Surprise!

When we arrived in Congo, two MAF families here had recently been blessed with litters of kittens. As soon as they were old enough, we acquired one female from each litter, hoping they would become good mousers and buggers. (Is "buggers" even a word? How about "roachers?") We named them Lydia and Fiddlesticks, Liddie and Fiddle for-short. Well, Liddie rapidly learned to catch roaches, earning her lots of brownie points in my book, since I detest them so much. We'll just say Fiddle has other endearing qualities. I happened to glance up as Liddie was walking away from me the other day and I noticed she did not look quite right. Liddie, we discovered, is a boy cat. So, now I have a boy and a girl, both rapidly approaching sexual maturity, and I am thinking I need to find a vet AND FAST. Emily and I decided this morning that calling him Lydia just won't do, and unless the rest of the family votes it down, we want to rename him "Elliot". We thought about naming him Merlin, since he tricked all of us, but he really does look more like an Elliot. This will take some getting used to. We all keep calling him a her out of habit. Poor guy. Here are some photos. The little calico on the bottom is Fiddle. The one on top with stripes is Liddie, I mean Elliot.

A Couple of Triples

Yes, it's been a really, really, really (triple number one!) long time. I could make a bunch of excuses, such as we have power outages nearly every day, we have internet problems frequently, I'm busy home schooling two kids and cooking from scratch, I got caught up in Thanksgiving and Christmas and potlucks and all that - all of which are true, but whatever the excuse, it has still been a really, really, really long time. I'm sorry. Ok, quick "catch-up", in as few words as I am capable of. All of the windows have been repaired. And the roof. Last month Emily told us her wall, the one between her bedroom and the bathroom (yes, the same bathroom that flooded with sewage and has a broken toilet) was wet. It had been wet for a while and she just thought the spot was a stain from when the roof leaked until she actually left something touching the wall and it got wet. The stain was wider than my arm span and about 3 feet high, and a nice mold was growing. So, the plumber came out and made holes in the walls to fix the pipes. At least he filled in the holes though, and Emily's wall is drying. We celebrated the holidays with our MAF team and other missionaries here. It was hard to be away from family, especially since our skype wouldn't work. Josh played in the orchestra for the school musical in December. We searched for things to buy for the kids for Christmas and could not find anything here, so I bought some local fabric and sewed gigantic bean bag chairs for each of them. We filled them with bags of chopped foam that we bought at the local mattress factory. They were a big hit! We still have power and water issues, almost daily. Once we had no power for 72 hours. A couple of times we ran completely out of water, even in our reservoir, and had to haul water from the Francis house. We had the annual MAF family conference in January. It was our first conference and we really enjoyed it. We have hired a tutor to help us improve our French. There are two things which make French more difficult here than I had anticipated. One is that our vocabulary is too small, we just don't know enough words. We're working on that. The other is the accent here. The Congolese don't pronounce their vowels the same way we were taught, and it has caused some misunderstandings. For instance, when they say "two", it sounds just like "ten". That makes shopping fun. A couple of weeks ago, I asked our guard how his family was doing and his response sounded like "sah vah impay". I knew what the first part meant, "ça va" means "it goes", a way of saying things are fine. I couldn't figure out what "impay" was, but I knew "paix" means peace, so I thought "he must mean all is well and peaceful", so I said that was good news. He looked at me strangely but said no more. Then David asked me a couple days later "what does impay mean?" Our guard had just said the same thing to him, again in response to an inquiry about his wellbeing. I told him I didn't know, that I couldn't find anything like it in the French dictionary, and what I had guessed it meant. He said he had guessed something similar and said "that's good" and got the same strange look. So the next time our tutor came, we asked him about it. He said it the same way our guard did, but when he wrote it out for us, he wrote "un peu", which sounds more like "uhn puh" (short nasal sounds, not long vowel sounds)in International French. Ding! The light was now on! It means "It goes a little", which here means the same as saying it is not going well at all. So our guard was telling us things were not going well for his family and we were telling him what great news we thought that was! I felt even worse when we learned that he had two children with malaria that week. So, that's one lesson we shan't forget and a mistake we won't make again. One more small chink out of the language barrier.
Ever since Christmas, my friend Sandy has been waiting patiently for me to remember to share my recipe for crescent rolls. To atone for neglecting my blog for so long, I'll share it here also. I got this recipe from my sweet mother in law and it makes nice flaky rolls. And the smell! Amazing! They are really, really, really (triple number two!) good! Here you go, Sandy!

Crescent Rolls

4 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 package plus 1 TBS yeast (so you don't have to look it up like I did, one packet contains 2 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup Crisco (I try to avoid shortening. You know, the whole hydrogenation thing. So I use real butter and it works fine.)
1 cup scalded milk

Mix milk, butter, sugar and salt. Allow to cool to lukewarm. Add yeast and eggs. Add flour a little at a time until dough is too stiff to stir. Let rise, or chill until later. Three hours before baking, divide into three sections. Roll out into circles and baste with melted butter (not too much). Cut like a pizza into 8ths and roll into crescents. Let rise. Bake 6 minutes at 375 degrees.

Kinshasa Journal: Wednesday - day 10

Today the plumber was supposed to come at 9am, followed by the landlady at 10am. The plumber arrived at 10:15, followed by the electrician at 10:30. The plumber was supposed to fix the leak around the washing machine. He looked it all over, said he had to buy parts and would return tomorrow, and left. The electrician was supposed to repair all of the exterior lighting and the wiring that comes into the fuse box. He looked it all over, said he had to go make a report for the landlady, and left. I turned on the dryer a few minutes later and heard a strange noise. I turned to look at our electricity box and it looked like firecrackers were going off. Ok, turn off dryer and hang clothes up to dry. If you hang wet laundry outside, the Tumbu flies (a type of blow fly) can lay eggs in them. Then, unless you've ironed all of your clothes, when you wear them the eggs will hatch and the larvae burrow into your skin. You get a painful boil and have to remove a worm from your body. Really gross and painful but relatively harmless. I don't have an iron, nor do I like to use one, so I hung the clothes indoors. I should mention that our front door is difficult to latch and unlatch. I took two or three days to figure it out and the kids still struggle with that door. A little while after I had hung the laundry in the house, one of the kids had a fight with the door and body slammed it, breaking the six foot by two foot glass panel. David came home and worked on the fuse box so I could dry clothes. The fuses are 63 amps. Even though the dryer pulls 23 amps and the boys'air conditioner pulls 10, every time both are running simultaneously the fuse blows and then sparks start flying again. Now that we have figured that out, we will not be running both at the same time. The power went out for about an hour this evening, but if there is such a thing as perfect timing for a power outtage, we got it. I had just finished cooking supper. We ate by candlelight, and when the power came back on, we cleaned up the mess. All of my cookbooks are in our shipment, so Esther gave me some recipes that she has adapted to what is available here. I think tomorrow I'll try her cheeseburger soup recipe. Somebody on our team made snickerdoodles and left them in our freezer for us to find. Yummy!

Kinshasa Journal

Well, we made it to Kinshasa! It's been a whirlwind. I tried to keep a record of events so that I could post them later. I may have gotten a couple of things written for the wrong days, but all of the events are true. Sorry it's so long. I actually left a lot out. I wish I had photos. Taking photos here is illegal in a lot of places and I haven't chanced it anywhere yet. So, here's my journal of the last several days.

Day 1 – Monday
Arrive in Kinshasa at 7pm. Our team had hired two men to help us collect our bags, but when we arrived, there were three men doing the job. We, of course, knew none of them, and couldn’t have stopped them if we tried. In fact I think David did try. Once Garth and Brian got us to the vehicle, the third man, who had stayed on our heels this entire time, demanded money for his service. We were happy to let Garth take care of it. We were taken to our home and introduced to one of our new sentinels. We found beds made, clean water, pizza in the freezer, and food in the fridge. John, a pilot but also our team’s IT guy, had even set up our internet for us. Discovered none of the exterior lights work, which is a safety issue for us and for our sentinels. Garth said he would tell the landlord.
Day 2 – Tuesday
We tried to cook eggs for breakfast but the stove wouldn’t work. Spent the day with Garth. First we went to Josh’s school to get him enrolled. Josh and I were able to take a tour of the campus. We went to the U.S. consulate to register, only to learn that you can no longer do that in person. You must do it via internet. Experienced our first restaurant in Kinshasa. We had these things called schwarmas: basically chicken, French fries, and coleslaw wrapped in a type of tortilla-shell-thingy. And Coke in a bottle, with real cane sugar instead of corn syrup. We looked at furniture and appliances but didn’t buy any. We were getting an idea of what is available and what the prices are. Dinner with Garth’s family. Power went out this morning but came on again about ten hours later.
Day 3 – Wednesday
David discovered that the stove has three breaker switches and only one was on, so now we can use the stove. Shopping. We were told to make a list of things we needed so Garth could take us shopping. All the newness, combined with jet lag had our heads a-spin. I couldn’t come up with a very good list. We wrote down some food items and some household items. Went to several stores and found about half of the items on our list. I’m told that’s not uncommon. We visited a physician’s assistant/missionary to discuss staying healthy in the Congo and what to do if we have problems. We had a lovely lesson on the various parasites. Today was Josh’s first day of school. One of our team members, Sandy, lives right down the street so she gives Josh rides to and from school. Dinner with John and Marilyn. He makes amazing salsa. I must get his recipe. This time of year is rainy season and we had our first tasted of that tonight with a big storm. Arrived home and discovered our roof leaks in a few places and one of our windows had broken. Power went out for a few hours. I’m thinking this might be something I should just expect. Emily was invited to a girl’s Bible study at the TASOK campus (Josh’s school).
Day 4 – Thursday
We have city water, but it is inconsistent and not drinkable, so we have a reservoir that holds 1,000 liters for when the city water is off, and a filter. Today we learned that we need to keep an eye on the reservoir, or have our sentinels do it. The water had been off for a while and we didn’t know it so I was doing laundry, washing dishes and floors, and we were all taking showers. We found out the water was off when our reservoir became empty. Thankfully, water came back on shortly after and our tank filled back up, so we learned our lesson without having to haul water from a friend’s house. Now we know. David got up in the crawl space and looked at our roof. We thought it was tin. It looks like tin from the outside. It is actually asbestos, which is why no one collects rain water off their roofs. It is old and there were at least two cracks that he could find. Dinner with the Writebol family. Brian Writebol is the other full-time mechanic here.
Day 5 – Friday
The stove has some wiring issues. Something about arching and burning. David put some electrical tape over the bad spots. I’m not too sure about all that, but I have to cook. David Francis took us shopping for furniture. We found a dresser for Emily. We ordered a sofa and loveseat from this business that was about 6 square feet, made of tin and wood with dirt floors. They get fabric, foam, and wood from where ever and make furniture with only hand tools. It is far from perfect, they don't even cure the wood, so sometimes after you buy it it warps or cracks, and they stain it any color you want. Someone said they thought the stain was shoe polish but I don’t know. Considering their resources, they do an amazing job. When we arrived home, there was a man in the yard who claimed to be the plumber. The landlord had sent him to fix the leaky toilet. It was supposed to have been repaired by October 1, and our MAF guys had repaired it on the 11th before we arrived, so he was sent home. David and David also worked on the wiring for our dryer because it was burning up the outlet and plug when we used it. Some of the families in our neighborhood have a weekly play day so I took Emily and Daniel . This week it was at the Greene’s home. They are local missionaries. We stopped at Sandy Francis’ for a while. She has kittens at her house, which we enjoyed. Potluck dinner with the whole MAF team. We had a very nice evening getting to know people better and watching them interact with each other. They are like a big family, and they just welcomed us right into their family “ as is” . Arrived home to discover we had no internet.
Day 6 – Saturday
No internet. Every Saturday there is a softball game at TASOK and people from MAF, the embassies, and local missionaries participate. Josh wanted to play, so I went to watch and Daniel went to play with his new friend Nicholas. The black flies had a feast at my expense. Another lesson learned. Wear bug spray at TASOK. Tried to mop the floor. I can’t figure out this mop thingy. It’s actually a huge foam squeegee with a long wooden handle and you are supposed to somehow put this shammy type cloth on the end and mop with it, but the cloth doesn’t stay where you put it. It kept falling off. The mop is too wide for the bucket. Am I supposed to wet the cloth or just pour soapy water on the floor? I just gave up and got down on my hands and knees and cleaned the floor by hand. Got a backache but we discovered that our kitchen floor is green. At least when it is wet. Dinner with Rod and Valerie. We got to hear their testimonies and how they came to be with MAF, and play with their kittens. We fell in love with one of them, but I think she is spoken for already. Emily is trying to talk David into letting us have one of Sandy’s AND one of Valerie’s.
Day 7 – Sunday
We went to IPCK, International Protestant Church of Kinshasa. About half of the congregation is Congolese. There are members from all over the world, which was fun. There is no air conditioning, so all of the windows were open and everyone outside can hear God being praised. David and Sandy took us out for lunch and took us grocery shopping. By this time, I had a better idea of what might be available and had actually planned a few meals and made a decent list. We found almost all we needed. I think I paid about 2.00 per ounce for cheese, and that was the cheap cheese. I didn’t buy very much. We found pepperoni at one store. It wasn’t on my list, but it is very hard to find here so I bought some for the freezer. Still no internet. At bed time, our oldest decided to tell us the bathroom floor in the main part of the house had been wet all day. Yes, it was sewage.
Day 8 – Monday
Hooray! John got our internet repaired! Unfortunately, we had to have a person on the roof to do it, so now we have more cracks in the roof. Valerie picked me up and we went walking at TASOK. I am still itching from the black fly bites, so I remembered my bug spray. The Greene family had us over for dinner. Came home to discover we only had electricity to half the house. Some of our wiring was burnt through. Isn’t that nice to think about when you aren’t home? Apparently, the window a/c unit we put in the boy’s room cannot be on when I do laundry. David made a temporary repair, but he had to cut power to the water pump (no water), internet, and washer and dryer in order to cool the boy’s room. That’s the only a/c unit we have installed. I wondered, if this is what happens with one unit, what will happen if we try to cool all of the bedrooms? I was really, really tired and for some reason I decided I needed to wash dishes before I went to bed. Since the water pump was off, we only had a tiny trickle coming out of the tap. And my hot water heater wasn’t working. I actually cried because I couldn’t wash dishes. Can you believe it? I should have thrown a party! I mean, who actually WANTS to wash dishes? I was just too tired to handle it.
Day 9 – Tuesday
Our driver’s licenses have arrived. They messed up my entire date of birth, the day, month AND year. AND!!!! They made me OLDER. I tried to give it back to David. I told him I don’t want to drive and I don’t want to be older. He made me keep it. They messed up his too, but they got his age correct. They gave him an endorsement to drive buses and semi-trucks. He has never done either one. In our neighborhood there is a Women’s Bible study on Tuesday evenings, so Esther picked me up for that. Our trash had been piling up because we didn’t know what to do with it. David dug a hole in the yard for the compostable stuff. We separated the burnable stuff out. The rest went into a bag that the Francis family gave us for the trash pick up. You have to pay “ by the bag”. David Francis came over. He and my David worked on the wiring (not fixed but better) and the toilet, which was till leaking sewage even though no one had used it in over two days. You can’t buy wax rings for the toilets here, so someone had used cement instead. We hope it is fixed. I’ve had “mop” on my shopping list since we got here. Now I have “MOP!!!” on my shopping list. Guess I could try the squeegee thingy. I’m thinking it might be a challenge trying to use a 30 inch squeegee with a fasten-less cleaning rag around our toilet base. David checked his email and learned that our shipment had arrived on Monday. We’ve been told it could be several more weeks before the “powers that be” decide to let us have our stuff. Tonight was my first night cooking. We were talking about making substitutions, trying to find stuff in the stores, the unavailability of convenience foods, the occasional power outage. He made the comment that “cooking in Kinshasa is kind of like camping in your own kitchen.”

Visas and a Place to Live

We have had an eventful week and it is only Tuesday! Yesterday we received our visas and reached the 97% mark in our ministry support. Josh received his diploma from the high school in Quebec also. It's mainly a souvenir, since it is only recognized in Quebec, but he thinks it is cool. It's also a reminder of all he accomplished in his ten months in Canada. He grew up a lot and made many friends, survived his first year in public school, and ended the year on a positive note. In Quebec the kids graduate after the 11th grade, so he will finish his senior year in Africa and will end up with two diplomas from two different continents, which he thinks is really cool. There are three families here for standardization right now, and yesterday afternoon the wives enjoyed a cooking class. The focus was cooking from scratch because we will be cooking that way overseas. I've had some experience in cooking from scratch already, so that wasn't too new for me. I did learn some interesting substitutions. For example, we used manioc in place of potatoes. Manioc is the staple starch in DRC. Manioc root looks like a tree branch and is about as hard to peel. I think it resembles potatoes when you boil them too long and they get sticky, but it tasted pleasant enough. This morning we received word from our program manager in DRC that they have found a home for us. I don't know what I was expecting, but I'm pleasantly surprised. For one thing, it has 1 and 3/4 bathrooms, so for the first time since we left Florida, we will have two toilets. It is within walking distance of another MAF family, which will make carpooling easier and we'll already have friends in the neighborhood.

It's A Date!

Image via Wikipedia

We have a tentative departure date! We are still raising ministry support, but we have already raised 96% of what is needed, and if all goes well, we will leave the U.S. on October 10th and arrive in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on October 11th. Please pray for our support to reach 100% quickly. We are very excited, and yes, a little nervous. Visa applications have been submitted. There is one more vaccine to go, the last of a three-round rabies vaccine, which I am not looking forward to because the side effects seem to increase with each round. I am busy trying to tie up loose ends and sort through our stuff. Our team in Kinshasa is looking for a place for us to live. Mail works a lot better here than there, so one of the things I am trying to do before we leave is write letters and thank you notes. I remember when I was a child, if someone gave me a gift my mother would strongly encourage me to write a thank you note. Being a child, I didn't want to stop playing and write a note. That felt too much like homework. Now, though, having a list of people I need to write thank you notes to is an opportunity for me to count my blessings, one at a time. Each note is a reminder that God loves me and has blessed me, and an opportunity to let God use me to bless someone else. So, I'm going to stop blogging and go write some thank you notes.

Back in Nampa

We are in Nampa, now! David is taking classes and brushing up on his mechanical skills. He is glad to be working in a hangar again. Yesterday I got our oldest enrolled in the local high school. This summer has flown by! School begins tomorrow. We are praying for God to raise up more people to pray for us and support our ministry with MAF so that we can leave as soon as possible for Africa. We are eager to go and Josh needs to be there by mid-October in order to be able to transfer to his new school as a senior. We only have 12% more to go. Please pray with us. Josh and Daniel both had birthdays recently. Daniel always seems to have a birthday "on the road". Depending how you look at it, he either gets the short end of the stick or the "easy button". We are almost never at home, but this usually means he gets more than one cake and more than one party because we have one at home and one with whomever we are visiting. While driving up from Missouri, we drove through a town in Idaho called Twin Falls and decided to stop. There is a waterfall there called Shoshone Falls that is comparable to Niagara Falls when the water level is up, but it was low when we visited. It was still beautiful. There were places to hike and lakes. It only cost 3.00 for parking and everything else was free. That is way cheaper than Niagara Falls was and we had more fun. Twin Falls is also where Evil Knievel made his attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on his skycycle. The dirt ramp is still there for people to see. We thought Twin Falls had a lot of character. In addition to the historic Evil Knievel jump and the water falls, we saw two car dealerships. One was owned by someone named Con and the other was owned by someone named Rob. We were so travel weary that we thought that was really funny.

Mystery church shopping?

Image via Wikipedia

Recently I heard something on the radio that I had never heard before: an advertisement about mystery church shoppers. In my past I was a mystery shopper for a while and I am familiar with how that works, but I had never heard it applied to churches before. The speaker in the ad stated “Churches know why people stay. They want to know why people DON'T stay.” For a fee, the mystery shopping company will send a “shopper” to your church. Later, you receive a report informing you of the shopper’s experience in your church and their impressions, everything from how clean the bathroom and sanctuary were to how friendly or unfriendly the church members were to the quality of the sermon to parking availability. That set me thinking about what does cause a visitor to decide to return, or not, to a church. As someone who has spent the better part of the last two years being a visitor in multiple churches and denominations, I tried to think about my experiences as a guest and how I felt. When I felt really drawn to a church, what was the reason. Was it a clean bathroom? No, not really, although that certainly matters. Was it the newness of the decor or the size of the building?  No.  Was it convenient parking? Friendly greeters? The music? The sermon? It really wasn't any one of those things by themselves. They are all significant. I think the key difference is relationships. Our God is all about relationships, and as His people, we should be also. When I visit a church and someone there seems genuinely interested in a relationship with my family and me, that blesses me hugely. The priorities in our life are the things we focus on. So I hope the next time I am at church and I see someone I don't know, I make them a priority. Philipppians 2:3 says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” This is my prayer, and something I am hopefully getting better at.

Happy Birthday, Em!

Today was my daughter's birthday. I bought her a rose and her daddy took her out for lunch. Then later today we had a small family party. These videos are for the grandparents, aunts and uncles. The reason there are two videos is because one gift had arrived in the mail and we put it up and forgot to bring it out at first. Happy Birthday, Em! You're amazing and we love you!!!

God can use Facebook

Image via Wikipedia

Today I met a cousin of mine for the first time. We found each other without even looking for each other because of a mutual friend. My friend posted something on Facebook, to which we both commented. My cousin then made a comment about my maiden name being the same as hers and joked that we must be related. So we began to investigate and realized that her father and mine are first cousins, making us second cousins because we had the same great-grandparents. She "happens" to live only a twenty minute drive or so from where we are staying right now, so we met for lunch. I discovered we have some things in common, our love for Christ, our preference for Coke over Pepsi, both happily married twenty years this summer, teenage daughters, bashful sons, and who knows what else. I am so grateful to have "found" this new friend! I don't believe in coincidences or luck. Nothing that happens to me is a surprise to God, and He is not random. I believe He intended for us to meet. Facebook can be an incredible waste of time if we allow it to be, but it can also be a great tool and a blessing.

Back in the U.S.A.

We're back! We crossed the border into the U.S. on June 30th, our 20th wedding anniversary, and arrived at my sister-in-law's home happy but tired. We left the kids with my in-laws and went to a nearby small town B&B to celebrate our anniversary. In case you think the kids got jilted, their aunt and uncle treated them to laser tag, a movie, shopping, and all the junk food any kid could want. It was good for all of us. We are now in Missouri, packing and working on ministry support. It feels kinda wierd going through the checkout line at the store with enough unscented solid deodorant, vitamins, and tylenol to last a family of five for two years. It does make people stare. It also felt a little wierd the first time we went into a store and everything we heard was in English.  That didn't even happen when we lived in Florida, let alone Québec.

Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses, so on our way down from Canada, we stopped at Niagara Falls. I had been to see the falls years ago, on my senior trip, and wanted to share it with David and the kids.

Lessons learned

Yesterday we graduated from French language school. It's been a long and challenging ten months. It wasn't only challenging because of the French courses we were taking. This was a year of big changes for all of us. Josh experienced his first year in public school at the same time he experienced his first exposure to another culture. That's really like learning two cultures at once. Emily had to work independently in her studies during my class hours and save the rest for when I came home. Daniel sat through hours and hours of church without understanding what anyone was saying because David and I were required to attend a French church as part of our schooling. I had to balance being out of the home half of each day and having studies and homework of my own with teaching Emily and Daniel and managing our home. David had to balance school with being a husband, father, friend and neighbor. All within a new environment and culture/language. We learned a lot about relationships, priorities, flexibility, and faithfulness. When we first came here, one of my kids didn't believe me when I said that God knows our needs and will provide the relationships we need in Québec. Now that child admits being wrong and not wanting to leave new friends found here. But a lesson was learned, and now there is a confidence that God will take care of us. We are busy packing and cleaning our apartment and squeezing in every spare minute we can with our friends before we go. We'll be here a few more days because Josh has prom this weekend.
We have grown to love the people here. They have been very polite and friendly to us and very patient with our bumbling attempts to speak their language. We like our church and our pastor here very much and were just getting to the point where we understood almost all of the sermons. We have made wonderful friends, not just among our fellow classmates but among local people also. There are some things we won't miss so much: milk that comes in plastic bags instead of jugs, cold weather, having to go to several different stores to get things we need because the grocery stores here don't have built-in pharmacies, make-up aisles, toy aisles, etc.; stores that close at 5pm - the time when most people are finally free to shop. But really those aren't important issues as much as they are inconveniences. I would guess someone from Québec might feel overwhelmed by their first experience in a super Wal-mart, as the Wal-mart here is far from that. We have tried new foods and liked many of them: fresh, real maple syrup, tartinade (a meat pie that is traditionally made for Christmas), Cretons (a meat spread often eaten on toast or crackers), and poutine. Our very first week here we were told that no one has experienced Québec until they have tried poutine. Poutine consists of french fries, with gravy on top, and cheese on top of that. Not just any cheese, though. Fresh cheese curds, usually made that same day, that makes squeaky noises when you chew it. There are many varieties, but that is the basic poutine. Last night, to celebrate that all five of us finished a school year here, we went to Stratos'and had poutine one last time.

Finishing

I finished another quilt! Well, just the top, actually. But that's the hardest part. This one only took about 5-6 years - LOL. I had too many quilt projects going at one time and relocated three times, so this was a project that I started and stopped many times, with a lot of time between each "restart". This is my fourth completed quilt top and it will be the first one I keep for myself. I know I won't need a quilt in Africa, but just having it there to look at will make my house feel like "home" to me, so it is going. And who knows, maybe one day we will purchase a window A/C and if so, I will want a blanket. I love the batik fabrics in this one and since I have worked on it in three states, one province and two countries, it's kind of special to me.

David and I completed our final exams today. We graduate tomorrow! After that, we will be cleaning and packing like crazy and then we'll begin our voyage back to the U.S. Our first stop will be Wisconsin. Then we'll head south. I'd like to write something profound, or even interesting, but I'm tired. Anyway, here's a photo of my not-quite finished quilt.

Photo perspectives

Before I write here, I often review the previous entry so I can sort of pick up where I left off. Since the last time I wrote, we took the kids to Coaticook Gorge, home of the world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge. We are actually going there next week with our language school, but David and I wanted to take the kids on a day when we could take our time and go at our own pace as a family. It was a good thing we did, because Josh's ankle was still sore from his rugby injury and we ended up not completing the entire 3 kilometer trail. We did, however, cross the bridge - twice. Emily and I had to muster up our courage, because we aren't fond of heights, but it was well worth it for the beautiful view from the middle of the bridge. David and I went on a field trip with our French language school to the Village Québécois d'Antan (Quebecois villiage of former days) in Drummondville. There are 52 buildings, all dating back to the 1800's and the very early 1900's. They aren't all from Drummondville originally, some have been moved, but the effect is that you feel as though you have stepped back in time. There were residential homes that showed what life was like for the average family, an apothecary complete with a garden of medicinal herbs, a fromagerie (cheese shop), general store/post office, blacksmith, printer, farm, soap makers, candle makers, car museum, etc. As I was reviewing my previous post and looking through my photos of our excursions, I found it interesting that I had written about treasures. What I treasure emotionally and materially sure did seem to come to light through my photos. Most of my photos were of people I love, such as the one of the kids here, or things that I am very enthusiastic about, such as the antique sewing machines, quilts, and the gardens from the village. I took only a few photos of the antique cars and the other things we saw. My pictures are more than just my life through the lens of my camera, they show my bias, my interests and passions. I wonder then, what picture other people have in their minds when they think of me? Do my children see in their minds a pair of hands preparing a meal or putting a bandage on their skinned knees? Do they see a pair of arms wrapping them in a hug? Do they see a face with an impatient or angry expression, or do they see a warm smile? I want to be a blessing. I want my family and friends to smile when they picture me in their minds. That is my prayer.

Where Our Treasure Is

Every two weeks, the three French classes combine for a field trip. This past Friday our field trip was a treasure hunt, or chasse au trésor, in downtown Sherbrooke. We were divided into teams of three (chosen by the professor), given our instructions, and sent off on our way. We were all to meet at a coffee shop when we finished. I was partnered with two missionary friends who live in my building, Grace and Amy. This was great because we already had a camaraderie and were used to eachother's French (or rather our "Frenglish"). The down side for us was that a number of our tasks involved finding strangers and asking them questions, and none of us felt especially comfortable talking to strangers, in any language. Most of my friends consider me to be friendly and outgoing, and for the most part I am, when I am in a familiar setting. I will talk until you drop if I know you well. But talking to strangers, especially if I have to take the initiative and talk first, is way, way, way out of my comfort zone. However, the old adage that there is strength in numbers is indeed true. My friends and I each took turns speaking with people, helped each other with our French, and encouraged each other. It IS easier to be brave when you know you have someone in your corner rooting for you. It IS easier to do a task when a friend comes along beside you and helps. It IS easier to persevere when you receive an occasional "well done!" My teammates and I shared the same objective and encouraged each other so that we could accomplish our tasks, even if it meant stepping outside of our comfort zones. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. For Christians, our treasure is Jesus. He should be the One I am most devoted to, most passionate about, and the central focus of my life. My objectives are to know, follow, and glorify Him. Am I willing to step out of my comfort zone for Jesus? Am I encouraging my brothers and sisters in Christ as they follow Him? Our team accomplished our tasks and, surprisingly, reached the coffee shop ahead of the other teams. We had time to take a few photos and visit with the other students as they arrived.

A Great St. Louis Recipe

Image via Wikipedia

I guess I am on a recipe roll. I expressed a desire on Facebook to bake a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake and received some requests for the recipe. Yes, it did originate in St. Louis, in the 1930's. I have also heard this recipe called "butter chewies", but since it did originate in St. Louis, I prefer to call it by it's proper name. I grew up in St. Louis and while I am proud of my heritage, this recipe is a favorite of mine by its own delicious merit. Cut the pieces small - it is very rich.  It goes great with coffee!

St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 tsp almond extract (Vanilla extract can be subsituted but is not as tasty.)
1 box yellow cake mix
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar, plus a little extra
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan. Melt butter. Empty Cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in butter and one of the eggs. Press mixture into pan. In separate bowl, mix cream cheese, almond extract, 4 cups powdered sugar and remaining two eggs. Beat for three minutes on medium speed. Spread in pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown on top. The cake will be gooey on top, so don't over bake! Allow cake to cool, then dust with more powdered sugar.

Cake! and conversation

Image via Wikipedia

The French Language School we attend is a ministry of Word of Life. In addition, Word of Life operates a number of Bible Schools, including one here at our campus. Most of the Bible School students are recent high school graduates, not much older than Josh. Last Fall when school began, each language school student was paired up with a volunteer Bible School student. We were assigned to meet for an hour a week and read outloud from the French Bible. Our students were assigned to correct our pronunciation and help us to understand what we were reading. This week was our last week of required meetings with our students because they are leaving this weekend on mission trips, then taking a two week break before beginning the summer camp season. I am blessed with a sweet and patient student who wants to continue meeting with me after she returns from her trip in order to practice conversation in French. I wanted to do something to show my gratitude and affection for her, so I made a chocolate cake for her. She loved it, and it was a great pleasure to be able to do something for her. I receive a lot of requests for my recipe, so I will post it below. I love chocolate, but I never used to enjoy chocolate cake. It just didn't taste chocolatey enough for me. I came across this cake recipe somewhere, I can't remember where, and it trumped every other recipe I had ever tried so this one is now the only chocolate cake recipe I use. The frosting recipe came from a dear friend. It's rich, so it is best eaten with coffee, but that's ok because I also love coffee.

Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp EACH baking powder and baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Heat oven to 350*. Grease and flour two round or one 13x9 inch pans. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water. Pour into pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting - makes 2 cups
1/2 cup real butter, softened
2/3 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients and beat to spreading consistency. If it is too thick, add a small amount of milk.

Beginning a New Class

We have gotten our first week of the conversation course finished. Honestly, I'm not sure what I expected. It is very challenging. Our classes are much smaller in number and David and I are no longer in the same class, so we are "on our own". We've been married nearly twenty years, so we draw a lot of strength and confidence just from being near each other. Since July 2008 we have worked together all day, every day, and being apart even for a few hours a day is strange. It takes a lot of mental work to hear something in French, translate it in your head to English, think of an English response, then translate to French and speak it. In some ways I am improving: I am getting braver about trying to speak and trying to use new things I have learned. The downside of that is that I make a lot of mistakes. I know this is the best way to learn, but it is also the best way to embarrass yourself. So I am making a ton of mistakes and embarrassing myself repeatedly, but it's a good thing! lol. We are not allowed to speak English even during the breaks, so sometimes our breaks are really quiet. Sometimes we start out talking but then we reach a point where we don't know how to say the next thought we have so we just sort of stop talking and stare at each other.
Today we visited a church in Sawyerville. It is an English church that has just begun having a service in French three weeks ago. We were there to encourage our friends Grace and Orest as they presented their ministry in French for the first time. After the French church service, we went to the French Sunday School class, followed by the English church service and a potluck lunch. Last week we went out for dinner and a walk downtown with Orest and Grace to celebrate the end of a week of exams. We also took the kids to a favorite park of ours called Johnville Bog and Forest Park. Here are some photos from last week.

I've got sunshine!

Marcia at One Little Pink Rose has honored and humbled me with a blog award. Thank you, Marcia! I'm the one who should be honoring you! Since I can't give Marcia an award she has already received, please check out her blog. It is well worth your time.


The Sunshine Award is traditionally passed on to blogger's who inspire others and show positivity and creativity, so, in that spirit, I chose my nominees from blogs that I visit regularly and are very informative and inspiring to me.
The rules for accepting the award are:

This is what I've done and the nominees should do the same if they choose to:

1) Put the logo within my blog or on my post

2) Pass the award onto 10 fellow bloggers

3) Link the nominees within my post

4) Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog

5) Share the love and link to the person whom you received this award from.
Unfortunately, I don't do a large amount of blog reading, so I don't have ten nominees. Here are my nominees, in no particular order. Please visit their blogs and feel free to encourage them with a comment.
1. Grace and Orest @ Desert Talk
2. Joy @ The Stay-At-Home Missionary
3. Michelle @ She Looketh Well
4. Jules @ On Eagles' Wings
5. Sharon @ I'm A Keeper...And A Teacher
6. Beloved Mama @ Beloved Mama
7. TJ @ TJ's Musing

A Quick Catch-up

Ok. Learning a foreign language when you are an adult with a family to take care of and two kids still homeschooling is a WEE bit time-consuming. And where there is time, there is no energy. SO - I have neglected all of my hobbies, including my blog. We have completed the beginner and intermediate level courses as of two days ago. On Monday, we will begin the conversation course. This course is not quite as intense as the others, so I am hoping to be able to communicate better with my family and friends and maybe even deal with a few photos or do a little quilting. Here is the best rapid-fire catching-up I can give you. In August, on our way from Missouri to Québec, we spent some time with my parents and I gave her the quilt I had been working on for the last five years.


We began school the first week of September. In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is in October, so while our loved ones in the U.S. were observing Columbus Day, we were having our Thanksgiving feast with the other missionary families.

For Christmas, a couple from our church here invited us to spend the day with them. They treated us like family and we had a wonderful time. They can speak English well, but they make us practice our French as much as we can. It is a huge blessing to have friends like them here while we are far from our own families.

In January, we began the intermediate course, what our professor calls "the true French". It was quite a bit more challenging than the beginner course. God blessed us with more friends and more opportunities to practice conversing in French, which seems to be the most difficult part of learning French. Reading and listening skills came more easily.

"Spring break" for us came the first week in March, while it was definitely still winter here. We took a day and drove to Québec city, the capitol. We walked all through Old Québec and toured the parliament building. Québec is the only fortified city in North America.

After exams were over this week, six of the language school students graduated. We have developed close friendships with some of them and are very sad to see them go.