February and March

Greeting for Ghana once again! I am going to combine two months into one again. February was a more open month for us, leading up to a very busy time. Missionary retreat, Kenny's brother and his family visit, and then VBS followed each other so fast it was hard to catch our breath. But God was so faithful in the busy times and everything went really well. Maybe someday I will learn not to stress over these things because not once has God let us down and things were just a disaster.

February had some of the dustiest days we ever saw in Ghana. Hot, hazy and humid. But dusty!

I dropped something off at school one day and found Brent and Austin reading library books on the porch. They were reading the funny parts to each other. I am so thankful Austin is enjoying reading a bit more and Brent is enjoying it as well. He went through that stage of realizing he can read pretty much everything he finds and was so pleased to read anything from the ketchup bottle to actual books.

Did I mention February was dusty? One thing I do is get the empty mission house ready for guests (usually other missionaries from out of the area). I came a few days after one person left to get it ready for the next one. Everything had a thick coating of dust already.

Brent with a book.

I think the biggest highlight of February was missionary retreat. Every other year we spend two nights at Hans Cottage and enjoy soaking in topics from a speaker, this year it was Stephen Burkholder, and just spending time together. The staff does so well with our children running around all day, the boys fish every minute they are allowed to and there is a pool to cool off in when they want to.

A crocodile relaxing on the bank. I wonder if there is a scientific reason they lay there with their mouth open?
 

On February 29th Gerald and Leanne and Heather and Malia arrived. It was very exciting for the children to have cousins come. We really enjoyed showing them around our corner of Ghana. We even did a few things we never did before. Like visit the top floor of the parking garage in Cape Coast. 

The view from the second story in market.

The girls didn't know what the beach was. Malia loved collecting sea shells.

Heather was just a baby when we moved here so in a way Kelsey felt like she was just learning to know her cousins. But it didn't take them long to become friends!

Gerald went with Kenny to some Salt savings groups.

Jodi and Kelsey had some helpers to get the prizes ready for VBS. I got sick while they were here and Leanne was a big help in cooking and baking on ahead for when the youth were here for VBS. She spent hours in my kitchen!

And before we knew it, we were dropping them off at the airport again!

I don't know why but we have had several days in March that our water was brown. It didn't feel very sanitary to wash dishes in. The electric has been very undependable lately. When we have a whole day with electric someone usually comments on it. It is normal for this time of year. Thankfully most of the outages lately have been during the daytime. It gets really hot and anything you do, you just drip with sweat, but its better then trying to sleep with no fans. I am trying to remember to live by James 1: 2-4, counting it all joy when the electric is out and I want to sew or just cool off under a fan a bit. Surely I will learn patience and want nothing some day!

We got our first stick of bananas from our own tree. They were beautiful and several people at this house were sure they were the best bananas ever. Beings they stayed on the tree till they started to change colors, maybe they were sweeter then others?

On my way to visit a friend, I met another little friend. She took my bag and carried it the whole way for me. I was having a rough day and had just been praying as I was walking for God to take away my feelings of discouragement. It was such a simple gesture from this sweet little girl, but it reminded me that I am not alone in carrying my burdens.

The other thing that happened in March was VBS. I will do a separate post on that later. April looks like a slower month and I have a list of projects I would like to get done. School ends in two weeks, so my mind is also thinking about how to keep everyone busy and happy this summer. We are all looking forward to a more relaxed schedule, but I know we somehow need to keep the word schedule in our lives!

Thank you to each of you who pray for us! We feel very blessed to live in Ghana and God continues to teach us so many things here. God bless you as you serve Him where and how He has called you to.