To all of our praying friends and family,
Recently, in reading Oswald Chambers “My Upmost for His Highest”, the revelation of abandonment in lighted to me in a new way. It says, “There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself. If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you – and His experiments always succeed.” I know it basically means to give your whole heart, soul, mind and strength to God, but to put that into practical words… Your RIGHT to YOURSELF!!!
We are very sorry for the LONG silence! J And I will try and back up and inform you of the last 2 months!
From the middle of April into May our mailbox was full of cards! First Anniversary cards then birthday cards for Chad! What a blessing it was to receive all those encouraging cards and notes during that time! A hearty THANK YOU, to all who took the time to send us one! Chad got over 30 birthday cards plus about 15 anniversary cards!
The beginning of May Chad’s parents, Vern & Elaine Martin, and Elizabeth’s sister, Anna Dunn, came. Anna has come to take Serenity’s place and Chad’s parents came for a two week visit to bring Anna over and take Serenity home! We really had a wonderful time with them here! They helped us plant our garden, roof our new storage building, crochet some rugs, and enjoy being with us and our children!!!! We celebrated Elayna’s birthday while they were here…. Even though it was 2 weeks early! We took Bro. Samuel’s family with us to the ocean one day…. Their children had never been to the ocean before so they thoroughly enjoyed it! J And we also went to the Volta Dam, which is about 2 ½ hours north of us. We stayed at a very nice secluded guesthouse that had only 3 rooms in it, so we took up the whole guesthouse! J It was right along the river with grassy lawns and nice landscaping… outdoor pavilions with tables and chairs. They also had a restaurant right there too! Then we took a tour of the Volta Lake on a large Ferry Boat that could hold 200 people! There weren’t that many people on it when we were there but there were still plenty of people there! Another highlight of Dad’s being here was that Uncle Ross & Aunt Cynthia came and visited us for a day and a night! We all so enjoyed their visit here… and hope they did too! J All too soon we were saying a hurried good-bye at the airport! L It had been raining most of the day off and on…. And we were all thankful that the rain let up while they unloaded their luggage from the lorry and piled it on the luggage carts! It was a very sad moment…. But it was too brief for tears! Elayna kept telling her Auntie Serenity that she is going to cry when she leaves…. But it hasn’t happened yet! J But she fondly talks about her and probably won’t forget her!
Four days after Dad’s left Chad came down with malaria! We started treating right away and within a day or two he felt really good! The malaria dose we gave him is only a three day dose and after the third day he felt fine. But then two days later he started to get sick again… and it seemed like malaria again. The first dose must not have been strong enough to knock. So he went to the Doctor and he prescribed him a very strong drug…. Which did knock the malaria but the side effects of the drug were wearisome too! This week he seems to be feeling a lot better, except that his muscles are still sore, so pray that full strength could be restored!
Last week we went to Accra to see Matt & Janelle one last time here in Ghana L…. And meet the new missionaries that have come to take their place, Ervin & Mattie Rudolph. J We had a really nice time visiting… it seems like a looong time since we had the opportunity to fellowship with two other young families like ourselves! [Some of you may forget what a BLESSING fellowship is when it is a normal occurrence every Sunday for you!] Ervin’s have 2 little girls ages 2 ½ and 9 months…. Just a little bit younger than our two! There were seven children five and under…. And they all seemed to enjoy each other’s company! We will really miss Matt & Janelle…. But we look forward to getting to know Ervin & Mattie better!
Since coming back from Accra we have been really diving into LL again! We took a two week break when Dad’s were here and then when Chad was sick we didn’t do much….. so now we are at it again!!! Pray for us as we try to find new ways and methods that will help us to learn the language better/faster! We are praying about trying to find an young teacher that would have time to tutor us in the afternoons… like take the same language course book that we are going through and drill us on the lessons we are doing or have already done! It seems like we should be able to say more than just the greetings…. And we know more than that but we are still trying to figure out how to make sentences that make sense to them! Anyway, sometimes we think we are really making progress then other times it seems like we are not getting ANYWHERE! So pray especially against discouragement in this area so that we can have clear minds to learn and understand!
Rainy season is really underway here…. We were getting a rain almost every other day, but it’s been three days now since we had a good shower! Maybe we will get a downpour tonight! J We love the cooler weather rainy season brings…. But the abundance of mosquitoes isn’t so nice! So pray with us against malaria as we try to do all we can to prevent it!
May the Lord Jesus be near to each one of you this next week and keep you in His care!
Striving to be faithful! Chad & Elizabeth
All of Chad's birthday cards! Thank you!!!!
Auntie Anna!
Our new shop/storage shed
Uncle Ross & Aunt Cynthia Ulrich Family
Headed to the river...
Grandma crocheting...
Grandpa reading books...
Bro. Samuel's children at the ocean
Enjoying the sea!
At the dam
The Ferry boat
Our family on the boat
Enjoying the ride!
Serenity and Anna
