More incredible feats of Providence!

In the last post, we mentioned that we discovered a young lady here in Redding that taught at Dakar Academy last year. Isn't God great! We had lunch with her yesterday and got lots of great advice about what to bring and what to leave. We found out that there is a local market/grocery store about a 5 minute walk from the campus. Praise the Lord!

 But God was not done with us on Friday. A couple that is supporting us financially wanted to take us to dinner, so we met them at a local restaurant. We got there early and because there were 9 of us, we had to wait while they set up the table. I went to hold the door open for an elderly woman with a walker and by the time I returned to the waiting area, Candace had become best friends with a young lady who was leaving (How this happened I have no idea. I was gone literally less than a minute). Anyway, it turns out this young lady had just returned from a year in India as a missionary and is raising funds to return. Ok, meeting another missionary in a restaurant in Redding,CA is not that strange, right? Well, it gets better. I happen to know a missionary in India. We grew up in the same church together in Ohio and even went to her homecoming together. But that was 25 years ago in Ohio and India is a big place. But, of course, who was this girl's language teacher in India? Of course, Shelley. The body of Christ is a small family is it not? We have not raised all of the financial support we need, but if you are already supporting us, I'd like to give a shout out to Paul and Shelley Somsel serving in India through Christar! I'm sure they could use some support as well.

Time is growing short! I will be returning to Omaha a week from tomorrow and we are leaving for Dakar in 12 days. Wow! Pray that I can fit all of this stuff in our remaining baggage allowance. That will be a miracle on the order of the fishes and the loaves:)

Why are we not surprised?

A friend of the family showed up yesterday for a visit. She was telling us how she walks on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a friend. Well somehow the conversation got on to us going to Senegal. Well, surprise surprise, this friend of hers works with a lady who's daughter just got back from working at Dakar Academy (where we are going to work). She loved it and is still crying about missing all those beautiful children she had taught. She is out of town for the weekend but she will be contacting us when she gets back to Redding. It has been reported to us that she absolutely loved Dakar and wants to go back. I'm excited to speak with her. But when our friend Carole was telling us this Mike and I just looked at each other and remarked that we weren't even surprised by this, God has been showing us this is our journey and this is just one more stepping stone to lead us to Africa. I do have to add that the day before in our prayers Mike had asked God to help show us what to pack and now he sends us a lady that absolutely will be able to answer those questions. God is great!

Redwoods

Since the family has been more then just the five of us lately we decided to take a short trip over to the coast to see the Redwoods, it's only 3 hours away from Redding. We all had a great time. Who knew we were a family that enjoyed going on hikes and looking at big trees! Since it had been 5 weeks for the kids to see their Daddy I think we were all just so grateful just to be our family again.

We even went to the Ocean. This one is taken up on a look out point where you can look down at the ocean and see whales. As you can see, or not see, it was too foggy we couldn't even see the ocean let alone the whales. I'm not sure who was more disappointed Mike or the kids :D

Deja Vu

Mike had his last day at Grace University and they gave him a farewell party. It was so sweet to hear all the nice things that were said about Mike. But it's funny, I feel like we'll always be connected with Grace and that in a way this is a mission trip through Grace. We have a lot of faculty, staff and even students that have said they would come out and visit and do a mission trip while we are there! On a side note even our dentist said he wants to come and help, how cool is that! We welcome anyone that wants to come! And it's road trip time again, this time with Mike. We actually had a very nice time, except for having to get a new alternator in Laramie Wyoming or the check engine light turning on late at night when we were up in the mountains hours away from the next town and no phone service. Yes, I definitely had visions of Mike leaving me with the truck/U-haul and hitching a ride with a trucker and I would either be gobbled up by a hungry Mountain lion or worse. But, God is Great! and he had us safely return to our waiting kids the next afternoon.

Learning French

In Senegal there are two languages spoken, Woloof and French. Woloof is the native language but French is the most widely used language. We will learn some phrases of Woloof but right now my plate is full with learning French. Mike had 3 years in High School of it so he understands the basics, I however do not! it is definitely going to be a struggle for me. I don't have the "ear" for it. Mike will say it and I repeat and he said to me "Do you really think you're saying the same thing?" I don't think I've ever laughed so hard!! It reminded us of Joey on Friends when he tried to learn French. I hate to admit it but I sound just like him!

Back to Omaha!

Well, I decided to fly back to Omaha to help Mike drive the U-haul to California. He was worrying me too much about talk of doing it in two days and not getting a hotel. I knew he has been under a lot of stress lately so I wanted to come back and hopefully make things easier for him. This is only the 2nd time I've been away from the kids in 13 years. My heart strings are definitely being pulled but we'll soon make our drive out to California and we'll all be together again as a family first time in 6 weeks.

Summer fun

Kids are having fun with their cousins. It has been so hot that We went to the Lake and Regan got on the front page of the Redding paper! The girls have been having fun with Alexis, even trying baby food together-they did not care for it ;-) And Monroe is always holding hands with mick. They sure love their cousins!