Please God, not Africa!

We made it! We're here and we're settling and things are good. Here's what's been going on since we left Canada last week... We left London on Monday morning after a very difficult good-bye.  It was hard.  Really hard.  We took at bus to the Toronto airport and from there flew to Paris, then from Paris to Niger, then Niger to Togo.  Amazingly, our trip was completely uneventful. Everything was smooth sailing, even all 18 of our bags and rubbermaid totes made it.  We were very grateful - and still are. We arrived in Lome as very weary travellers but were greeted at the airport by our dear friend and co-worker, Anna.  She and Parico, our Togolese driver, helped us get all our stuff into the van and took us to the Southern Baptist Seminary compound to stay in their guest house.  Sweet Anna had pizza and chips and cold drinks waiting for us when we arrived. The next morning we began our shopping in Lome.  This is the capital of Togo and has ...

Two weeks from today we'll be landing in Lome  - it's so hard to believe that we're that close! Here's where we're at: 1. God has supplied 100% of our monthly support and in fact, we are now over-supported!  Amazing.  Thank you to all of you who have generously and sacrificially supported us - we are so grateful! 2. We've moved out of our house.  We moved out last Thursday and our renter moved in the next morning.  She is a lovely woman who intends to stay for the full 2 years - what an answer to prayer! 3. We received our travel visas!  We're all good to enter the country. 4. We are living with my parents - bless them! It's not like seven people have moved in with the two of them and totally taken over their entire house or anything. We're so grateful to be able to bunk with them for these 2 weeks and finish up some of the details and errands before we go. 5. Flights are booked and our Robert Q shuttle comes to pick us at my parents hous...

It's October the 18th and we leave in less than a month! Our tickets are booked, our house is a mess, and I think I might be losing my mind. This is where we are attempting to do school. Kind of. We move out of our house on October 27th which means we have 9 days to get MUCHO work done.  You can see from the above photo that the packing is in process but I'm not sure the word PROGRESS is an apt description of how we're doing right now. One of those "one step forward, two steps back" things.   We do have tickets booked to fly out on November 14th.  Super exciting and crazy at the same time.  I can't believe we'll be in Togo a month from now. I know these next few weeks are going to fly by. Please pray for us as we try to complete the long list of things that need to be done before we go.  From travel visas (which are in process) to moving in with my parents (Bless them!!), there is still a lot, a lot, a lot to be accomplished. Okay - shor...

Three things to share with you: 1. The packing has started.  Our house is a mess with boxes and totes everywhere. We signed the lease for our house and we move out on October 27th.  That's this month!  Eek! 2. The tickets are actually booked.  We fly out on Monday, November 14th at 6:35 pm from Toronto and land in Lome on November 15th at 6:10 pm (Lome time).  That's about six weeks away! 3. Support is at 91% today.  AMAZING!!  We have about $600 per month left to raise to be fully supported.  Please pray with us that this final amount comes in BEFORE November 14th. We trust that God will provide. This is starting to be really real. I was filling out all the applications for our visas today and it's crazy to think that in a few weeks, we'll actually be back in Mango. It's exciting and scary, happy and sad, good and hard all at the same time. Ugh - these crazy conflicting emotions! You want to know how you can pray for us?  I'm so gl...

My great-aunt Ines, who was a missionary in Nigeria for 28 years, had a saying:  "Things are happening around here." This wasn't her most famous saying.  I'll get to that one in a bit.  The "things are happening around here" was something she said in the final years of her life when she suspected that her cleaning-lady was stealing tuna cans from her pantry or when she felt that the nurses in her nursing home were conspiring against her. But it's true around our place nonetheless.  Things are happening around here...and it's nothing to do with tuna. Here's what is happening: 1.  Support!!   Look at the "before" photo of our snake and the current-up-to-the-minute snake!!  Praising the Lord on this big answer to prayer! I posted this photo on June 4th. No coloured stripes. And then this is today - 81%, baby!  It is the abundant provision of God through people like you that has allowed this to happen! 2. House Rental...

Happy Middle of August! We can't believe how quickly the summer is passing. It's been a busy one and we have some updates to share with you: 1.  Last week we had the privilege of going on a family holiday - all seven of us!  Everyone was able to book the same week off from work, so we headed to the beautiful province of Quebec.  We had a great time as a family, enjoying the beauty of the province and engaging in some crazy adventures.  We went white water rafting, whale-watching (and yes, we saw whales!), caving in Gatineau Park and exploring a little of Old Quebec City.  It was absolutely lovely! The view of the St. Lawrence from one of our campgrounds. Heading into our first rapid... Jack and Ted at The Citadel Beautiful Old Quebec City It was also great to practice our French.  It's amazing what we remember but more astonishing what we forgot.  Nate only made one major faux-pas but likely we'll never see those people aga...

Just a quick update today so you know we're still alive and kicking! First things first - snake update!  We're excited to be past the 25% milestone! It's so great to see the stripes being coloured in and knowing that we are getting closer and closer to our goal of being in Mango sometime in November. This second photo is our front living room  - it looks like Ikea exploded in here! We're heading to Lansing, Michigan on Friday to take a load of totes and boxes to a container that is heading over to Mango. From school books to peanut butter and juice crystals to towels, we've got a bunch of stuff ready to sail across the ocean and (hopefully) arrive in Mango before we do.  It's so great that we can send some stuff across rather than trying to squeeze everything into 12 bags of luggage. Thanks for your faithful prayers and encouragement.  We're excited to get to Mango as soon as we can - and we know that it's through your support and e...