Who's Who in the Zoo!

I had a suggestion from my sister that I post about the people on our team.  Since I am talking about these guys all the time, you should probably have a visual, so you can know them too!

On Sunday night we started a series of quarterly team meetings, so I took the opportunity to take photos of all the members of the team who are currently here in Mango.

Let me introduce you...

This is John.  He and his brother and sister in law are the newest members on the field.  They just arrived in Mango in early October.  John is a 28 year old single guy who has been to Africa on several trips and loves working with the local guys, building, and keeping the shop clean. (Nate loves this about John!)  Nate met John with the rest of our church team that came to Togo last December.  His name at the time was "Minnesota John" and that name has stuck.  We call him Big Bad John because he's 6'5". And because he's a terribly bad influence on our kids.  He teaches them all sorts of invaluable information like how to do arm pit farts, the rules to Bloody Knuckles etc.  I tell John that most days we see him, I have to go home and "undo" a bunch of his teachings.  Sadly, the kids love him.  

These two lovely people are Adam and Faith Drake. I love this photo of them because Adam is sincerely happy and Faith looks so disgusted.  The picture below better depicts their true relationship.  Adam and Faith have two little girls, Oceane and Celeste, and another baby girl on the way, due to arrive around mid-December.  Adam and Faith are church planters here.  They are planning to start a radio ministry here in Mango.  But there's a lot of legwork in getting a radio station built and started, so as Adam works away at that, he also does a tonne of other stuff for the hospital project and the missionaries here.  Adam grew up as a missionary kid in France, so his French is, well, perfect.  AND Adam is a total schmoozer. He makes connections all over the country and gets stuff done. 

Here they are as a truly happy couple!

This is the Davis family.  Dale and Jody are in the pic above and their almost-16-year-old son, Zack is below. Dale and Jody have been missionaries in Africa for several years, in Chad.  Chad is similar to Togo in many ways but they lived like total backwoods rustic crazies in Chad - with only solar power, a ringer washer and a grocery store and hospital 18 hours away, not just the nine hours here in Togo.  So Togo is a breeze for these three.  Dale works with the Project Office, like we do.  He is super smart and his voice sounds exactly like Mark Boyd for those of you who know Mark Boyd.  Dale is calm and quiet...but I know that somewhere deep down lurks a crazy person. (He has to be to live the way that you do out here!)  Jody is in charge of the Guest House here on site, so she plans the meals, trains the staff, and pretty much makes it happen in the GH. 

Zack is a total pain-in-the-bum.  He's a pesty, fun-loving, super smart guy who has a kind heart.  I hope he doesn't read this because I don't want him to know that I like him.  He includes everyone when it comes to the kids playing together and he generally loves others.  He's good at cannon balls in the pool and loves Mountain Dew (which is hard to get here).  But he's made it a mission in his life to torment me.  May be that's why I like him so much.

These two very serious people above are Kevin and Emily Hall.  Kevin is the project manager of the hospital work site.  He's an engineer and he's super smart.  And he LOVES to laugh at his own jokes (which are pretty funny so I can see why).  Nolan wanted to "dress up" as Uncle Kevin for Halloween because Kevin wears the same thing everyday, but we didn't pack Nolan a single pair of pants, so he didn't bother.  But it was a great idea and Kevin would've loved it.   Emily is craziness.  Her "for real" role here in Mango is to take care of the project finances.  I see her role as my personal entertainer.  Emily is hysterical!  She and I are bad news together in a serious meeting.  Emily's and my relationship was really solidified in our trip together to Lome when she had to deal with my "roadside issues."

 This couple above are the only other CANADIANS on this field.  Peter and Janice Maybury even hail from London, Ontario!  (Woot! Woot!) Peter and Janice are church-planters out here, along with the Drakes.  Peter is also our Team Leader, which, I'm learning, is a pretty gigantic role and he does it with his whole heart.  They have two kids, Ben and Victoria.  I don't have pics of them but they're here!  You can sorta see Ben behind Peter.  In this photo (and all the others I tried to take of them) Peter wouldn't look at the camera, while Janice just laughed!  And really, that's just who they are.  Peter is a serious guy and Janice just laughs and laughs, at herself mostly.  She's very kind, very honest and very humble.  In our team meetings we were talking about 2 year, 5 year and 10 year goals, and I turned to Janice and sarcastically asked her what her ten year goal was.  She replied, "Survive." Then she broke up laughing.  That's Janice.

This is Anna (and Emily).  I've shown you a photo of Anna before but this is a better one.  Anna is a crazy woman.  She's young but super duper mature.  She lives on her own here in Mango and has a stomach of steel.  That girl can eat anything and 1. survive and 2. enjoy it.  Stuff that I would NEVER put in my mouth, Anna will eat and say, "Hey this is really good -- you should try it!"  Um, no thank you, sweet Anna.  I would trust Anna with my life, but not with my taste buds. Anna isn't actually with ABWE as a missionary.  She's rogue.  She's just out here loving Jesus and serving the people of Mango.  But we've adopted her as a part of our team and I can't imagine life here without her.  She's fun and funny, but she also is serious about living for the Lord and telling others about Jesus.

Here are Jim and Christine Remiger.  Jimbo and Big Bad John are brothers.  Jim and Christine have an almost-two-year-old girl named Evie. My kids love Evie! Jim and Christine are true adventurers.  They have done all the crazy stuff your mom tells you not to do, from bungee jumping to swimming with sharks.  They are also in Mango with the Project Office (P.O.), like us.  Currently, our team is more P.O. than C.P (church planters), but that will change in the coming months as more missionaries arrive on the scene.  Jim and Christine plan to spend the next two years working on the hospital until it's completed, and then like the other P.O. personnel, they will move on to another project in the world.  There are about 60 projects that ABWE has going on in the world right now, so there are always lots of options for the next location.  Once the hospital is complete, most of the missionaries I've introduced you to will leave Mango and move on.

So that's us!  The "TNT" which stands for Togo North Team.  I'm telling you, ABWE is like the military with all their little short forms.  I've had to learn a whole new lingo working here.

As more families arrive, I'll keep you in the loop with who's who in the zoo!