God is even in the details

   So I thought that I would write a quick testimony of how God even cares about the trivial things in our lives. My two favorite fruits are not existent here in Ghana. I love fresh peaches and strawberries! I have missed them so much. We are able to sometimes get canned peaches or strawberry jam, but it's just not the same. Sometimes I convince myself that a good ripe mango is like a peach, but there is not any fruit here that is anything like a strawberry. I had been told that people are able to grow strawberries up in Burkina Faso, but we had not been able to get any until last week.
   We have many wonderful neighbors that God has brought to BMC. All of them hold a special place in our hearts. One such neighbor is a Belgian family that God brought here in September. They have had to go back and forth between here and their home in Burkina, but they have brought such joy and unity among all of us. The wife restarted the women's Bible study and the family began Sunday afternoon Ultimate Frisbee that gets many of us on campus out and interacting with each other. They were gone through out the month of February and were greatly missed. However, when they returned, they brought back around 7 kilos of strawberries for me (and my family):) Of course, we thanked them, quickly washed the strawberries with a soak in bleach, and consumed as many of the precious red fruits as I would allow. We cut up and froze most of the rest to save for special occasions and January birthdays. What a surprise and blessing.
    Just to top everything off (you know, whip cream for the strawberries), God has blessed us with amazing weather for a few days.  It is known to be hot and dry during the dry season. We had been having about 120F for a couple of weeks. The heat just drains you of all energy. Well, in the midst of dry season, God sent a couple of days of rain to cool things down a little bit.  We had no rain but clouds and temperatures in the 80s and 90s for those days. Yesterday was a beautiful day and the girls were actually asking to go outside!
   I know that the strawberries and weather are not eternal things, but just an evidence of how much our God loves us. How he is in the details of our everyday lives. He is not a far off God who does not have time for me and my silly concerns. He knows how much I like to eat strawberries and that they are not here in Ghana. He sent them to to me. He could have sent them right when we first arrived to Ghana, but He didn't. If He would have done it that way, I think they wouldn't have tasted as sweet and I would have missed the small but beautiful display of His love. How is God showing you how much He loves you?

 

Birthdays and volunteers

Our princesses

   January is always a busy month for us. Not only did we just finish celebrating Christmas, but then we turn around and have 2 birthdays. We are happy to announce that I have turned a year older and Rebekah is now 4 years old.  We enjoyed celebrating as a family and a small party with friends here in Ghana.The two princesses dressed up with their 

Rebekah's butterfly

sack races

Christmas gifts to celebrate Rebekah's birthday in style - with glittering crowns, shiny necklaces, and click-clack shoes. Rebekah enjoyed having people over, face painting, playing games and eating cake and ice cream. Rebekah wouldn't let us wash her face for 2 days, because she was so proud of the beautiful butterfly face. With the help of family and friends, we were able to attain enough strawberries to make the famous strawberry cake that we missed last year. Tim did a great job making the yummy cake! We are very grateful for all the friends we have to celebrate with here in Nalerigu. 

face painting at the party, thanks to the VanDingenen's

three-legged races

Rebekah's birthday cake

Rebekah and I celebrating together the day after the party

Rebekah opening presents

volunteers at Nakpanduri

Cahills with Dr. Jim

Cahills with Chelsea and David

  

            During the months of January and February, we have had quite a few volunteers here at BMC. We had the tail end of Drs. Shumpert and Dr Walter. We had several wonderful medical students, Curtis, Kristen, Jennifer, and Alex. We had a resident, Chelsea, and her husband, David. We also had a veteran volunteer, Dr. Jim Howard, return. Lastly, we have also had 3 German nurses working in the hospital. We enjoy meeting new people and love having familiar faces around. They have made these past 2 months a joy and much more pleasant for Tim to have the help in the hospital. Thank you for your help!

 

 As Tim mentioned on the last post, our time with World Medical Mission as Post-residents is drawing to a close at the end of April. We have been praying and have decided to return to Nalerigu as volunteers with World Medical Mission/The George Faile Foundation after a visit with our families. We will be around Ft Worth, Memphis and Knoxville during May and June. If any of you happen to be in the area and would like to see us, please let us know.

   Since I haven't been able to post many pictures, I thought that we would add a few pictures of us doing daily tasks, like going to buy bread, grinding wheat at the mill, girls playing. We also had a lot of home 'renovations' done this past month (aka we had to have a lot of plumbing work done). I am grateful for running water and toilets that flush!

Tim and Rebekah at Nakpanduri

My little stars all dressed up

the girls dressing up fancy for a pretend picnic

the guard helping with a guinea fowl gift

Our backyard dug up to fix plumbing

with kids at Aquiya's house (where we buy bread)

Different kids at Aquiya's house

with Heidi at a grinding mill

The grinding mill where I grind wheat

more time as princesses (they like to pretend to be Elsa and Anna)

getting ready for bed with dad

falling asleep in a laundry basket together