The odd menagerie blog post...

This blog post is kind of an odd assortment of thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc.
I am on my way over to Emily Atkins' kitchen for the next couple of hours. We're attempting to make some salsa that a friend, Catalina, showed me in Washington DC. Hope we get it right, if so, our tastebuds will be duly rewarded! :)

About our current place in the journey:
I have been absorbing all that's going on rather slowly. This transition has been different on every level from the last transition. Last time, I think the way I prepared myself and set to work here in such a hurry was great, but not sustainable. This time, I feel like we're preparing for more of a marathon than a sprint. We're taking our time to pick a place to live, think about the things we might want in our house that will help us feel at home (for me, that's things like having good bedding on my bed and a pressure cooker in the kitchen; for Jason, it's having an internet connection that's easy to use and knowing the doors lock well--no cheesy locks). I think this will be a time of being ready for the long-haul. We're sinking our teeth in.

Colossians 1:10-12

This past Spring, we spent from January to May running and training to run races. We ran lots of 5Ks and one 10K. It's my long-term goal to run a half marathon the next time we're home and 4 yers from now, I want to run a full marathon. Once we've done that, we want to stay in shape to keep running at that level for as long as we can. The video here is of part of our race in the Bolder Boulder this year. Our life is a lot like our race training right now. Sustainability and long-term vision are important to us at this point.
This is a brief video from our 10K race this year.

Hebrews 12:1

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Thanks for being with us:
Jason is in the bathroom right now using a hand-pump water filter to get us clean water for the day. We're thankful to have running water and filters to make it drinkable! Sheba is napping on her bed wishing she could curl up in our clothes, and I am writing you. It's like having you here in our house. We can feel your hugs, your encouraging words, your jokes and smiles. I can imagine each of you hanging out with us here right now and I know what you'd be doing.
There was a large spider on the wall this morning. It was one of the kinds that when you hit it with the fly swatter, all its legs fall off. I should take a video of it some time, you kinda have to see it to believe it. Anyway, I kept laughing because I was thinking of different ones of you and how you would react; from friends who would say "It's a spider, they eat other bugs, let it live in your house" to those who would be climbing the tallest thing in the room and just screaming. The spider was too high for me to reach so I was going to leave it alone, but Jason decided to swat it. It was over our bed, so when he hit it, its legs showered down on the sheets around its body. What inefficient spiders! Jason was a bit awestruck--he's heard about these spiders, but I don't think he realized they REALLY did lose their legs when you hit them.
Thank you all for pouring into our lives. As we spend ourselves and our hearts here, we are pouring out to people and God uses you to pour into us. Sometimes, when I talk to someone here, I see them through the eyes of the people who send us. There is tremendous love, compassion, sensitivity, humor, and joy we receive from you and it is so uplifting. Thank you for your heart for Africa.

Talking in Church:
A few days ago, I spoke at a women's group at church. I have no idea if the message I prepared was any good, but they were gracious and seemed appreciative--people here are SO kind. They tell you that you're doing a great job even when you slaughter the language completely, and they ask you to speak at meetings and groups on your first week here, just trusting us immediately. It's VERY humbling. Before I spoke, one of the women stood up and delegated different topics of prayer to each person in the group. The one that struck me most was the topic of prayer for women and marriages in Bissau. The way the woman talked about marriage was very telling. She said that there is an absolute war in in the spiritual realm over marriages. Marriage itself has become a battle here. She asked us to pray for God's intervention in marriage. The way she said it cannot be conveyed in words. Her eyes were alight with sincerity and the immediacy of this need. All at once, I saw these women in a whole new light, like fierce and sweet soldiers fighting for God's glory in their own families. They are like pillars of strength, and yet they are so fragile. Speaking before this group was absolutely the most humbling thing I have done in a while. All I wanted to do was pull up a seat and ask them to tell me their life stories and share with me about their strengths and experiences. I told them about how we've said goodbye to all of you and how it has been to leave the USA. I said that I've said goodbye to my family and dear friends knowing God has people for me to grow close to here, and I told them how glad I was to finally meet them!
I look forward to going back for women's group again this week. I know God is doing AMAZING things in the lives of women here and I am honored to witness it and play a role. Please pray that I approach all aspects of this with God's grace and heart.

Journey ahead....

The map (which is clearly not in English, but is colorful and fun) indicates our route over the next nine days. On August 30th, we set out from Denver in a rental car. Along the way we will visit Jason's grandma and take some time to rest before we jump into the moving picture.

On September 5th, we will fly out of Dulles Airport bound for Dakar, Senegal. It is an 8-hour flight (not bad at ALL, huh?!) directly from DC to Dakar. Dakar, Senegal is a very big hub of activity and industry on the West Coast of Africa. It is an hour-long flight from there directly to Bissau City, but the flight costs about $600-$800 per person and a taxi costs a few hundred dollars total for us and Sheba and our luggage. It becomes a financial no-brainer. We will travel for two days by car to go from Dakar, Senegal to Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. We'll go through three countries: Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. The first day of travel by car will be in what's called a sept place. It's a seven-seater car that we can rent along with a driver who will take us halfway. Our first night in Africa will be spent in Ziguinchor (zig-in-shore), Senegal on the border. The border closes at 7pm, so we will stay in a hotel in a compound in Zig that night and we'll wait until morning to cross. The most exciting part of this jurney is where we get to meet our friends, the Atkins!!! They'll be waiting for us in Ziguinchor so we can travel with them the following day.

Finally, we will reach Bissau and will get to see our friends there. Jason will meet his first Guinean EVER on the 7th of September and we'll begin our process of entering the world of Guinea-Bissau and learning their culture and working with the church there.

**Please pray for safe travels for us and for non-eventfulness in the journey! Pray for wisdom and alertness and safe arrival of us and our bags.

Thoughts on the craziest plan I've ever made

Erica here!

As a planner, I like to have my world be predictable in a way. I like to pack it full of things, but I get a certain joy out of the fact that I can put events in my planner on my phone and watch them happen with relative dependability. Well, I'm realizing that this is the craziest, most out of my control plan I've ever made.

This is my little family. Just the three of us. And somehow, it's my whole world. It's a very different proposition to take my family to Africa rather than just myself. It's very different to move to Guinea-Bissau than to have a 6 month hiatus from life and go there with return tickets purchased before I even set foot on an airplane. This is definitely very different. The best way I can describe the feeling is to relate it to the way it felt years ago as a kid on Splash Mountain in Disney World. You're in this cave going along watching puppets sing, having fun, safely in the tracks and having a pretty good idea of what's ahead. Then, you see the bright light at the end of the tunnel and you get this rush of exhiliration. When you finally get to the top of it, you can no longer see the tracks in front of you, just blue sky ahead and no ground in sight. You know it's there, but you also know there's a plunge ahead, too. Your stomach rises into your chest and you tense every muscle in anticipation and then whooosh! Yep, it's pretty much exactly like that. This safe, comfortable life is behind us and the blue sky is ahead. The picture below is the view from the apartment we moved out of on Saturday.

The big difference is knowing that God's hand is under us. It's a bit like that moment in Indiana Jones when he takes the "leap of faith" (which I still maintain is more like a big step than a "leap," but I'll take that up with the director some time) and just steps out and it isn't until after he finds the ground that you can see it. I know He's there and it's a great thing to feel safe in that knowledge.

So, whether it's "whoosh" or a step-leap thing, this is happening! We are spending this week with Jason's family and then we've got a wedding for a good friend this weekend. After the wedding, we set off to visit friends and family in the Southern States and come home on the same day that Sheba goes to the vet for a tooth cleaning, we get our third and final Rabies vaccine and we head off to MTI in Colorado Springs for three weeks of preparation for being hard targets to kidnapping and processing culture shock. In the meantime, we're working to secure extortion insurance, trying to get our final "from home" newsletter to you all and so on. It's a lot, but it's good. I never thought I would be thinking logically about kidnapping and using the word extortion in daily use, and it's still a bit of a stretch, I get that sense of "holy cow, I said that and meant it and that's insane" when I say it. But I know it's good and God is in control. I've learned just what Tetanus really is and why we're so glad to have a vaccine for it here in the USA and I've been amazed at how much God has blessed my life. Guinea-Bissau and our time there is an extension of that blessing.

Jason has finished his job and this is our first day working together to accomplish the dreams that God has given us. We're officially on payrole with Red Rocks Church and have gotten bank accounts all worked out and managed for this venture.

I look ahead wondering what comical errors we're about to make, what adventures we're going to have and what stories we'll come back with. It's best to look forward and enjoy the memories but not dwell there. Africa is waiting for us. There is God's calling on the horizon and His amazing grace is sustaining and blessing us. We're ready for the plunge!

We've shared wonderful memories with so many of you and look forward to sharing our new experiences with you as we move somewhere far different from here. We hope you'll continue to laugh and cry with us as we go along and that we can do the same with you over email, Skype, letters, etc. The next two months will be a flurry of goodbyes and tears and laughter and memories to keep in our pockets as we embark.