Count Your Blessings

Here are some of the things God has done for us recently…

• Boys School – The school situation has been working out so far for Ethan.  The first week he has 1 to 2 hours of homework a night, but he did it without complaint and has really been doing well so far.  Praise God!

  

• Transport – The boys now take public bus in the morning to school and it is working!  It will get more challenging as schools here start this week so the buses will be more crowded, but we are praising God for a good start.

  

• Two Days Together – My return from Liberia was delayed, but then Joel’s departure to Guinea ended up delayed, our first major delays and they happened on two back to back trips.  This allowed us to have 2 days together as a family and it was a huge blessing.

  

• Helicopter – The family in Liberia that was trapped by the bridges is still waiting on those bridges to get fixed, but Samaritans purse came to their rescue and helicoptered them out as they were out of everything including money.  They have had a few weeks in town to refresh and will head back this week with supplies and renewed strength.

  

• Providing for us –  We have had a decrease in support and we shared this with someone who was asking us about it.  She passed this one to one of our churches who then of their own accord reached out to their people to raise more support for us.  God is amazing and the family of God is also amazing!

  

• Sometimes it is the Small things – One bag was lost on a recent flight and it had all the boys clothes in it.  I was most sad about the boys swimsuits as those are trickier to find here.  I wrote my mom and she was able to still find swimsuits on sale!
• A few lighter weeks –  We have had a few lighter weeks without travel and it has been so good to catch our breath and relax a little.
• A trip together – working on our plans for our next trip and it ended up working out to bring out boys a long to visit some of their friends in Burkina Faso.
• Reading Matthew –  We started the school year challenging the boys to read a chapter of Matthew a day and so far we have all kept up on it and had some great discussion about it together as a family.

  

• Cheese and Cereal – Our new grocery store in town has things about to expire that they mark down we have actually found some great deals and got to enjoy a few extra treats including cereal and cheese!

  

There have been hard things as well as we process and consider the rising security concerns around us and the impact it has on families we know.  But as we struggle with those it is good to look back and see the little and big ways that God cares for us in our daily life.  Our next trip in a little over a week.  Pray for us as we travel together as a family.  Pray for us as the family we are visiting has been through a lot of turmoil with the rising security concerns.