Going, going, gone.... and back again!

I avidly and regularly check the blogs all the time, but I am not good at keeping mine up to date. The pre-Africa post never happened and I can't imagine why it didn't! We purchased tickets in February, got shots in April and May, planned with Dana to have her join us, got tips and instructions from Tim, prepared with Leah for her summer overseas, and saw her off on Mother's Day. We then stuffed our bags with our things and all the extras for Tim and Kate and other missionaries. We planned for possible Bible storying and and read of the culture and religion and reviewed all the prayer requests and stories from Tim and Kate's five months on the field.

Flying in from Texas, Dana joined us for our flight to Dakar via New York! Twelve hours later, including three meals, a couple of hours sleep, a movie and all the other options on the computer screens we each had to enjoy, we arrived for the family reunion in Africa. Tim and Kate and Leah stood and waited for us to report and then retrieve a missing bag and then the hugs that were waiting for all! We loaded the six of us, people and bags, into their little Lottie Moon provided Toyota truck and headed off for their village and home. Arriving in N'gor around 7 am. we visited briefly, then napped a couple of hours, shared goodies we had brought from friends and family, and then hit the streets.

We walked the rocky, narrow village streets and alleys and arrived at the home of friends for lunch. We met friends of Tim and Kate and other missionaries serving for the summer with Leah. The following day and for the next eleven days we absorbed Senegal.... the city, the villages, the islands.... the traffic, the sounds, the smells.... the goats, the chickens, the roosters... the taxis, the boats, the trucks...the food, the artisans, and sights... the missionaries, the mission and masses...the people, the places, the purpose!

We were so blessed to be a part of it all and to see up close and personally the faces and smiles and souls on the streets, on the beaches, on the busses, and to share and spend time with new friends on the floor, under the trees, on their beds or blankets, sharing the meals of ceebu jeen (fish with rice) from a common bowl, sipping ataaya (hot tea) and showing love as best we could in smiles and simple Senegalese phrases!

We observed our children as they work and live among the Lebou in their fishing villages. We heard their language and saw them interact and build relationships in order to prove trust and show love. We met missionaries and saw missions in action.

We hugged Leah and Tim and Kate good-bye as we headed home to think on these things... and we do! Sometimes I sits and think and sometimes I just sits! We are home and we are there. We are here and we are not! We are hearts apart and hearts united because we shared Senegal for a season, yes, but even better, because we are family!

What love the Father hath lavished on us to allow us to be, to live and move and have our being in Him, and to share and see so much and to have Him grant us his peace!

Enjoy the pictures I hope to post!

It's a birthday!

Happy Birthday Kate.... and Anne!

How blessed we are to have two people in our family with the same birthday! But wait, it is not the first time...My grandmother and her sister were born on the same day, a few years apart, August 23rd! And then Dana Beth got to share Jesus' birthday, December 25... of course, that's the day he was born! But wait, again we were doubly blessed, well, triple-blessed when Joyce joined our family, with another December 25th blessing-birthday! And then, Heather joined me in sharing September 6th, although Leah and I already shared the "6th"! Talk about blessings in double portions, we have them! But wait, again, I am reminded of another set of pairs, when the number of April deaths in Oklahoma City matched exactly the number of conversions that came out of a Ralph Bell/Billy Graham Crusade in Goldsboro at the same time! And then Anne shared her day with the deaths of Columbine, followed by having Grandmama's joy of her September birthday paired with 9/11/01. And way back there in the depths of my mind I think I recall an Abraham Lincoln date of death that is also my mother's April 14th birthday! Life and death, paired in life's events: two thieves on the cross, life and death; the cross itself, life and death, his for ours! Grief and celebration, joy and sorrow, unity and separtion...causing us to look both inward and outward, upward and downward, yet seeing over all and above all our sovereign Lord, the master weaver bringing everything together for our single focus on Him, His plan and purpose and glory! So we are one in Christ, with double portions of blessings, in the hands of the Trinity, on this 4-20 that along with 8-6 gives me my fourth child (whoa, I miscarried a pregnancy that was due in April!), in our family of five, now become six, with three Gardner kids and four Hortons to get a perfect 7..... OK , it is infinite and pushing the point, and I will stop as I get farther and farther from the reason for this entry.... One big Happy Birthday wish to both you girls, on two sides of the ocean! Oops, here I go again! So, Happy Birthday, and I hope you dance, girls, and celebrate today and life and your part in the family that I am glad you can call yours. Love to All!

Step by step, month by month....ta da...drum roll, please

oops! Photo attempt Fails!

OK, technology gets me again! Somewhere out there are three pics of the boatworks process, Tim! Oh well, I will try again!

March...marching on!

Well, I did it again....Let another month march on without pausing to ponder what to publish. I guess it is not so much about the ponder as it is the pause! And for me, the challenge is finding the right clicks to even get to the posting point. Well, I am finally here, realizing I had better do so to get a March post on. So to all who might check to see if I updated, it's finally yes! I certainly like reading all of yours, and am afraid I am quite guilty of soaking up all you send, without sharing very much. So for the meat of this message and the point of this post,
a tale from the homefront:

So March has been madness, well, basketball, and lots of it: messes, and lots of them I am always trying to clear out ( with Richard even preaching on "Jesus in Your Messes!) ; meditating and mentioning all of you to the One who guides you and holds you in His righteous right hand;
reading from Pigs in a Taxi (African devotions) to the Patriach study in Genesis, thinking on an Africa trip and shots and preparations, planning for a West African event at church, family events in Wilson and Durham, and planning and leading the Associational Bible Drill. Leaving the Bible Drill and going to hear Anno Domini was special as we went from hearing the word spoken and shared by children to hearing it shared and sung in powerful and living testimony of college kids was awesome and a great blessing and reward.

Our God is marching on in the lives and love of his children. God bless you all, from the homefront to yours.