What a Trip!

We're back from our trip to Burkina Faso. (Be sure to look at our web album! The link is on the right) We had a good time at the Nazinga game reserve where we met our friends and teammates, the Hauser's. We saw lots of elephants, antelope, baboons and other deer like creatures whose names I've forgotten. We were able to visit a demonstration farm near the capital of Ouagadougou and see some of the animals up close and personal including a waterbuck that tried to run Kate through with his horns from the other side of the fence. Thank goodness for chain link!

On our way from Ouagadougou to Bobodioulasso, the crank shaft in our engine decided to give up the ghost, so Damon and Brian towed it the remaining 238 kms to Bobo. They left the two pregnant women and their 7 children abandoned along side of the road in an unknown village. (okay, so we were at a bus stop but we like to tease them about it). Tabitha and the kids and I made the 4 hour trip by bus and arrived at the guest house, hot, tired, dirty, thirsty and very thankful to finally get horizontal.

While in Bobo we were able to meet some of the missionary friends that Damon made while he was there for Djoula language school last spring. The Schaeffer's, among others treated us to meals and a picnic on some rocks outside of town. It was good to finally get to meet them and spend some time with them.

From Bobo, we rented a car from the mechanic and headed to Banfora where the Hauser's live. They were gracious to not only open their home to us for a few days, but because of the car we ended up staying almost a week! While we were there, we had a lot of good meals and fellowship, a few games of The Settlers and were able to see a little of what their life is like in Burkina. In some ways it's similar to life here in Ivory Coast but in many others, it's vastly different. We were also able to visit a beautiful waterfall outside of their town and climb around on some big old rocks nearby.

The mechanic had told us that he thought the car would be ready to go by Feb22nd, so we hung around until then with our fingers crossed. When people began demonstrating over nation wide price increases, on Feb 19th, we began to get a little concerned since the mechanic wasn't able to work and order the extra parts needed. On Feb 20th, when they were still demonstrating, we began to think of alternate travel plans. Finally on Feb22nd, we boarded the 7 am bus for Bouaké and headed home.

The bus ride was extremely interesting and harrowing and definitely an experience I'm not sure I want to relive 7 months pregnant and with 5 kids in tow. Ü I won't bore you with all of the details but the trip, which usually takes 8 hours by private car, only took 7 on the bus, and that included a border crossing with 65 people and 6 stops including one that lasted almost an hour. Wow.

Friday night, the 22nd, we stayed at the former Baptist boarding school for missionary kids in Bouaké which is now the headquarters for the French peace keeping forces in Ivory Coast in "rebel" territory. We had a wonderful evening with the Ragsdale's, the only missionaries back in the area and then headed back to Abengourou on Saturday morning with our teammate, Henri who met us in Bouaké with the clinic's landrover. It felt wonderful to be back in our own home Saturday evening.

Sunday however, Damon and i the two youngest girls went to Abidjan to pick up our teammates, Bernie and Kelly Bledsoe who had been on furlough for the past year, and a new short term teammate, Elizabeth Sorenson, who is a nurse and will be helping us in the clinic for the next year. We were glad to see them and glad that they are here even though getting back on the road the next day wasn't much fun!

Now we're getting back into the swing of things here with school and the clinic and the Bible storytelling. Today, Damon is in the village of Bettié (3 hour drive) for a meeting with the church leaders. We are also trying to find parts for our car and figure out how to get them to Burkina so that the car can be fixed and Damon can go and pick it up before we need it to get to Ghana to have a baby. Never a dull moment around here! Ü

Speaking of the baby, the third toxoplasmosis screen came back negative so we're going to assume that toxoplasmosis isn't a concern for now. We haven't done a follow up ultrasound to check on the baby's growth but i have finally started gaining some weight and the dr was encouraged by that. We'll do another ultrasound at my next appointment on the 17th. Thanks for your prayers.

We're heading off on a trip to Burkina Faso tomorrow so I wanted to get in a quick, general update before we head off. Our old team mates, Brian and Tabitha Hauser have moved to Banfora, Burkina Faso to begin working with the ethnic Jula people there, so we thought we'd take advantage of their hospitality and overrun them with Joneses. At the present, they are what Grace calls a "short" family since they only have two kids, but #3 is due to make her arrival in early April so they are on their way to keeping up with the Joneses. (Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase doesn't it? Ü)

The construction on the lab has been going really quickly. The structure actually has a roof on it now and is ready for plumbing and electricity and interior work. Unfortunately, we're out of money, so things will come to a stop for awhile. EGPAF (The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation) has said they are interested in helping us finish the project so we are praying that our proposal is approved and the lab can continue. It will really be a huge help to the clinic, and especially to the HIV+ population.

Speaking of the HIV+ population, Damon continues the Chronological Bible Story telling sessions with a few Djoula Muslim members of the People Living With AIDS support group, every two weeks. The group is small but it seems to be going well. Pray that those who attend will continue to be faithful and that their hearts and minds will be opened to see God's plan from the very beginning was to save the world through His Son. The picture attached to this post is a few members of the PLWA support group in front of the new lab construction.

The other CBS group that Damon is leading with Salifou at the car wash is really going well. They meet 2 or 3 times a week and the group has grown. Not only Salifou and the young men that work at the car wash, listen, a few taxi drivers have begun stopping in regularly when they see Damon there on the man under the palm trees, telling the stories from the Bible. They have had several good discussions and Damon always comes home encouraged by their sessions. Pray that God will open their hearts and minds to His truth.

Jones baby #6 appears to be doing okay. Keep Juli's pregnancy in your prayers if you will though. At her last dr's visit, the dr thought the baby was measuring a little small for its age and one of her lab tests came back as possibly positive for toxoplasmosis. (Not a great thing while you're pregnant) The dr believes the test was a false positive so she redid the test. At the end of February when we head to Abidjan to pick up our teammates who have been on furlough, Juli will see the dr again, get the results of the blood test and have another ultrasound to monitor the growth of the baby. Pray that all of the results are fine and that we had nothing to worry about. Ü (Even though we're not worrying....just praying)

We'll let you know how our trip turned out when we get back. Who knows...we may even share a few pictures too! We plan to spend a night at Nazinga animal reserve which is well known for it's elephant population, so there may be a few good ones to share.

Please remember to pray for our Sunday afternoon Bible storytelling with a handful of special folks. They're part of our the clinic's outreach to the HIV community. In fact they lead the support group that was formed a year ago! Since they're Muslim-background we invited them to come hear God's Word in the Djoula language, on cassette. Pray for good attendance tomorrow, as only one of the five people showed up last time! Target prayer time: 9 am CST = 3 pm study time.

The Word is getting out!

I continued my Bible storytelling with Salifou at his car wash on Thursday. We did the stories of Adam & Eve and the Fall. These early stories are important because they help nail down the consequences of sin and our need for God's grace. I showed Salifou (he's Muslim-background from Burkina Faso) that man spoils paradise almost immediately, and that the whole rest of the Bible is the unfolding of God's plan to mend the relationship that we severed by our disobedience. Pretty heavy stuff, but remember we teach these things to our children in Sunday School! Pray for Salifou to grasp these basics as he moves toward the NT's Good News. We meet again Monday at 2:30 in the afternoon shade.

On January 5th we had our 4th celebration in 3 weeks, starting with Tabaski (Islamic New Year Celebration) on Dec 19th and ending with Kate's 3rd birthday. She's been such a blessing to our family and a joy to be around (usually Ü) that we were glad to have a day to celebrate her and what she means to our family. We also think she's pretty cute! She's definitely a charmer. Happy Birthday Kate!

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year everyone! We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is now getting back into the swing of things......keeping your new year's resolutions of course! We thought we'd try to get really e-organized this year and develop a blog site where our wonderful supporters and those interested in learning about the work could keep themselves informed about what is going on over here in Ivory Coast. We haven't had much luck in the past with individual e-mails or e-mail groups so we thought this year we'd try something new. We hope you enjoy it and that it helps you stay more informed about what YOU are doing in Ivory Coast with us through your prayers and support. Let us know what you think!