…following God to Africa
I’ve upgraded to the newest version of Wordpress which mostly consists of big changes under the hood. Our current theme isn’t playing nice with the current Wordpress install, over the next little while we’ll be working a new theme and look. Thanks for your patience!
For the time being we’re keeping this post at the top as a reminder
President Camara
I posted a couple of days ago about the situation in Guinea. Lansana Conté, the previous president of Guinea died on December 22nd. Hours later a group declared a coup d’état and suspended the constitution and government. While the international community in general has spoken out against the coup, the people of Guinea seem quite at peace with the change of leadership in the country. Camara, the leader of the coup, has declared his intention to clean up the government and remove corruption. So far, he’s followed through with his promises. Continue to pray for Guinea. Here’s another press release from NTM leadership in Guinea:
The situation in Guinea has continued to be stable following the death of President Lansana Conte last week. We are so thankful that the transition has gone smoothly and peacefully. The President has named a new transitional Prime Minister named Kabinet Komara. This choice was made with the support of the union representatives. He appears to be man that people trust. President Camara is also promising transparent and redible elections and has promised not to run as a candidate. Conakry continues to function normally and there is a general acceptance of the new overnment as legitimate among Guineans. All NTM personnel are safe and the interior of the country has been completely calm. We continue to thank the Lord for the calm that has reigned in Guinea since the death of the president. Many have been praying over the years for this time of transition and by God’s grace the door has remained open to His work here in Guinea. Please continue to pray for Guinea and its leaders in the year to come. I Timothy 2:1-4
We’re hard at work packing away for our move to California in a few weeks! We received word that our apartment application was approved, it’s very exciting and we are excited to get down there. Canaan has been spending a lot of time at his grandparents, they want to get as much of him as possible before we head to California. Emmaus is doing fairly well, he’s been sleeping quite well at night, he usually feeds around 9 or 10pm, again at 4 or 5am and then at 7 or 8am. His one issue though is gas. During the last few days he’s cried quite a bit because of the intense pressure inside. He cringes and you can tell he is in pain. We give him gripe water which calms him down a bit. He initially hated the taste of it but has since developed quite a liking for it. Right now our packing consists mostly of just sorting. We’re purging our belongings and getting rid of anything we won’t take to Guinea or isn’t important for sentimental reasons.
On another note, I just had to include this picture of our mail box. A drunk driver hit it early last sunday morning, we’ve had to go to the post office for our mail.
Part III - November 2008
Over the last two months we sent out Part one and two of our three part series. Here is part three! In this issue you can read a little about Emmaus and Finances (I know, a lovely topic these days). The brochure version was mailed out a couple of weeks ago, if you regularly receive it you should have it by now. Thanks so much for all of the great feedback we’ve been getting. Our goal is to clearly communicate with you, we appreciate the help!
If you prefer the electronic version (in PDF format) you can download it here!
Here’s a brief description of the three letters in the series:
Part 1 - October 2008
- Who We Are
- About NTM
- Republique de Guinée
Part II - November 2008
- Our Ministry
- New Guesthouse
- Our Time Line
Part III - December 2008
- Finances
- Introducing Emmaus
If you don’t regularly receive our newsletter either in the mail or email, sign up now here!
Our blog has been quiet for the last week, we’ve been spending a lot of time with family as our last few weeks in Canada dwindle away. We had all been looking forward to this Christmas, particularly my parents. All three grandsons (Canaan, Emmaus and Noah) would be together. We spent Christmas day at Colin and Dana’s, it was a very relaxing day. We simply spent time together. Mom put together breakfast and dinner, the boys enjoyed their new toys (well at least Noah and Canaan did, Emmaus was of course oblivious to the situation) and Ken, Colin and I played an afternoon long game of Risk which none of us ended up winning. It was sad to think that it will be years before we are all together again for Christmas although it was hardly mentioned, you don’t want mom to start crying.
I can’t think of any better way to celebrate the birth of our saviour than with family. I was reminded how thankful I am for the gift of family that God has given us. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and not only enjoyed the time with family and the gifts but most importantly the reminder of the gift that God sent us: His only Son who has saved us and given us a relationship with God.
Emmaus' First Christmas
Lansana Conte
The president of Guinea, Lansana Conte died this past Monday. Below is a press release from New Tribes Mission Guinea. You can also find plenty of news if you search sites like the BBC and Google News. Please pray for Guinea as it goes through this time of transition. Conte has been president for decades and so this is very unfamiliar ground for all involved. Missionaries in Guinea are on high alert but are presently safe. Thank you!
NTM Guinea Press Report:“It is with sadness that the people of Guinea were informed that our General
Lansana Conte, President of the Republic of Guinea, has died after a long illness.
Government leaders announced on state television in the early hours
of Tuesday that Conte, who was believed to be 74, died at 1800 GMT on Monday in the capital Conakry.National Assembly President Aboubacar Sompare asked the country’s Supreme
Court to name him president in keeping with the constitution.NTM personnel will stay at their homes today. Borders are closed. We are
alert and monitoring closely what will be going on.Please pray for the well being of the country and a peaceful transition. Let
us thank the Lord for the openness of the country for His Gospel during all
these years and that it might stay open so that the Gospel might go forward
unhindered.I Timothy 2:1-4″
We’re up in Owensound and just finished Emmaus’ four week checkup. He’s doing awesome and the midwives were very excited to see him, the last time they saw him be was very black and blue. When he was born he weighed 9lbs 1 ounce, and today? 11lbs 5 ounces!
He’s had a lot of gas to deal with but sleeps well all considering. Here’s Emmaus all bundled up to brave the wintry outdoors.
An exciting email
We received an exciting email today!
We are planning on leaving for California mid January but getting Emmaus registered and applying for his birth certificate and then US and Canadian passports before then seemed an impossible task. The night Emmaus was born I filled out his birth registration form, hoping to turn it in the next day. I never ended up turning in the registration the next day because of our surprise transfer to Owen Sound for his light treatment. I didn’t get around to it until a week after he was born. The government of Ontario says that it can take up to 16 weeks for a birth to be registered, and then after that you apply for a birth certificate and the after that you can apply for passports and so on. I submitted the registration in person and went home and filled out the birth certificate application on line. The birth certificate application won’t process until the registration is complete. I didn’t expect to hear anything for a couple months when today, it suddenly arrived at the NTMC headquarters! Yep, it was only 2 and a half weeks from the day I turned it in to the day that it arrived!
That is some major answer to prayer, thanks to everyone who prayed with us about this.
We are now free to apply for Emmaus US and Canadian passports. Thank you Lord!!
For me, I’d say it was a bigger adjustment after Canaan was born (being our first) than it has been with Emmaus. That said, there still have been plenty of crazy moments and things to adjust to. I look at large families with many children and think that it can be only one of two things: The parents are superhuman or (hopefully) more likely they slowly adjust with every new kid. Our ratio of parents to children has gone from 2:1 to 1:1. And if one of us is gone the ratio further diminishes to 1:2. It’s in those 1:2 moments when one is peeing his pants while the other is crying and badly needs a diaper change that I wonder what on earth is going on! But if that’s as crazy as it’s been I think that we’re doing alright. Canaan has made the adjustments easy for us, he takes Emmaus’ diapers to the garbage without question and is generally a great gofer.
For those of you with kids, how were the adjustments when you had 2 or 3 or more children?
Emmaus chilling on the couch
Today marks the end of Emmaus’ third week! We’ve enjoyed watching him grow and become a part of the family. One of the best parts is watching Canaan interact with him. Canaan adores Emmaus and is genuinely concerned if Emmaus is crying or upset. We have to keep an eye out though because Canaan is still learning that Emmaus doesn’t know how to play with all of his big boy toys nor does he need to be shown a cool car only millimeters from his face. Emmaus is a big boy, we’re not sure of his weight right now but he’s likely more than 10 pounds.
Emmaus at 3 weeks
Last night (or this morning, hard to tell which right now) I had the pleasure of taking our friend Jon Coe to the airport. Our airport trips are not usually short trips, they typically involve crossing the boarder into the US! The Toronto airport is only an hour and a half from here but it’s just so expensive to fly to and from that we are willing to drive a few more hours to Buffalo or Detroit. It was a long day, but nowhere near as long as this one. Coe’s flight was at 7:40 this morning so that meant leaving our place at 3am. I originally planned on getting to bed early but one thing led to another when suddenly it was nearing midnight! I decided to just stay up until we had to leave, fearing that I would feel worse if I took a short nap. And judging by the look of Coe when I woke him up three hours later, I was right!
Canaan came with us because I wanted Debra to have a peaceful morning with just one child. It was a long morning for Canaan but he is such a good traveler, I knew that he would be just fine with it. About two hours into our drive I missed a turn because I was having great conversation with Coe. I noticed right away and quickly found a place to turn around. Suddenly there was a cop behind me with lights flashing. I pulled over, wondering what on earth I had done. They (there were two cops who came up to my car) grilled us about where we were going, why we had Canaan and informed me that I really should have a letter from Debra stating that I have permission to take Canaan over the border. Apparently it doesn’t matter that I’m his father. Canaan and I have gone over the border many times together and it’s never been a problem. They said they pulled me over because a lot of Neon’s get stolen and they wanted to check. I think that it was because it was 4am and it was something to do. My brother-in-law Gregg is a cop down in California and Canaan equates every cop he sees with Gregg. So as the two cops walk away Canaan yells, “Bye Bye two Greggs!!”. I got a good kick out of that one.
We made it the rest of the way to the airport without much delay and Coe was on his way home. Canaan and I stopped for breakfast at a Denny’s where the waitresses just adored him. He said please and thank you as often as he could and when we were on our way out he looked at our waitress and said, “I love you!”. She was a little surprised and said something about liking him too. We made it back by 10:30 or so and are now relaxing for the rest of the afternoon.
Anyways, Canaan had me laughing the whole time so I thought I’d share some of his lines!
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