This is not a good picture, but this is the inside of the hut that we live in.
People sometimes ask me if I use my music degree. Yes I use it when I pound millet. You got to ha rhythm to do it.
Me and Jessica in Sign of God village (our first village)





Mm...This is chewtam. It is better fresh, but sometimes it is 3 days old, and can be rather tart.




Nothing wets your whistle on a hot day, like chewtam.

Gettin water from the well.
Praise the Lord we have a truck-because I don't know what I am doing on the moto
This is me and my team-mate Daniel in Konni-She knows what she is doing on the motorcycle
Me turning 23 in Togo woohoo.

Okay so long time, for real, since I have blogged. It is just now I have dial-up, and it takes forever to do anything, but enough with excuses. Oh and one more thing, if you read this please comment and let me know, because sometimes when I do this, I wonder if I am not wasting my time, because no one is reading. Well God has been doing some amazing things. Let me just tell where God has brought us. Right now there are about 15 believers in the town of Mayahi, and we have been discipling those believers. We have one more lesson and that lesson will be church, and after that is completed they will more or less be a church. It is kind of surreal, and only something that God could do. We are so excited. We don't just one church to be planted, we want God to plant many churches, so right now we are having what we are calling the Harvest Challenge. We are ask all of you to pray and fast during the rest of this month and October for God to ignite a church planting movement among the Fulani. You can go to prayforfulani.blogspot.com for more info and prayer requests reguarding the challenge. How can we expect God to start a church planting movement if we do not ask him? Everyday the believers are growing more and more confident when sharing their faith. Please pray that God would show them that he has given them authority to tell others about him through his holy spirit

We have all heard the phrase TGIF. You know thank God its Friday. Well here Fridays are particularly challenging. It is on Fridays that Jessica and I travel to Maiyi. Transportation is always our biggest obstacle and we usually dread it. Well this Friday I really was dreading it. We had to be back in Tessua by a certain time, and if we took a bush taxi, there would be no telling when we would be back. So, we hired men to take us there on motorcycles. Now let me just express to you that I was not looking forward to this. Before coming here my mother who is a nurse had enstilled in me a great fear of motorcycles. Now God had dealt with me about this fear, so I was no longer afraid, but the thought of riding 40k on the back of motorcycle, was not something I was looking forward to. Needless to say we made it to Maiyi safely, and the Fulani men were there waiting to here us teach them from God's word. This time I was going to teach, and man was I nervous. I kept thinking about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, "When I came to you brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Let's just say I was extremely nervous, but was so thankful for God's provision, for despite my lack of language, they understand a little of it. They said that they had heard some of God's word in Hausa, but that they were glad that we had come so that they could hear God's word in their own language-Fulfulde. Fridays will continue to be challenging for Jessica and I, mainly because of the journey, but I can say Thank God It's Friday, because he grants us traveling mercies, and has put a hunger in the Fulani's heart there to hear his word. Please pray for the Fulani in Maiyi that we go and visit on Friday's. Pray that despite our poor language, they would understand his word. Pray that they would understand who he is and want to come to know him. Pray for their salvation. And pray for us. Continue to pray for our safety and health. Pray that we would have good attitudes, and that nothing would be able to steal our joy, even if it be riding a motorcycle.

Week 2
In only our second week here I think we have covered every form of public transportation that Africa has to offer. On Friday we traveled with our day guard by bush taxi to Mayi. It is about 40k away. It took us about two hours to get there and we were thankful when we arrived. I was not excited by any means at the next form of transportation that we would be taking. We were going to visit some Hausa believers there and to meet with some Fulani who had requested that someone would come and teach them about Jesus. Well the village was 12k in the bush and we were going to get there by riding on the back of motorcycles. Now I consider myself somewhat of a thrill seeker. I mean I love roller coaster rides, but I was scared to death on the back of this motorcycle. The whole trip was deep sand so it was quite fast and quite shaky. I began the trip by singing my life song "It is well with my soul". I quickly went from that to praying out loud that God would keep me safe. Halfway through the trip I realised how selfish this was and began praying for the man that was driving the motorcycle, realizing that he did not know Jesus, and that if I died I would be with Jesus, but if he died he would be in Hell. The rest of our trip I prayed for his salvation, and for our safety. Well we made it safely, only to find out that all of the believers were not there, because they did not know we were coming so we left a message telling them that we would return again the next Friday.
This meant we would have to get back on the motorcycles to head back to town. On this ride I really thought I was going to have a heart attack and pass out. I was way to tense, so I prayed that God would give me a peace, and help me to relax, and he did. The rest of the ride I was unafraid. We rode another bush taxi on the way back to Tessua, but this time it was one where you stood in the back of like a big dump truck.
We also returned to our village to share another story. This time about 30 men gathered, and even more were coming. Jessica told the story of Adam and Eve, and we told them about how Jesus is the ransom for all sin, and that he was the sun of God. I praise God for the openess that we have found in this village. I mean in all of our training they told us not to tell Muslims that Jesus was the son of God. When Jessica told them it, I was praying for openess in their hearts, and also that they would not stone us. There was not one single scoff. They wanted to hear more. She shared the whole gospel with them and they said, "you mean that's it, that's the whole story." And we said, Yes. I was amazed at how simple our Lord has made it for us. All we have to do is believe.
Since coming to Tessua God has given us so many oppurtunities to witness to people here, even though we do not have a hold on the language. The other night we watched the Jesus film with our night guard, and our Fulani neighbors. I don't know what this means, but our night guard said, that the film gave his heart chills. Pray for our night guard, and the people in our village. Pray that God would give them a longing for the truth. Pray that he would give them faith to believe in something that they don't fully understand. Pray that God would reveal himself in a way that the God of Muhammad could never reveal himself to them. Right now is harvest time here and rainy season. Pray that as the Lord of the harvest causes the seeds of their millet to grow, that he would rain down his spirit upon them and grow the seeds of the word that are being sown in their hearts.

Week 1
Well our first week in our new home has been quite exciting and full of adventure. Thankyou all so much for your prayers. When we got here we were really thankful, because the first time we saw the house the floors were covered in cock roaches. There was not one cock roach on the floor. It is the little things here that can really make your day. Our house was set up by the next day, and we were able to hire our night guard and day guard without any problems. The first few days we spent without indoor plumbing, but the Lord saw us through all that as well. Bucket baths are okay but we were really thankful when we were finally able to take our first showers. The Lord has been aswering so many prayers. Thankyou for your faithfulness to pray. Our day guard is a Christian and we have a small group that meets here for worship on Sundays. It is mainly his family, and a few other believers. He even invited a Fulani man, who wanted to know what time our program was next week. Jessica and I smiled and said, "We have a program?" I can not wait for next Sunday. We had it in Hausa, and English, and it really answered to my spiritual needs.
Monday was our first trip to the bush, and well Jessica and I thought it might be fun to walk. We thought that the village was only 6k, but it was actually 12k. Needless to say we were exhausted when we got to the village. When we arrived they welcomed us, and asked if we had come to teach them. The thing is we did not expect them to be ready for us to teach on the first visit, but they were. We visited and rested there, and then began our return back. I must confess that I was not excited at the prospect of walking 12k back, actually I was down right discouraged. Every dessert movie I had ever seen began to flash before my eyes, so we stopped and prayed. Jessica prayed that God would send us a vehicle, and when we started walking again, he did. A bush taxi came by completely full of people, but they made room for Jessica and I. Jessica rode on top and I squeezed inside, praying the whole way that Jessica would not fall off the top. It was way better than walking through the dessert. Half-way back home, a man gave up his seat inside so that Jessica could get off the top. Well needless to say by the time we got home we were exhausted, but completely amazed by God's provision.
We returned to the village again Wenesday, this time prepared to share a story. After our last walk we decided to never walk again and to ride the mooto. Well Jessica and I did not see the point in taking two mootos when we were going to the same place. It was a long bumpy ride, but we made it there until we turned down the road to the village. We turned right into some sand and well fell over. Jessica got a few scratches and I was all right, but the whole village saw it. We had quite a laugh about the whole situation. Then we went to the cheifs compound, and waited while someone went to get the other men. The first time we came we had only seen four men, well when all the men got there, there were 20 men who had come to here God's word. Jessica told the story of the good shepherd, and they were amazed by it. They kept asking questions, and we ended at that Jesus is the only way to everlasting life. We are going back again next Saturday. We left amazed at what God had done. We never expected to tell a story to 20 men, and even with our little language we were able to do so. Please pray that the holy spirit will begin to work in their hearts. Jessica and I have discovered that thus far we have not had any opposition to us coming to share the gospel, but something always seems to happen on the way home. Well we hit a patch of sand again, and fell over. I got burned a little by the mooto, and Jessica got more scratches, but we were fine. The mooto on the other hand had some problems. When we fell the foot stand got stuck so that we could not change gears. A man came and tried to help us, and then a car came by and stopped. Get this, the same man that had given up his seat for Jessica was in the car. He fixed our mooto, and we were on our way again. God is so good, and I have really seen the part of where the Great Commission says, "and I am with you always to the very end of the age," come to life here. He has been and will continure to be with us always.

Well this will be my last blog update for awhile. Our date to move to Tesua has been pushed back a couple of days. We are going to be leaving this Wenesday. I am really excited. Language class is finally over and we have finished our final preparations for moving out. Please pray that God will give us open doors and bring us people of peace when we get out there. When you move into a new house here you never know what you might find, so pray for us as well as we set our house up. I will be coming back the 18th of July with many stories I hope and news of all that God has done out in Tesua. Pray for our health and just that we will be able to flexible.

Okay so our road trip went really well. I got to see what will be my new house and we also were able to find some Fulani villages. The chief in one of the villages gave the okay for us to come to the village to teach about Jesus and another village seems open, but the chief was not there for us to ask. The villages we found are about 15k off the main road so we will be able to make it on our motos. It was so exciting to finally see where we will be, and I will have pictures coming. Thank you all so much for praying. We spent the rest of our trip in Koni doing language school and it went well. One praise that I do have, is it has finally rained here and it has cooled things down immensely. May is supposed to be the hottest month and it is almost over, so we have made it through the worst as far as the weather goes.

This is me and my partner Jessica!
This is what it looks like inside a Fulani hut
This is called a wowru, and they pound millet in it
Aren't they cuties
Looks like I'm in front of a big lake don't it?
Nope dry as a bone.

Important prayer Request!!! I am leaving today for a 10 day road trip. We will be traveling first to Konni for a day then to Guidan Ruji, then to Miradi, and then to Tesua, and then back to Miradi and then back to Konni. All this will happen between now and Saturday and when we get back to Konni we will spend the week there for language. Please pray for safe travels. This is a very important trip. We will be going to Tesua to see my house, which is a praise, but we will also be going to find Fulani villages and talk to some Fulani kings and cheifs about sharing the gospel in their villages. Pray for open doors, people of peace, and God's direction and divine appointments to take place. Pray for Kris as he talks with the cheifs. I will have a lot to share about what has done when I get back.

Fulani church

Real-estate is booming here!
My first African Outfit
View from the car!