to be honest

today my life as a missionary is not so fun and here are some reasons why;

haven't had water from the city in a few days! which means dirty kids dirty husband and dirty self!

ordered a water truck to fill up the water tanks and they don't get here until 9:43pm (i guess i can say "at least they got here")

can't get olympics on tv

internet is slow

my house is dusty b/c of the dry season

Okay i guess i will stop and check on the water guys.

I do love all y'all and remember..... I do love my job.... when we have water: )

25 fun and crazy things I have seen and done

my life as a missionary is sometimes crazy but I am enjoying the journey that it is bring my family and I through. We are now entering into our 4th year in Rwanda (6th year in Africa). Wow does time fly. Spencer got a text from our phone company saying that he gets several free texts and some free airtime because he has hit his 3 year anniversary! I found that quite funny. Not sure if we have ever had a phone number that long in a long time : )

Here is a list of things I never thought I would experience or do over the last few years:

1. visit 6 African countries with my children
2. rinse bugs off of my fish because of the corn flour
3. bump the 5 second rule to "if the floor doesn't look too bad than eat it" (especially if it is American food)
4. take my kids to school on a moto (with me driving)
5. use the bathroom that is just a whole in the ground
6. throw rocks at monkeys so they would stop eating our corn in our yard
7. nurse Silas on the platform at church
8. eat several meals from a restaurant held up by cardboard boxes
9. have satellite tv (we even get Disney and Food Network)
10. play soccer at a national stadium with the presidents wife of Rwanda
11. eat goat on a bamboo stick
12. travel to another Country without Spencer or kids (Burkina Faso)
13. have a baby in South Africa (which was better than the deliveries in the US)
14. eat at McDonalds and KFC in Africa
15. use cloth diapers
16. buy a goat for a pastor
17. pasteurize my own milk and make cheese
18. prepare a turkey for a thanksgiving meal that was just killed in my yard
19. see the mountain gorillas
20. make everything from scratch
21. watch my kids grow up thinking that women's breasts are just a baby's bottle (sorry not offense here) ha!
22. ride in a bus packed with so many people you can't move
23. watch my kids play using a different language
24. wash out and reuse zip lock bags
25. share a meal with several people using one bowl

There are lots of other things I can think of but will just keep to myself! HA! Not sure I will share everything with those who might already think I am crazy. hehehe

Okay off to a celebration. We are announcing a new District Superintendent for one of our districts!

Love all y'all and remember.... always rinse the bugs and rocks out of your rice before cooking.... well at least in Senegal and in Rwanda! : ) extra protein right?!?

just shake the ants off!

Other missionaries have said to me in the beginning that your house help become like family. Esther has been working for us for a while and she has for sure become part of our family. I know most of you are thinking... it must be nice having house help : ) Yes it is really amazing! Actually to be honest in the past it has been a love/hate relationship. BUT Esther is unique! We love Esther. The kids really love her as well. Especially Silas. Silas is constantly asking (well telling) her to come and play with him. He is also really good at convincing her to give him juice or a snack.
Househelp is giving a job to someone. The pay is extremely affordable here. Since we moved to Africa we have had someone at least 2 days a week. For a while I could only handle someone in my house 2-3 days a week. That was enough for me. Esther comes 5 days a week. I know crazy! But when she started working for us we knew right away that she was great. Plus she is a single mom and not only supports her 12 year old son but her parents as well as other siblings. Her approximately $100 a month supports this many people.

About a month ago Esther had a medical (female) problem and had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. It was a very difficult time in her life. At the time she had 2 boyfriends. Well not really but she really likes this one boy but her family likes another. It's kind of a romeo and Juliet story :) anyways....
this November her family is planning a wedding for her and "the other guy". The one who she does not love. Today she just cried! With her broken english and my broken french we prayed together. Today I am asking for you to pray for Esther. Pray that either her family can understand that she doesn't love him or...... well not sure what the or is! I don't think I will ever be able to understand some of the cultural differences here.

Today Luke, my first born turned 10! Time is flying by! I remember 5 years ago we were telling everyone "we will be back from Africa when Luke is 8"! HA!! We are still here on this journey serving our God! Luke has had a few birthdays now in Africa! God is good and has really blessed us with an amazing son. Luke is smart and has a sensitive heart! Yesterday he made some business cards. His company is titled "Poor African Children Fundraiser"! What a sweet child.



Okay going to bed I love all y'all and remember.... don't leave the chips open on the counter. You may just have to shake the ants off when your ready for a snack. you know your a missionary if..... you just shake of the ants!

april

a cow, a cow

Lots of stuff has happened since I last blogged. Life has been crazy busy. The kids are growing up, ministry is happening, we went to the states and we moved into an amazing house. Over the past couple of years we have been told we could move off the Nazarene compound. Since it was our home and our children felt at home there we decided to stay put. BUT since December was one of the hardest months for us ever in the 4 years on the field we decided it was time. So.... we moved. Our new home is in Kimironko which is only about 10 minutes from our old house. The kids and us love it!. luke is able to ride his bike to his friends house which is a first for him. We love living in a neighborhood! God has been so good to us. Especially working out the details of this home.

Spencer is in Butare for the week. We have a team here from Mt. Vernon First Church in Ohio. They are building a technical school for orphans as well as laying a concrete foundation on a church/district center. The team brought us several fun items including a weed wacker! :) Fun fun!

Next week the team is taking us (me and Spencer) to see the gorillas! This is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. Especially since it is so expensive to go. I am soooo excited. I am sure you will see tons of photos on fb. Maybe even on my blogspot! lol

A couple of weeks ago we had Abby's 8th birthday party. There were tons of kids here. More kids than were invited. How does that happen? lol BUT we had plenty of cupcakes to go around.

Spencer, Luke and I will be starting Kinyarwanda lessons in about 2 weeks. Goodness didn't I just finish learning French! lol -

Okay better go find out what Silas is doing. We are going through the terrible twos and he is so sneaky!

Love ya lots and remember.......... when your 21 month old keeps saying a cow, a cow.... look up there might be 2 cows right in front of you!

Dr. Sammy and Mr. Price! What??

I have been wanting to post for a while but there has been so many things that I thought would be best not to mention. Sometimes my life as a missionary is just too hard. Too much to mention.

Anyways as we are getting closer and closer to Christmas I often think.. would it really be so wonderful to be in the states for Christmas? Would I rather spend time away from my own bed in cold weather eating what ever I want sitting around a Christmas tree thinking man there are a ton of gifts I would like to unwrap and then wrap back up without anyone seeing??? Naaa Christmas with our charlie brown tree and our 80 degree weather is just fine with me. We have made our home here and this is where I want to be. (today that is) The other day I would have been on a plane without luggage!

There are 4 days until Christmas. I finally found more wrapping paper and some fun little gifts for the kids. Even here they are probably getting too much stuff!

Okay so I almost fell over today. Seriously when I saw that big sign that said Mr. Price my friend Jeana almost had to pick me up. We finally have our first real clothing store here in Kigali. Yesterday I found Dr. Sammy which almost taste like Dr. Pepper and now a clothing store. Plus we have a cool food court in this new mall thingy. I say thingy b/c it is still not really a mall but is acting like one. They even have highchairs in the food court. Plus the bathrooms were awesome. Today was a good day! Jeana and I laughed during our whole lunch b/c we were in shock.

Friday we are having some friends over for a birthday party for baby Jesus. we are grilling out hotdogs and having some other fun festive foods. of course some great desserts as well.

Luke and Abby have been working on their garden just about every other day. They love it and have been waiting for it to produce their veggies. Well... a monkey has been stealing their corn. I know it might sound a little funny but Luke is really upset about it. I think it has eaten most of the corn now. boo for monkeys!!!

Okay here is a description of the pic.
- the man through the window. This guy had on a best buy jacket. I thought it was pretty funny
- me and a lady at our church
- yes it's an authorized apple store
- our new clothing and home good store
- me and santa chillin... like bob dillon

Okay all for now. love all y'all and remember......... Jesus is the reason for the season (man I should like my mom) loll

April

update and some prayer requests

It has been a while! We have been really busy the past month... or so. A few weeks ago we are invited to a field retreat with our new field. East Africa Field. We are very excited about this change and we are really looking forward to seeing how God will be using us with our new boss, leaders and new Countries.
Retreat was awesome. We went to a game park about 7 hours from Nairobi. It was great meeting our other team mates and also relaxing a bit. Luke was in heaven! He was able to go on 6 game drives not including the drive in to the park and the drive out. The lodge was awesome and we had an amazing view. We actually we able to see elephants from our porch. Plus.... lol.... while me and the 2 older kids were on a game drive Spencer decided to take a shower while Silas was sleeping in his bed. When he got out of the shower he heard something and walked into our room to see about 8 monkeys eating our snacks!!!! Crazy! Only in Africa.....

The drive back to Nairobi was a little scary. Our van was overheating so we pulled over. Along with the other 3 vans in the carpool. The van we were in had a water reservoir in the seat behind the front passenger. 2 other the missionaries felt the cap and it felt cool and since it was the overflow decided it was safe to open. Well... as soon as it opened HOT water starting pouring out. When I say pouring it was like a huge fast flowing water fall. Unfortunately Abby, Silas and I were on that row where the water was flowing. Abby started screaming and trying to get out of the van with her seat belt on. I was screaming and laying on top of Silas trying to get him out. I couldn't get him out! I was too frazzled to think and I was too busy laying on him. The water was HOT. It was so hot that it burned the back of 1 missionary from Uganda and burned our new boss from Kenya on his hand. They were trying to get Abby out and also to block the water. Wheww..... it was scary. Silas was finally pulled out by a missionary from Kenya. He was thinking a little bit more than I was. Apparently the car seat was tied in and I couldn't get it loose.
All in all it was okay. I really feel like God has protected our kids from SOOOO much. I really believe HE was there and protecting them. He is so good!

Last week we hosted about 21 DS's and leaders from DRC, Congo Brazzaville, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, South Africa and Kenya. It was good but very busy.

We are coming home in just a few months. I really am having a hard time getting excited. I know we will love our time in the States but all I can think about is that long flight and the traveling we will be doing. Not fun for me! Luke is not excited about coming home either. He actually cried. Our kids love school so much they don't want to miss any of it. BUT I know once it gets closer we will get more excited. We will be home for about 5 weeks. We have meetings in KS and we are taking some vacation time.

Okay here are some prayer requests:
1. - The mission compound, local church and district office is trying to be taken from a lady who is saying her mother in law had no right to sell the property back in 1998 when we purchased it. She won the first court case!!! Not good. I will update you on the next court date. Of course we appealed!
2. - Spencer leaves for Kenya today and comes back on Saturday. Pray that I can function as a single mom for a bit! lol
3. - Transition for us and our leaders on our new field.

Okay I love all y'all and remember.... if you freeze KFC in Kenya it will still be frozen when you get home in Rwanda! Boooooyaaaa!

April

a busy life

I just got back from a tot's group. This is a group of mom's that bring their babies and toddlers to different houses for a play date. I am new to this group : ) It has been a lot of fun. Silas loves it and it give me a chance to hang out with other ladies. Plus... I get to go to all of these fun houses. Yes I get a little envious but who wouldn't when you see all of the play toys some of these kids have. Okay don't get me wrong we are very blessed with a nice house and lots of "junk", it is just some people have things that were obvious brought from their home country. Things you can't buy here. Anyways I am meeting a lot of interesting people.

SO in a few weeks we will be starting the first English church in Rwanda. Actually it is the first English church on our field (FEF). I am excited to be able to hear a good sermon in English for the first time in a loooong time. Yes Spencer will be preaching. This has been a long time coming and we along with the District Superintendent is excited. I will let everyone know the official date as soon as we nail it down. (most likely it will be September 18th).

Today I met a lady that calls herself Bifal. It will be interesting to see how our friendship grows. I met her at the tot's group. She is from America but is married to a Rwandan and she is actually having a ceremony today to celebrate her becoming a Rwandan. Interesting! One of the things that I love about being a missionary is all the different people I get to meet. People from all over the world.

Okay here is the schedule for this week and next... just in case you are wondering what I am up to.
Thursday - tot's group, PTO meeting
Friday - Luke going to a sleep over (friend from Kenya), Abby going over to a friends house after school(Rwandan), pizza night with friends
Saturday - ahhhh Saturday
Sunday - church, pot luck with friends at 4 (discussion of new church will be happening)
Monday - Luke starts French lessons after school, Abby starts Ballet
Tuesday - Ladies bible study, Luke starts Tae Kwon Do
Wednesday - open house at school
Thursday - tot's praise group (different from the regular tot's, will have a bible story and music for the kids), Barney and Joyce arrive!!!
Friday - interview with RAC

Above when I mentioned the nationalities of our kids friends. I mentioned it because our kids see everyone the same. The don't just have American friends at school. They are so blessed to be a part of other cultures and other nationalities and they love it.

Okay it is time for my afternoon tea.

love all ya'll and remember.... artichoke hearts and feta cheese with a little Italian dressing go very well together! (Maybe I need to go to Greece)

April