(I somehow exited my blog Mark and cannot get it to the place where I can add to it, so am making another file to finish up your story, Mark! I need Katy to get me out of my mess...)
As I was saying, - During our stops at Ferké we saw the cutest little girl, Asian features, playing with other kids on the hospital grounds. I often admired her. When I asked who she was, I was told that was Kathleen Macomber! We could not then have known the future and that she would one day be your wife, as well as our much loved daughter-in-law and the mother of four beautiful grandchildren for us! God's ways are amazing!!
You worked your way through college, always supporting yourself through jobs in the Atlanta area where you lived with a bunch of other guys in various and assorted houses and apartments. You worked your way up in one company from the warehouse tohaving your own office - we visited you in both places. You and John must get your business acumen from your Grandfather Pierce whom none of us ever knew as he died at a young age. He was a shrewd businessman.
You talked more and more of Kathleen in your letters and finally got engaged. We were there for your beautiful wedding, staying at John and Jennie's home. Hrandma and Grandpa Kennedy also came for the wedding and everyone else seemed to also congregate there. Jennie helped Katy with her dress and hair. It was all a fun family time for us. Dad also got his one eye operated on and had a partially black eye just before the ceremony! I don't think many people saw the discolored eye area when he did the ceremony! Your wedding was so beautiful, held at your church near Atlanta (which has since closed). Katy was gorgeous in her beautiful gown and veil. The bridesmaids were all dressed in back and everyone carried red roses. John did the reception which was done so beautifully. The church was full of family, friends, MK's, retired missionaries - it was a joyous occasion!
By the time we retired, you had bought a lovely home in Bethlehem, GA. You urged us, Mark, to buy a home in your neighborhood where there were several for sale. We did not do that - first because we only had so much money to spend and those were a higher price, and we also figured that you were young and had a long life ahead and wouldn't be living there forever. And we were right. John and Jennie lived with you during their rough time, returning from their hotel fiasco, and that was a blessing for them. We often had fun times and even babysat our darling grandchildren there at that house.
You also drove up to Toccoa to look at a house for us. We had gotten an ex-missionary agent to show us homes, and had specified several things we wanted, within a certain price range. We drove up here together, Mark, to look at the homes she had to show us - about seven of them. This house was the fourth one we saw, and we liked it. But we went on to see the others as well. Dad finally said, "Let's go back and see that other house - we liked that so let's just take it!" Which we did!! You were bowled over - said no one EVER buys a house that fast - but we did. And we have never been sorry. We have made a number of improvements to the house and property, but it is home to us after these twelve years.
We were an hour from you so could enjoy our four grandchildren, being born and growing up. John and Jennie were near also. Debbi and Steve's kids we saw grow up because we lived in the same country. Darrell and Cheryl's three we seldom saw as they were in the Middle East. And Elin and Joel's we saw off and on as they lived south of us in Ivory Coast. So now we had your four little ones. It was always fun to see them born and grow, to babysit them occasionally when you wanted us, to have them and you all here for meals and parties and even overnight sometimes. You lived in our house during our year in Mali and we came back and joined you in this house, until your new beautiful home was ready! Fun times, all of them! That house in Buford is a beauty and we have MANY wonderful memories from there: babysitting while you went out for a special occasion, just stopping to chat, spectacular meals served, Christmases and Thanksgivings with as many family members as could come. Those too were good years for us.
And then, your promotion and moving to Connecticut - where your dad started his life! What a thunderbolt that was. So now here we are in Georgia - after twelve years we do feel at home here - and John has fled to Ohio and your family to Connecticut! We are proud of you all and your accomplishments and we have plenty to keep us busy right here. While at the same time missing y'all!
We admire both you and Katy for being such hands on parents, for homeschooling your children, for giving them a good Christian foundation to their lives, for making so many fun times for them, for sending us almost daily pictures of them and your new home area. Your positive attitudes and your devotion to God and family are a delight to see! We love you all!
Monday, April 11, 2011
MARK.........................................
Mark Amasa, the last but not the least of the PIERCE offspring!! We called you the child of "our old age" and that was years ago, so what does that made us now?? You and your lovely family have given us much joy in our lives and continue to do so. I have already written about your rather unusual birth at Ferké hospital. Your sister, Cheryl, was home from ICA at that time, and so you were "her" baby. Your big brother, John, had not yet gone to ICA and he was fascinated with this new little charater that had come to live with us. We had to watch it that he did not try to feed you part of his cookie or poke his fingers in the wrong place and unknowingly hurt you.
You came home with us to Santidougou, and lived there a while, but most of your childhood in Burkina was spent in Bobo-Dioulasso, whichwas your hometown. Mamou was your babysitter (she was - and is - a gem!) and your best friend in Bobo was Benjamin Tessugué, the pastor's son. He was a little older than you and you two were bosom buddies. We saw him in Mali in 2005, now a grown man with a family like you, and we recalled the good days you two had together as children. His mother declared you knew and understand Dogoso, as that was the only language they spoke in their home and you always understood. Mamou talked to you in Dafing so you understood that. We talked French and English, Jula and Bobo Madare in our house and you understood all of those. So you actually grew up in your pre-school years knowing something of six languages.
Your big brother, John, was brown, robust and knew no strangers. You in contrast had a pale complexion, wispy blond hair and were timid. You, Michael and Tawni were all born the same year and remained friends through to your growup years. The year you all were born, they housed our three families in that center (Kauffman) house for field conference. We would get up in the morning seeing Uncle Dave, sitting in shorts (only) and sleepily feeding little baby Michael in his arms. The three of you grew up together for the most part. Albrights lived in Koutiala, Mali, and I remember a Christmas when we and Kennedys went to Mali and celebrated an early Christmas with the Albrights. You kids were a little older then, and the big boys got the idea to have a show for us parents. You were hystereical, taking off on all our foibles! I remember one line where Jonathan (Uncle Dave) yelled out, "Margot hurry up in that shower - Milt and Nancy are going to be mad if we are late again! We lived close enough to Bobo at Santidougou to have fun visits back and forth with Kennedys. And we even occasionaly braved the Burkina-Mali (non paved roads to visit Albrights in Sanekui. We were so fortunate, and we also tried consciously to include others (in the mission) in our relationships, who were not so fortunate as we and missed their families. The Royles were also family with us as we lived together so many years, both in Santidougou and Bobo.
You seemed to get every disease that came along when you were a toddler. I remember one year at Santidougou when the town was full of meningitis, a deadly disease in Burkina. You and our yardman's little son were sitting together on our front terrace and sharing a tall plastic glass of ice tea! You would take a sip and offer it to him and he would take a sip and thus back and forth. The next day he started symptoms of meningitis and ended uphaving a fairly severe case, but survived. I watched you carefully during the incubation time but you never developed meningitis and we were thankful to God for sparing us that.
John always had a pack of friends, and you in contrast enjoyed having one good friend instead. You were so different in temperament but got along well. And it is a delight to us to see the two of you as adults enjoying each other. We are so proud of you!
You did well at ICA. You had complaints about the school, as most kids did, but you resrerved them to air to us when we got together. And thus you pretty much stayed out of trouble. I remember that one set of dormparents you had, she was persnickety and he was boisterous and told you cop stories. When I stopped there once, without Dad, for one of my Abidjan trips, I had bought a bag full of apples at Monoprix as you loved them and did not get them at school. I put them in the house frig in their bag - the houseparents were away on a long weekend and so there was no one to ask about using the frig. There were still some apples left in the bag when the dormparents came back from their time away. She demanded of me, "Are you the one who put apples in the frig without asking me?" And I assured her that I had, and she said it was a dorm rule that no one could put anything in that frig unless they asked her so she could also tell her husband because he would open the door and just eat whatever he thought would make a good snack! . So I suggested that it was impossible to tell her since she was several hundred kilometers away. I thought her logic a bit faulty when she told me that if her husband had been there, he would have eaten my apples! Wow, I felt sorry having to live with THAT lady, but I think you said the man's cop stories were fun and you just sort of ignored her as much as you could!
Sometime during your grade school years Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy lived there in Bouaé to replace some on furlough who did the youth work in the city. They regularly had all you kids out to eat at their apartment at the Bouaké mission. They loved those visits and so did all you kids - Pierces, Kennedys and Albrights.
You were president of your senior class (what happened to that shy little boy??) and by all reports did a great job. This was a forerunner of the great leader you have become as a geown man.
During those trips to Bouaké during those years, we usually stopped for a rest stop at the Ferké hospital. There I observed one of the cutest little girls
You came home with us to Santidougou, and lived there a while, but most of your childhood in Burkina was spent in Bobo-Dioulasso, whichwas your hometown. Mamou was your babysitter (she was - and is - a gem!) and your best friend in Bobo was Benjamin Tessugué, the pastor's son. He was a little older than you and you two were bosom buddies. We saw him in Mali in 2005, now a grown man with a family like you, and we recalled the good days you two had together as children. His mother declared you knew and understand Dogoso, as that was the only language they spoke in their home and you always understood. Mamou talked to you in Dafing so you understood that. We talked French and English, Jula and Bobo Madare in our house and you understood all of those. So you actually grew up in your pre-school years knowing something of six languages.
Your big brother, John, was brown, robust and knew no strangers. You in contrast had a pale complexion, wispy blond hair and were timid. You, Michael and Tawni were all born the same year and remained friends through to your growup years. The year you all were born, they housed our three families in that center (Kauffman) house for field conference. We would get up in the morning seeing Uncle Dave, sitting in shorts (only) and sleepily feeding little baby Michael in his arms. The three of you grew up together for the most part. Albrights lived in Koutiala, Mali, and I remember a Christmas when we and Kennedys went to Mali and celebrated an early Christmas with the Albrights. You kids were a little older then, and the big boys got the idea to have a show for us parents. You were hystereical, taking off on all our foibles! I remember one line where Jonathan (Uncle Dave) yelled out, "Margot hurry up in that shower - Milt and Nancy are going to be mad if we are late again! We lived close enough to Bobo at Santidougou to have fun visits back and forth with Kennedys. And we even occasionaly braved the Burkina-Mali (non paved roads to visit Albrights in Sanekui. We were so fortunate, and we also tried consciously to include others (in the mission) in our relationships, who were not so fortunate as we and missed their families. The Royles were also family with us as we lived together so many years, both in Santidougou and Bobo.
You seemed to get every disease that came along when you were a toddler. I remember one year at Santidougou when the town was full of meningitis, a deadly disease in Burkina. You and our yardman's little son were sitting together on our front terrace and sharing a tall plastic glass of ice tea! You would take a sip and offer it to him and he would take a sip and thus back and forth. The next day he started symptoms of meningitis and ended uphaving a fairly severe case, but survived. I watched you carefully during the incubation time but you never developed meningitis and we were thankful to God for sparing us that.
John always had a pack of friends, and you in contrast enjoyed having one good friend instead. You were so different in temperament but got along well. And it is a delight to us to see the two of you as adults enjoying each other. We are so proud of you!
You did well at ICA. You had complaints about the school, as most kids did, but you resrerved them to air to us when we got together. And thus you pretty much stayed out of trouble. I remember that one set of dormparents you had, she was persnickety and he was boisterous and told you cop stories. When I stopped there once, without Dad, for one of my Abidjan trips, I had bought a bag full of apples at Monoprix as you loved them and did not get them at school. I put them in the house frig in their bag - the houseparents were away on a long weekend and so there was no one to ask about using the frig. There were still some apples left in the bag when the dormparents came back from their time away. She demanded of me, "Are you the one who put apples in the frig without asking me?" And I assured her that I had, and she said it was a dorm rule that no one could put anything in that frig unless they asked her so she could also tell her husband because he would open the door and just eat whatever he thought would make a good snack! . So I suggested that it was impossible to tell her since she was several hundred kilometers away. I thought her logic a bit faulty when she told me that if her husband had been there, he would have eaten my apples! Wow, I felt sorry having to live with THAT lady, but I think you said the man's cop stories were fun and you just sort of ignored her as much as you could!
Sometime during your grade school years Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy lived there in Bouaé to replace some on furlough who did the youth work in the city. They regularly had all you kids out to eat at their apartment at the Bouaké mission. They loved those visits and so did all you kids - Pierces, Kennedys and Albrights.
You were president of your senior class (what happened to that shy little boy??) and by all reports did a great job. This was a forerunner of the great leader you have become as a geown man.
During those trips to Bouaké during those years, we usually stopped for a rest stop at the Ferké hospital. There I observed one of the cutest little girls
Sunday, April 10, 2011
JOHN.......................
John, you have always been one of those "bigger than life" people! Before you were born, we probably had a girl's name picked out, but we didn't need it - we finally had our JOHN MILTON! I wrote in another chapter of your birth in the guest house at the Bobo mission, with Marg Robers and a French doctor delivering you.
As soon as we got to the village, everyone had to come and greet for our baby. Even the old men from the village came into the nursery to give their Bobo blessings! From young childhood you had an investigative, upbeat personality. You were funny, outgoing, generous, inquisitive, a leader, empathetic, loving - the list could go on. We saw these qualities developing in you even as a child, qualities you still have as a grown man.
There was one quality we needed to curb - your anger. One day you were playing a game with the village boys, with those pointed iron things - your friend won and you were mad and without stopping to think you threw the iron at him - and fortunately did not hit him, as you could have killed him. So I took you into the bedroom and had a long talk with you about holding you temper. You were just a little guy but you seemed to understand. Another time you and Madu were arm wrestling and you being so much stronger broke a bone in his arm! Dad splinted it up - and Madu wore that bandage as a badge of honor until the arm healed!
You sure gave Sini a run for his money - I can still see him running after you yelling, "Zan! Zan" as he tried to catch you. We could tell you were not emotionally ready to leave us and the village, and so we waited to send you to ICA until you were almost seven. They did not want first graders at ICA who were not yet six by the end of September - you turned six October 1st that year - so we did not ask special permission to send you as you were not emotionally ready to leave us. That meant you and Jonathan were in school together and graduated together from ICA.
You and Jon went to ICA together, and by then I had baby Mark in my arms to stay home and comfort me! That was the one big hardship for me as a missionary, being separated from you kids. You had many friends at ICA - lots of them. But your close friends were Jon Kennedy and Rollo Royle, and you had them year round as we all lived in Bobo for some years. I was so glad when we finally got all of you graduated from ICA. We found the houseparents who had spent years on the field and then filled in at ICA were the easiest to deal with. They knew what it was like from the parents' side, as well as the ICA staff.
When you were home, you had such fun riding your motor bike and hunting small game in the busy. We were on a mission picnic one night and it was after dark before we were ready to leave. Just at that moment you started to scream - you had been bitten by a scorpion. (the only one in our family who ever had a scorpion bite and they are very painful.) We put you in the van and rushed you to the hospital where they gave you shots to dull the pain and by the next day you were over it.
You started dating Brenda at ICA and she lived in Ghana on vacation. You and Rollo David rode your motor bikes down to Ghana to get a car drivers license, you could get one easily there. So that was your first license. Another time you went to southern Burkina to visit another MK - I think maybe Rollo was with you then too - and you found a cave where there were big constrictor snakes. I was glad I didn't know about that time until it was over. Maybe that was the time you found a large python, probably twelve feet long and brought him home with great pride in a burlap sack on the back of your moto! I was horrified. Dad calmly made a place inside the old water tower out back of our Santidougou house and put the pythan (or boa) in there. Of course all your friends were excited about this. The next morning you went out at dawn and came running in to tell us (in bed) that your snake had escaped! All the village kids went looking for it - they said they could find it easily as it was not a "here snake"! But search as they could it was never found. I must say I did not shed any tears about that!!
When you were in eighth grade we were on furlough and you went to Nyack public schools, in the junior high department. They had a class play and you were the lead actor and did a fantastic job. The drama teacher was so excited about your performance and sad when she heard you were leaving to go back to Africa again. We, of course, went to see your play and you were a natural! Hollywood lost an actor to the African bush!
Brenda had gone with her folks on furlough and we went on furlough then too. That was right after your graduation. You and Tim lived in the basement of our house that year in Nyack. When we first got back to the US we went down to the New Jersey shore for a short vacation. Brenda had come up to see you and so you asked if she could go along. The older girls were so disgusted because she was always wanting to do things alone with you apart from the family. She went home and you started classes at Nyack. Your heart was not in your studies, you had Brenda on your mind. She came to visit again. I basically liked her but she was used to having the best of everything and you were not in any financial condition to have that kind of girlfriend or fiancé. You decided early on that fall that you were going to move to Florida to be near Brenda and get a job. Which you did. I had always tried to not make negative comments about any of the girls or guys you kids liked or dated. But I do remember telling you that she would be a hard girlfriend to support as she was used to having the best of everything.
You came up to Nyack for a couple weeks in June before we left for Africa again. It was so good to have you around and you were your normal self. You did not open up and talk too much about Brenda. One evening there was a phone call from her and you talked for ages on the phone, but never said anything about the call to us. After we were back on the field we had a long handwritten letter from you, telling us that you and Brenda had broken it off, you had not wanted to bother us with that when we were getting ready to travel. And we breathed a sigh of relief, she was not for you. You stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a little bit and then went to live with Uncle Dave and Aunt Margot and their boys. We so appreciated their taking you in.
You were back in Nyack again and working and took some classes. It was there you met Jennie, our beautiful Jennie, who later became your wife. You and Jonathan roomed together and worked in some hotels together as well. You kind of learned food management on your own through hands on work. You also dated another girl - before Jennie I think - and her name was Sheryl. She was with you in the car when you had a car accident. And she left Nyack and went elsewhere to school. Jennie and you started dating and got serious and planned to get married. You were going to be married in the summer and we were going to be there.
I had been sent by the mission to help out new missionaries (Several of them) in Guinea and was gone a week or ten days. When I got off the plane back in Ouaga, Dad met me with the news that you and Jennie were getting married in December. It was at a time when we could not get away and that was sad for us. You were so good about doing a film and sending that and lots of pictures so that we could see your beautiful wedding and Puerto Rican reception! We loved Jennie's family and bonded with them quickly, great people!
That meant you had been married several months before we met Jennie. She told me later of what a nervous wreck she was going to the airport in Ft. Myers to meet us. She changed her clothes and her hair style several times until she settled on what she wanted to wear to go and meet our plane at midnight. Mark was with us too. That was a good year for us to bond. You were working at Shell Point in the kitchen and she did not have a job, so she would come to our house at Shell Point and sit and talk or watch TV for hours. It was a good family year for us. Mark started college at Edison that year. I got acquainted with my lovely new daughter-in-law. And we had lots of family times.
You and Mark both worked in the kitchen and dining rooms at Shell Point, and you left a mark there. Years later when we visited Shell Point - and again this year - people came to our table in the Crystal Dining Room to talk to us from the kitchen and waitressing staff and asked if we were your parents. And they told us how much they liked and appreciated you there. One waitress told us of how it was Mark who had told her the Gospel and she was saved and still following the Lord. That really meant a lot to us. How fortunate we are to have five children and their spouses, people of integrity and witnessing lives - we are indeed blessed.
You and Jennie came out to Burkina to visit and your siblings were there too. We travelled and had a lot of fun there in Bobo as a family. That next furlough when we came to the States you had gone to Puerto Rico to manage that hotel. Hotel Parador La Familia. We stayed there at the hotel and went on tourist trips with you. enjoyed the pool at the hotel, etc. The hotel did not go well and finally you had to come back to the States, feeling like a failure as you had not succeeded with the hotel. I remember your coming to our house and staying with us a little while. And we all worked at reassuring you that this too would pass and you came back to your normal self again.
Mark and Katy invited you to move into their house and fixed a little basement pad for the two of you. You stayed there until you were able to get a good management job and rent a nice apartment. You also took Daniel in to live with you there for a while! Dad and I were so happy to have both of you sons and wives and a new little Alex plus Daniel all living just about an hour from us. You all, after all, were why we had moved to Georgia in the first place! We had lots of fun family times.
You bought the house in Buford and when Mark built his place in Flowery Branch, you were fifteen minutes from each other. And we lived an hour north. Life was good. And then Jennie began to be sick a lot. She saw doctors and even had an exray and nothing could be found. (You found out later the exray had been misread by the doctor!) But you and Jennie decided to paint our house. Ours was a sixties house in pale colors and you wanted to bring us up to date. It would have cost us more than we could afford to hire someone, and so you and Jennie came and papered and painted. What a gift to us. Jennie would come up and work on the painting when you were on a business trip and spend the night. But we could tell she was not well.
And then the dreaded verdict came, Jennie had cancer. You did everything possible, and our hopes would go up, only to come crashing down again. You had to travel and so we spent a lot of time with Jennie at your house. She would go up and down. Sometimes she could not get out of bed, other times she would rest a lot but come downstairs every day. We sat with you in two different hospitals for two different operations. We waited for good news but it did not often come. When you were gone on business, we would go down and stay with Jennie. Sometimes when she was in great pain, she would lie on the couch in your bedroom, resting in my arms and say, "Sing to me, Mom". Or "Mom, tell me about when John was a little boy". So choking through my tears I would try to tell stories and sing old hymns to her. One day she decided she needed to go to the store for new pajamas and bras and wanted me to go with her. She drove like her old self, shopped for her clothes and seemed her normal self. But then it would be back to bed, exhausted. We talked for hours. When she could not come downstairs, I would fix her light meals and take them up to her, trying
to tempt her. She loved strawberries and whipped cream and Dad went to the store to keep us supplied with whatever she craved. I learned a lot of new TV watching with Jennie - Dancing with the Stars, fixing up old houses, old movies - she just needed someone there with her.
Those were rough days for us - and much rougher for you - to see your sweet, funny wife wasting away. Those last days of Jennie's life her whole family came, including her doctor cousin (who stayed with her through to her passing on to heaven). How my heart ached for her parents, as well as ached for ourselves. The praise team from the church came to sing for Jennie and she loved that. We were a huge gang with all Jennie's family from Puerto plus her doctor cousin, our family and also Prosper Sanou from Burkina. We knew the end was near one evening and Mark stayed there at the house. We were wakened by the phone at one thirty in the morning at Mark's where we were sleeping. Jennie had gone to join the hosts of heaven and join in the singing of the heavenly choir with her lovely voice. It was two am and we were a crowd of family all sitting around the living room at your place. The lovely lady from Hospice came in and the men came to take care of formalities. They rolled out her body, which was so sad, but her spirit was alive and living in a place where there is no sorrow or tears, jusy joy and peace and being with Jesus. I cry as I write this, but I am assured that she is in a better place.
Was there ever a more well planned or beautiful funeral service. Many people were there - relatives, your partners in business, all our family, Prosper from Burkina, retired missionaries from Toccoa. It was a beautiful ceremony, Mark and Katy's little ones sat through it all also. (What were they thinking, I wondered?) The service ended with Jennie's voice singing a lovely song, by way of a tape she had given me years ago. I always loved heer voice. Mark had prepared a beautiful feast at his home and there were about seventy people invited - just family and close friends. Before we went there the ladies of the Lilburn church had also prepared a finger foods buffet and this gave opportunities for greetings.
John, you lived in that big house by yourself and you continued your travelling with your Business after Jennie was gone. Mark and Katy were such a blessing to you then and the kids loved having Uncle John come to their house so often. Dad and I tried to get down to your place as often as we could. I was just coming out of my brain surgery problems. One day we were there at your house and sitting out back talking with you when a phone call came for you - nothing unusual - but you talked for a long time. And finally came back and told us about how you and Sheryl had started talking to each other on the phone. You had known each other in College and now you had both lost your spouses. God had this beautiful gift all pre-planned for both of you in the sorrow of losing your spouses. And you even got a lovely sweet daughter in the bargain.
You were officially married earlier in the year but our family all came to Westerville in June (?) to celebrate this new marriage. That little chapel was so pretty and the ceremony beautiful. The grandchildren and Carey and Dad all participated. That evening we had that beautifully served reception meal in a lovely restaurant, as we all rejoiced in God's goodness to you both!
Christmas was fun too with Phenicies and us staying in your gorgeous new home to celebrate with you and your new family. We look forward to lots more times together as a family, one of those visits right around the corner, this Easter! We are proud of you, our first son, and a lifelong delight to us!
As soon as we got to the village, everyone had to come and greet for our baby. Even the old men from the village came into the nursery to give their Bobo blessings! From young childhood you had an investigative, upbeat personality. You were funny, outgoing, generous, inquisitive, a leader, empathetic, loving - the list could go on. We saw these qualities developing in you even as a child, qualities you still have as a grown man.
There was one quality we needed to curb - your anger. One day you were playing a game with the village boys, with those pointed iron things - your friend won and you were mad and without stopping to think you threw the iron at him - and fortunately did not hit him, as you could have killed him. So I took you into the bedroom and had a long talk with you about holding you temper. You were just a little guy but you seemed to understand. Another time you and Madu were arm wrestling and you being so much stronger broke a bone in his arm! Dad splinted it up - and Madu wore that bandage as a badge of honor until the arm healed!
You sure gave Sini a run for his money - I can still see him running after you yelling, "Zan! Zan" as he tried to catch you. We could tell you were not emotionally ready to leave us and the village, and so we waited to send you to ICA until you were almost seven. They did not want first graders at ICA who were not yet six by the end of September - you turned six October 1st that year - so we did not ask special permission to send you as you were not emotionally ready to leave us. That meant you and Jonathan were in school together and graduated together from ICA.
You and Jon went to ICA together, and by then I had baby Mark in my arms to stay home and comfort me! That was the one big hardship for me as a missionary, being separated from you kids. You had many friends at ICA - lots of them. But your close friends were Jon Kennedy and Rollo Royle, and you had them year round as we all lived in Bobo for some years. I was so glad when we finally got all of you graduated from ICA. We found the houseparents who had spent years on the field and then filled in at ICA were the easiest to deal with. They knew what it was like from the parents' side, as well as the ICA staff.
When you were home, you had such fun riding your motor bike and hunting small game in the busy. We were on a mission picnic one night and it was after dark before we were ready to leave. Just at that moment you started to scream - you had been bitten by a scorpion. (the only one in our family who ever had a scorpion bite and they are very painful.) We put you in the van and rushed you to the hospital where they gave you shots to dull the pain and by the next day you were over it.
You started dating Brenda at ICA and she lived in Ghana on vacation. You and Rollo David rode your motor bikes down to Ghana to get a car drivers license, you could get one easily there. So that was your first license. Another time you went to southern Burkina to visit another MK - I think maybe Rollo was with you then too - and you found a cave where there were big constrictor snakes. I was glad I didn't know about that time until it was over. Maybe that was the time you found a large python, probably twelve feet long and brought him home with great pride in a burlap sack on the back of your moto! I was horrified. Dad calmly made a place inside the old water tower out back of our Santidougou house and put the pythan (or boa) in there. Of course all your friends were excited about this. The next morning you went out at dawn and came running in to tell us (in bed) that your snake had escaped! All the village kids went looking for it - they said they could find it easily as it was not a "here snake"! But search as they could it was never found. I must say I did not shed any tears about that!!
When you were in eighth grade we were on furlough and you went to Nyack public schools, in the junior high department. They had a class play and you were the lead actor and did a fantastic job. The drama teacher was so excited about your performance and sad when she heard you were leaving to go back to Africa again. We, of course, went to see your play and you were a natural! Hollywood lost an actor to the African bush!
Brenda had gone with her folks on furlough and we went on furlough then too. That was right after your graduation. You and Tim lived in the basement of our house that year in Nyack. When we first got back to the US we went down to the New Jersey shore for a short vacation. Brenda had come up to see you and so you asked if she could go along. The older girls were so disgusted because she was always wanting to do things alone with you apart from the family. She went home and you started classes at Nyack. Your heart was not in your studies, you had Brenda on your mind. She came to visit again. I basically liked her but she was used to having the best of everything and you were not in any financial condition to have that kind of girlfriend or fiancé. You decided early on that fall that you were going to move to Florida to be near Brenda and get a job. Which you did. I had always tried to not make negative comments about any of the girls or guys you kids liked or dated. But I do remember telling you that she would be a hard girlfriend to support as she was used to having the best of everything.
You came up to Nyack for a couple weeks in June before we left for Africa again. It was so good to have you around and you were your normal self. You did not open up and talk too much about Brenda. One evening there was a phone call from her and you talked for ages on the phone, but never said anything about the call to us. After we were back on the field we had a long handwritten letter from you, telling us that you and Brenda had broken it off, you had not wanted to bother us with that when we were getting ready to travel. And we breathed a sigh of relief, she was not for you. You stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a little bit and then went to live with Uncle Dave and Aunt Margot and their boys. We so appreciated their taking you in.
You were back in Nyack again and working and took some classes. It was there you met Jennie, our beautiful Jennie, who later became your wife. You and Jonathan roomed together and worked in some hotels together as well. You kind of learned food management on your own through hands on work. You also dated another girl - before Jennie I think - and her name was Sheryl. She was with you in the car when you had a car accident. And she left Nyack and went elsewhere to school. Jennie and you started dating and got serious and planned to get married. You were going to be married in the summer and we were going to be there.
I had been sent by the mission to help out new missionaries (Several of them) in Guinea and was gone a week or ten days. When I got off the plane back in Ouaga, Dad met me with the news that you and Jennie were getting married in December. It was at a time when we could not get away and that was sad for us. You were so good about doing a film and sending that and lots of pictures so that we could see your beautiful wedding and Puerto Rican reception! We loved Jennie's family and bonded with them quickly, great people!
That meant you had been married several months before we met Jennie. She told me later of what a nervous wreck she was going to the airport in Ft. Myers to meet us. She changed her clothes and her hair style several times until she settled on what she wanted to wear to go and meet our plane at midnight. Mark was with us too. That was a good year for us to bond. You were working at Shell Point in the kitchen and she did not have a job, so she would come to our house at Shell Point and sit and talk or watch TV for hours. It was a good family year for us. Mark started college at Edison that year. I got acquainted with my lovely new daughter-in-law. And we had lots of family times.
You and Mark both worked in the kitchen and dining rooms at Shell Point, and you left a mark there. Years later when we visited Shell Point - and again this year - people came to our table in the Crystal Dining Room to talk to us from the kitchen and waitressing staff and asked if we were your parents. And they told us how much they liked and appreciated you there. One waitress told us of how it was Mark who had told her the Gospel and she was saved and still following the Lord. That really meant a lot to us. How fortunate we are to have five children and their spouses, people of integrity and witnessing lives - we are indeed blessed.
You and Jennie came out to Burkina to visit and your siblings were there too. We travelled and had a lot of fun there in Bobo as a family. That next furlough when we came to the States you had gone to Puerto Rico to manage that hotel. Hotel Parador La Familia. We stayed there at the hotel and went on tourist trips with you. enjoyed the pool at the hotel, etc. The hotel did not go well and finally you had to come back to the States, feeling like a failure as you had not succeeded with the hotel. I remember your coming to our house and staying with us a little while. And we all worked at reassuring you that this too would pass and you came back to your normal self again.
Mark and Katy invited you to move into their house and fixed a little basement pad for the two of you. You stayed there until you were able to get a good management job and rent a nice apartment. You also took Daniel in to live with you there for a while! Dad and I were so happy to have both of you sons and wives and a new little Alex plus Daniel all living just about an hour from us. You all, after all, were why we had moved to Georgia in the first place! We had lots of fun family times.
You bought the house in Buford and when Mark built his place in Flowery Branch, you were fifteen minutes from each other. And we lived an hour north. Life was good. And then Jennie began to be sick a lot. She saw doctors and even had an exray and nothing could be found. (You found out later the exray had been misread by the doctor!) But you and Jennie decided to paint our house. Ours was a sixties house in pale colors and you wanted to bring us up to date. It would have cost us more than we could afford to hire someone, and so you and Jennie came and papered and painted. What a gift to us. Jennie would come up and work on the painting when you were on a business trip and spend the night. But we could tell she was not well.
And then the dreaded verdict came, Jennie had cancer. You did everything possible, and our hopes would go up, only to come crashing down again. You had to travel and so we spent a lot of time with Jennie at your house. She would go up and down. Sometimes she could not get out of bed, other times she would rest a lot but come downstairs every day. We sat with you in two different hospitals for two different operations. We waited for good news but it did not often come. When you were gone on business, we would go down and stay with Jennie. Sometimes when she was in great pain, she would lie on the couch in your bedroom, resting in my arms and say, "Sing to me, Mom". Or "Mom, tell me about when John was a little boy". So choking through my tears I would try to tell stories and sing old hymns to her. One day she decided she needed to go to the store for new pajamas and bras and wanted me to go with her. She drove like her old self, shopped for her clothes and seemed her normal self. But then it would be back to bed, exhausted. We talked for hours. When she could not come downstairs, I would fix her light meals and take them up to her, trying
to tempt her. She loved strawberries and whipped cream and Dad went to the store to keep us supplied with whatever she craved. I learned a lot of new TV watching with Jennie - Dancing with the Stars, fixing up old houses, old movies - she just needed someone there with her.
Those were rough days for us - and much rougher for you - to see your sweet, funny wife wasting away. Those last days of Jennie's life her whole family came, including her doctor cousin (who stayed with her through to her passing on to heaven). How my heart ached for her parents, as well as ached for ourselves. The praise team from the church came to sing for Jennie and she loved that. We were a huge gang with all Jennie's family from Puerto plus her doctor cousin, our family and also Prosper Sanou from Burkina. We knew the end was near one evening and Mark stayed there at the house. We were wakened by the phone at one thirty in the morning at Mark's where we were sleeping. Jennie had gone to join the hosts of heaven and join in the singing of the heavenly choir with her lovely voice. It was two am and we were a crowd of family all sitting around the living room at your place. The lovely lady from Hospice came in and the men came to take care of formalities. They rolled out her body, which was so sad, but her spirit was alive and living in a place where there is no sorrow or tears, jusy joy and peace and being with Jesus. I cry as I write this, but I am assured that she is in a better place.
Was there ever a more well planned or beautiful funeral service. Many people were there - relatives, your partners in business, all our family, Prosper from Burkina, retired missionaries from Toccoa. It was a beautiful ceremony, Mark and Katy's little ones sat through it all also. (What were they thinking, I wondered?) The service ended with Jennie's voice singing a lovely song, by way of a tape she had given me years ago. I always loved heer voice. Mark had prepared a beautiful feast at his home and there were about seventy people invited - just family and close friends. Before we went there the ladies of the Lilburn church had also prepared a finger foods buffet and this gave opportunities for greetings.
John, you lived in that big house by yourself and you continued your travelling with your Business after Jennie was gone. Mark and Katy were such a blessing to you then and the kids loved having Uncle John come to their house so often. Dad and I tried to get down to your place as often as we could. I was just coming out of my brain surgery problems. One day we were there at your house and sitting out back talking with you when a phone call came for you - nothing unusual - but you talked for a long time. And finally came back and told us about how you and Sheryl had started talking to each other on the phone. You had known each other in College and now you had both lost your spouses. God had this beautiful gift all pre-planned for both of you in the sorrow of losing your spouses. And you even got a lovely sweet daughter in the bargain.
You were officially married earlier in the year but our family all came to Westerville in June (?) to celebrate this new marriage. That little chapel was so pretty and the ceremony beautiful. The grandchildren and Carey and Dad all participated. That evening we had that beautifully served reception meal in a lovely restaurant, as we all rejoiced in God's goodness to you both!
Christmas was fun too with Phenicies and us staying in your gorgeous new home to celebrate with you and your new family. We look forward to lots more times together as a family, one of those visits right around the corner, this Easter! We are proud of you, our first son, and a lifelong delight to us!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
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)
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)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Cheryl............................
How often Dad and I reflect on how fortunate we are as parents! Especially when we hear some people who have little family connection, either because of apathy or quarrels. God has blessed our family in this respect - we all enjoy, love and accept each other. What a blessing that is, especially in today's society, which is so full of anger, divorce, misunderstandings and apathy in many families. We all do whatever we can to stay in contact with each other - through emails, phone calls, visits. That is easier than it was when you were all growing up. As I remember each of your lives to the present, I thank God for each one of you and the strong men and women you have become in spite of separations and distance from each other. How good God is!
CHERYL
You were the most precocious baby, Cheryl, you did everything early, sat up, walked, talked, ate solid food. You were such a sociable baby, smiled at everyone. Of course, our home was full of people - young and old - because we were in church planting. And you readily went to all of them and you got lots of love from everyone, us included!
You walked early, you talked early - and that was a good thing, as you had your baby sister coming right along behind you, born on your first birthday! You could not come into the hospital as it was against the rules, but Dad found a place where you could come and see me, looking up to my second floor room. I can still see you standing there looking up. And you loved your little sister when she came home to live with us.
I have already written much about your childhood, both in Rutland and Santidougou. You attended a variety of schools: kindergarten at home with me, Mamou, Nyack grade school, ICA, a year of French school at Collège de l'Avenir in Bobo, Nyack high school (where you graduated), Nyack College and ATS. And Now your latest education fling is getting a master's. Good for you!
We always prayed for each of you kids that God would provide the right mate for you in life. And how wonderfully He answered this prayer. We could never have chosen better than God chose for each one of you. I remember when you were in ATS and we were in Africa. You were studying the field of Burkina Faso as your study focus, thinking to go there as a missionary. I remember getting a letter from you, telling of your going out with another student on a date. I knew this young man from attending classes there, a great guy, but also divorced. Through no fault of his own, but still divorced. And we prayed then that God would guide you and not let you get involved with someone who would change the goal of your life.
There was also a young man, Darrell, whom Dad had had in class at Nyack College the year before when we were Missionaries in Residence at the College. He was engaged to a girl ( a student) from his hometown and she was also in Dad's missions class. He came home one day and told me, "There is a guy in my class who would make a great missionary, but he will never make it - he is marrying the wrong girl! She will keep him from being a missionary, which is too bad." Darrell went on to ATS and the girl went back to her hometown to live. Somewhere in there Darrell and the girl broke off their engagement and pretty soon we heard that you were no longer studying Burkina, but had changed to Lebanon - and you and Darrell were dating. Wow! What a switch, and were we ever happy! And the rest is history.
You were married in Simpson Church and we were there for the wedding, a beautiful occasion. You went on to home service in south Jersey, and it was there that you went through the trauma of the birth of a little girl, who was too small to make it. That was a hard situation for you both. But you persevered, went through the remainder of home service (Dad was there for Darrell's ordination to give the charge) and we saw you off for Beirut.
During that year Beirut disintegrated into all out war. You were pregnant with Nathan, Cheryl, and we were on furlough. What a hard time to live through. Dad and I were on separate tours when you went into the Beirut hospital to give birth. He was not born quickly and the war was heating up as everyone was praying for the safe delivery of the "Phenicie baby". I remember the day that all contact was cut off with Beirut and I was on tour and scheduled to speak that night. My tour partner took my place as he realized how upsetting that situation was - all TV contact had been broken as well. LL King was president of the Alliance and had been on a tour but wanted to be kept up to date on the progress of the Phenicie birth. Someone met him at the plane with the news, "The Phenicie baby is born!" And we all rejoiced that Nathan had come to be part of our family. What a trying time for you and Darrell to go through.
When we visited you a few years later, you took us to J'Bael and we saw the bunker where you had to go at times because of the bombing. We saw the port from which you had to flee to the US, you and Rachel first and then Darrell with the boys. Wow - not many missionaries have had to go through all of that. But you did - and you stuck with it. And God has given you a wonderful ministry in the Middle East and now Africa.
It has always been fun to visit you in the Middle East, and each trip has enlarged our vision of the church. We visited you in Beirut itself. It was fun to go on picnics with you and the church people (a favorite thing to do in the Middle East - picnics). We went to your church and worshipped in Arabic. We met many people you worked with. You took us on such great tourist type trips and we loved it all. We have gotten a real love for the people of the Middle East through you.
You took us on trips - we went to Damascus and through Syria. Down into Jordan and Amman. We met so many of the pastors and their families as well as other personal friends of yours. Going to Jordan and down along the Dead Sea to Aqaba was a fun trip - all of us crammed into that small car of yours! Darrell gets an A+ for being a great packer! We swam in the Red Sea and visited the city where you would later serve. So many wonderful memories you have given us. Including waiting for camels to cross the road and those awful turkish toilets at the Syrian-Jordanian border! And the visit on Christmas Eve to your friends who lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking the city of Beirut. We drove back to your place south of Beirut through the gorgeous Christmas lights in the middle of Beirut.
I will never forget the year you, Cheryl, had to make an emergency trip back to the States for surgery. Rachel was just a toddler so she had to come with you. We lived in Shell Point that year of furlough and so you came there. We got the word of that evacuation while we were in Seattle for Council. Actually, I was speaking that night in the evening missions slot. With all the bad news pouring in, I had to go to a hotel lobby and get quiet to concentrate on my message and let Dad take care of the incoming calls! Dave Moore, missions vice-president, was following your every move through Dad and your phone calls. You came to Ft. Myers and stayed with us at Shell Point where we were living.
You had your (successful) operation in Ft. Myers, and Darrell and the boys joined us all there. They also escaped in an open boat, dodging bullets to get out of that harbor.
What a life you have had!
Our two weeks in Kurdistan we had with you recently were wonderful! You planned such a great time for our team, we still talk about it. We loved meeting your Kurdish friends. Who could forget the fun picnic we had and the conversations - and dancing - we shared with that Kurdish family! We appreciated everything you plammed for our time there - and a highlight was the week teaching the Iraqi pastors.
You have given us three wonderful grandchildren. When they were small, we had to have an interpreter as they only spoke Arabic! But theyhave all become great adults, of whom we are very proud. Along with Rachel's great husband, Josh. It was such fun to be together last fall in Nyack, when you were highly honored, Cheryl, by having the new school of nursing at the College named after you: The Cheryl Phenicie School of Nursing. That was a special week - and day - for all our family who could attend.
Now God has taken you to a new ministry. Who would ever have thought that all three of you girls and spouses would be working on the African continent! Maybe we can even visit you there in your new country some day!
Cheryl and Darrell Phenicie - we salute you, the dynamic duo!!
CHERYL
You were the most precocious baby, Cheryl, you did everything early, sat up, walked, talked, ate solid food. You were such a sociable baby, smiled at everyone. Of course, our home was full of people - young and old - because we were in church planting. And you readily went to all of them and you got lots of love from everyone, us included!
You walked early, you talked early - and that was a good thing, as you had your baby sister coming right along behind you, born on your first birthday! You could not come into the hospital as it was against the rules, but Dad found a place where you could come and see me, looking up to my second floor room. I can still see you standing there looking up. And you loved your little sister when she came home to live with us.
I have already written much about your childhood, both in Rutland and Santidougou. You attended a variety of schools: kindergarten at home with me, Mamou, Nyack grade school, ICA, a year of French school at Collège de l'Avenir in Bobo, Nyack high school (where you graduated), Nyack College and ATS. And Now your latest education fling is getting a master's. Good for you!
We always prayed for each of you kids that God would provide the right mate for you in life. And how wonderfully He answered this prayer. We could never have chosen better than God chose for each one of you. I remember when you were in ATS and we were in Africa. You were studying the field of Burkina Faso as your study focus, thinking to go there as a missionary. I remember getting a letter from you, telling of your going out with another student on a date. I knew this young man from attending classes there, a great guy, but also divorced. Through no fault of his own, but still divorced. And we prayed then that God would guide you and not let you get involved with someone who would change the goal of your life.
There was also a young man, Darrell, whom Dad had had in class at Nyack College the year before when we were Missionaries in Residence at the College. He was engaged to a girl ( a student) from his hometown and she was also in Dad's missions class. He came home one day and told me, "There is a guy in my class who would make a great missionary, but he will never make it - he is marrying the wrong girl! She will keep him from being a missionary, which is too bad." Darrell went on to ATS and the girl went back to her hometown to live. Somewhere in there Darrell and the girl broke off their engagement and pretty soon we heard that you were no longer studying Burkina, but had changed to Lebanon - and you and Darrell were dating. Wow! What a switch, and were we ever happy! And the rest is history.
You were married in Simpson Church and we were there for the wedding, a beautiful occasion. You went on to home service in south Jersey, and it was there that you went through the trauma of the birth of a little girl, who was too small to make it. That was a hard situation for you both. But you persevered, went through the remainder of home service (Dad was there for Darrell's ordination to give the charge) and we saw you off for Beirut.
During that year Beirut disintegrated into all out war. You were pregnant with Nathan, Cheryl, and we were on furlough. What a hard time to live through. Dad and I were on separate tours when you went into the Beirut hospital to give birth. He was not born quickly and the war was heating up as everyone was praying for the safe delivery of the "Phenicie baby". I remember the day that all contact was cut off with Beirut and I was on tour and scheduled to speak that night. My tour partner took my place as he realized how upsetting that situation was - all TV contact had been broken as well. LL King was president of the Alliance and had been on a tour but wanted to be kept up to date on the progress of the Phenicie birth. Someone met him at the plane with the news, "The Phenicie baby is born!" And we all rejoiced that Nathan had come to be part of our family. What a trying time for you and Darrell to go through.
When we visited you a few years later, you took us to J'Bael and we saw the bunker where you had to go at times because of the bombing. We saw the port from which you had to flee to the US, you and Rachel first and then Darrell with the boys. Wow - not many missionaries have had to go through all of that. But you did - and you stuck with it. And God has given you a wonderful ministry in the Middle East and now Africa.
It has always been fun to visit you in the Middle East, and each trip has enlarged our vision of the church. We visited you in Beirut itself. It was fun to go on picnics with you and the church people (a favorite thing to do in the Middle East - picnics). We went to your church and worshipped in Arabic. We met many people you worked with. You took us on such great tourist type trips and we loved it all. We have gotten a real love for the people of the Middle East through you.
You took us on trips - we went to Damascus and through Syria. Down into Jordan and Amman. We met so many of the pastors and their families as well as other personal friends of yours. Going to Jordan and down along the Dead Sea to Aqaba was a fun trip - all of us crammed into that small car of yours! Darrell gets an A+ for being a great packer! We swam in the Red Sea and visited the city where you would later serve. So many wonderful memories you have given us. Including waiting for camels to cross the road and those awful turkish toilets at the Syrian-Jordanian border! And the visit on Christmas Eve to your friends who lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking the city of Beirut. We drove back to your place south of Beirut through the gorgeous Christmas lights in the middle of Beirut.
I will never forget the year you, Cheryl, had to make an emergency trip back to the States for surgery. Rachel was just a toddler so she had to come with you. We lived in Shell Point that year of furlough and so you came there. We got the word of that evacuation while we were in Seattle for Council. Actually, I was speaking that night in the evening missions slot. With all the bad news pouring in, I had to go to a hotel lobby and get quiet to concentrate on my message and let Dad take care of the incoming calls! Dave Moore, missions vice-president, was following your every move through Dad and your phone calls. You came to Ft. Myers and stayed with us at Shell Point where we were living.
You had your (successful) operation in Ft. Myers, and Darrell and the boys joined us all there. They also escaped in an open boat, dodging bullets to get out of that harbor.
What a life you have had!
Our two weeks in Kurdistan we had with you recently were wonderful! You planned such a great time for our team, we still talk about it. We loved meeting your Kurdish friends. Who could forget the fun picnic we had and the conversations - and dancing - we shared with that Kurdish family! We appreciated everything you plammed for our time there - and a highlight was the week teaching the Iraqi pastors.
You have given us three wonderful grandchildren. When they were small, we had to have an interpreter as they only spoke Arabic! But theyhave all become great adults, of whom we are very proud. Along with Rachel's great husband, Josh. It was such fun to be together last fall in Nyack, when you were highly honored, Cheryl, by having the new school of nursing at the College named after you: The Cheryl Phenicie School of Nursing. That was a special week - and day - for all our family who could attend.
Now God has taken you to a new ministry. Who would ever have thought that all three of you girls and spouses would be working on the African continent! Maybe we can even visit you there in your new country some day!
Cheryl and Darrell Phenicie - we salute you, the dynamic duo!!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Friends and neighbors...................................
During the years at Santidougou we had many friends, almost all Bobos. With the exception of a few familes of other tribes who lived near our village. There was the family of the gendarme, whose son was a deaf mute. He was a good friend of yours, John, I think mainly because he had a donkey and how the two of you loved to ride that donkey together!
It was from their family that I first learned about the importance of African funerals. One day I saw my friend, Lydia, from the village walk by the door - it was the middle of the week and she was all dressed up. So I asked where she was going and she told me that someone had died in the gendarme's family and she was going to greet for the funeral, so I asked if I could go with her. I quickly put on some shoes and accompanied her. The whole town of Santidougou and many other people filled the large yard. I asked Lydia why she hadn't invited me to go to the funeral and her answer was, "We always thought white people were not interested in our funerals as no one ever attended!" A good cultural lesson for me and from then on we always attended the funeral proceedings (sometime for days) after that. When we got back from our greetings, I told Dad that he should go also and so he dressed appropriately and went to greet, which was greatly appreciated. From that time on, whenever someone died in the area, someone always came and announced it to us also!
Some of the young Muslim men from the village interacted with Dad about Christianity and some were converted. Dad had an evening Bible study for them - among them Théophile who later became one of our translators working with me on the translation of the Bobo Bible. His father died a Muslim but his old mother came to Christ and if she is still living faithfully attends the church there.
The Christian families (which were few when we arrived) were also our friends. We visited back and forth. The women of the church were friends and soon after our arrived I invited them all to a meal at our house. They arrived, dressed in their finest. I knew they did not have much meat in their diet and so I had Yusufu make hamburgers and buns and french fries. We had a fun time talking and laughing, but after they had gone I realized that not one of them had done more than nibble a bit at their meat. They ate the fries and the buns, but left the meat! Another cultural lesson: they are only used to having bits of meat in a sauce and not a big hunk of ground meat like that! So whenever I had friends in for dinner after that, I always had rice or couscous and sauce and they ate heartily!
Dad also made good friends of the Muslims, young and old, in town. And I made friends with their wives. In fact, I even helped to deliver their babies once in a while. And we ran them to the city hospital when needed. Many came and talked religion as well and eventually we saw a large contingent of the young men trust in Christ and come to church.
Another regular friend was Moktar - maybe some of you remember him. When he was sober he would come and have long conversations with us. But he was also a heavy drinker. When we lived in Bobo, he came to the house one day, drunk as could be! It was at noontime and everyone was at lunch in our house - the president of the US Alliance churches and our executive committee and Dad. They all got a big kick out of this Fula coming in like he belonged to us and emoted all over Dad! We of course had to converse with him in French or Jula, but we wanted him to hear the gospel so he would understand it. We had some Gospel Recordings records in his dialect of Fula and he would sit on our front porch and listen to those recordings by the hour. Who knows what he retained of the Gospel. To be Fula was to be Muslim and as far as we know he never changed.
When we moved to the city of Bobo we had more friends: local pastors, ex-pats working or living in the city, commercial people and of course many local city people of various ethnic groups. There was a lovely Malagas lady who was a dentist in town. She was also a Protestant and used to attend our French service at the downtown church. There was also an Austrian lady, not young anymore, who had married a very important iman in the city. She had a twelve year old son who went everywhere with her. We were just on speaking acquaintance with her. In one house we had some Dutch neighbors, lovely people. They also had a child. We exchanged meals and saw each other to chat on a regular basis. There were René and Stevie Braveman, who were in Bobo for a while on a study assignment. They also had two children and a few times you girls babysat for them. We were in Seattle some years ago and were able to contact them and went out to dinner together. Then Dad was there on tour and saw them again. And we hear occasionally from them on FB. Good friends.
We also had friends among the Lebanese in Bobo. The Saade family was there when we arrived and owned a grocery store in town. Their business expanded and they eventually owned the Auberge, where we went to eat in their restaurant and swim in their pool. They were always very friendly and you were friends with their son, John, - was it Michel? They had a pool at the Auberge and good food, so it was a favorite place for us missionaries to spend a pleasant evening.
Another Lebanese had a grocery store near the market where we shopped. They knew we had a daughter and family in Lebanon and we would chat about that sometimes. When you came to visit, Cheryl and Darrell, we were all invited to their home for dinner. Dinner started at nine pm and ended at twelve with strong Lebanese coffee. We also entertained them in our home.
When one lives overseas, one meets some strange characters sometimes, and such was Vandenberg. He said he was Belgian and he lived mostly in Dédougou and Tougan up country from us. But we also knew him well as he came to the mission in Bobo. He bought a VW van from one of our missionaries, which used to belong to us. This was a man who knew little of God and some of our missionary men spent hours talking with him. He loved eating in their homes and being friends with them and so also listened to their Gospel. Eventually he married a very lovely Fula lady (common law marriage). We had just finished conference in Bobo one day and in came Vandy, distressed because the battery was dead in his car and he could not get another one. One of our men, who knew him well (he thought) graciously gave him a battery he had and Vandy and wife pulled out of our mission yard. Dad made the remark, "That's the last we will see of him!" And sure enough it was true. He was a crook, hunted by the police, and they had heard he was associated with our mission so came down to question us. Nobody, to our knowledge, ever heard of him again. You win some and lose some!
There were also French women, with children, who had married Burkinabe men and were being mistreated by them or else they could not fit into the local culture. I spent some time listening to them and talking with them. Eventually, they made their way back to Europe and abandonned their Burkinabe husbands.
Our nearest neighbors were Pastor Thomas and his family, who came from Sangha in Mali and became first African pastor of the downtown Alliance church. They lived on the same compound as we did and Mark, you and their young son were inseparable buddies. They also had a teenage daughter. Female excision was practiced in their Dogon tribe in Mali, but Thomas would never permit this in his family. One day when he was out somewhere, his wife decided to go ahead and do the excision on their daughter. Someone came running to the house (Dad was not there) and called me to come quickly, that there was terrible trouble. When I went into the house they took me to the little washroom and showed me a little potty full of blood and clots that had come out of this child when her mother clumsily tried to excise her! I was horrified and knew we had to get her to the hospital. Thomas and Dad were not there, but Mary Kaye Pease was in town and she had a van in which we could put the girl, lying down. And we all tore off to the hospital! They were able to save her life, but just barely - we were all praying hard as the doctors worked on her. And the pastor was very unhappy when he got back. She was in the hospital several days before she was well enough to come home. What an experience that was to go through!
When we lived on the mission compound we also had the secretary who worked in the office - there were a number of these through the years. Betty Canberg Smith was a friend of ours and of you girls. She eventually came back to Toccoa and married and is now in our church here so we see her regularly. Kauffmans lived there also and what great friends they were - and are!
In Bobo I regularly used three languages besides English - Bobo, Jula and French. So that was a big change from the bush. My ministry also changed, as I was mission hostess and in charge of the motel we operated for our people. And eventually I got involved in a lot of other ministries in the city as well - more about that later.
It was from their family that I first learned about the importance of African funerals. One day I saw my friend, Lydia, from the village walk by the door - it was the middle of the week and she was all dressed up. So I asked where she was going and she told me that someone had died in the gendarme's family and she was going to greet for the funeral, so I asked if I could go with her. I quickly put on some shoes and accompanied her. The whole town of Santidougou and many other people filled the large yard. I asked Lydia why she hadn't invited me to go to the funeral and her answer was, "We always thought white people were not interested in our funerals as no one ever attended!" A good cultural lesson for me and from then on we always attended the funeral proceedings (sometime for days) after that. When we got back from our greetings, I told Dad that he should go also and so he dressed appropriately and went to greet, which was greatly appreciated. From that time on, whenever someone died in the area, someone always came and announced it to us also!
Some of the young Muslim men from the village interacted with Dad about Christianity and some were converted. Dad had an evening Bible study for them - among them Théophile who later became one of our translators working with me on the translation of the Bobo Bible. His father died a Muslim but his old mother came to Christ and if she is still living faithfully attends the church there.
The Christian families (which were few when we arrived) were also our friends. We visited back and forth. The women of the church were friends and soon after our arrived I invited them all to a meal at our house. They arrived, dressed in their finest. I knew they did not have much meat in their diet and so I had Yusufu make hamburgers and buns and french fries. We had a fun time talking and laughing, but after they had gone I realized that not one of them had done more than nibble a bit at their meat. They ate the fries and the buns, but left the meat! Another cultural lesson: they are only used to having bits of meat in a sauce and not a big hunk of ground meat like that! So whenever I had friends in for dinner after that, I always had rice or couscous and sauce and they ate heartily!
Dad also made good friends of the Muslims, young and old, in town. And I made friends with their wives. In fact, I even helped to deliver their babies once in a while. And we ran them to the city hospital when needed. Many came and talked religion as well and eventually we saw a large contingent of the young men trust in Christ and come to church.
Another regular friend was Moktar - maybe some of you remember him. When he was sober he would come and have long conversations with us. But he was also a heavy drinker. When we lived in Bobo, he came to the house one day, drunk as could be! It was at noontime and everyone was at lunch in our house - the president of the US Alliance churches and our executive committee and Dad. They all got a big kick out of this Fula coming in like he belonged to us and emoted all over Dad! We of course had to converse with him in French or Jula, but we wanted him to hear the gospel so he would understand it. We had some Gospel Recordings records in his dialect of Fula and he would sit on our front porch and listen to those recordings by the hour. Who knows what he retained of the Gospel. To be Fula was to be Muslim and as far as we know he never changed.
When we moved to the city of Bobo we had more friends: local pastors, ex-pats working or living in the city, commercial people and of course many local city people of various ethnic groups. There was a lovely Malagas lady who was a dentist in town. She was also a Protestant and used to attend our French service at the downtown church. There was also an Austrian lady, not young anymore, who had married a very important iman in the city. She had a twelve year old son who went everywhere with her. We were just on speaking acquaintance with her. In one house we had some Dutch neighbors, lovely people. They also had a child. We exchanged meals and saw each other to chat on a regular basis. There were René and Stevie Braveman, who were in Bobo for a while on a study assignment. They also had two children and a few times you girls babysat for them. We were in Seattle some years ago and were able to contact them and went out to dinner together. Then Dad was there on tour and saw them again. And we hear occasionally from them on FB. Good friends.
We also had friends among the Lebanese in Bobo. The Saade family was there when we arrived and owned a grocery store in town. Their business expanded and they eventually owned the Auberge, where we went to eat in their restaurant and swim in their pool. They were always very friendly and you were friends with their son, John, - was it Michel? They had a pool at the Auberge and good food, so it was a favorite place for us missionaries to spend a pleasant evening.
Another Lebanese had a grocery store near the market where we shopped. They knew we had a daughter and family in Lebanon and we would chat about that sometimes. When you came to visit, Cheryl and Darrell, we were all invited to their home for dinner. Dinner started at nine pm and ended at twelve with strong Lebanese coffee. We also entertained them in our home.
When one lives overseas, one meets some strange characters sometimes, and such was Vandenberg. He said he was Belgian and he lived mostly in Dédougou and Tougan up country from us. But we also knew him well as he came to the mission in Bobo. He bought a VW van from one of our missionaries, which used to belong to us. This was a man who knew little of God and some of our missionary men spent hours talking with him. He loved eating in their homes and being friends with them and so also listened to their Gospel. Eventually he married a very lovely Fula lady (common law marriage). We had just finished conference in Bobo one day and in came Vandy, distressed because the battery was dead in his car and he could not get another one. One of our men, who knew him well (he thought) graciously gave him a battery he had and Vandy and wife pulled out of our mission yard. Dad made the remark, "That's the last we will see of him!" And sure enough it was true. He was a crook, hunted by the police, and they had heard he was associated with our mission so came down to question us. Nobody, to our knowledge, ever heard of him again. You win some and lose some!
There were also French women, with children, who had married Burkinabe men and were being mistreated by them or else they could not fit into the local culture. I spent some time listening to them and talking with them. Eventually, they made their way back to Europe and abandonned their Burkinabe husbands.
Our nearest neighbors were Pastor Thomas and his family, who came from Sangha in Mali and became first African pastor of the downtown Alliance church. They lived on the same compound as we did and Mark, you and their young son were inseparable buddies. They also had a teenage daughter. Female excision was practiced in their Dogon tribe in Mali, but Thomas would never permit this in his family. One day when he was out somewhere, his wife decided to go ahead and do the excision on their daughter. Someone came running to the house (Dad was not there) and called me to come quickly, that there was terrible trouble. When I went into the house they took me to the little washroom and showed me a little potty full of blood and clots that had come out of this child when her mother clumsily tried to excise her! I was horrified and knew we had to get her to the hospital. Thomas and Dad were not there, but Mary Kaye Pease was in town and she had a van in which we could put the girl, lying down. And we all tore off to the hospital! They were able to save her life, but just barely - we were all praying hard as the doctors worked on her. And the pastor was very unhappy when he got back. She was in the hospital several days before she was well enough to come home. What an experience that was to go through!
When we lived on the mission compound we also had the secretary who worked in the office - there were a number of these through the years. Betty Canberg Smith was a friend of ours and of you girls. She eventually came back to Toccoa and married and is now in our church here so we see her regularly. Kauffmans lived there also and what great friends they were - and are!
In Bobo I regularly used three languages besides English - Bobo, Jula and French. So that was a big change from the bush. My ministry also changed, as I was mission hostess and in charge of the motel we operated for our people. And eventually I got involved in a lot of other ministries in the city as well - more about that later.
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