June

 Sometimes when I turn the calendar page I wonder what the month ahead holds that I don't know about. I knew June was going to be busy but I wasn't prepared for how busy. It was one of those months I needed to just take one day at a time and not allow myself to think about the future. Not easy but I'm so glad we have a God that knows our future and how much we can handle.

A few of the boys from Saturday evenings at Iture. Justice is a boy that desperately craves anyone's love and attention.

There is a lot of mischief between these four!

Without a water tank as a reserve, we found out what collecting and bucketing water was like. Often it would come at night but for almost a whole week we had no water at all. We were thankful for the village well to go get jugs of water. And thankful for the moto or van to haul them in instead of carrying them on our heads like most people from our village do.

Ironically the week we didn't have water, most of our area had more water than they could handle. The story has changed but it seems a large area north of us had heavy rainfall all night. The river cut a new channel over to the river that flows through our area causing flash flooding. A neighbor boy came running, wanting help carrying things from his mother's house. She was out selling and he was responsible for his little brother and sister. Thankfully his brother in law was around to help him too. The water rose so fast. There was a lot of confusion. Thankfully no lives in our immediate area were lost. A prison guard and an elderly woman are reported to have drowned. Four people from our village needed rescuing.

We watched the activity with a woman that lived close to where the water was. Water flowed all around her house till late afternoon but several inches before flooding her porch, it started going down.

We took the smaller children of the family from our church that had water in their house for the day. Kelsey entertained them with toys and we fed them lunch. Cecelia was so tickled with this mini fufu pounder!

Living Hope had major flooding. Three of the five houses flooded, the church, the school and the shop. Earl and Amanda shirk and Lonnie and Evie Weaver had about 24 inches of water in their houses.

The shop and the vehicles that happened to be there all got very wet.

The next day everyone pitched in and started cleaning out the two houses of the missionaries. Earl's house was cleaned out and pressure washed. Lonnie's house got a room by room cleaning and scrubbing. Lonnie's were getting company in two days so we focused most of our energy there. Thankfully they were able to sleep at their house the night their visitors arrived.

I had never helped with flood clean up before and hope to never need to again. We found a fish and many tree frogs throughout the house. There were about 20 to 30 frogs in the one bathroom alone. A large bull frog scared me when I was wiping off shelves. But I was thankful for concrete houses and no carpet. A good scrubbing and it was almost as good as new! The houses made of mud bricks didn't fare so well. Especially in Abee where one of the women from our church lives, hers and numerous other mud houses plastered with concrete were broken down.

The children got very wet and muddy. The water was gross but how do you keep boys and water separate? We were very thankful for Duane and Kaylene's house, there on the Living Hope compound. It was one of the ones that didn't flood, by about three inches, and we used it as a base to cook and serve meals at.

That Thursday our family took Lordina to school. Lordina has attended our church for three years now. Her club feet, lazy eye and twisted mouth made her a vulnerable little girl but she fought back at the world with teeth and fists. As she grew older and everyone poured love onto her, she calmed down and became very loving. When her Mom died several weeks ago, it opened the door to offer to send her to a school for handicap children. It was hard to leave her there but I am sure she will thrive. Her grandmother went along and another couple from their village. We went on to Accra and enjoyed a relaxing evening as a family. The next morning we went to the airport to welcome the youth that arrived to help with VBS.

There are always interesting sights in Accra. Kenny thought this moto man was pretty set up! And don't let your eyes fool you, that tarp is on the moto, not in the background.

VBS went very well and was very well attended. The last night we had around 325 children.

Thanks to Wayne and Dorothy's planning and everyone's hard work, things went very smoothly. Maybe it helped that it was the second year and a lot of them knew what they were doing?

So many little faces, so many little minds, so many little hearts. Did we make a difference in their lives? Did we plant seeds that will bloom some day?

They were always ready and waiting and hung around until the last person left.

The weather even co operated. The week before we had had rain every day. This picture is from our drive out to VBS. We had a nice shower but till we were ready to actually start, it had cleared off.

  We are preparing and looking forward to furlough. We leave here next Friday, the 15th of July and arrive back a month later. Pray for us as we wrap up all the little details that need taking care of while we are gone. And pray that our flights are on schedule and smooth. We are thankful for the Covid tests no longer being required and can't quite remember what it is like to fly without masks, but we look forward to it!