Can you believe it?  We are at the half-way mark of our time in the United States of America!  How time does fly, but also what precious times we have had with friends and family, with more to look forward to!

Looking Back

For Thanksgiving at the end of November, we had a Garrett week with my family.  We had lots of fun times, and ate lots of our favorite holiday foods!  At Christmas, Katie’s family joined us.  It is so precious to have such special family times together here.

The in-between times have been busy with work for SIM USA and planning an Open House at the Manse for the church on December 16.  We had a constant stream of visitors and enjoyed getting to know more people from the church!

In addition to celebrating holidays, I have also been attending to health issues.  The new glasses are not quite right and we are working to resolve the issues.  Please pray that these issues will be resolved soon and my new glasses will just do what glasses are supposed to do!  I also went to the dentist soon after we arrived in Connecticut for a checkup and had several cavities.  Then, when that was done, another tooth broke and I need a crown for it.  I am thankful to have a long-time member of our church who is a competent and kind dentist!  He is doing a great job, but it all is costing more than I ever expected!  The combination of cataract surgery, new glasses and dental work has resulted in thousands of dollars of expenses that were not in my budget!

Looking Forward

January will be an unusual month since Corey will be gone two weeks for required courses at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri toward his Masters in Theological Studies.  He will also be one of the presenters at a two-day conference of mission mobilizers in Virginia.  Katie and I will be here in Simsbury with the girls while he is gone.  February will also be unusual.  Corey and Katie will lead a weekend retreat for one of the local church youth ministries then our whole family will be taking a two-week trip to visit friends and family in Florida.  I look forward to seeing my brother and sister whom I haven’t seen for at least four years.

I am excited about an opportunity for service at the church here in Simsbury, called The Barn.  The church leadership has invited me to form a committee on community within the church.  I will recruit a team and we will be working on ideas to strengthen and build greater community as well as growing a strong, sustainable committee to carry on these activities.  I know I am very privileged to be part of this development at The Barn.

As we look toward the end of our time in the USA, we plan to depart within weeks of the end of school to be back in Senegal before the end of June.  This is both exciting and scary.    I am excited about teaching the girls again.  Because our living arrangements will be different, I will be living at our teammate’s home while they are on home assignment our first year back and doing school there.  I am looking forward to having my own place, and I think it will be good for the girls to ‘go to school’ like they do here in the USA.

This arrangement will also give Corey and Katie time to work on their new project.  This last term they were able to attend (and lead) workshops on learning to read the Wolof language in Arabic script, called Wolofal.  Wolofal takes advantage of the fact that 70% or more of Wolof men learn to read Arabic script.  Transcribing the Bible into the Wolofalscript, villagers will be able to pick up a Scripture portion and read it immediately.  Unfortunately there has not been anyone with time to devote to this project.

Corey and Katie are praying about devoting the majority of their time to working on this project of converting Bible portions to Wolofal.  While I do school with the girls, they will be able to focus on this transcription process, proof-reading the texts with Wolofal readers, and getting the Scriptures printed and distributed around Senegal.

On the down side, we will be the only ones of our team in town for the first year, and I know we will miss the fellowship.

My biggest concern is for funding.  I still need 55% or $1435 (5235 Dh) per month.  I currently have in hand enough funds to carry me through this next six months and three months on the field.  I do have some additional promises for support but not enough to carry me through the whole two years in Senegal.  In addition to this I have medical bills totaling $3,915 (or 14,300 Dh).  SIM’s policy is to not allow a missionary to go on the field until they are 100% supported with gifts or promises.  I need to have promises for the rest of my support to come in before I can leave in June.  Please prayerfully lift this need to the Father.  For further information or to donate click here.

Prayers

• Praise for the many opportunities we are having to connect with friends and family in the USA.
• Please pray for wisdom in leading the Committee on Community at The Barn; both in selection of the committee members and the activities and events planned.
• Pray for funds to cover my medical bills.
• Pray for workers to come join the Kaffrine team.
• Steve Smith, our Kaffrine teammate suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, visited the Mayo Clinic but did not find any solutions to his condition.  Please continue to pray for his health.
• Pray for continued additions to my support to bring it up to 100%.