Where are we at?

This is such a loaded question...
Where are we at spiritually?
Where are we at physically?
Where are we at on our support raising?

A many faceted question.

We are doing well here spiritually. We are continuing to see God move in such amazing ways and providing for us beyond what we are seeking. This does fabulous things to ones faith. We pray for a job, God provides one that suits our needs. We pray for our support raising and we are seeing God raise up people near and far, old friends and new friends.

The journey to trusting in God is not necessarily an easy one. I had to learn to give up A LOT of control. And those who know me, know that this is a big issue for me as I like my control and organization. But once you start trusting God, it us much easier to continue as God shows himself faithful to his promises to us.

Now, where are we at physically? Where are we going to be? And when are we going where?

Well, right now we are still in Elmhurst. In a week, we will be in warm India. I tell you, I am looking forward to the warmth! I think that all my travels and living in India, Africa, and Louisiana has thinned my blood to the point that I just don't tolerate the cold very well. I never liked the cold, but now I loathe it! We will be spending the majority of January in India visiting Jeneson's family. His Mom is sooo anxious to see her grandkids!

We are still praying that our house gets completed by February so that we can move to Sierra Leone by the end of February. Right now they are having supply issues of getting supplies from Freetown out to Mokanji. They have been waiting over a month and a half for the floor tile. There aren't exactly any Home Depots in the area to stock up on supplies. So, if you think of it, please pray that the tile gets there soon so that the work can continue.

Will keep you updated on how things are going. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Trust issues

Do you have trust issues?

I think that most of us, predominantly due to some negative past experience, have trust issues. Maybe you are reluctant to share something with your family because of some past hurt. Maybe you are afraid to share something that is close to your heart in your church small group because you are unsure that confidentiality will be maintained. Regardless of the reason, we all have some degree of trust issues.

But, do you have a trust issue with God? Do we believe the God we believe in ?

It is so easy to say "I trust God", but do your actions speak louder than your words?

Jeneson and I were talking about this the other day and he said that seeing the trust that his parents had helped foster the trust in God that he has. As he puts it: "during difficult times they prayed, during more difficult times they prayed even harder and longer and during good times they prayed even harder and longer than before." He saw time and time again when there was no human way for something to occur and through prayer and trust in God they were provided for. What a wonderful legacy to leave your children!

Jeneson and I pray that we are demonstrating our trust in God to our children through our words and deeds. There have been many times where we were unsure of the next step, but prayerfully placed our trust in our Heavenly Father. He has often provided over and above what we were praying for!

God does not respond to our desperation as much as He responds to our faith and trust in Him. Sometimes it is that desperation that breaks us and brings us to our knees and causes us to trust God.

However, we cannot mistake a cry of desperation for trust.When we compare and contrast the healing of the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years and the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:21-43), we see in the woman a mixture of faith and desperation, and Jesus is quick seek her out and tell her that it her faith in Him and not her desperation or superstition that brought about her healing. To Jairus who is waiting beside Him anxiously, Jesus continues to admonish 'Do not fear, Only believe'. God wants our genuine, no holds barred trust and faith, not a plan B of our own self-reliance.
Are you trusting God whole heartedly? Do you believe the God you believe in when He says 'only believe' ?

Yet Another Conference

So, yesterday I returned home from yet another conference. This time it was only me going. Jeneson stayed home and worked and took care of the kids; I have such a wonderful husband!

First, THANK YOU!!!!! to the many friends and family who pulled together to help watch the kids so that we were able to attend these conferences. It is no small feat to find somebody to watch our three kids for three and four day stretches of time.

The is last conference was regarding midwifery skills that are transferable to developing countries. It was enlightening and challenging. I learned some horrible statistics about the state of women's health in developing countries and how dangerous it is to be pregnant and give birth in areas with no resources. For example in the US the lifetime risk of maternal death is 1 in 2,500 (which is actually high for a developed country), but the lifetime risk of maternal death in Sierra Leone is 1 in 6. Yes, 1 in 6.

The biggest determinants of maternal and newborn deaths are the health of the mother and whether or not she had a skilled birth attendant present at the delivery.

After being a witness to an African delivery (see my blog post African Birth) I felt compelled to learn more about labor and delivery and managing complications. Through Internet searches God led me to this organization that sets up birth centers and trains midwives in the Philippines. The head Midwife comes to the US a couple of times a year to teach these courses. The course taught me many new things and brought to mind even more that I need to look up and research before we move to Sierra Leone. Vicky will be a great resource in the future.

I am blessed to have all these resources at hand and pray that God will continue to lead us as week seek to be as prepared as possible for Sierra Leone.

Post Mission Conference Musings

Last night Jeneson and I returned from the Global Mission Health Conference. There is just something magical about being in a room with over a thousand other people who feel the call of medical missions in their lives and lifting up our voices to praise our God.

It was a fabulous time together listening to some great speakers and learning a TON of new information about fun stuff like vaccinations, TB, malaria, intestinal worms, etc... The main speakers had many encouraging words for us and we often felt that they were speaking directly to us!

One of the speakers was Charles Fielding, the author of Preach and Heal. During one of his talks in reference to medical missionaries he said that:

"It may not be safe or easy, but it is right."

This profound statement hit us like a ton of bricks! There are many out there who question our sanity and reason for going over to Sierra Leone with three small children. This statement sums it up. While there may not be any clearly logical reason for us going, this is what we have felt God lay on our hearts to do and where we feel that God is leading us.

And yes, it WILL NOT be easy. We will face many challenges both as a family and medically. There will be physical, emotional, and spiritual hardships.

And yes, it WILL NOT be safe. While there is not much violence in Sierra Leone, there are plenty of other dangers in terms of disease, snakes, and poor road conditions.

But it is RIGHT. This is where we are supposed to be going. This is what we are supposed to be doing.

But, we also need your help. It will be the prayers of the people that will help us during those rough times. Even if we don't know when or what you are praying, just knowing THAT you are praying will give us encouragement.

Physical and Personal Preparation

Some days I feel like my To Do List is never ending. On top of the daily duties of being a stay at home Mom of three young children I constantly have in the back of my mind 'What do we need to do before we leave for Sierra Leone?'

First, health wise we need to make sure that all of our immunizations are up to date. So in addition to the routine childhood vaccinations they also need typhoid, meningitis, Hepatitis A & B, and yellow fever vaccinations. This on top of thinking of what we are going to do about malaria prophylaxis for ourselves and our children.

All of us need to have dental exams and Jeneson and I need to have eye exams. Since I wear contacts I have to carefully plan on how often I am going to change them and how many bottles of cleaner to take.

One big change that we made a couple of months back with Sofia (our 15 month old) is switching to cloth diapers. I am keeping it really simple by going 'old school' and using flats and prefolds with simple covers. For those of you out there who hear cloth diapers and think mess, laundry, diaper pins, and hassle, just do a quick 'cloth diaper' Google search. You will be astounded at the extent of cloth diapers available! It has gone quite well other than not having a nighttime solution that she doesn't soak through. I almost wish that I would have done cloth with our older two.

The other list that I am constantly going over and updating in my head is the 'what will we bring list'. More on that the next post.

Professional Preparation

So how does a Physician Assistant and a Family Nurse Practitioner prepare professionally for caring for a rural population in a poor developing country. First some stats to give you a glimpse of what we will encounter. To give some perspective the numbers in purple are the US stats.

Human Development Index 180/187 countries (4/187 countries)


Average life expectancy 47 years (78 years)

Maternal mortality 970/100,000 live births (24/100,000 live births)

42% of births attended by skilled health personnel (99%)

Infant mortality rate 157/1000 live births (8/1000 live births)

Under 5 years old mortality rate 192/1000 live births with 58% of them due to malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea (8/1000 live births with 43% attributed to prematurity and congenital abnormalities)

28% of children under the age of 5 can be categorized as being moderately to severely underweight (1%)

HIV prevalence 16/1000 adults age 15-49 (6/1000)

In Sierra Leone there are 0.2 physicians and 1.7 nurses or midwives for every 10,000 people (26.7 physicians and 98.2 nurses/midwives for every 10,000 people)

49% of the population uses clean water (99%)


This is the grim reality of life in Sierra Leone: there is great chance that you or someone you love will get very ill and great chance that they will not be able to see anybody who can help them and end up dying from a relatively simple disease process where prevention or early intervention could have made all the difference in the world.

There are a number of ways that we are preparing for this medical adventure.

Last fall we all moved to Slidell, Louisiana to enable Jeneson to attend Tulane University's Diploma program in Tropical Medicine. It was a lot of information crammed into one semester. He is also a class or two away from getting his MPH.

Last summer I attended a two week International Medicine and Public Health course held by INMED in Kansas City, MO. I was able to network with many others who are working in developing countries or preparing themselves for that task. Also, inspired by my recent observations in Sierra Leone, I am taking a two day crash course on Midwifery in Developing Countries down in Nashville. I am really looking forward to this class and hope to glean lots of information that will help improve the pregnancy and labor and delivery experiences of the women in Mokanji.

Additionally we feel like we are constantly preparing in many little ways. Next week we will travel to Louisville, KY for the Global Missions Health Conference where we will hear some excellent speakers and get some great teaching on medical and spiritual care in missions. Jeneson can often be seen walking around the house reading the  Handbook of Medicine in Developing Countries. We are frequently checking out websites that might offer us some information about health care in developing countries. I follow a few blogs of people I know who are caring for people overseas.

But, most of all, we pray. We know that there will be some tough times ahead;  that we cannot prepare for everything we might see or do and that there will be times when there is nothing we can offer the patient except prayer. We pray that God will sustain us during those times.

Spiritual Preparation

Preparing for moving our family of 5 to Sierra Leone can be a daunting task if I focus too much on the little details. So how have we prepared so far? What are some of the ways that we have been preparing spiritually, professionally, physically, and personally?

I think that, by far, our spiritual preparation has been the most integral to getting us ready for Sierra Leone. One things that has helped our spiritual preparation is knowing that this is where we are supposed to be going and what we are supposed to be doing. While we have not had any auditory revelations from God, He has certainly been showing us the way and guiding our steps of ministry by closing and opening doors and answering prayers of need in unimagined ways.

It has been a long journey to get to this point of preparation. We have been imagining our day of embarking on long-term missions for over 10 years now, from even before we were engaged. The fall of 2001 we travelled down to Texas to take a 2 week seminar on medical missions run by Mercy Ships. We were engaged December of 2001 and married June of 2002. Our honeymoon was a labor mission trip to the island of Roatan, Honduras (don't worry we did have a couple of days on the beach toward the end of our trip).

We pray often for the people of Sierra Leone and the Mokanji region that their hearts be open to our teaching and to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray often for the people who support us in prayer and financially. We pray often that we are able to hear the still, quiet voice of God and follow his leading. We pray often for patience and provision.

We are growing in our trust and faith in Jesus Christ. I think that by relaxing our expectations and what we can achieve on an individual level we allow God to work more in our lives. One great example of this is Jeneson's job situation. He has not worked a regular full-time job in over a year, but God has amazingly provided. I guess that I should not be all that amazed about God providing because He did it all through the Bible. (Let me know if you need references for this, because I am sure I can find them). We made the decision, after much careful consideration and prayer that after coming back from India this past January that Jeneson would not take a full-time position and instead take locum tenens (short-term contracts) for work. We wanted to be completely open to God's timing for departure to Sierra Leone.

The biggest lesson we have learned is that in order for God to be faithful to his promises, you need to stop trying to do it all in your own strength and step out in faith.

Religion in Sierra Leone

While two weeks in Sierra Leone is not nearly enough time to make a spiritual analysis of the region, there are a few things that I did observe.

First some facts:
Sierra Leone is approximately 60% Muslim, 30% Animists, and 10% Christian.

Since animism is largely entrenched in society there is often some crossover into the Muslim and Christian populations. Despite what we often read in the news about sectarian violence around the world, there is a significant absence of that in Sierra Leone. One can often find Christians and Muslims intermarrying, working together and living side by side. They still observe many of the customs of Islam (praying 5 times a day, fasting for Ramadan, dietary restrictions) but cannot be described as fundamentalist in any negative sense of the word. Even during the decade long war religion was rarely pulled into either side of the conflict. Another common misconception involves the role of religion in female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) (AKA female circumcision). While FGM/C has been associated with Islam it is not a requirement of the religion and many women who do not practice Islam have had FGM/C. It is more of a cultural ritual, not a religious one.

While this amity between religions is fantastic when it comes to daily life it can make things a little more difficult to a Christian sharing their faith and trying to effectively convey the Gospel message to others. Many will say that Allah is the same as our God. This is a delicate issue that needs to be approached in a culturally sensitive manner with a lot of truth in love.

Now if you want to witness some great prayer and worship, visit a West African church! I have now gone to church in Benin and Sierra Leone and nothing matches it.The worship is lively with singing, drums and dancing all to the glory of the Lord. Listening to the prayers of the people puts my meager prayer life to shame. It is nothing for pastors to have all night prayer sessions.

And their faith is evident in their prayers for they have nothing else to fall back on. They cannot afford medications (no social agencies to help here) or to buy food so they pray. I will never forget a prayer session during my first trip to Benin. One of the members of our team is a type 1 diabetic well controlled using an insulin pump. Here in the US we would often pray for the doctors to have wisdom and for the medications to work effectively. These pastors in Benin prayed for the diabetes to 'pack its bags and leave'. How often do we pray for healing like this in the US? Probably not very often. Probably only when we have exhausted the knowledge of the doctors and tried many medications to no avail. Prayer takes on a different tone when you are in a situation where the only thing that will make the situation any better is an intervention from God.

I have a feeling that my prayer life will become more intense and focused when we get to Sierra Leone.  My goal is to start that intensity and focus now because we need just as much God intervention now as we prepare for the trip as we will need once our feet hit African soil.

After thoughts

As can be imagined witnessing the birthing experience brought me quickly back to the realities that Jeneson and I would be facing as medical personnel in Sierra Leone.

This is country of almost 6 million people.
The average life expectancy is 47 years.
Out of 1000 live births, more than 123 of those children will die before their first birthday
There are 0.016 physicians for every 1000 people

These are the stark facts about life in Sierra Leone.

Many people have a romanticized view of missionaries and of the adventures that they are having. It doesn't take but one of these experiences to realize that the reality is anything but.

Reality, like Satan, comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I will not let Satan squash the burden that God has placed on my heart for the people of Sierra Leone; to tell them of God's love for them and to show them through caring for them physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I will continue to pray in earnest that God will prepare me as a follower of Jesus Christ, as a Wife, as a Mother, as a Nurse Practitioner to go to Sierra Leone and minister to them. While I know there are many things that I want to show and teach them, I know from experience that they will teach and show me many things also. I need to be open to how God will work in me and through me.

Will you pray with me?

An African Birth

I have struggled and prayed often over the past several weeks about this post:
How should I frame my experience?
How much should I go into detail?
How much did I want to relive those moments?
Would people even want to read about it?
What is the significance of my experience?

Suffice it to say that I don't know all the answers to those questions, but know that what I saw did cause me to pause and reflect on what it is that Jeneson and I are doing in going to Sierra Leone. What is our purpose and how will God use us there.

It started out as a typical evening after dinner relaxing on the porch talking when we were summoned by a nervous father wanting us to go with him to his daughter who was in labor with her first child. After some miscommunication we realized that, as previously requested, one of the traditional birth attendants in Mokanji was letting us observe a birth.

We entered the dark stick and mud, thatched roof hut as dusk was falling over Mokanji and met the mother-to-be who was uncomfortable and in labor. As we comforted her and tried as best we could to demonstrate how to effectively push there were a number of things that were unsettling.

You could see the scar from the female genital mutilation (i.e. female circumcision).
You could sense her hesitation to push because of the pain.
The traditional birth attendant was encouraging other women to assist in the birth by pushing on the pregnant belly and pinching her belly and inside of her thighs (they thought this pinching would stimulate contractions!).
I saw her puffy feet and asked about her blood pressure (she did not have a blood pressure cuff to take one with).

This was not the supportive, empowering experience I had with all three of my children!

Then the worst happened. After about an hour and a half of pushing, the mother's body suddenly shook with a seizure. She was eclamptic!! This is not a good situation to be in here in the US and certainly not out in the middle of Sierra Leone!

After about 2 minutes the shaking stopped and pushing resumed on her abdomen in attempts to get the baby out. Fifteen minutes later the mother again regained consciousness and after another 15 minutes the beautiful baby boy was born. But things were not good. The cord was wrapped around his neck and when he emerged you could see meconium (the baby had pooped while still in the uterus, a sign of distress and not a good situation for the baby). He was limp and lifeless......

I have never felt so utterly helpless or prayed so much in all my years.

After rubbing his back, slapping the bottom of his feet and trying to wipe out his mouth with gauze, attention turned back to the mom to deliver the placenta. The cord was tied off with string and cut with a razor blade. There was no bulb suction to even try to clear the baby's nose and mouth (probably would not have helped in this case though).

He was gently wrapped up and put off to the side while they they continued to attend to the mother.

She continued to deteriorate during the night and have seizures (she needed medication to get her blood pressure down and medication to stop her seizures, none of which are available right now in Mokanji) until the next morning when we drove her, the birth attendant, and the woman's sister in the back of a pick up truck to the nearest hospital 2 hours away.

I did hear that she seemed to recover physically with no long-term problems.

Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world.

More on my thought from this experience tomorrow.

Village life

So what is life like in Mokanji? Slower pace. Community living. Laid back. Rustic. Peaceful. These are all words to describe village life.

The only running water is from the hand pumped well.

The only electricity is from the rare generator.

Food is cooked in a coal pot or over a 3 stone fire, either way the fuel is coal.

Laundry is done by hand and hung in the hot African sun to dry.

Chickens are truly free range and goats are tethered so that they don't eat up every piece of vegetation or relieve themselves too close to the well.

There are no latrines.

At night there are more stars than the human eye can comprehend and the only lights you see are the little flashlights as people walk by and lightening flashing in the distance.

The spiders are big, but my shoe is bigger.

You are grateful for the bats that glide under the porch rafters because you know that means a few less mosquitos.

There are a plethora of misconceptions about health and wellness and disease.

Death is common place.

There are some really cool lizards.

Even in the middle of Africa you can dance your troubles away a couple of nights a week at Mokanji's Old Skol Nite Klub (thanks to a generator).

Josiah in Sierra Leone

Josiah had a blast in Mokanji. He made so many new friends that are looking forward to him coming back. He would literally play all day with occasional breaks, coming back up on the porch saying that he just wanted to rest and he was 'tired of playing'. 'Tired of playing!!!' I don' think I have ever heard such words come out of my child's mouth before! I love how play transcends language and that to truly play you don't need all these expensive gadgets and gizmos. The majority of the time Josiah and his friends just ran around and played with sticks and the occasional ball.

Another amazing thing was how little I was worried about him. There were several times that I had not seen him for 10-15 minutes and was not sure where he was at, but not worried. He was playing with friends, everybody knew who he was and all I had to do was ask one or two people and they would know where he was or would go and find him for me.

It was so funny, when we would look through these pictures or show other people, Josiah would point and say 'That's me in the blue shirt' or 'That's me in the red shirt'. REALLY?!?!

Just like here in the States, Josiah loves to hang out with the 'big kids'. One of his new friends was Junior, a general laborer helping with the construction of the houses. At one point, they decided to change names so now Josiah is referred to as the 'white Junior' and Junior is known as the 'black Josiah'. I loved watching Josiah (or the 'white Junior') just completely integrate himself into the village. He played and danced with the kids, hung out with the big guys, and even helped Mommy do some dressing changes on some wounds.

It almost seems like he grew in stature and maturity overnight while we were there. Josiah makes friends so easily and is completely uninhibited when it comes to going up to people, especially kids, and introducing himself and starting a conversation. Here he is with Alfred, his self-pronounced best friend in Freetown who he knew all of 10 minutes before we left for the airport.

Josiah got a small taste of a child's village life. He pumped water from the well and said that it was a lot harder than it looked.
 

And he played with the African car that 14 year old Francis made him for his birthday. It is assembled from two sardine cans, two sets of wheels and a strip of fabric to pull it around with. Josiah would find roly polys and pull them around in his car. Not exactly the safest toy, so because of the tetanus hazard and not wanting his sisters to get cut on it or break it, we opted to leave it in Mokanji.

Josiah was so exhausted from all his fun at Mokanji that he could barely stay awake in the airport and he basically slept while I walked him out to the plane, up the steps, to the bathroom to change and into his seat. This is how he spent the entire plane trip to London. He woke up about an hour before landing, just enough time to go to the bathroom and have breakfast before our next layover and last flight.

Josiah would say often during our trip that he missed Daddy and Sofia (Lydia only a little bit) and was glad to see them. He is looking forward to going back to Mokanji to play with all his new friends.

Medical situation in Sierra Leone

Currently there are two nurses who work at the government run Community Health Clinic in Mokanji. They use one of the old hospital buildings for their clinic. I was able to talk with them for a few minutes to see what they are able to do for the people of the Mokanji region. One morning a week they have a prenatal clinic where they use a Pinard horn, not a doppler like we are used to using to hear the baby's heartbeat.

The nurses also take the woman's blood pressure, weight and give tetanus shots (when they have them). They don't have any urine test strips to check for protein or glucose or any medications to give for any problems or issues and have run out of the government supplied prenatal records to record the mother's information.

On Friday mornings the nurses hold an 'under 5 clinic' for children under 5 years old. They weigh children and measure mid-upper arm circumference to help determine nutritional status. It takes a month for a child to be able to receive Plumpy Nut (a nutritionally dense ready-to-use-food). However some of these children cannot wait a month. I saw one girl who was 13 months old and only weighed 13 pounds! I think that she has developmental issues because she would push out the mashed up banana with her tongue that we tried to feed her and would choke on the Plumpy Nut.

They have a few antibiotics that they have available to them when the goverment supplies actually get to them (not as often as they are supposed to).

I saw so many things that can be done to improve the quality of life and decrease the incidence and severity of illness with simple teaching and basic medications and supplies.

Sierra Leone Diary 2nd installment

Thursday & Friday September 22 & 23

After finally falling asleep, Josiah and I slept through our alarm and had to rush to get dressed and grab a few bananas and biscuits from the hotel breakfast area so that we could leave and get to the ferry on time.

Side note about Freetown geography - If you look at a map of Freetown you will see that it is situated on the coast of the Atlantic ocean as an offshoot of land, the middle of which is a hill. The airport is on another offshoot of land and therefore the quickest and best way to get from the airport to Freetown proper is either by water or air. Now a helicopter ride would be pretty cool, but expensive, so instead we spent about $2 US to ride in the first class section  on the ferry for the 45 minute ride to the main section of Freetown.
We met up with Charles and Petra (They are the Canadian couple who have been there since the beginning of the year. Charles is managing all the construction of the houses and hospital) who were gathering construction supplies in Freetown and loaded our suitcases into the back of the pickup truck. It is a 6-7 hour drive to Mokanji; the first 2/3 of the driving is adequately maintained paved roads, but then we turned and the road turned into a packed dirt road riddled with road engulfing, waterfilled pot holes!

We arrived in Mokanji in time to unload the truck and get back in for an hour drive to a local mining camp for dinner. Mokanji is situated about one hour away from Sierra Rutile Mine. An interesting fact about the mine is that the only reason that they were able to survive the war without major damage is because they hired mercinary soldiers to protect the mine property. In fact, some of those soldiers are still on staff with the mine as security! The mine is a nice escape to get a good meal and some uninterrupted time. Since our houses in Mokanji are literally steps from the community well, there are often visitors and requests for help that come throughout the day. After such a long day Josiah and I slept well.

After a good night sleep, Josiah barely wanted to stay on the porch long enough to eat breakfast before going out to play. The kids (and everybody else) thought him quite the novelty. Because of the mine (they employ quite a few Caucasian Europeans and Africans) and short-term mission teams they have seen Caucasian adults before, but most have never seen a little Caucasian boy. Josiah had such a great time playing with all the kids. I love how play is universal and language barriers do not inhibit friendships with children.

Sierra Leone Diary 1st installment

Tuesday and Wednesday, September 20th and 21st

Josiah and I arrived at the airport with a mix of emotions. While we were excited to be leaving for Sierra Leone, I wish that it were all of us going and not just Josiah and I.  Josiah was happy that he was able to get a window seat on the plane (it was what he talked about for the two weeks prior to the trip) and we gave lots of hugs and kisses to Jeneson, Lydia, and Sofia before heading toward security.

Let me just say now that travelling with a 5 year old by yourself is a breeze compared to travelling as a family of 5 with 3 small children! We sauntered through security and wandered around our terminal while waiting for boarding. The Virgin Atlantic flight to London was a breeze. Josiah and I watched a movie, ate our dinner then Josiah changed into his pjs so that he could sleep the rest of the flight.

We arrived at Heathrow International Airport in London for our loooong 6 hour layover (about twice as long as I like my layovers to be). Josiah had the most unusual birthday experience of celebrating his 5th birthday in the London airport, flying in airplanes and landing in Freetown. Josiah donned his birthday hat, I pinned his birthday ribbon to his shirt and we stretched our legs walking around terminal one. After a waffle and fruit smoothie breakfast, we colored a bit, played with the toys in one of the stores, played the card game War and went in search for lunch. Josiah chose a birthday lunch of a chocolate chip muffin with milk, topped off by 3 scoops of chocolate ice cream. (I DO let my kids indulge every once in a while!).

I was surprised on the flight down to Freetown how many Caucasian faces I saw on the plane. I suspect that many of them were miners returning to work in one of the numerous mines in Sierra Leone. I was a bit worried toward the end of the flight. Since we were travelling internationally we were required to fill out an immigration card for the government of Sierra Lone, stuff that I have done many times before. However, this time I had an anxiety provoking revelation that I did not have all the information required by the form. I knew that Rev. Joseph would be picking me up at the airport; I knew that I would be staying out in Mokanji with Charles and Petra, but I did not have any way to contact them! There there we stood in the line for the immigration booth, a very pale woman with her 5 year old son. Suddenly a face peaks out from around the other side of the booth asking me if I am Sandra and handing me a cell phone! It was Joseph!! He was calling me from the waiting area to let me know that he was there to pick me up and that the man who handed me the phone was a 'brother' there to help us with our bags.

We collected our baggage with no difficulty and prepared to leave the airport in the middle of our first African thunderstorm. We drove 10 minutes to a small hotel near the airport to spend the night. While it was not a Holiday Inn, it was clean, had electricity, and running water. After a much needed shower Josiah and I went to bed.

More to come in the days to come chronicling our trip to Sierra Leone.

Is God frustrated with me?

I was feeding Sofia the other day and had an epiphany. Sofia is almost 7 months old now and is really not all that interested in starting solid foods. My other kids didn't have this issue. Right now when I try to feed her she blows bubbles and the spoonful of cereal just oozes right back out of her mouth. It really is quite cute to watch her, but as the one feeding her can become frustrating.

Is that how God sometimes feels about me? Is he trying to grow me spiritually and closer to Him by giving me more 'solids'? Am I just blowing bubbles and not accepting what God is giving me? How frustrated He must feel when He is trying to work with me and teach me more about Him and bring me into a closer relationship with Him!

Does God give us more than we can handle?

The simple answer to this is no. No, God does not give us more than we can handle. However, many times through our own free will, we make decisions that impact our lives negatively and we have to take responsibility for our decision. Other times, other people make decisions that impact us and we end up reaping the consequences of those decision. So what happens when our lives are not going as smoothly as we want it to? Simple, look to God.

God doesn't make bad circumstances come into our lives, but He does use them. He allows these things into our lives for one reason - to bring us back to or closer to Him. So what do we do? We pray to God that He reveal Himself to us, lead us and guide us in our decisions and help us to endure...