groundnuts to eat… and we just sat there taking it all in. The young girl brought the nuts to Dave and he responded in Kabiye and she looked so surprised (she’d missed him talking to her grandmother) and she said she was relieved because she didn’t know what to do with so many white people!
It’s so different… village life. There’s no hurry, you just do what needs to be done when it needs to be done… until then you live. We sat while one young girl sorted beans and another shelled groundnuts. Then when enough? time had passed -so it wouldn’t seem like we were rushing out, we started our goodbyes (rather our “see you tomorrow’s”, good bye is too final, it’s like saying, “well, I’ll certainly never come back here again”. And we eventually left, only to round the side of the building into a cousin’s compound. The young girl who had brought us the water had followed behind us with a small bench.. she knew we wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon.
EVENTUALLY we left. It probably was around 5:00 (sun sets at 6:10, dark at 6:20) but when we reached the clearing where the partly finished homes were, there were people sitting on the step… so we started again… handshakes, water, groundnuts…. Millet beer. Dave said, as a gourd filled with the cloudy brown stuff was passed to me, that he should have waned us that there is no fellowship in Togo that is complete unless it is around a calabash. (More on Millet beer another time).
Yeah, we didn’t leave there till close to 6. By that point I was sure I’d met every relative of Bleze’s that existed, and we still hadn’t even seen the maize that we were suppost to bring into town. We walked back to the car and drove it down a path to another set unfinished buildings, inside of one (surrounded by guinea hens) were the sacks of dried maize cobs, there weren’t enough bags so the rest was piled on the floor, a young girl with a hand broom to shoo away the hens and ducks sat beside the door.
We piled the bags into the back of the car.. ok, not we… they… man those things were HEAVY! Lisa another girl and myself climbed on top of them and squished ourselves in for the bumpy ride back to town, the guys squished into the front.
We arrived at Bleze’s home and the unloading began. This time I helped… I had to! This one lady with a baby strapped to her back stepped up to carry a bag… so how could I not? I walked up to the car and said “sur la tete s’il vous plait” Bleze LAUGHED and looked at Dave to see if I was joking, when Dave nodded that “yes” I wanted it on my head, he helped me with my load then followed me into the compound… I’m sure just to watch his family’s reaction! They doubled over laughing at this white girl with a giant sack of maize on her head, but I know that they appreciated the help, and really, anytime we try anything (us crazy white people) they appreciate it so much, even when we mess it up really bad… just to interact/ show that we aren’t so different!
Anyway, the whole experience was great, I learned a few more phrases to add to my severely limited vocabulary, learned a ton of cultural stuff, and just had fun in general.
Sorry this was such a long post…. I did cut a lot out.
Wish you were all here!
Lesley

Better late than never

I've been having some technical difficulties, sorry, this might show up twice.

ALSO: could someone tell my dad that I can't get any email to him??????? PLEASE! Ask him to email me.


From: Lady Lesley Marie Boileau To: Subject: Jet lagging! Sent: September 23, 2004 9:32:17 PM

Hey Ninjas, ok, so some of you have been left out of the info loop for awhile as to where God has been leading me, so you'll all just have to go to the website to get a little caught up! www.parsleyseasonings.blogspot.com
So, praise God, I'm currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Waiting for my connecting flight to Lome, Togo. Honestly, this trip has been such a blessing already. So I was leaving toronto and thinking to myself "who in their right mind flies to Togo Via:Frankfurt, AND Addis? I'm not going to recognise anyone, I won't have a travel buddy... not even one that I just follow and never actually talk to (you know the type? the lady with the BIG hair that you know must be reliable enough that if you follow at a distance you'll end up in the right place) SO, I get to Frankfurt and i'm TRYING DESPERERATLY to find my flight listed... and it's not. and I hear this voice beside me pipe up "you can't find Ethiopia either?" I turn and there's this girl close to my age, big M.E.C. bag on her back. she continues and says "I read the tag on your luggage when I was in line in Toronto and I've kinda been following you, I'm going to Lome too!" So, not only do I have a nice travel buddy, BUT (and this is so God's work!) She's a Christian, working in Benin for 3 months, and her original flight was last week but it was cancelled and she ended up on my flight! and we had seats together to Addis!!!!!! And we've got some pretty crazy background similarities.... so cool. I left T.O. Wednesday at 10:45 pm, I think it's thursday 5:30pm in Canada now, but we've had a 9 hour flight and a 7 hour flight and 4 hours layover AND it's Friday morning (early, but friday) I think we've got another 6 hours flight left. ok, gotta stop typing now, this will probably be the ONLY BIG email I send, I'll send out little notices when I've updated the website instead to avoid overloading my account with returned emails. If you reply, don't include the orginal message to save some space in my inbox ok? thanks!!!! PLEASE email, I miss you all already, and I love to hear from you.... keeps away the lonlieness. Peace prayers and crunchy granola, Lesley if you get this twice, let me know and i'll try to fix it



From: Lady Lesley Marie Boileau To: parsleyseasonings.norton@blogspot.com Subject: letter 2 Sent: September 25, 2004 3:29:30 PM
Hey Ninjas So Thursday I wrote to you, but the message got messed up so only a few received it. It MIGHT have gone to the website www.parsleyseasonings.blogspot.com I’m not sure, at my last test it hadn’t worked yet…. If you’re a Prayer ninja and you’ve been left out of the loop as to what’s happening, you’d better go check the site to find out… OR if you’re new to the prayer ninja scene . Anyway! I’m in Togo and I’m alive!! Praise God!! So at the last update I was in Ethiopia, my flight path was a little on the long side but it saved me a ton… and, it also provided me with countless stories for future postings… Ok, so we were sitting in the plane on the tarmac and we’d been there for about 30 mins, so people were starting to grumble; those who were awake started to grumble, it was 3am local time. Then an aplogetic voice stumbles through 4 languages explaining our situation, eventually he gets to English, and I hear “we have sent someone to the store to buy a part for our plane, he will return in twenty mins. Until that time we wait. Thank you for flying with us, we are sorry” ok… so what PLANE PARTS store is open at 3am, what part, and how do I get off the plane?
We arrived in Lagos and hour late, then arrived in Lome only 45mins late… pretty good. I was met by one of the SIL staff (Wycliffe Togo) Jim Green and he helped me thru all the ins and outs of visas, he had a special pass to meet me right off the plane and to come thru customs… now I’m at the Lome guest house, and the whole Friesen family is here! Marv met me at the airport, And the rest of the family (Edith and the kids Lisa, Beth, Tyler, Simon and Michael) came in the evening to the guest house. I guess we’ll be staying here until Wednesday as Marv has to return to Canada, his mom is very sick with cancer so he was called home… We’ll head up to Kara (my home for the next three months) then. If your getting this message twice, let me know Ok, I should get off the computer, I’ve got lots to tell you and show you (via pictures) but that will wait. Love you all Peace prayers and crunchy granola Lesley Guess what!?!? You can write to me c/o
Lesley Boileau
SIL
BP 57
Kara
Togo West Africa

contact.. finally

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay on the previous posts, I guess there was an error when I sent them… anyway, ces’t le vie!

Are you ok?
Yeah, but I miss my friends and family, it’s kinda sucky not knowing many people, and I don’t want to spend all my time with the Friesen’s I don’t want them to get sick of me… or me of them! I’ve met so many people… I have no idea which name goes with which face. It’ll come with time.

So Les, how’s Togo?

Well, so far so good. Things have been incredibly hectic with Marv having to leave for Canada, Edith has had to step into his place here at the centre, so that means I’ve jumped right into what I came here to do… It’s neat how God totally had this already worked out… I mean, I knew from the start of this process back in April that I was suppose to be going SOMEWHERE in September. I didn’t know where, but I knew when. Then I was given a few opportunities to leave earlier, and one to leave later, but I KNEW September. Didn’t know why till now.
However, with his sudden departure and Edith being so busy keeping things running, I haven’t had any orientation to how the program that the kids are using works. It’s sort of “fly by the seat of my pants” right now. But they are great kids and up to the task, so they help me along. I feel bad that I don’t have any time for preparation for them, I’m still trying to figure out what it is that they’ve learned, and what comes next, and how each of them learns best…. But, we’ve made it through the first week, I’m sure that sooner or later I’ll catch on!

Am I going to be able to get hold of you way over there?

It looks like I’ll have internet access once or twice a week, (send emails) I’m using one of the kid’s computers.(send emails) There is an internet café but the keyboards are French (France French) so the keys are in the wrong spot, (send emails) I’d waste too much of my time trying to find the keys for it to be worthwhile.

Ok, but back to Togo?

Right, sorry about that (send emails I’ll write back eventually, and I miss knowing how everyone is, and just to have that connection with home is so good.)
Eh hmmm?
Weather is good.. HOT and humid! It’s the end of rainy season, so it rains every other day or so… not like Canadian rain, it doesn’t stay all day. It’ll be super clear out then ten seconds later a huge gust of wind will blow a storm right over the mountains onto us. It usually only lasts ten mins, HARD rain, but the other night it started at 12:30 and stopped at 7am. Each rain someone says “well, that’s the end of rainy season, no more rain for a few months” then it rains again.
Mountains?
Dude! I have a mountain in my backyard! Seriously! I look out the window each morning and look up.. way up. Kara is in a “bowl” there’s mountains on every side of the city. OHHHHH the ride here was CRAZY. Seven and a half hours in the land rover, the last two hours on the mountain pass…. But I’ll post that story next time.

What can we be praying for: for you?
Language comprehension and ability to converse in French is the big one. I’m fine on centre, it’s all people that I’ve met and can get by with my limited French, their limited English.. and there’s tons of English speaking missionaries here. But I want to be able to go to market without feeling like a helpless baby! Also that I could figure out the “North Star School” program. It’s great, I just haven’t had much time to take a look at it. Oh, and that I wouldn’t be lonely. I miss you guys!

Market?

No, enough for today this is a long enough posting!
Love you all,Les

testing email

So I'm testing out the abilities of my site to handle a posting via: email!
Here's a little note to all of you ninjas... well, actually it was sent to
me, but there's reference made in it to all of you!


>From: "Marv-Edith Friesen"
>To: "Boileau Lesley"
>Subject: soon!
>Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 22:15:56 -0000
>
>Hello dear Lesley,
>We're so excited about your upcoming arrival. We are praying for you as you
>say good-bye and make final preparations. I have a better idea of how you
>can be involved in teaching the kids. We've worked out quite a nice
>schedule
>which should be manageable for you and will free me up to do Centre work.
>I'm so excited. I hope you enjoy working with the boys as much as I have
>been. The girls are working quite independently. I'm really pleased with
>the
>start they've made. They also are looking forward to having you around. I
>think they'll really like having a "big sister". Already, you've been such
>a
>blessing to us!
>Thank your supporters on our behalf. We know that the sacrifice and effort
>is huge. We are so thankful for their willingness and yours to be involved
>in our lives. The ultimate goal is to see others come to Christ, to give
>them God's Word in their own language. We are just a small part of that.
>What a privilege it is to work together to serve our great God!
>Must go for now. Know that you are constantly in our prayers.
>Love you much already,
>Edith
>

_________________________________________________________________

A settled heart

something I'm finding I have a little more of now, a settled heart. I know that God has all the plans worked out, even though I do not.

For example; I have been overly stressed for the passed few months on how the heck all my support was going to come in, and how was I suppost to do that and where do I start and whom do I approach and who would ever want to help and how does one go about writing letters of support and who's got money to give and..... *whew!* I got so overwhelmed with the process that I just ended up doing nothing to be organized. And God stepped in. Only because I'd finally stepped out of the way. Why did I even waste time worrying? "Who among you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matt 6:27... dude, what a waste of hours!
God is good, support is in... amen?


so, either there will be a picture posted above this writing or a bunch of gobble-de-gook typing. If there is a picture: this was sent to me by one of the kids I have the priveledge of working with in Togo. It's taken on their way to one of the churches.... very cool.
if there's no picture, apologies all around, I'll get this figured out sometime. Sometime soon I hope. ok, there's no picture... close your eyes and imagine this , a grey land rover type thing criving through quite the puddle... spray everywhere... oh, just come to Bagot St. I've got it set as our wallpaper on the computer.

Does anyone know of an inexpensive (but fully functioning) secondhand digital camera which I could buy?

ready.... break!

Yo team!

ok, ninjas, time is marching marching marching, and things are getting into gear. Praise God! I've gathered all my support, so now it's just a matter of (cleaning my room) packing!
but first a huge prayer request, that we (we being Wycliffe Canada, Togo-Benin, Togo-Kara and myself) would be able to figure out how to work the money thing. I guess most of the time people have paid out of their own pockets and then been reimbursed when they returned to Canada(those who have gone short term like myself) However, that's not really an option for me as I don't have my own money, I've got the money that God's given for my use (through you guys) sitting in my account at Wycliffe Canada. So anyway, pray that we figure out some sort of billing option so that I can access the money in the account... ok, did any of that make sense?
Also pray for a meeting that I've got tonight.
ummmm
ok, so much has happened since I last posted. Finished the week at Joy, so good! Went camping with friends, also so good, painted the kitchen at work... pretty good, rabbit's toe got broken NOT so good. ok, had a conversation at the Sheffield's the other night about people's reactions to pain, and how most adults, even most teens don't cry for pain.. they may swear and carry on, but if you broke your toe, you weren't likely to cry. I cried over a broken toe... it wasn't my own though it was norton's. no fear, the vet said as long as it heals straight it won't need to be amputated.
I have some pictures that were sent to me from togo... but I can't figure out how to post them right now...
gotta run
:)