Welcome!
Jarren Timothy Martin
Weight: 7lb 10oz
Length: 19 ½ in
Born Jan. 23rd at 6:55pm
Dear Praying Supporters,
"I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness; and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high."
Ps. 7:17
God is soooo good… ALL the time! We are rejoicing that our little Jarren Timothy has arrived safe and sound! The birth was more intense than our previous two children but Praise the Lord there were no major complications! Jarren came out a little blue because of the cord being around his neck but the Doc. had that off in a matter of seconds and he turned pink real quick! My mother, Susan Dunn, was able to be there at the birth which was a real blessing and encouragement!
We left for Accra [the big city where we planned to have the birth] on Sat. Jan. 14th. We were in Accra for almost 2 weeks! The first week we were just waiting for the baby to come and we stayed at Irvin’s little guest house. Then the second week was rest and recovery before we went home. My father, Rickey Dunn, came in on Fri. Jan. 27th. And we picked him up at the airport and headed home to Sogakope that afternoon. It was soooo good to be home again!
Here in Ghana they have a baby naming ceremony to bless the child and name him/her. They usually do that at 8 days old. But many of our friends told us that we can have it whenever we are ready [up to 3 mon.]. Here in Volta Region they call it “Out Dooring”. We had Jarren’s “out dooring” on Feb. 6th when he was 2 weeks old. We invited our Church family, a few friends and neighbors. We have gotten to know a retired German couple that lives on the other side of the river about 10 miles from us. So we invited them to join us as well. We told everyone to come at 10am… but it didn’t start till 11! First off, all the guest were seated outside in chairs. While Chad, Jarren and I, along with my parents and Bro. Samuel and Sis. Eunice went to our bedroom and had a private prayer/song service. We told them the name of the baby and its meaning. Jarren means, Cry of Rejoicing or Shout of Joy, and Timothy means, One who Honors God. Then Chad gave a blessing for the future life of his son and his Grandpa prayed that blessing on his grandson. After our little service we all went outside with Bro. Samuel carrying the baby. Then Bro. Samuel had a prayer in Ewe… then one in English . Next came the announcement of the name, Jarren Timothy! Timothy is a common name for most Ewe’s so everyone was calling him by that name! We had a local restaurant make us rice and chicken and put it in a take-away box … so we had 30 of them to give to those who came. Plus we had bought small bottles of soda to hand out as well. Everything was pretty well over by 1pm…. but several of our neighbors kept trickling in throughout the afternoon. We ran out of take-away meals so Chad went in and had them make us 15 more! We met more of our neighbors that day than we have since we moved here almost a year ago! We hope it was a blessing to all who came!
I (Chad) will insert a paragraph to explain some of the paperwork that I have been very busy with the last while. We are applying for residence Quota’s and it is quite a long process. First I went to the Ministry Of Interior a few months back to ask what the requirements are. The Secretary told me to go and make up a letter of request on our letterhead and bring it back to her with 200GHc about $130 and she would give me the forms to fill out! I went and prepared the letter and when we were in Accra over the birth of our baby I took the letter to her, paid the money and she gave me the forms to fill out. Along with the forms was this list of required documents that I needed to submit when I returned the forms. Among them was: Tax Clearance Certificate, Social Security Clearance Certificate, and a few other certificates that I already had. Thankfully I can get the Tax Clearance Certificate right here in Sogakope, but the SS Clearance Certificate had to come from a town close to Aflao, about 2hr motto ride from here. I prepared myself on Wednesday the 15th Feb. and left to go and see what I had to do to get it. First I had to register the company, then they could issue the Clearance Certificate. I reached there about 10:30am and left around 2:30 with the certificate in hand PTL! Those of you that know anything about Ghana, know that that was nothing short of a miracle! The man working with me was VERY helpful and since I had come from a distance, he went ahead and processed everything in one day instead of giving me the usual “come back tomorrow” answer. I am still waiting on the Tax Certificate from Sogakope here! It was supposed to be finished Friday but when I went to pick it up there was a “problem” with the letter of request that I had made. They had tried several times to reach me but the phone wasn’t going because they had mixed up one of the numbers…. So anyway, they are supposed to rush it and have it for me by Monday the 20th DLW! I also had to change our bank account into the name of our organization instead of my personal name. Again just another of the requirements to go along with this application for a Quota that I am preparing to submit. I plan to take the application to Accra Tuesday the 21st providing I get the documents I need Monday. I won’t bore you with more details but I thought it would be good to give you a little window into what has been keeping me hoping the past week or so. I will ask that each of you will make this Application for Quotas a matter of prayer! The Ministry of Interior has the ability to accept or reject our request for a Quota at their discretion. Just lift this situation up to the Lord that He would clear the way and make the processing smooth!
Another BIG prayer request is our water situation! We have not had any water since the end of Dec.! We are out of town a little ways and our house is at the end of the line so our water only comes in the night… but we have a poly tank and usually every couple of nights the water would come n fill our tank. But now we have not had one drop of water for almost 7 weeks!!! We keep complaining to the water company and they always say they are coming but they never come! Several in our area have been complaining that they are not getting water but most of them get water sometimes but we are not getting ANY! Chad traced the line back a couple of houses and they are getting water, so we think there is a busted pipe line somewhere in between their house and ours! Chad told them what he thinks the problem is and they said, “Oh we know it is a big problem!” Chad said he is willing to get a shovel and start digging to find the problem… and they said, “Oh you can’t do that!” We do have someone haul us 3 barrels of water every couple of days and we were able to get a pump sent with Dad to pump it up to our poly tank! So PLEASE pray that the water company will do something SOON!
Chace just recently recovered from a bout of Malaria! Thankfully he responded to the medicine well and with the power of prayer he was soon his normal self! He is doing lots better now!
Specific Prayer Request:
· Pray for our health and safety
· Pray that our Quota will be granted
· Pray that we will soon have water again
· Pray that we will master the language
A special THANK YOU to all of you who pray for us! We know that your prayers are our life-line…. We can’t do without them! We would love to hear what God is doing in your corner of the world!
Looking to Jesus! Chad & Liz, Elayna, Chace, and Jarren
