Update #17 Jan. 15-Feb. 15 2012

Welcome!

Jarren Timothy Martin

Weight: 7lb 10oz

Length: 19 ½ in

Born Jan. 23^rd 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. 14^th. 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. 27^th. 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. 6^th 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 15^th 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 20^th 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 21^st 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

Our Family!

Our new helper ~LeAnn Petre

"Out Dooring" service

Announcing the baby's name

Bro. Samuel praying a prayer of blessing

Jarren at 2 days old

Jarren at 4 days old

Elayna 3 1/2, Chace 2, Jarren 1 wk.

Update #16 Nov. 10-Jan. 10

Dear Prayer Supporters,

New Year Greetings to each one of you!!! It’s so hard to believe that we are almost half way into the month of January! Where does the time go??? I like the quote… “Only one life, twill soon be past… only what’s done for Christ will last!” May we live our lives for Christ every moment of the day! We are excited about what all God has in store for us in this next year!

It seems like we are only able to get an update out every 2 months instead of every month these days! J And I doubt very much that our lives will slow down any in the near future with a new baby on the way! We have only 1 ½ weeks till the due date! Everything is going well with the pregnancy and we are all ready to meet this new little one! The doctor has wanted to see us every week in this last month… and with public transportation the trip there and back gets more and more difficult the bigger I get! So Lord willing we plan to go to Accra next week and stay there until the baby comes.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends in Accra! Uncle Ross & Aunt Cynthia came down from Tamale and celebrated with us and Irvin & Mattie Rudolph! We had a lovely time of fellowship and yummy food! It was a blessing to share the things we are thankful for! And to reflect on all God has done for us in the past year!

The weekend after we came home from Accra we had the Nugbulibi Church come to Sogakope and share in our service. I think that was the first time most of them had been to our church and it was good to have a bigger crowd than just our family and Bro. Samuel’s family! The Nugbilubi church consist of children and young people. As of yet we don’t have any parents or adults that attend regularly! But Praise God for the earnest young people we do have! So for the ones that came to Sogakope for church were Mary [18], and Emafa [14] out of the girls and then there were 5 young boys ranging in age from 14-7. We had a fellowship meal afterward of rice, red stew, and fish. It was a real blessing and we hope to do it again in the future!

Since coming back from Accra in Nov. Chad had been working every morning Mon- Fri. in a friends welding shop! He really enjoys the work and the language exposer it gives him! I think it gives him a connection with others in town as well! He has also been called on to help with some mechanics since there is a mechanic shop right beside the welding shop. He really enjoys getting out and doing some physical work! He has stopped working since the New Year in order to get some things ready before my mom comes and this baby! And once things settled down again he will resume again! I have noticed that he is able to hear the language much more than I am able… just because he is hearing it around him everyday! So that has been really exciting for him as he discovers new words and phrases!

Christmas day turned out a little different than we had planned! On our way home from church Chace was riding on the back of Anna’s bike and got his foot caught in the bike spokes! It twisted it pretty good and peeled the skin off the back of his heel! It was all swollen till Anna got home with him… and he was screaming uncontrollably!!! It took both Chad and I about ½ hr. to get him calmed down! He kept saying, “Owie, owie, big!” Thankfully his ankle was not broken and by that evening he was putting pressure on it and running by the next day! We had a fellowship meal at our house for the whole church.... Jollof rice, fried chicken, coleslaw, and Christmas cookies and candy! Everyone enjoyed the meal… once we got Chace to quiet down! Sis. Eunice wasn’t able to come because of some things that she needed to do in the house, but we sent a plate of food home for her! It was a blessing to share together with the body of Christ that God has blessed us with! Later in the afternoon our wash girl, Patience, came and gave us a live chicken as a Christmas present! So since we didn’t have a cage to put it in Chad butchered it right away! We put it in the freezer to make groundnut soup with… the local chickens add soooo much flavor to the soups! Then we will eat it with Bankou! We really enjoy the bankou and we eat it once to twice a week with various stews/soups! It is the main staple for the Ewe’s and some claim they haven’t eaten till they eat bankou! They like to eat it at 7-8pm so it sits on their stomachs all night and makes them feel full! J

We have been blessed as we look back on God’s bountiful blessing in the past year! We have experienced exceptionally good health for the most part! Elayna did have a bout of Malaria right before Thanksgiving but she responded to the medication very well and was herself again by the 3^rd day! We have been making progress with the language… slowly but surely! And we have been blessed with many dear friends and neighbors that we have come in contact with! One of our dear friends just had a baby boy… by C-section! The mother and baby are doing very well… something you don’t take for granted in this culture! Just last week a mother that had delivered by C-section died the day after the surgery! Nobody knows why? Did she get an infection? Did they puncture something when delivering the baby? Who knows but now there is another little infant without a mommy!

Please continue to pray:

For Liz and the birth of our little one

That we will continue to learn the language, esp. be able to hear what the people are saying

Our health… right now is our cold season so some of us have been fighting the sniffles and coughs!

Striving to be more like Jesus! Chad & Elizabeth Martin

Thanksgiving Feast

Chace's 2nd birthday Nov. 27

Anna and Bro.Samuel's children... she made their outfits!

Joint Church service

Christmas Service

Christmas Dinner

The Christmas cookies that Anna made

Chad butchering our Christmas chicken

Our friend Godwin & Becky's little baby boy

Update #15 Sept. 1-Nov. 9

Dear Praying Friends,

“Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee.” Jeremiah 32:17

What an awesome God we serve! Chad and I have been reading in Jeremiah in our personal bible reading and have been really blessed with so many of God’s promises to His people if they will only obey Him and worship Him only!

It has been quite some time since we have updated you with our lives! We TRY to write about once a month but it doesn’t always get done! J So I will try and catch you up with the last 2 months!

The beginning of September we went to Jason Kauffman and Charity Ulrich’s wedding in Tamale. Tamale is in the northern region of Ghana and is about 14 hours from Sogakope. Charity is Chad’s cousin and Jason is a brother to my sister-in-law Sarah [married to Paul Dunn]! The wedding was beautiful… the couple radiant! We stayed in Tamale almost a week and took one day to visit Karaga. The village where Chad and I served as singles 6 years ago. It was fun to go back and see many familiar people and places!

We came home from Tamale and dove back into Language learning! The language course book that we have been going through has 30 lessons so our goal was to finish the book by Thankgiving! We have been studying long and hard sometimes doing a whole lesson in one day… and now we only have one more lesson to go! We should finish this week Lord willing! Of course that doesn’t mean that we have mastered the language… but it had given us a good understanding of sentence structure, word usage, and the many contractions and word phrases. So now we are praying that God will give us wisdom as to how to go from here! We feel like we need to get out and USE what we know and try and understand what the people are saying. Hearing the language is very difficult for us right now. Because we may hear a word or two that we know but because most Ewe words change meaning according to context we have to know the whole context of the sentence to understand what meaning that particular word is! But we are getting it slowly, slowly! An encouraging verse that God gave us was in Isaiah 28:10-11, “For precept, must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering tongue will he [we] speak to this people.” We feel like our tongues stammer and our brains can’t think fast enough when it comes to speaking! We are praying about Chad going and working in a friends welding shop a couple of morning a week to get more exposure to the language and force him to speak some to the boys that work there who know very little English. For me I’m not exactly how I can get out more… but I am going to try and visit some of the ladies our small village of Kudzekope. Just a short walk from our house is a where the main village is with a clump of about 15 houses and we have made friends with a number of the ladies because we sell water from our tank when we have extra. Most of these ladies know no or very little English… so I would be forced to hear and speak Ewe. We also want to keep our language teacher coming in the afternoon to teach us more new things and answer any questions we may have encountered in the day! We are confident that God will help us to learn and eventually speak this language! So please continue to pray for us!

In the middle of Oct. we had to make a quick trip to Togo to renew Anna’s visa. We spent a night there and had a nice relaxing time at the ocean… enjoying the waves and sand! God was good and we didn’t have any trouble at the borders and Anna was granted an extension to her visa so she can stay another 3 months! She plans to be here till Feb. My mom is planning to come the middle of Jan. to be here for the birth of the baby and bring LeAnne Petre [Phil Petre’s daughter] with her. LeAnne will take Anna’s place and will be here for 6 months. Then Lord willing my Dad will come the end of Jan. and take my Mom and sister home the beginning of Feb. We are looking forward to their coming!

The Brother’s in the church have been having several meetings in the last 2 months to discuss different issues in the church and write up their own statement of faith. We are also praying about selling some of the church property across the road from the church.

Family life… some of you may be interested to hear how my pregnancy is going and how the children are. I had a prenatal with the Doc. in Accra in Sept. Then another prenatal at the hospital here in Sogakope. Everything seems to be going well so far, God is giving me grace for each day and I am VERY grateful for my sister who has been doing most of the household duties. We recently hired a wash girl to come and wash for us 3 days a week. We were planning to get a girl once the baby came… but decided to go ahead and hire someone now so she can be familiar with everything! It makes it nice for Anna… scrubbing clothes by hand is time consuming! The children are doing well... they love living in Africa and have made lots of friends. Especially since Chad made two small swings for them… the neighbor children love to come and swing too! One of the neighbor boys is especially good with the children and will swing them and entertain them well! Chace has fallen in love with him which is nice because there are very few children that he likes. Chace will be two the end of this month! He is getting to be such a big boy… he is talking a lot more, and repeats most everything, and now that he is potty trained he feels a new confidence and wants to do everything himself! As most of you parents know that with the ‘myself’ stage also comes the daily training of molding his will to ours! So with God’s grace we are trying to be consistent in teaching him. Elayna is a ‘big’ girl that keeps getting bigger every day! She is always saying, “When I get this big….” And raises her hand above her head about 8 inches. “…then I will ride a bike, or be able to read, or start losing teeth!” Some of the things she is looking forward to doing when she gets bigger! J We have started some preschool books with her and she loves them… coloring, cutting, pasting, etc.! It is a challenge for me to find the time to spend one on one with her, with studying language, taking care of a very active 2 yr. old, plus the other dailies. But we manage to fit it in here and there. Chad is doing well and is kept busy with learning the language… trying his hand at making peanut butter from the peanuts we harvested… doing a little gardening… visiting the church Brothers and other friends… and keeping up with our paperwork! Plus be a Daddy and husband!!! It’s a lot of responsibility and he needs your prayers! Just yesterday He and Bro. Samuel went to Ho [2 hrs from here] to visit Bro. Nelson. Nelson is going to school there and yesterday was a holiday so school was out. They had a nice visit with him and safe travels… of course traveling in Ghana isn’t exactly enjoyable especially if you are of the height and structure as my dear hubby! He came home a bit stiff and sore!

Today is exactly one year since we landed on Ghanaian soil! It is hard to imagine that time could pass so quickly! We are very grateful for our Father’s care and protection over us in the past year! And we look forward to what all He has in store for us in the coming years here in Ghana! We plan to celebrate today by inviting Bro. Samuel’s family and Bro. Seth to join us for a special meal of grilled tilapia, rice and stew, and cabbage salad!

Please continue to pray:

For us to master the Ewe language

For our health and the safety of our unborn little one

For the church to remain faithful to God and be a shining testimony of His grace

Pressing toward the MARK of the high calling of God! Chad & Elizabeth Martin

Elayna at the ocean in Togo

Chace at the hotel in Togo

Chad making peanut butter

Elayna and a neighbor girl

The children enjoying their swings

Chad and Elizabeth going to the wedding

The children ready for the wedding

Update #14 July 10 - Aug. 28 2011

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

Loving greetings in the Name that is above ALL names….. JESUS CHRIST!

“Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks unto Thee do we give thanks: for that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare.” Ps 75:1

A lot of time has elapsed since the Lizard updated you all….. J! So now it is time to write again! Life has been very busy the last 2 months. Let me back up to our sweet corn harvest…….

Most of the corn had stood back up…. kinda cruved… after the storm. But some of the stalks in the middle were still lying on the ground. We started harvesting it around 9am, after we finished laundry. Chad and I picked while Anna and the children started husking. We had two nice size piles of un-husked corn till we were done. Some of the ears that had been lying on the ground had rotten spots on them…. But most of them were nice big full ears of corn! Chad had fertilized it once, plus sprayed for bugs twice. And we were blessed to have very few worms in our corn! Elayna would exclaim with almost every ear she husked, “Look Mom, Praise the Lord, no worms!” J Now if you are from the East coast or up north you may just take for granted that there is never worms in your corn…. But if you are from Oklahoma there is a worm in almost every ear! So it was a REAL blessing not to have any worms! Before we had gotten all the corn husked we realized that this was going to be a big job… and the largest kettle that I had was going to take us forever to do all this corn. So Chad went over to Bro. Samuel’s and asked if we could borrow Sis. Eunice’s big cooking pot that she makes porridge in. They brought it over and Samuel helped Chad get the fire started and the pot arranged on blocks. We had two 22 gal. totes FULL of husked sweet corn!!!! Most of you know the process of doing sweet corn…. And how long it can take! We ran out of ice… plus we didn’t have any freezer room for the bagged up corn! So Chad had to make arrangements with a friend… run into town n get more ice… plus keep up with the fire and blanching the corn! Anna and I were busy full time with cutting the corn off the cob! It took us till after supper time until we had everything put in bags, and in the freezer. But we were not disappointed with the labor of our hands… we got 47 quarts!!! Praise the Lord! In a land where sweet corn is almost unheard of…. And most missionaries that we talked to said they tried it and it didn’t work…. And after our rain storm flattened it to the ground…. We considered this a miracle from God! That was just the first picking... there was the second picking yet to be done! We called Irvin and Mattie Rudolph from Accra and asked them if they would want to come and help us do up the second picking and take it home! We had no more freezer room for it, plus we wanted to bless someone else! So they came and spent the weekend with us and we did the last of the sweet corn…. And got about 15 quarts! So total our little patch produced over 60 quarts! We are very grateful to God for his bountiful provisions!

The next biggest event that happened was Charity African Mission’s Retreat! We were delighted and blessed for the privilege to go! Most of the missionaries we had not seen since we came to Ghana simply because of the long distance. Irvin’s are in Accra 2 hrs. from us so we get to see them about once a month. The retreat is held in Kumasi, about 5 hours from Accra. We had a very relaxed and refreshed 5 days! There was lots of time for fellowship and sharing, praying for each other, games, and inspiring messages from Bro. Mel Esh. The children made some new friends and really enjoyed playing with so many other white children! J Near the end of the week Elayna heard someone sweeping outside our window and asked, “Now is that a black person or a white person?” She had to start refereeing to the missionaries as white people and the workers at the guest house as black people…. Because before then everyone around her was black… and we were the only white ones! Another highlight was we got to have lunchmeat and cheese sandwiches every day for lunch! That was a real treat! Plus all the other food was delicious too! We served vegetables from our garden…. Sweet corn, green beans, and soy beans… and it was a real big hit! Everyone enjoyed them especially since vegetables of that kind are hard to come by here in Ghana!

A big THANK YOU to all who sent me birthday cards… whether through the mail or cyber space! It was a real blessing and encouragement!

The lastest happenings around here are harvesting groundnuts [peanuts]… we and Bro. Samuel’s had planted the rest of the garden in groundnuts. And now it is harvest time! We haven’t gotten much rain recently… so it is hard work to hoe up each plant. But thanks to my hard-working Hubby and Bro.Samuel they have most of the patch harvested! Then Bro. Samuel’s children came and helped pick the peanuts off the plants. The children have had loads of fun jumping into the piles of groundnut plants after the peanuts have been taken off! Now the groundnuts have to dry for several days… then shell them… and store them! Quite a process but they go for “good” money after they are shelled! We have been enjoying them boiled and roasted! Yummy! We have also been getting lots of tomatoes! We are very grateful for them…. And hope to make some spaghetti sauce to can soon.

Chad and I are still devoting a lot of time to language learning! Our friend and teacher has goon back to University and now one of his friends is teaching is. It is somewhat difficult to change teachers, because their teaching style is different and the way they interpret things is different… plus they don’t know what you have already learned and are familiar with. But, by God’s grace, we are learning to know our new teacher and are trying to keep plugging on in the language! So, please continue to pray for us for open minds and ears to understand and hear EWE!!!!

One last thing I should mention before I close this letter…. Is that Chad bought a moto bike! Before we just had bicyles as our only means of transportation, and now that I’m pregnant it will be a real blessing to not have to bike everywhere. It is a used, fully automatic, lady friendly moto! J It is big enough for Chad but also very easy for us girls to drive! Everyone here expects us to buy a nice, big, new moto because we are white and have money…. So this definitely looks strange to them! But it serves the purpose well and makes it nice for Chad with all the running into town he does!

PRARY REQUESTS:

Pray for us as we strive to learn the language

Pray for our health [Praise the Lord only Chad has had malaria so far]

Pray for Elizabeth’s pregnancy and our unborn child in the womb

Your prayers are our lifeline…. Please keep lifting us and Light & Hope Church up to the Throne of Grace! Thank you for all your prayers on our behalf! If you have a moment we would love to hear from you and what God is doing in your corner of the world!

Servants of the Most High God! Chad & Elizabeth Martin & Family

Picking the corn

Husking.....

Chace helping!

Our pile of corn!

Doesn't it look beautiful!

Chad blanching....

Cutting it off the cob....

Elayna and Chace

Playing at retreat....

Our family at retreat

Anna

Birthday cards and gifts

Chace helping with soybeans

Chad harvesting goundnuts

Picking peanuts from the plants

Drying....

Our 'new' moto....

Update #13 June 17-July 7

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

Greetings! Well, I noticed that it was about time for another update and since it doesn’t seem like anybody has much time…. I thought I would write for a change! Let me introduce myself… I am the family lizard that lives in the living room window. Yes, that’s right I live in-between the metal and wood frame of the window. And come out as I please…. I hope you enjoy my ramblings.

As I observe the happenings around me, they seem to be numerous and at times hectic! The youngsters of this household have very little respect for peace and quiet… except for the few hours in the afternoon when they nap! You should have heard the loud avalanche as the blocks were dumped out at 6am in the morning! Whew, I nearly jumped out of my skin! Or the delighted screaming and screeching outside as they discover and chase a toad! I’m glad I’m a lizard because I’m much faster than toads and can get away from all the stick poking and rock throwing that the poor toads have to put up with. Not to mentioned that their eardrums almost pop! And of course, the children have no respect for cleanliness…. They come in the house with mud, sand, rocks, sticks, or else dripping wet! You should have seen the look on the mother’s face the time the little fellow, Chace, came inside with a handful of stones and climbed up on his Mommy’s lap and dumped his load inside the front of her dress! We all had a good laugh over that one! J The little girl, Elayna, is quite the informer and she repeats any information that she hears or knows…. She loves to know what is going on and where everybody is at. She asks many questions and is trying to learn all she can. Chace is starting to talk more and repeat words and phrases… like, “I want more chicken” or “Want ‘gango’” [meaning mango] or “Don’t dwink [drink] all” His speech isn’t as clear as his sister’s was at his age but you can definitely tell what his is saying. He is still as daring as ever and doesn’t give up even if he falls…. The other day I saw him walking on the concrete porch railing, which is about 8” wide and 3 ft off the ground with the concrete porch on the other side! He can climb up there all by himself! One of their more quiet and safe past times is looking at books and pictures…. It can get repetitious sometimes to hear the same book several times a day!

The Mother of the house hasn’t been doing a lot lately… I heard them say something about morning sickness, so I guess that means she is pregnant! She does a few things here and there and reads books to the children…. But mainly tries to keep her stomach settled. I think she said something like hopefully the worse is over!

The Auntie, as the children call her, is doing better. She had an ulcer on her ankle…. And at first we didn’t know what it was and were trying to treat it like a boil and it wasn’t getting better. Then she went to the hospital…. And got an antibiotic and a spray powder that is helping it heal up nicely. She is still doing a good bit of the work, like laundry, meals, cleaning, and babysitting! If she wasn’t here I don’t know how this household would manage! J

The Father of the house is a very busy man! He’s work load includes a variety of things…. Helping with laundry, changing diapers, keeping the garden up, ‘mowing’ the grass [uses a machete and whacks it down], running to town or market, and even cooking at times! My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw him making bankou…. Yes, that’s right he was making bankou! He said he was so hungry for it and his wife didn’t think she could stand the smell to help him. So he did it himself and it turned out rather good! He is also quite handy at giving the children baths… the soap smell is difficult for the mother to handle! I’m sure he will be glad to hand some of these responsibilities back to his wife once she feels better…. But for now my observation is that he is doing an excellent job!

I must tell you of the awful storm we had on Sunday! The family was just about to leave for Church on their bikes and it started to rain…. So they waited for awhile. It soon stopped and they thought maybe they should make a run for it before it started again! But it started up again before they got left…. And it seemed like it could stay awhile! Not long after that they got a call from the Pastor and said let’s wait for service until the rain stops. The electric kept going off and on….. and it was beginning to get really dark! The rain started coming harder and harder…. And the wind was blowing quite furiously! The rain started coming in the closed window panes and under the door making big puddles on the floor. Chad mopped up several gallons of water from the floors! It got sooooo cold that some of the folks put socks on! And even decided to drink cappuccino! The storm lasted for about 3 hours…. Then it subsided to a gentle rain for most of the afternoon. The garden was a pitiful site! Their sweet corn that was in full tassel and had nice ears on it was flat on the ground! And the tomatoes, beans, soybeans, okra, and peppers all took a beating too! In fact, a lot of people’s corn was down…. And there were even some trees uprooted!

A bit more information that has been happening around here is Language study. In fact it takes up a good part of the parent’s day. They study in the morning using a Ewe language course that has an mp3…. They listen to the lesson twice and then study from the handbook what the lesson is saying in English. They go over the same lesson for almost a week. Then they have a young Ewe teacher who is on school break right now, come in the afternoon and go over the same lesson they did in the morning in greater detail! They seem to really like their new teacher, because he explains things very well and makes lots of examples in which sentences can be used. He is also a good culture teacher… he explains that in Ewe there are adult talk and child talk. Some things you say only to children and not to an adult…. And other things are only for adults and most children won’t understand what you are saying! An interesting thing they are learning in Ewe is that ‘most Ewe words change meaning depending on context’, so you have to know the context of the sentence being spoken to determine the meaning of a word(s)! Difficult! Do continue to pray for them as they try to do their best!

Well, now….ho hum…. I’m getting a bit tired…. And it’s already past my bedtime! So I guess I’ll let you go….. oh yes, I forgot to mentioned that after the storm we have been having nice sunny weather and the corn is actually standing partially up again! So hopefully they may still get some sweet corn after all! And they have been getting a ton of green beans… they froze like 8 quarts already! Yawn… now I for sure should get some sleep….

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Amen” II Thess. 3:18

From the lizard that lives in the Martin home!

Big Helper Girl... washing dishes!

Chace & Elayna

Elayna

Chace

Auntie Anna with Chace

Our Corn in full tassel... before the storm.

snapping green beans....

Our Garden

Chace 1 1/2 years old

Elayna 3 years old