January

Hello blog world…let me update you on the major events so far in 2017:

A group of students from NTM’s Bible schools and Missionary Training Center came to Senegal to see first hand what mission work is like. One evening we had them over for a Senegalese meal of chicken, onion sauce, fries, salad and bread, eaten out of big shared plates, because that’s the Senegalese way! I had the girls on the team help me plate the meal (see below). Our host dad came over and shared his testimony and Cameron translated for the team. It was a really fun evening!

And the very next day after the team was at our house …our host family’s son was born! He’s their third boy and he’s name Nehemie David, after Cameron, who goes by his middle name “David” here. He’s a healthy little boy and doing great!

Those are the out-of-the-ordinary events, the most common event for me right now is French. French sessions, French listening, French reading, French speaking and lots and lots of getting my French corrected. This last bit of language learning is all about working on having a little less of an accent, fixing up my bad grammar and helping me word things in a more clear and understandable way. I’ve even spent some time in Dakar last month to boost my session hours with another language helper.

Cameron spends the mornings homeschooling the kids both in French and English. Because he’s already finished with formal French study we thought it made more sense for him to do it for now, while I work on finishing this last phase of language study.

Then his afternoons are spent working on our new-to-us vehicle. He’s been replacing many of the parts so that we can have a well-running vehicle before driving it to Burkina Faso.

 

So that was January in a nutshell, what’s in our future? Well for starters, Cameron’s parents will be here in a week! We’re so excited that they’ll be spending 3 weeks with us!

Katy finishing formal French study in the next couple of months is a major goal and then moving to Burkina Faso. On the map below you can see Senegal in pink, where we are right now, and to the east with Mali in between them is Burkina Faso in a brownish color.

We’re praising God that our 2 co-workers already in Burkina Faso have been able to spend a lot of time in the village and are starting to learn the language. Keep praying for future brothers and sister in Christ among them! Here’s a picture from their village.