Elin...................

Elin Mae, with Elin spelled the Swedish way and named for a close friend of mine from Nyack. Of course, we always had the possibility of this baby being a boy and kept that name, John Milton, in reserve! You were timed to join our family after I had finished formal language study, our first baby in Africa.  We were very happy to have another beautiful little girl. Your sisters loved you from the start. They wanted to kiss you all the time, and I taught them to kiss you on your little forehead, for who knew what germs they might be carrying!  You were our smallest baby at eight pounds, just a tiny bit of fuzzy hair on top of your head - like all our babies - and very fair in coloring.

At this point we fixed up the sleeping porch next to our bedroom in Santidougou for our new baby. Dad painted the crib and rocking chair a Dutch blue, and you were right next to our bedroom so we would hear you if you cried out during the night.  I already wrote about your birth in the Bobo hospital with Madame Diallo, a lovely sage femme.  Amd when we got home to Santidougou there were dozens of people every day who had to come in and "lay their eyes on" you!  You were well blessed with all the Bobo greetings!

As you grew into a toddler, you were quite fearful in personality - not as ready as Cheryl and Debbi to roam the village and integrate with the village kids. (Later, in your teens, you became totally integrated.) You were a calm toddler and didn't really need someone to take care of you as you did not wander far from our yard.  Yusufu used to wheel you sometimes in a baby carriage we had, and he loved to just sit and watch you when you slept. I remember his commenting on what white and smooth skin you had!  The first white baby he had ever seen.  At first you were a "Mama's baby" but as you got older you were definitely a "Daddy's girl".

You were two years old when we went on furlough.  We bought a new VW van and travelled up to Connecticut to visit Grandma Pierce. From there we took off for Council in Arizona and back to SIL to study linguistics for the summer.  Cheryl and Debbi stayed with friends of ours during that week of Council, but we took you with us. You were such a quiet, good child. I had gone to the Woolworth's and bought a little bag full of small noiseless toys for you. During all the services of the week of Council, you sat on my lap or sat at my feet and played quietly with your toys.

From that Council we drove back to Oklahoma where we spent the whole summer studying linguistics and analyzing Bobo linguistically - in a university setting. We lived in college dorms - our family had three rooms - one for study and visiting, a bedroom for Dad and me and one for you three girls.  We also ate together in the college cafeteria with the other SIL students.  There was a great child care program and your older sisters took to it like ducks to water. Not you....you would cling to us all the way to the child care building and then start to scream the minute we put you down. So every morning we went to classes with your pitiful screams in our ears. After a few days you got very attached to one of the young workers and then you were fine for a while. But after about three weeks that girl had to leave, and we were back to stage one!  I just hated to leave you like that but knew you would eventually calm down - you were always playing happily when we came to pick up you girls for lunch. And you also attached yourself to a new lady working with the children. But that was how our summer was spent - studying linguistics at a master's level, living in a rough dorm situation with the temp at 105 or 106 every day (and no AC back then),  taking time for you girls when we got out of class. That was a two months class, and very helpful to our future language work in Burkina. But it was a stressful summer for us.

We went back to Africa by freighter and that was always a relaxing trip. You girls had a fun playroom to play in and we arrived back in Africa well rested after a very busy furlough.  You still had a couple years at home in Santidougou before it was time to go to ICA.  You would not be six until December, but we decided to send you to school when it opened in late summer. You had two big sisters there to help you through lonesome times.

You didn't seem to have problems at ICA but you had your big sisters to help you. It broke my heart each time I had to send you kids away to boarding school, and you were so young.  I remember when you were in the high school dorm and I stopped to visit you. Uncle Dave and I had to go to CPE meetings in Abidjan and so it was the two of us. On the way back we stopped to see you kids at the school.  I found you very sick - you had lost weight and looked so pale and wan, so we took you home to finish out the semester.  And get well.  Those were not easy days for us as parents - you were so far away, mail service was poor, we alweays counted the days till we would see you again.  How situations have changed for the better:  good contact through email and phone calls, parents allowed lots of options for schooling as well.  Those were hard days for us all.  We were thankful that you did not make waves at boarding school - Cheryl and John were our wave makers!! 

When you were a teenager, you were not chatty like Cheryl or a philosophical thinker like Debbi, but you were a person who always made lots of friends. At ICA you loved Aunt Joan Foster. I think parents and kids both loved her - she was such a great catalyst.  I remembeer she was the one who pierced all our ears when it became OK in Christian culture to do that!

After ICA you went on to Nyack College. During those years Grandma Pierce often helped you financially to come home to Africa and we were always delighted to see you. You and John bonded at that time also. During some of those years you were friends with Joel - but it always seemed like an off again - on again relationship.  We were on furlough during your ATS time and I attended classes there too. I came home one day and found Joel and you sitting and talking in our living room, and I was hoping that something would work out between you, as you seemed so well suited!  But that didn't happen.

You did some other things in there - went to West Africa with WRC.  We loved it when you would visit us in Bobo. But we hated to see you take off on that long, very dusty road to Ouarkoye, which is where you lived in a regular African yard.  Later on you moved to Ouagadougou and were there when the big coup happened. You made friends with a neighboring family - your apartment was on the second floor. Moise Napon and his family were also close friends of yours and you worked for and with them.

Your home service was at First Alliance in New York City and you and Terry Hotalen lived together in a horrible apartment in New York city. Dad did not even want me to see the place, and Mark said, "Don't go there, Mom."  But they finally let me go and see your apartment after it was clean and some furniture in place. We were able to help you furnish the place.  We have people in our church here in Toccoa who well remember you girls being at their church in Manhattan.  You were also the settler of palavers there and got involved with people in your apartment building, especially Indians from India. You had three special locks on your apartment to keep you safe!

So after that the next step was France and you got ready to fly to Paris. Albrights were living there and Aunt Donna had just died, so Uncle Jim was happy to have you there at that time.  Just before you left the US, Joel called and asked to take you out to dinner, and as I remember he wanted to renew his relationship with you, but you informed him you were off for Paris and the field.  Joel had previously been part of a Nyack College Winterim, and we had headed that group up on the field, so we got to know him better then. And thought he was great!

Communications were not what they are today in Burkina and we had letters from you but never talked together.  Actually that year you were in France we did not have a phone in our house as we were just going to live there for one year. One evening we were entertaining American guests, and Rollo Royle came to the door to say we had a phone call from Paris from you and could we come to their place as you were going to call back.  So we excused ourselves to our guests and took off, wondering what was wrong that you would call!  When we finally got through to you, we first asked what was wrong, and you said "Nothing is wrong, I'm going to get married!"  And Dad said, "who are you marrying?" And your answer was "Joel, of course!" Wow - what a surprise!

So we got ready for a trip to the States for your wedding and you left language study to return to the U.S. and Joel!  (Uncle Jim saved you on that one as he told you you had to call Nyack and be released by the board before you could leave, which you did,)

When we got to the States before the wedding, we went right to Joel's folks. He was pastor at Long Hill, which supported us all of our missionary days, as Dad was a member there. And of course we knew Joel's mom and dad. It was such a happy time!  A beautiful wedding - that church is perfect for a wedding with that long aisle and all the white pews. The church was packed and the reception also. We never even got to see the wedding cake as there were so many people and we were towards the back of the gym where the reception was held.  At the church we were waiting in the vestibule and some old friends from the church came up to talk to us. He asked Dad how much it cost for our plane tickets, and proceeded to write out a check for two thousand dollars to pay the trip!  Great friends to have.... Someone else had given us a car to use and guess what? It was a new Cadillac! And we had the use of it till we returned to Burkina! That trip was full of surprises. Phenicies had just flown in from the Middle East, so we had a great family reunion.  Your whole wedding was beautiful, and it was our delight to have Joel as a member of our family.

Joel was assistant pastor in Coudersport, so we met you there when you got back from your honeymoon and stayed a few days with you. Your one shock in getting married was that Joel snored and kept you awake!  Dad still snores sometime, but I had learned what kind of poke is most effective, and he never wakens but stops snoring when I apply that poke!  Later you made a home for John with you there in Coudsersport when he was at a loose end.

I mentioned our going to Paris to visit you there and to see Josiah for the first time. What a beautiful baby he was and here he is graduating from College this  year!  You are still beloved by the Coudersport folks and your senior pastor, that was a good fit for your home service. 

We visited fairly often in Côte d'Ivoire as we had business trips to make each year, sometimes several times. We had trips to Daloa for translation checks while you were there.  Then when you moved to Abidjan we visited there too, in your various homes. I had to go to Abidjan for CPE meetings and for the board of the new Alliance seminary, and I often stayed with you and attended meetings during the daytime. It was fun to watch Josiah as he deveoped his beautiful French speaking.  We would converse in French as that was his first language. I was also a professor on the staff of CEFCA, where we had men and women from many African countries for pastoral training each summer. I taught their educational course and TEE, so again I was able to touch base with your family.  We were there when the girls were born and saw you in the hospital. When the Chileans came for Marriage Encounter in Abidjan, again we spent that time at your house taking care of the kids while you were at the hotel.  Lots of memories!! How fortunate we have been to be able to maintain family ties, though living far from each other!!

You also introduced us to a high class of Abidjan society through your friends. Daouda and Véronique entertained us one evening in their penthouse overlookintg the beautiful lit city of Abidjan and the harbour.  God has given you a special gift of living the Gospel among some of the upper class people of Africa, and that is a blessing.  And now you are in Senegal and a whole new ministry and world.

We appreciate so much the way you have persevered in ministry in spite of sickness. This is such a testimony to your allowing God's grace to operate in your lives. You have given us three wonderful grandchildren.  We appreciate you both, Elin and Joel. You make a great team!  You were made for each other and we commend you for your ingenuity and perseverance in ministry and life!   Blessings!




(More about our year in San Pedro in another chapter)