Deborah...........................

Another baby and another name to pick for her/him.  In those days we did not know the sex of the baby ahead of time, and so we had the two names John Milton and Deborah Lee ready to bestow upon our new baby!  And you turned out to be Deborah Lee. With Cheryl, we just gave her a name I had liked for a long time. We also liked Deborah and we attached Lee to it - for my middle name!  I have already talked about the Rutland hospital in a former chapter - we brought you home before a week was up. In those days women stayed in the hospital a longer time than they do now.

Cheryl loved you from the day she met you. I never sensed any jealousy in her, but we did work at including her in everything and my holding both of you on my lap often. She loved to kiss you and I taught her to kiss you on the top of your head to prevent any germs or crumbs from getting in your mouth!  It was such a boost to have Aunt Donna and Uncle Dave living with us as they loved you girls and helped with you. As did most of the youth group in Rutland.

You had (and have) a totally different personality from your older sister. Cheryl tended to be more impulsive and you more pensive.  Before you were a year old and Cheryl two years old, we went on a tour through New England, speaking in Alliance churches to build up a prayer support group.  We didn't have car seats in those days, so you sat on my lap and Cheryl sat between Dad and me - when she wasn't trying to get on my lap too! 

That ship trip to France on the SS United States was so relaxing for us as we arrived at the New York dock worn out.  Saying goodbyes, packing up our house, visiting relatives, our tour, all helped to sap our strength and we were glad to be on board ship for four or five days with nothing to do except appear at the right time for meals and relax in deck chairs while you girls had fun in the ship's nursery!  You remember the picture someone took of us getting on board, with me in front, holding Cheryl's hand and that big German teddybear of hers in my arms and Dad coming behind with you in his arms (you weight thirty five pounds!) a bag in his right hand and the ship's ticket in his mouth - no hands left!  The Arnolds, Bowers and two single ladies completed our team going to Paris for language study. 

As with all you kids, your first home in Africa was Santidougou, and I think even to this day we all sort of think of Santidougou (Parehon) as home.  That ancient mud brick house with a tin pan roof and ceilings has many memories for all of us. You were two years old and Cheryl three.  That big mission and church yard was a wonderful playground for you, to say nothing of our village.  The traditional Bobo houses are all connected and you can go right from one side of the village to the other without seeing daylight. (I remember delivering a baby for Martin's wife way back in one of those rooms with only an oil lamp to show me what I was doing. Aunt Donna was there for that delivery and was with me when they called me. The baby's cord was around his neck and Aunt Donna had delivered enough babies at Sanekui that she knew what to do in that abnormality. So we saved the baby!)

But I digress..........Tabitha, the yardman's wife, was your favorite lady to visit. They lived in the yard next to ours and you spent hours with her learning how to cook Bobo food.  You also loved conversing with Yusufu while he was working at the house.  He came to me one day and said, "This child has too much intelligence - I can't answer all her questions!" And when I asked him what he meant, he said you had just asked him "Where is God??"  And he answered something about God living in us through His Spirit. Then you wanted to know, "Does my food fall on him inside when I eat??" What a little theologian!  You were always very analytical, even as a child, and this has made you a successful teacher and counselor during your life.

But back to Tabita, the yardman's wife. It was a cold season day and you had put on a sweater and gone over to your favorite activity - sitting beside Tabita on a little low stool inside a poorly lighted kitchen hut, talking to her and watching her fix the morning gruel.  The next thing we heard over in our yard were your screams, accompanied by Tabita's wailing and we saw everyone running.  We ran too and realized the screams were coming from you and you were severely burned on your hand and on your arm. The sweater you wore protected you from worse burns, but your poor little hand was red and swelling and dripping nyawere.  You had leaned over to look in the pot, sitting on your three legged stool which tipped and your whole arm fell right in that pot of boiling gruel.  It makes me cringe now to even think of it.  Dad revved up the VW van and we took off for Bobo, I holding you in the middle seat and Yusufu and the other kids in the car. We rushed right to the hospital.  They had some special burn gauze they used  (impregnated with a healing salve and used in the war for burns) on your hand and arm and each of your little fingers were carefully wrapped and I am sure they gave you a sedative.  It took a while to heal, but Dad carefully re-did your bandages every day.  And we saved all your fingers and you were left with some faded scars to remind us all of that terrible accident!

I taught you Kindergarten at Santidougou, as I did all of you kids.  You and Cheryl got along fine usually, but occasionally she would boss you around (which you did not like) and one day you came to me and said, "Cheryl just fu-rus-trates me so!"  After that year of kindergarten, you also had a summer of teaching at SIL while we were studying linguistics at SIL, Oklahoma, and then finally entered first grade at Nyack and attended there till we left for the field in February. You were always a good student all the way through school.  You were a great one for presenting logical arguments and I sometimes wondered if you would be a lawyer some day! 

Your best friend, Zenesi, in Santidougou died and that was a blow for you. You were also friends with Nasara and with Pastor Etienne's daughters.  You learned to sew eaarly - can't remember where you learned that, certainly NOT from me!  But you made clothes for yourself.  It was later on that tailors in the market would copy any outfit we wanted, using material we could buy in the local market in Bobo. This sure helped with your clothes for school, as at that time it was almost impossible to order something from the States and have it sent by parcel post. You and Cheryl both liked to cook and bake and that kept you busy when you were on vacation from ICA. By then we were living in Bobo.

You went all the way through ICA, from halfway through the first grade to graduation, except for attending the Nyack school system during our furloughs. Cheryl had been at Nyack for her Freshman year and then came out to spend her vacation in Africa and to return to Nyack with you in tow!  I can still feel the tears and sadness when we saw the two of you fly off alone on the plane from Bobo.  Back then we went for four years and were only allowed to go to the States for something big like funerals or weddings. How times do change! 

We went on home assignment when you were going into your Senior year at Nyack college. Dad and I were MIR's that year, so we lived in that big  house down on Fern Avenue and had wall to wall students there most of the time! (We actually had to ask the mission at the end of that year to pay for a motel for a couple days so we could pack up at our furlough house.  As long as we were remaining in that house we had students there too and always ready to stay for meals. By not cooking there any longer, we were able to pack up to leave.) 

One of our duties as MIR was to work with the Missions Committee, which was elected at the beginning of every school year.  I remember the president who was elected that year had a beautiful black beard and curly dark hair.  And you were elected as secretary of the committee.  So that is how you and Steve met each other and worked together that year. 

In the Spring we attended Council, and how well I remember Cheryl and Elin calling us on the phone and telling us to get ready for an engagement as Steve and you were spending so much time together.  The family joke was Steve's "flood pants" which he wore. His mother shopped for his clothes at a second hand store and the pants were not always long enough for his legs, so you girls called them his flood pants. He had a white pair also, and you said if you ever married Steve, you would get a new wardrobe for him first thing! 

When we got home from Council, sure enough Steve was a regular member of the students who crowded our house!  Before we went back to the field, we went down to the Jersey shore where we had rented a nice apartment for a couple weeks of vacation with all you kids before we returned and left some of you behind.  You asked, Debbi, if Steve could also come down and spend the weekend if he could gete off work, which he did.  That was the time of gas rationing, and you could not buy gas every day. We were on a different day from Steve and Dad offered to siphon some gas from our tank into Steve's before he took off for Nyack that Sunday morning.  I was getting dressed in the bedroom and Dad came in with a funny expression on his face and closed the door and stood there.  "Guess what?" he said. "Steve just asked permission to marry Debbi!" Wow, that was a shock! A good shock.  So then the wedding plans began

Cheryl also had Bobby getting more and more interested in her about the same time, so we had the possibility of two weddings coming up.  Yours was to be that November (after we had returned to Africa) and Cheryl's was to be the next Spring.  Dad and I could not both afford either the time or the money to attend both weddings (the mission had a rigid "time bank"at that time) and so I was to go to your wedding and Dad to Cheryl's.  You were working fulltime for that explosive Nyack lawyer and were saving money and preparing for your wedding in November. You lived in that tiny basement apartment in downtown Nyack.

I flew to New York alone and was met by you two girls and friends. Aunt Donna also flew down from Canada where they were furloughing and she and I stayed with you in that little apartment.  Everything was wedding preparation. Donna and I prepared the pre-wedding dinner for you and Steve and friends in the wedding. The College let us use the president's dining room and we prepared the meal down in your apartment. (I can still see the bathtub in your apartment half full of frozen chickens which we put there to thaw!  You had everything beautifully organized, Debbi.  Grandma and Grandpa also came for the wedding.

But there was another event going on at the same time. When I arrived at the airport, Bobby was one of the guys in the party that met me, and I noticed a definite coolness on the part of Cheryl to her fiancé...He was trying hard and she was shunning his every effort!  Then she told me that she was waiting for me to get there to break her engagement to him - wow, that was a shock!  Poor Bobby, talked to me and thought maybe Cheryl would reconsider and I tried to discourage him without hurting him. I was glad to have my sister there to go through that with me.

The wedding was beautiful - you had put so much into it, Debbi. We found at the last minute we could not have the church for the reception as it was booked. So we used Olsen Center, which was a beautiful old home but very dirty. All the MK's  helped to clean it and Auntie Anne put branches of lovely flowers everywhere and it looked beautiful!  It was an evening wedding, and the only flaw in the whole wedding was that Dad could not be there! 

I flew back to Africa and you went back to your lawyer to work and Steve attended ATS.  After graduation Steve and you became assistant to the pastor at Dorseyville and that has been your home church ever since. The Meiers were a wonderful senior pastor couple and treated you like their children. Steve was a good preacher from the start and Floyd gave him opportunity to preach. During your time there Daniel was born - our very first grandchild. 

After two years you went to France for language study and spent a year there. You and Steve are both gifted in language and you did well in French, then had to learn an unwritten language when you were assigned to Safane among the Dafing people.  We were so happy to welcome you to Burkina.  Mark was still with us, you came and Tim and Ruth also joined us, so we enjoyed having family with us on the field. We got together when we could for birthdays and holidays. 

You spent many years in Safane, working in the language, preaching, evangelizing, teaching, opening a literacy school and seeing the church established among these difficult to reach people. You learned their language and opened your heart and home to them.  And little by little the work expanded, leaders were trained, and today there are trained leaders and many churches among the Dafing, thanks to your allowing God to work through you as you opened your hearts and home to these hard to reach people.

Finally God led you to Ouagadougou. The gulf between Safane and the educated population of Ouagadougou is VERY wide!  And yet you have beautifully fit into both of those cultures and again God has honored your commitment to this new group of unreached people.  I admire Steve for being able to shift every year from being pastor of a group of highly educated people, and going back to the Dafing villages to evangelize with the pastors in that area. 

God has given you both many gifts and you have been willing to serve wherever you are asigned.  Your ministry skills are many and together you cover so many bases!  May your tribe increase!