Separate for New Years Eve

Happy New Year!!  Adam is in Tsiko w/ Isaac and Grace and I am in Mango (10 hour drive) w/ Lydia, Gabrielle and Luke.  Lydia, Gabrielle and I are here basically to view the Hospital being built by ABWE, and Luke came with us in hopes of viewing a Hippo (which he DID yesterday).  Unfortunately Adam could not come, b/c he is being kept very busy at the hospital.  He did take Saturday, Grace's bday, off and did a hike to a  local waterfall.  It was hard to be apart.  We were able to talk via phone which was better than nothing.  It is the first time in 27 years that we haven't been together on New Years.

New Years Eve here was spent in a typical American way.  We played games with a group that is here on a 2 week mission trip from Canada, however, b/c of being hot and exhausted, we said Happy New Year at 11 and parted.

Last week, I was blessed to the point of tears.  Blessed because I have NEVER been able to watch Adam operate or been in on a delivery and I got to see both in one shot!  Lydia, Gabrielle and I were able to watch him do a C-section for twins.  OH MY, how AMAZING!  I even got to help rub the babies down, give them a bit of oxygen (they came out a bit floppy) and get them screaming!  If you look at Lydia's blog you can see a picture of the twins.  Adam was amazing to watch!  I was so proud and awed by what he did. Despite the fact that it was probably 90 degrees (that would be dry heat-haha) b/c the air was broken, Adam was maybe not cool, but calm and collected.  Yup, there is a reason he fixes things that need mending in our home, he is an incredibly good stitcher- precise, meticulous and swift!

Also ,Isaac and I, along with Jennifer and William (their oldest) DeKryger, were blessed to be a part of the water filter installation done by the Togolese people of the CHE (the Community Health Evangelism) team.  Pray for a continued relationship between the Hospital Baptiste and Hydraid/Safe water of Ghana!

The Lifehouse Everything skit that the kids have been putting on everywhere we go, has been amazingly effective.  I still cannot watch that mime without tears!  It crosses all language barriers!  We have been asked to teach it to a nearby village's church/youth group.  The pastor saw it performed at the first village we did it in.  If we make it back from Mango tomorrow as planned, we will be teaching this group on Tuesday.  Pray for that time!

Thank you! from the missionaries down here for all of the gifts that so many of you sent, from cheese to balls, they wanted you to know how much they were blessed by everything you sent!!

Prayers today: - Lydia is sick, flu like, pray it is nothing more than that! oh and while I have been typing this Gabrielle has now thrown up, yikes! And Todd Dekryger has it too!  Must be something we ate!
- I have a terrible cold.  Thankfully today we truly have a day of rest, so pray for renewal.
-Adam did a Vaginal Fistula last week (among other surgeries) on a woman whose had this surgery 3x before, pray that it takes this time.
-open hearts.
-the car we took up here has broken down (if you saw the roads these cars drove on, you would be amazed that ANY are running.  Pray they can figure out what is wrong!  And then, for the 10 hour, WILD ride back to Tsiko.  prayer answered!  Car up and running, now just pray the people riding and driving will feel better! The roads are ROUGH and having a sick stomach to begin with is not good.  THANK YOU for praying!  

 The sights, sounds and people have been amazing, overwhelming, stunning, challenging, beautiful, gracious, awe-inspiring, hot,  and many other descriptive words. We are all still processing.

This week includes:  A Togolese Pastor Wives conference where we will be doing crafts, handing out gifts (to which so many of you donated!) and performing the mime.  Surgeries and more surgeries, with hopes of family members helping/watching-Lydia did retract for him on the vaginal fistula.  And, maybe, although still uncertain, a trip to the capitol city of Lome, which apparently is an experience in itself.

Love you all,  Ani et all,  don't forget you can check out Lydia's blog too (her's is much more reflective and beautiful to read) she put a link on out previous post.