CMF Missionary to Burkina Faso

Last Saturday morning I spent some time out in the villages.  Exactly where I wanted to be because when I think “unreached”, I think of areas like what I experienced this day.  I went with Rebecca, the family’s friend from here, who only speaks French, Dagara, and VERY little English.  She is a ball of energy, very fun and vibrant personality! So whether or not we understood one another made no difference, because we still managed to laugh a lot.

Here’s Rebecca playing with the fattest baby I have ever seen in Africa!

Let me just introduce you to village life a little.  Dano is a very remote town, but we went out into the extremely secluded areas of Dano.  These people literally have nothing.  Check out some of these living conditions…

One thing I love about Africa is that no one is ashamed of how they live.  In fact, I think they’re happy, maybe because they don’t know any different.  We stopped at the first village where we met with a man and woman who had about 7 boys they were taking care of.  They pulled out two chairs and let Rebecca and me sit as we chatted (I did a lot of smiling and nodding rather than chatting, seeing as I don’t speak Dagara).  As we were sitting there, the man starts tying together some corn for us to take with us.  One thing you must understand is that they are in the season where the corn is just now ready to eat.  So this man is sending us along with probably their first corn of the year!

So then we move along to the next little village.  Everywhere we go, they treat guests so well.  Everyone stops what they’re doing and comes and sits while you are there.  Everyone.  Kids included…all 20 of them.  They always send you away with some kind of gift, too.  Or they feed you.  And you have to eat what they give you or you’re rude.  This eating thing was a little rough and I think it’s only going to get worse. Great attitude, huh?  This picture below is what they call Dolo (no idea how that’s spelled), which I’m pretty sure is just beer and everyone gets to drink it.  But I’m also pretty sure one of the men in this village was drunk off it, the same man who asked if I would marry him this day.

So we went to about 3 other villages and visited some families.  One person from the village we were leaving would walk us every step to the next village.  Then some would even sit down and join us at the next.

Look at that FACE! ha

Boy did we ever go through hell and high water to get from village to village. Literally.  I walked through about 8 inches of dirty African water three times to get to the dry road because the moto couldn’t run through it.  I managed to slip on some mud after the first shot and fell straight into the 8 in. of water.  Wearing a long skirt and flipflops that kept breaking did not make things any easier.  Rebecca (the native) was getting a kick out of this American girl out in the African desert, let me tell you!

So cliche of me to say but, if I had to do it all again, I would, and I will.  I loved these few hours we spent out with these people.  I just can’t stop thinking about how quickly word can travel out there because they are all so very connected.  And if the word that was being spread had the power behind it that we know the Word can have, think about what great things could be taking place here in the very near future!

This post doesn’t have any pictures but it does have some interesting beliefs of the Dagara people.  I’m learning so much about them and I can’t help but share.  I love hearing stories about what they believe.  The majority of the people here are animistic, meaning they worship about anything and everything  that’s non-human because they believe that everything has a spirit.  They are very in tune to how the spirits feel.  Here’s an example for you. Geoffrey was telling me that the Dagara believe that malaria is a result of a curse that the spirits have put on the person who gets it.  So one thing they try to teach people out in the villages is that malaria is actually caused from a mosquito bite and it could harm anyone who gets bit by a mosquito carrying the disease, not just someone who is making the spirits mad.  So then Geoffrey tells me that they will ask, “well, then why is the mosquito cursed?”  It’s just a big cycle of curses for them.  Can you see how frustrating it must be trying to convince them that it’s not because the spirits are cursing people that they are getting sick?  Then on top of that, try to explain that God created mosquitos which are causing this disease.  Not an easy way to win them over, that’s for sure.  While it’s easy for us to understand, to someone who hasn’t been exposed to the idea of one God, it’s difficult.  Thank goodness for the work of the Holy Spirit, right?

Here’s another story Geoffrey told me on the way to church the other day.  He pointed over to this barrage, which is like a lake, and he said “The Dagara believe that the water over there is sacred, do you know why?”   I said “No, why?”  He says “because that stream running to the lake is sacred.”  So then he said “Do you know why that stream is sacred?  Because the stream runs through the forest which is sacred.  Why is the forest sacred?  Because it leads up to the mountain which is sacred.”  This is truly what these people believe.  They won’t use the water, cut down the trees, or go up on the mountain because they think that if they do the spirits will be angry with them.

Don’t you find this all extremely fascinating?  And extremely sad!  I loved what Geoffrey said after he told me that story.  He said “You know, they live in such reverence for creation but not at all in reverence for the Creator.”  It’s because they don’t know!

One thing I noticed from the moment I got here was that almost everyone has scars on their faces or somewhere on their bodies.  I thought it was just because they work all day long and probably get a lot of cuts and scrapes being outside.  Come to find out, witchdoctors are very common around here.  Whenever someone is very sick, they’ll visit the witchdoctor in hopes that they can heal and make things better.  I would guess that 7 out of 10 little kids I see have these tiny hash-mark-looking scars all over their bellies.  If a baby were to be crying all the time (we would assume stomach ache, they assume he’s cursed), the parent would take them to the witchdoctor. They would sacrifice a chicken or goat beforehand and then the witchdoctor would make these incisions all over the child’s belly (no drugs being used) in hopes of releasing the angry spirits inside of the baby.  You also see a lot of scars on faces, so say a person has a terrible headache, they visit the witchdoctor and he/she makes cuts around the place of pain, in order to heal.  Oh and the witch doctor gets to keep the sacrifice as his pay at the end.

All of this just makes me so grateful for the fact that I have a Savior who isn’t out to get me.  He isn’t here to watch my every move and curse me when I screw up.  He is for us and not against us.  It breaks my heart to think about the fear these people live in every day, and the efforts they go through to keep the spirits happy.  But even more importantly, it breaks my heart that these sweet people don’t know yet that there’s a God out there who is all about releasing us from bondage.  Setting us free!  Don’t you think that would truly be Good News to them?

Good news!  On Tuesday the 13th at 9:00pm…

…my luggage arrived!!!  All 150 pounds of it!

Ok, change of subject.  I attended my first village church service on Sunday in Gueguere.  What an experience.  First of all, it’s out in the middle of nowhere.  It took about 30 minutes to drive to.  We get there and a bunch of benches are spread out around this huge tree.  There were some ladies playing their instruments and singing, but not many people were there yet.  I figured there would probably be around 20-30 people there since it was the first time a church service was held in this village.  No-no, as the service went on, more and more people were still coming in.  They would be carrying their own benches or some of them would bring these big buckets with lids and sit on those, or they had stools they brought as well.  We were all packed in around this tree and it was the most beautiful thing. By the end of the service, I would say there were over 200 people there.  It was incredible.

Let me just tell you, Africans love their music.  I really just want to know how their hands never get tired from clapping.  We sang a good 15 songs and by the 3^rd song or so, my hands were starting to itch from all the clapping.  But their worship is so genuine.  They make up their own songs. They actually had several villages represented there Sunday and so each village took a turn leading a song.  They are very simple and repetitious; I was told it’s the easiest way for illiterate people learn, by repeating. It’s pretty intense sitting through a 3 hour service without understanding a word anyone around you is saying.  But the great thing about the way the Spirit works is that you can sense the God’s presence in so many ways other than through words.  You watch the enthusiasm they have in their worship.  You watch the joy on their faces.  You watch the stillness they keep while someone reads from the Bible.  Or the dancing they do while singing.  Such lively people!

I’m beginning to see all the difficulties that must come with spreading the Word to an area like Burkina Faso.  There are so few missionaries out here, that’s the first problem. There are only 2 missionary families in Dano, the city we’re in.  But let’s say those few missionaries go out and talk to a group of people (in Dagara language because that’s what they speak) about Christ and these people are changed by the message and decide that they believe and want to be baptized.  Awesome. The problem now is that most of these people can’t read.  What’s one way Christians typically get closer to God?  They spend time with him in the Word.   These people only know what they have been told. So not only is there a problem with the fact that they can’t read Scripture every day, they also don’t have Bibles translated in their language.  So the only way that people can hear about what is in the Bible is by other Dagara people telling them what they’ve heard or coming to church every Sunday and hearing the message read. From there, stem a whole lot of other obstacles.

The cool part about this though, and the reason the churches are spreading so rapidly around here right now, and the reason we had over 200 people at one service out in the middle of nowhere is because other Dagara are doing their job!  They have heard this Good News that they cannot keep to themselves and they share.  Africans are incredible share-ers.  The people that came to this church service on Sunday are very, very poor.  They don’t have a lot.  Most of them live in buildings made of mud and spend the day in the field cultivating or taking care of the kids.  So you can imagine how little money they must have.  Would it surprise you if I told you they took up an offering on Sunday?  It sure surprised me! I would guess about 95% of the adults walked up to that basket and put in what they did have.  Such a humbling experience!

This lady right here rode her bike 18 miles to get to church this Sunday.

This little girl stood holding her little brother on her back the entire 3 hours…and she wasn’t the only one.

These ladies would clap and sing until Jesus came back; I guarantee you they would!

My friend Kristen was asking me before I left what some things were that I was hoping to get out of this experience!  I hadn’t really thought about it, maybe because I had no idea what to expect.  As I’ve spent time here though, there are so many things I keep thinking of that I would like to accomplish before I leave.  I realize that this year is not about me, but I’m surrounded by opportunities to experience things that I wouldn’t back home. I doubt that God would place me here and not desire for me to grow and change and learn new things!  So here are some goals I’ve set, a few just may sound silly.  (Listen, I’m trying to make them as specific and measurable as possible although some are not)

*Be able to pay at places without help from someone telling me what to pay with.  This conversion stuff is confuuuusing.  (and I love math, I don’t get it?)

*Ask a lot of questions and learn about the culture and what the people here believe.

*Be able to identify a large number of plants, vegetables, and trees. (There are certain trees that the Burkinabe really value because they are used as a source of nutrients.  I want to know and identify those! There’s a huge garden 10 feet away from the house- I feel like I should be able to tell the plants apart eventually.)

*Learn to speak French fluently, I WILL get it down by the time I have to go back through the airport!

*Cook a meal on my own from SCRATCH!  Adding spices and flavoring on my own as I see needed.  I’m getting lots of practice at this.   We take turns cooking dinner here.  And no burning the meal…well, maybe I should just stick with the first two parts of this one.

*Adapt my methods of teaching the material for each of the kid’s specific method of learning.  Try new techniques.

*Engage the kids in good discussion about subject matter.

*Re-learn physics for the millionth time!

*Develop new opinions on to how I would like to raise my family one day-should I be blessed with one.

*Not be afraid to attempt speaking with the people here, even starting with the simple “hello” and “my name is” I want to be confident, not shy or afraid to mess up and look silly.

*Develop a consistent prayer strategy.

*Memorize all of the notecards on Scripture that I have.

* Find a problem (there are many here in Burkina) that weighs heavily on my heart and create a solution on my own. Obviously this will have to happen with God’s promptings and direction, but I believe it will.

*LOVE, LOVE, LOVE on these people.

I’m sure I’ll have more as time goes on, or I’ll be back with updates when these things get accomplished!

Questions you may wonder…

I haven’t gotten to be a part of any ministry in the villages yet, so once I get to, I’ll get to actually tell stories and talk about what I’ve seen and put up pictures.  Until then you may just have to read some typical talk about my experiences day to day….boring, huh? You better say no.

Is it hot here?

Believe it or not, it is not bad at all!  However, this is “cold” season for them.  It pretty much feels like summer in Kentucky.  It’s apparently supposed to start to get a little rough in October, and then I may have a more passionate answer to this question. But right now, I spend a lot of time in the school room which is air conditioned.

Are you homesick?

Ehh, yes and no.  It’s always going to be a little hard.  When I called Mom Sunday night for the first time, as soon as she answered and I heard her voice, there was a lump in my throat and I was seriously holding back tears.  And we only talked for a minute.  But at the same time, I’m doing better than I expected.  I think since we are getting a routine down, it’s not so much like vacation anymore.  I feel like I’m away at school.  But I have my moments.

What are your living arrangements like?

I am actually in a pretty nice guest house with my own room and bathroom. It even has a living room with a refrigerator.  My personal favorite is the mosquito net above my bed. I’m NOT kidding.  I always wanted a little canopy above my bed when I was younger.  Now I get one…AND it serves a purpose.  At night I love to sit on the bed and put the net down while I read and type.  I feel like it’s my own little sanctuary. This guest house is like 20 feet from the Richter’s house.  The whole yard is surrounded by a big wall that all the houses are supposed to have.  There is a small basketball court, a huge garden, and a school room.

What’s been the hardest adjustment?

I’d definitely have to say the slower paced lifestyle.  It’s pretty slow here.  I’m a very social person; I love to be out and about doing things all the time, which can be good or bad.  But here after the school day ends, we’ll have dinner together and then go the family room and hang out until about 10:30 or so, maybe watch an episode of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on DVD, or just talk.  I usually come back to my room then, and read, write and listen to music.  That’s about all I can do.  If you have any creative ideas, please do let me know.  But your ideas can’t involve anything with materials that would be in my suitcases-you know, the ones that still haven’t arrived, 5 days after I have. Ha  No worries, we pray about them every night here!

What do I eat?

I have lucked out.  We eat American type foods here. Not that I don’t want to try African food, but I would like to ease into it.  In fact, I had my first African meal for lunch the other day, couscous (pronounced like it’s spelled cous-cous), which looks like dried grits with peanut sauce on top.  Very interesting, but I liked it!  Other than that, we just have to make everything from scratch.  All the vegetables come from the garden…I really want a garden now!  The way we do dinner in the house is that everyone takes a turn cooking.  I had to have London the 12 yr. old help me though…the girl is a phenomenal cook, I have no shame in admitting she’s better than me.  My breakfast-cereal.  Don’t ask me the name, because it’s in French.  The chocolate in it melted and now it just tastes like puppy chow.  And it’s AMAAAAZING!

Is it safe there?

Absolutely.  I really do feel safe.  The Richters say that the Burkinabe are some of the nicest and friendliest people.   Whenever we walk around everyone you pass always says “bonsoir”” (good evening).  The Richters have created such a great friendship with everyone here in Dano, the people all really respect them. We went to the market the other day and we were getting back into the car when this man walks over to us and Geoffrey, the dad, says to me, “Get in the car, Kelley, we have Dano’s most eligible bachelor here.”  Apparently this guy is known for liking the ladies. It was funny.  I really haven’t had any reason to think the people were dangerous, but that doesn’t mean I won’t still be cautious (DAD!).

What language do they speak?

Well, they speak Dagara here.  You know what that is?  Yeah, me either, all I know is that it’s really fast and really difficult to learn.  A small percentage of the population speaks French, enough that if I wanted to communicate with one of the Dagara people, I could probably find someone around who spoke French to translate.  So while I’m here, I’m going to attempt French rather than Dagara.

So there you go.  Feel free to ask any other questions.  I want you all to know what it’s like…so maybe you’ll find yourself going overseas one day as well!…or maybe not?

I’ll tell you one thing, I sure hope Burkina Faso is NOT the promised land! Just kidding.  So I’ve struggled a couple times since I’ve been here with wondering if this is right and if teaching is what I should be doing here. But here’s what I’ve been thinking.  It would be foolish of me to ask God, “Is this really where you want me to be?  Are you sure, God, that I’m supposed to be here?”  I honestly think He would laugh at me and say “Kelley, are you kidding me?  Have I not placed this desire in your heart to go?  Did I not find a way to get you fully supported?  Did I not give your parents such peace in knowing that this is what I want for you?”  Seriously, every time I begin to question if this is right, my mind immediately goes to the ways that God has been so incredibly faithful through this process and the way that He has made His promises truer for me every day.  There are times when I will just want to be back with my family and friends, where life is more comfortable, and I think that desire is natural and okay, but I don’t want to just fall back on the thought that maybe this isn’t where I’m supposed to be. I’ve realized how quick we are to bail on a plan because we aren’t comfortable or something doesn’t seem right at first.  I want to be confident in the plan the Lord has for me here!

The story of the Israelites in the Bible has ALWAYS intrigued me.  We did a bible study on it in college and I learned so much from it!  The Lord promised to lead them into the Promised Land.  On this journey, time after time they just kept telling God, “This is too hard, we have to face too many struggles. Give us some signs because surely this can’t be what you want for us!  We want to go back!” You just want to laugh at how ridiculous they are being!  Because we know how the story ends!  God was faithful time after time to them, and they still doubted.  It’s easy to be confident when you’re on the outside and know that the Lord’s promise WILL be fulfilled. But it’s difficult to trust that promise if I don’t fully believe that God will do what He says He’s going to do.  So my time here in Burkina, I’m learning to trust His promises.  I’m learning that no matter how difficult it will be at times, I keep going because the Lord says in Joshua “I will give you every place where you set your foot.”  And that’s His promise I am holding on to right now.

So I was going to stop there but I just went back to read about the story a little and I can hardly contain myself right now.  I have to share-not that you couldn’t read for yourself or don’t already know the story.  So Exodus 6:6 starts the Lord’s promise to the Israelites, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.  I will free you from being slaves to them…And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand.”  Then if you go to Exodus 14, Moses is told take the Israelites into the desert.  Well the Egyptians come after them in the desert and the first thing the Israelites do is yell at Moses and say “…you brought us to the desert to die? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians.’ It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”  Oh my good gracious.  Don’t you just want to wring their necks?  After God makes that promise to get them out of slavery and into the Promised Land, they sit there and say “we would rather just be serving the Egyptians.”  Unbelievable. Yet I am so guilty of this very same thing. Much to learn! I love it.

Here are some pictures as a reward for reading all of that….

Well, my first night’s sleep was a success! Ha.  I went to bed about 12:00am, woke up at 5:30 to turn the air conditioner on.  Then I woke up at 6:30, turned the air off.  Woke up at 7:30 and 8:30! Until 9:00 when I had to get up.  Disregard the sarcasm in those last sentences now because I actually felt incredibly rested when I woke up.  It took me about 20 minutes to get ready for church, shower and everything. I loved it!  If I could get ready that quickly every day, I’d never be late.  I’m sure if you know me well you would still disagree.  This is the place I stayed in…not too bad!

We were still in Ouagadougou (wah-guh-do-goo), the capital, which the Richter family only comes to every couple of weeks, so we woke up went to the only English-speaking church around. It was interesting.  Very similar to the way our church service is run back home.  Worship, prayer, message, worship.  There were about 40 people or so total, most of which are missionaries.  Some are not.  Suzanne, the mom of the family I’m with, took me around and introduced me to everyone.  Suzanne and her husband, Geoffrey, were saying later that these people are like family.  They all support one another in their different ministries. Even though they are all over Burkina, they’d all do anything for one another. Exactly the way the body of Christ should work!  The music was awesome.  I love the simplicity that was in this place today. The only instruments were a piano, a violin-which I am now obsessed with, a guitar and a singer.  You could actually hear the people of the church singing and you weren’t overwhelmed by the instruments.  It was beautiful. They asked for prayer requests and had people volunteer to pray.  Can you imagine how that would work in a church of 2,500? Ha.

After church we ran around some then got on the road to head back to Dano (don-oh), the town I’ll be staying in that’s about 4 hours away.  This ride really let me experience Burkina Faso!  Driving here is NUTS!  There is absolutely no way that I can even explain it to you, which would do justice to how it really is.  It would take me years to actually learn to drive around here.  The ratio of motorcycles/bicycles to cars is about 70 to 1. Seriously these bikes are everywhere!  I’m pretty sure we went about 50mph with a bicyclist not even 5 inches away.  And there are no dashes between lanes in the roads, you just drive on whichever part of the road you want. And the side roads which are dirt…to call them bumpy would be an understatement! The main road has potholes everywhere, like every 10 feet.  Once we got out of the major city area, you start to see little houses or “huts.”  The interesting thing about this area is that you don’t see a bunch of huts all over with a few nice houses here and there.  There literally are no “nice” houses, by American standards at least.  There were people walking all along the side of the roads.  Young kids, no shoes, walking their cows home.  There were women carrying piles of wood on their heads (with no hands). They were everywhere!  They were carrying huge bowls, fruit, whatever they had, they just carried on their heads.  You see pictures, but you don’t really think that happens.  A ton of women here are also carrying babies on their backs.  They will tie a wrap around them and the little kids will just hang from their backs.  The Richters were telling me some women will carry a baby on their back, huge loads on their heads, and be riding a bike in the heat, all at the same time.  Incredible.  And I complain when my dad asks me to help him move a couch around.

I love the happiness that people have here.  They are always smiling and enjoying one another.  They will come up to your car everytime you stop and try to sell you something.  They will stand practically touching the window and just stare at you hoping you will buy.   One time we stopped to buy some pumpkins from these young happy boys on the side of the road.  One boy came up to the window and just looked and said, “gift?” as in, he wanted a gift.  So Suzanne handed him her almost empty coke bottle and he walked away with this huge grin on his face.  He opened that bottle and drank the little that was left.  They use the bottles for filling up with water as well.

We had eaten pizza as we were traveling home and we were talking about the box of leftovers and Suzanne just mentioned something about taking them home and London, their 12 year-old daughter was like “no, mom just give it to someone out there.”  She said it SO non-chalantly as if it was silly to have even considered taking it home.  I want to raise my kids that way-as if nothing we have shouldn’t be shared with others, especially those who need it most. It was extremely encouraging to see such a young girl value the people around her so much that she didn’t hesitate to give up what she could have eaten later to meet their needs right now.

We stopped at this place along the road to get out and stretch for a while, where the picture below was taken.  As we were getting back in the car Suzanne left some empty bottles and her leftover spaghetti sitting on this rock.  She said to me, “You probably think this is terrible leaving all this here, but it will be gone in no time.  People will come by and pick up the bottles and eat what’s left of the spaghetti.” More stories to come…here’s a picture of the kids and me at our little rest stop.

For some reason I had this idea as soon as I walked into the Toronto airport that no one spoke my language any longer? Dumb. So, I freaked out a little bit wondering how in the world I was going to communicate with people, especially if I had a problem.  It was such an overwhelming feeling!  Every worker at the airport I had to approach, I would say this very slow and hesitant “hello.” I ought to have just started out with a slow “do-you-understaaand-me?” I don’t know which would have made me look more like a fool.  We always joke with my dad because any time he gets around people where there is a slight chance they might be from another country, he’ll talk extremely slow and extremely loud.  We continually remind him, “Dad, they’re not deaf and they speak English.”  Much to my surprise, everyone I encountered spoke English.   However, there were so many different people represented in the airport, it was interesting to observe! I loved listening in on conversations of people speaking French and other languages that I couldn’t figure out. Can you tell I’ve spent most of my life in Northern Kentucky?

Despite the fact that I didn’t actually have any problem with people speaking English, I thought about how difficult it might be for someone from another country coming to the US and trying to communicate with us.   What an overwhelming feeling for THEM!  You just want to feel like someone understands you!  And when they do, it’s such a relief!  Taking this much further than the airport, it reminded me how much we all desire to be understood.  I, myself, have a hard time explaining what I think and what I believe, and when someone actually understands me or can translate what I’m thinking in their own words, I love it.  Ultimately, this whole realization makes me so grateful for a Father who completely understands me…already.  I think that’s why I find such peace in His presence.  Such relief.  Like I don’t have to make such an effort to try and explain myself or try to come to His level.  He “gets me.”

I’m excited to be in an environment in Burkina where almost everyone speaks French.  I know that it will frustrate the heck out of me at first, but the longer I spend with them the more I will understand them.  And the more I will appreciate them.  I’ll become comfortable eventually.  But until then, I’ll be heavily depending on the Father who understands me wherever I am.

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  I hands-down, have the coolest Dad, who makes any and every situation fun and exciting!  He knows we think this, but we just can’t get him to believe us!  Hope I get to talk to you later today!  Wish I could celebrate with you  Have fun!

So here’s the deal…I haven’t really had very good internet the past week.  We don’t have it at the house I’m staying in so I have to take a 5 minute bike ride to the internet cafe to get it.  BUT, lucky for you, I have managed to write every night.  So I set up the blog so you’ll get a new post at least for the next 6 days.  The only down side is…it starts all the way back at day one in the airport, with all the details.  So here we go…

Let me just give you a little synopsis of how this whole traveling thing went.  We leave the house around 8:45 Friday morning.  I’m still stuffing bags…big bags.  Moving things around. We get to the airport about 9:00.  Some wonderful family and friends are already there waiting.  Say some hello’s hang out, then Dad suggests we go check in at least.  So I get over to the counter and they ask for my passport. Here the drama begins. Ha.  I can’t find my passport anywhere!  I’ve searched every place I could have put it.  Send Emily back to my house to search for it in case I left it there, and Mom heads to the car to see if I left it there.  In the meantime, the lady at the counter tell us, we have 15 minutes to check in or else the computer shuts them out and I can’t check in.  Fabulous.  I probably should have been freaking out, not sure what was wrong with me, I think I was just in shock I was leaving.  Anyway, the excitement ends here because mom calls-the passport is in the car.  I get checked in, all is well.  Soon thereafter, I say my goodbyes and head for security. Goodness I love these people!

I had no waiting time at all, I literally walked through security and headed on the plane, it was nice.  Had about an hour and a half flight to Toronto, upon which I had the world’s most fantastic pretzels, I kid you not.  They were little twisted pretzels, so buttery and salty.  I ate 2 packs they were that good…and I was hungry.

In Toronto I had a 5 hour layover.  Such a perfect time for people watching! Also a good time for writing my next post you’ll read.  From Toronto we went to Montreal.  I’m writing this post a few days after and all these airports are running together now.  The important thing to know is that after Toronto, I became a minority being English speaking.  I was seriously afraid to say anything to anyone because they all seemed to be speaking French.  As I was getting on the plane to Montreal, the lady who was sitting next to my spot looked at me as I was putting my stuff on top and she started pointing to what I thought was the man behind me in the aisle.  You could tell she spoke French; I said something like “is this his seat?” and she shook her head no and pointed again. Now I see this little boy across the aisle. So it clicked that she wanted her little boy to sit there.  So I’m asking her as simply as I can think, if she wants him to sit in my seat.  And she’s shaking her head like no, no, that’s okay.  So I insisted and I switched him.  This story is really not as climactic as I’m making out to be.  But the part that really got me was that I found myself wanting to be so friendly to her, like I wanted her to think Americans are the nicest people???  She was SO happy.  She was showing her excitement and gratefulness in her own little French way, it was so sweet.

Another foreign encounter-I had been sleeping on the flight to Brussels and the French man who had spent this terribly uncomfortable 9 hour flight next to me, asked the flight attendant as they were passing out drinks for an extra drink for me while I was sleeping.  I happened to wake up as he was doing it and it was the coolest thing!  I couldn’t even express my gratitude for his thoughtfulness!   Moral of these stories, I’m loving language barriers.  I’m learning so much about the way we communicate with people…or don’t communicate with people.  Tomorrow’s post will have more about that.

Ahhh, the notorious question can finally be answered….

When are you leaving????

Why, I shall be leaving September 2!!!!

Like 13 days, woah.

Praise the Lord I finally have a date! Right?? I must admit, it was a tiny bit frustrating trying to answer that question for the last, ohhh, 3 months. To be honest, the last couple weeks have been the hardest as more and more people are finding out and I was getting closer and closer to being fully funded. I just want to be able to TELL people a date instead of having to explain the whole process involved before purchasing a ticket! Part of that frustration stems from my pride and this idea that “people won’t believe I’m going until I tell them a date I’m leaving.”

Well, it’s for real now! The ticket has been purchased and I will be “en route” (for all you French-speakers out there) to Burkina Faso for 28 hours! I get to fly to Toronto, a city of which I have zero interest in, and Brussels, a city of which I have no idea where located(until now)?  Then I saw these pictures….HELLO, take me there! -preferably at night.

Toronto

Brussels

Let me just tell you, those feelings of  ”this is for real” don’t REALLY come until the ticket is purchased…now it’s go time.  No turning back.  After I heard the date my mind immediately when to “Am I spending my time wisely? Have I been spending too much time away from my family?  Is there anything I want to do before I go?  Have I made the most of every visit with friends”  I mean, seriously, you’d think I was dying.  It gets worse…

The “lasts” have begun.  This could be my last time in Walmart, this might be the last time I get to eat Logan’s delicious rolls, this may be the last time I get to fight with Kristen about wearing my clothes! This morning I woke up and thought, I only have 13 days left of waking up in this bed.  Oh my. Is it ever so exhausting.  But it makes me grateful.  Knowing that there are so many traditions and everyday routines that I love and people I feel like I want to spend time with before I go, simply because I KNOW I will miss their friendship while I’m away.

So anyway, I’m glad the time has finally come!  Praying that I will “take captive EVERY thought and make it obedient to Christ” as I take on these next two weeks.  Praying that my worries and fears would be overshadowed by His comfort and incomprehensible peace!

By the way: Financial Update—-I’m totally over 100%.  Support raising process=unbelievably humbling experience!