International Bible Fellowship-our church

The International Bible Fellowship, or, IBF as we call it, is the name of our church here in Ouagadougou that we have attended for nearly three years.

I don't really know where to start in talking about IBF, and our experience there. But I guess I will start by saying that our time involved with this church has been one of the most rewarding and enriching times we've ever had at a church.

IBF isn't fancy. No, there is nothing fancy or modern about it. It is very basic. It is stripped bare of all the flashy gimmicks and concert shows that many churches use to draw in new people these days.

We gather each week in a rented building with sometimes (when it's working) one flushing toilet, and no working air conditioners in the Sunday school rooms except in the one designated for nursery (it's been a hot couple years teaching Sunday school I may say. ) There are two, maybe three, a.c units in the main room the congregation gathers but given the sweltering heat of Burkina, the poor quality of the ac's, the small size of the room, and the amount of people squished into it, and you have a lot of people who are sweating profusely before the first song has been sung.

We have a power point to read along the music lyrics. A guitar, an electric keyboard, and one singer to lead worship. Sometimes the power cuts in the middle of service (like Sunday) and sometimes fires start on the electric panels outside from the blazing heat (that happened twice, thank goodness someone had a fire extinguisher in their cars each time!)

My Sunday school room was overrun by ants most Sundays and there was a bee infestation in one of the classrooms upstairs. Sometimes there would be random squatters in the building, like the man Rebecca found sleeping in the upstairs hallway on Sunday when she arrived to set up for service.

This is not your typical church.

There are no paid staff members or even a pastor who works at the church. Everyone who serves, whether it be preaching, leading worship, teaching Sunday school, or setting up and tearing down are all there as volunteers. And that included me and Isaak. When we began attending IBF there was no toddler aged sunday school program available for that age group. All the kids from birth to six years old stayed in the nursery. Wanting Marvelly to have the opportunity while here to be taught the word of God on Sunday mornings I volunteered to help start and teach the Sunbeams class for kids aged 3-6yro.

Me and my class enjoying a Dum Dum sucker (for saying their bible verses) on my last Sunday teaching. 

I also had the privilege of running the hospitality ministry for IBF and being on the leadership team the last two years. Isaak was on rotation to help with setting up and tearing down before and after service and had the honor of leading service a couple times. Sydaleigh has been my helper on a few occasions in my Sunday school class, and while I was in Paris last month she had her first experience co-leading worship with Megan.

I can say without a doubt this is definitely the most involved we as a family have been with a church on a weekly basis. Our duties in serving certainly stretched us and taught us many things these past few years. And it has been such a privilege to be given the opportunities to serve such a wonderful community of believers.

We are not a big church. IBF has roughly 75 people attending (including kids). Some are regulars, some are not. It's a very transient community with people coming and going all the time, but it's a wonderful group of believers. This is the smallest church we have ever been a part of. But we haven't minded in the least.

IBF is a church, but really more of a family. It is a group of people who gather each week in a small room to worship and fellowship and go out in pockets to do life together during the week. It is a place where we can laugh and poke fun at each other from the pulpit. Where we can laugh when the powerpoint malfunctions and the music gets messed up. It is a place where our children sit with us during worship time and get to participate in collecting offering. It is a race for the children to get their hands raised first when the service leader is looking for two volunteers to pass the baskets. Each week someone is scheduled to bring a snack from home to share with the church following service while we stand around and fellowship outside. It is a place where the kids run around after church, climbing trees and chasing each other.

It is a place where we can breathe deeply and sigh in satisfaction as we enter through the doors each Sunday morning because it is home. It is a place to belong. It is a place to be known and know others in return. It is a place to laugh and worship and learn and grow and serve the Lord together.

Our family was welcomed into this body with open arms and we have felt the greatest sense of belonging while here.

It has also been so refreshing being a part of a church that is not only small, but is stripped bare of the show stopping entertainment like in the States. It has been the greatest experience being a part of a body of believers where you are forced to fellowship together in smaller numbers and approach the Lord in a truly simplistic and basic fashion.

We have attended many churches over the years in the States that have aimed to be current and relevant and hip in their worship and sermons and their approach to the congregation in order to boost attendance.

That is no longer something that appeals to us.

Our church in Burkina may not be fancy or have high tech equipment or coffee bars or light shows or indoor playgrounds. We may not sing the most current worship songs or have cool video segues to introduce the sermons.

But that's okay. Because in being a part of this body of believers and embracing what this church does have to offer (albeit minimal maybe from an outsiders perspective) we have found that worshipping and fellowshipping together is just as spiritually fulfilling and edifying and pleasing to God without all the gimmicks.  I have discovered the beauty in simplicity. In stripping away the excess and just approaching God with bareness and humility. Case in point....

During our last Sunday at IBF this week we sang the song The Heart of Worship.....

"When the music fades, and all is stripped away
and I simply come, longing just to bring
something that's of worth, that will bless your heart."

And then....the power went out. The lights went off. The keyboard and the microphone stopped. But the you what didn't stop? The worship. No one missed a beat. The whole congregation just kept right on singing, voices loud, hands raised high.

"I'll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself
is not what you have required, you search much deeper within
through the way things appear, you're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
and it's all about You, all about You, Jesus."

What a cool moment. I love this church. I love the people here. People from all over the world, from all different denominations, casting aside what separates us and focusing on what unites us...and that's the Lord. We are not a perfect people and our church isn't perfect. We've had our ups and downs and frustrations like at any other place, but I love this church. I love the people. I love that God led us here. I'm so thankful for all the opportunities to be involved and serve and grow in not only our walk with the Lord but our relationships with other people. I thank Him so much for what this church has taught us, and for all the people in it who have loved us like Christ and walked beside us and encouraged us while on the journey here. And for our last Sunday at IBF I can't think of anything more fitting to represent our time here than this song, the power cut that happened in the middle of it, and all the people that we have stood shoulder to shoulder with who have impacted out time here in life changing ways.

When the music fades. When all is stopped away. And I simply come. Yes, simplicity, a stripping away of excess, that has been our experience with IBF, and all our time in Burkina these last few years. And what a rich and fulfilling experience it has been.

I sure will miss coming to church here each week. It has been the greatest joy.


*Before we arrived in Ouagadougou I had been informed by someone living here that there was an english speaking church that many of the missionaries attended. I didn't know the name of the church or where it was, but during Sydaleigh's open house at school that first year I wrongly went into the art teachers room wanting to talk with the teacher, thinking that she also taught first grade. It turns out she didn't teach first grade art. But the teacher did happen to be the same woman we were seated next to at the Rec Center the week before, and as we stood there briefly talking we recognized each other from the restaurant and it came up that my family was looking for a church....and she just so happen to attend the one we were inquiring about! We exchanged numbers and she called me one Sunday morning following our school encounter and gave us directions to the church, and even offered to pick us up since we didn't have our car yet. That wonderful woman was Megan, who would become one of my dearest friends. God is so good and clever in the ways He orchestrates friendships and brings people together =).

Steven's 5th birthday

Last Monday we celebrated Steven's 5th birthday.

One of his first memories of coming to live with us last year was celebrating his birthday. Five days after coming home, on Easter Sunday, he turned 4 years old, and we had a small party for him following our potluck. Ever since then, as he has been gaining the ability to communicate, he has been asking if it is his birthday again. As everyone else in the family celebrated their birthdays this year, he has been waiting and waiting for his turn again to have everyone sing to him,

"appy berday to Tepen." 

At long last it was his special day. And we had another small party for him in his honor with his four favorite friends, Moise, Jake, Jonah, and Mireya. It was so great to have Mike and Amy come down from Yako again to spend the day with us before we leave and to celebrate Steven, who is very dear to their hearts. 

It was a great day. Very busy and hectic (a tad stressful) with trying to get the house ready for the packers to come, and getting ready for his birthday and for company, but everyone who came is like family to us and once we got started it was nice just to stop for a while and not think about anything else besides Steven and his day and having fun with friends. 

Everyone went swimming....

...an airplane piñata that the kids had a blast beating up. Sadly none of the kids could break it so Isaak had to demolish it and sent half the candy into the pool!

he had an "ertane" birthday cake... 

And beamed from ear to ear when we sang him his birthday song. 

It was a great party celebrating our son. Thankful to everyone who came out!

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Steven at 5.....
-weighs 13kilos (~28lbs)
-wears a 3T shirt and 24month pants
-his understanding of English is greatly improved! He can also communicate in return much better. He will need speech therapy to help with his pronuncitation due to his cleft palette, but despite his trouble with pronunciation, we are confident that over time his speech will become clearer.
-can count to 10 by himself
-has not mastered his ABC song yet, but is getting closer
-can identify a circle, and the letter A and B
-he can role play now and make up pretend conversations in his head involving other people
-he's learning to color inside the lines
-can identify the color blue
-very strong willed
-affectionate
-favorite friends are Jonah and Jake
-loves to play swords with Isaak
-loves to swim
-loves to play with his cars and line them up in rows
-loves to dance
-strongly dislikes cream of wheat

Packing up.....

The packers were here yesterday. They packed up all our stuff in preparation to be shipped back to the United States.

They have wrapped, taped, and neatly arranged our belongings into containers. Everything that can be seen and measured to account for our life is tucked away in those boxes. It's interesting, the world's measure of success. The world sizes us up by how much stuff we own. The quality of our belongings. Whether we rent or own. The size of our house, our t.v., whether our clothes have designer labels.

But the worlds standards for success are grossly miscalculated.

Things are just things.
Things can be packed up, burned, broken, stolen, stained, and lost.

And while I like stuff. I do. I'll be the first to admit it. What I like even more than possessions, is experiences. Moments. I'd rather collect a lifetime of memories than a lifetime of material items. Because life is made up of so much more than just the superficial things we fill our homes with.

So while the packers are tasked with packing up the least important things associated with us and this move, we are left with an even greater job. We are left with the weight of saying goodbye. Of packing up and carrying with us all of our experiences. The memories we've made. The things that can't be put into a box. The things that can't be weighed or wrapped or taped or seen or stolen or destroyed.

We are tasked with trying to sort out how to take all of that with us. The important things.

The stuff that makes life worth living. The stuff that adds character. That builds stamina. All the moments that stretched our endurance. The moments that taught us how to love better. The experiences that gradually shifted our perspective. Gave us a broader world view. Provided glimpses into the suffering of others. The joy of others. The simplicity of living. The moments that taught us how to cope and thrive and learn new normals.

The experiences that have shaped who we are now.

And how do you pack all that up? How do you pack up three years worth of absolute life changing experiences?

The only way I know how right now is to take it with me. To hold it close. To strive to never forget. To live different. To keep talking about it.

I pray....I pray I pray I pray that God will somehow use these three years in our lives to continue furthering His glory. I don't know how. I don't know what exactly the future looks like for our family....I just pray that these experiences don't end here. That God uses them, uses all of us, in some way, to continue to make some kind of difference in this next season of our lives.

Packing up is hard to do.

Prioritizing our last days.....

We are down to twelve days In Burkina Faso, as of this Saturday morning.

This is our last Saturday to get work done around the house to prepare for the packers who are scheduled to come in four days. There is a lot that needs to be done. It is hard, very time consuming work preparing for an international move in just four weeks time. 

Thankfully, being the professional movers that we are, I have my methods for getting packed and purging before any move, and it's serving me well now.

Which is good, because having a toddler in the house with no siblings to play with during the day except for me certainly doesn't aid me and my efforts to getting stuff done! But we're doin' it! We're getting there. Slowly but surely we are getting ready. 

But, getting ready to move is not my priority these last days.

It just isn't.

The junk drawers always get sorted. The miscellaneous papers always get thrown away. The pictures always get taken off the walls. The bags always get packed. The boxes always get taped.

Those are things I know to be true after moving so much. Therefore I refuse to spend all my time fussing over the details and investing all my time in "moving" but instead making sure that I leave time, lots and lots of time, to invest in people.

All the wonderful people we have relationships with here are our priority these last days.

Not packing.

We're not letting ourselves be so consumed with the stresses of our impending move that we forgo spending time with those dearest to us. So I'm still walking with Megan. Isaak's still going to youth group. We are still keeping our Downton watching weekly dates with Seth and Rebecca. We are saying yes to every single opportunity to spend time with the people in our lives.

I had a girl's night on Sunday at Joanna's house. A girl's night at Molly's the week before that. Isaak had a few evenings with just the guys. There have been play dates during the week. A trip to Yako. Monday night breakfast dinner with Fred and Nathanja. Saturday night with Seth and Rebecca.

A final spades night yesterday evening.

Ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoons. Play dates for the girls after horseback riding with their favorite friends. Pizza hang out night at our house with the whole gang. Movie nights with my mom. Dinner with Ruth and Linda and a visiting American family in town to bring their newly adopted son home. An upcoming birthday celebration for Steven. And whatever other opportunities these last two weeks hold.

This is our priority. Being with those closest to us. The people we have invested in and who have invested into our lives in return during our years in Burkina.

These are the moments that matter the most to us. I'm not going to neglect our relationships to de-clutter the house. If I have to get up at the crack of dawn and stay up till midnight to get stuff completed around the house, that's what I'm doing so that we can say "yes" to these moments as much as possible.

Twelve days to go.....makin' 'em count. =)

My Mom is in Burkina Faso...again!

My mom arrived in Burkina tonight for the second time! Glory!! God is so good in His timing!

We honestly didn't know if it was going to work out for her to come before we left, especially with us leaving on such short notice. But God pulled through, in a truly miraculous way, and she received all of her approvals from her school board to conduct her research in country. So that mom of mine wasted no time booking a ticket and getting on a flight out here!

She's got just two weeks and one day in country to complete all her interviews and research for her thesis, but we are confident that by the grace of God it will all get done.

And a super special bonus to her coming back out to conduct her research....is that we get to enjoy her company in Burkina one last time before we all leave together at the end of the month. It is so SO good to be with my mom. I just love her so much.

As do all these kiddos!! SO happy to see their Mimi! Marvelly accompanied me to the airport this evening but Sydaleigh and Steven stayed home to make Mimi's surprise birthday cake!

My mom celebrated her birthday last week, and we made her a cake and sang her "Happy Birthday" after dinner tonight. A must for sure! We've got to celebrate three out of her last four birthday's with my mom, what a blessing. She is 63 years young this lady!

So happy to have my mom with us. Looking forward to our last two weeks in country and getting to experience and enjoy them with her as well!

Our reality of employing household help

In Burkina Faso employing household help is a part of the culture.

Contrary to public opinion, household help is not primarily for the white people living in this country. If you are financially capable, everyone, including the Burkinabé, have hired help in their home.

It is expected, regardless of race, to employ someone to work for you.

It is a cultural norm.

The economy is dependent on this aspect of employment. Many people have jobs working in other peoples homes as cooks, gardeners, cleaners, nannies, guards, drivers, ect.

It is a way for many people in one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world to receive employment and make a living for themselves and their families who have very little education or skills.

When we moved to Burkina in 2012, we knew that employing some kind of household help was going to be expected of us.

It is not required, however, it is expected. It is so ingrained in their society, that you are looked down upon socially if you refuse to hire a local to work for you in some capacity.

Not wanting to offend our host country and others living here, we made the decision to hire a gardener and cleaning woman part time to take care of our yard and pool, and help clean the house three days a week.

Being the very private and also independent and very capable person that I am...I did not look forward to this aspect of the culture. And nearly three years later....my feelings haven't changed.

I still don't like it.

Having house help has probably been one of the biggest challenges for me the duration of our time here.

I've have just never gotten use to it.

In the United States, stay at home mothers don't typically have employees working for them in the home. So this has been a huge adjustment for me. As a stay at home mom and wife, I am use to managing the home and taking care of not only the needs of my family, but of my home as well. I do all the cleaning, cooking, laundry, and raising of my own kids. And I knew that relinquishing some of this control was not going to be easy.

Here, many women who are stay at home moms have nannies, plus cooks, plus housekeepers, plus drivers, plus gardeners.

I did not want that. I like being busy. And since I don't work outside the house, I value having purpose within my home each day. I like taking care of my house and family. I didn't want all of my responsibilities taken away from me. So I felt like a good compromise was to have a part time employee, who came three days a week to do cleaning only.

I wish I could report that my time with my hosuekeeper was fulfilling and we got to know each other and bond during these last couple years. But that is not the case.

She informed me early on after we arrived that she was interested in only coming to work, doing her job, and going home. She didn't want to chit chat or make small talk. Which I understand, and that's fine. But still, it made her presence in the home feel very intrusive most days.

If having a housekeeper was as simple as a person coming over to clean my house three times a week, and going home, this experience would have been different. It may not have been so challenging. But it turned out to be so much more than that.

One aspect to employing household help, we learned, is that we are required by law to take care of any medical needs that arise. We are responsible for all of her medical costs-all doctor visits, medication, and x-rays if she gets sick or hurt.

Furthermore, in addition to paying her a salary we also have to pay into a retirement fund for her every month, and it's expected that we pay her contributions as well.

I am personally responsible for keeping track of her and our gardener's bulletin du salaire, calculating their deductions and loan amounts and salary each month. They get a bonus at the end of the year and severance when we leave. 

We also pay for all of our housekeepers three children's education costs each year.

In addition to the money responsibilities involved with employing household help (which no doubt is a lot to manage on it's own!), what has been an even bigger challenge for me to adjust to is the personal matters involved in having employees work for us.

The reality of having employees, is that they are there to witness your life in the privacy of your own home. All the good bad and ugly of it. If I'm having a bad day, or the kids are fighting and I'm stressed out, she's there to see it all. If we try to go outside to have some privacy, or talk, our gardener is there to see and witness it all. There is very little privacy. We have to live out our private lives with an audience. When I'm sick, which has been frequently these last few years, ya know, I want to be sick without someone mulling around my house all day to observe and overhear me in the bathroom.

Our employees also go through our garbage every day they're here, digging through the trash, dumping it out and setting aside what they want to take home. I won't say we have gotten use to it, we more or less have accepted it, but still, it is hard knowing that there is no privacy of any kind, even in our garbage. Every single thing we throw away is sorted through. And then whatever is not taken or re-discarded from our employees in our home is set out on the curb to be dug through by strangers.  

I learned early on that Burkinabé do not value privacy like Americans do. It's just a difference in our cultures. Burkinabé do community living. Most families have one sleeping area in their homes, and everyone in the family sleeps together. There is little to no privacy. They use the bathroom outdoors, where there are no doors or locks to keep people from coming in. It's not a big deal for them to expose themselves and or to undress or bath or use the toilet with other people around.

American's are not like that. And there were plenty of occasions in the early times of our living here that our femme de ménage (cleaning woman in French) would walk into a room, or bathroom, without knocking, while I was in there getting dressed, taking a shower, using the toilet, or just laying on the bed trying to take a nap. So, I had to start locking the door every time I wanted to make sure she didn't come in unannounced so that I wasn't caught off guard or intruded upon. For a long while if she couldn't get into a room because it was locked she would stand outside the room...waiting....until I opened the door. Or she would knock and knock and wiggle the handle, clearly confused why it was locked to begin with.

Sometimes a girl just wants to be in her room and lay on her bed or use the toilet without a stranger busting in! I still have to be diligent to lock the door when I don't want her coming in, but thankfully she doesn't stand outside anymore until I open it.

One time I caught her laying down in one of our beds one afternoon listening to the radio. As her employer, I was an employer now, it was my responsibility to talk to her and address issues that arose...like not laying down on our beds when she was suppose to be working. Which, was hard for me because I've never been anyones "employer" before, let alone to someone who works in my home.

And due to the fact that my home is her domain, there came a point when I just stopped cooking and baking in the kitchen while she was here because if I tried to do anything in the kitchen while she was in there, she would stop everything she was doing and stare at me. Or try to take over and do it for me. And I understand that she is curious, I really do, and I was always gracious and never made her feel unwelcome or told her to go back to work, I always let her watch or help. But when so much in the home already felt like it had been taken away from me, sometimes I just wanted to go in my own kitchen and bake some cookies without an audience. To have a little bit of normalcy.

This last year has been particularly uncomfortable with her in the home since Steven came to live with us. Mostly this was due to the fact that Steven is Burkinabé, like her, and we have very different parenting styles. And there were many times when she would see Steven struggling, having a tantrum, screaming, not eating his food, whatever, and she would try to talk to him in Mooré and intervene with a situation. And even though I knew she was just trying to help, that's not what we needed and it just added to the stress because it was an interference. She was also there to witness a lot of what we went through. She still is. It's a lot better now but in the beginning it was really hard. That initial transition period was rocky and it was really difficult to have to live that out with her in the home, observing it all.

In addition to this, our housekeeper comes into our home and peruses through our personal belongings picking out things she would like to have, in addition to our gardener with the belongings we keep outside. Culturally it is totally acceptable for Burkinabé to ask for things or money, any time. When she heard from our former gardener that we gave him a loan for a family emergency she then asked if we could buy her a brand new moto even though she has a very good one. She has asked me if she could have Isaak's lap top and my ipod. She walked me into my bedroom one day and started picking up some backpacks I had sitting next to the bed and asking if she could keep them. She asked Isaak on Friday when I was at a meeting if she could have some specific items in the home, knowing that we are leaving soon. And while I know that this is a component of their culture that is acceptable and normal, it's still disconcerting knowing that someone is in our home eyeing up our personal belongings each week. And these are but a few examples over the past few years.

These are areas of life here that we are confronted with almost daily when we leave our home or when people come to our gate asking for assistance in some way due to the level of poverty in Burkina. So many people are in need. It's a very hard, very real, reality. Because there is so much need, and the needs are so real and so pressing and people are always approaching us, everywhere we go, every time we step foot out of the car, pull up to a stop light, someone is waiting for you to be generous on their behalf. And it's hard to face that level of need on such a consistent basis. It just is. There is nothing easy about it. And it's hard having to tell people, "no, I'm sorry, not today," because I already gave away all my change earlier in the day to the other people who asked me first.

But to be put in a position where we are also having to face an onslaught of inquiries and requests in our own home each week and feel like I have to explain and justify why we won't give our two employees our personal belongings or money whenever they ask....has been difficult.

When you have someone in your home and outside your home twenty four hours a week that you rarely speak to, (except when they want something from you) it can be a tad awkward and uncomfortable.

We are not a corporation. We are not a business. We are a family. We are people. We are people who  opened our home and invited others in to provide them with an opportunity to have a job to help support their family. But many times, because we are Westerners, it feels like we are just looked upon as a means of advancement.

And it's awkward and uncomfortable, because this is our personal home. This is suppose to be our safe place, our refuge, our place of comfort. But here in Burkina our home has not felt like that for me. It has been hard living out our lives in our private home in the presence of others. It's a very vulnerable feeling, having someone in your home in such a personal capacity.

So, this has probably been the most challenging and least enjoyable aspect of life here. I do appreciate the fact that she cleans my home three days a week, but at the end of the day I would rather do it all myself than have to deal with everything else that has come along with having employees in my home. But that's just me and my account. I know many many people who embrace this aspect of life here and have really great relationships with their employers and I love that. I do. I wish that had been our experience here. But I'm not them. And for me it's been very hard.

And if I had to do it all over....I would probably do it differently. I think I would forgo a femme de ménage and just have a cook come in a couple days a week and make our food. Now that's something I could have lived with here and would have made life a lot less stressful in every way!

So this is my honest and open account of my reality these past three years in employing house help. People struggle with different things when dealing with cross-cultural experiences, and for me, this has been an area of ongoing personal struggle since moving here.

But our workers are truly wonderful people. They are incredibly kind, even though they are not talkative. And I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to have been able to provide employment for them and assist them in receiving an income and providing for their needs these last three years....it was just such a big adjustment for me (and truth be told I have not finished adjusting) having the responsibility of needing to be so invested in our employees lives and all the personal ways that our lives changed as a result of their presence. It was overwhelming for a long time, and while I no longer feel overwhelmed by it, I certainly haven't grown accustomed to it either. It is a part of life here that I tolerate, but don't think I would ever fully be comfortable with.

Mais c'est la vie. You live and learn and we have certainly done both here. Living overseas and adapting to a new culture and embracing aspects of that culture is not easy. And despite the fact that I never got use to or liked having house help, I have loved living in Burkina Faso. It has been the greatest gift.

We are almost to the finish line....a bittersweet time for sure.

That point in the move prep....

I have reached that point in our move prep where my house has officially turned into the pits.

It is bad. I have lost control. There is stuff everywhere as I try to organize and go through our things and put into piles what we're keeping, what we're selling, what we're packing, what's going into our UAB, what's being crated, and what just needs to be thrown away.

Stuff. everywhere.

It's given me a little bit of the ole twitch eye, as I am a fairly organized person. I like things to have a home and not be stacked and thrown about and stuffed into random places. I mean, in my dreams I am that person. I mean I am that person. Or I could be, if I didn't have a husband and three kids. Then I would be a totally organized highly put together person with cubbies and baskets and folders for all our things and papers.

In reality this is what my life actually looks like.

This very second. This is the area I am sitting in. The rest of the house is just as bad. Normally, I can manage the messes of my people, keep it somewhat contained to an area, even if it isn't organized (although, I confess, this desk area pretty much always looks like this.) But when we're moving, it's like my whole house starts throwing up in every corner of itself, regurgitating all of our belongings all over the house.

That is where we're at. We're at the regurgitation phase. I know at some point it is going to get more manageable, with less crap stuff all over the place. Hopefully before I develop another twitch. And before my mom comes in a week.

Speaking of which, my mom's coming in a week! Whoo hoo!!! She will be with us until we leave, and we'll all fly back together. God pulled through right at the very end and got all her clearances for her approved so she can officially conduct her research here!

Happy day.

Hopefully I'll have the house a bit more put together before she gets here though, 'cause that woman does not pack light and she's gonna have all her own stuff to add to our crazy mix!

So things are moving along....just in a very messy fashion!

Our last Easter in Burkina

There are lots of "lasts" happening these next few weeks, this last week included. Today was a hard but very wonderful last. We celebrated our final Easter holiday in this country with our church and hosted our 3rd and final church potluck following the service today.

The service was packed to capacity, as Easter services typically are. We are a very small church, but today we were busting at the seams. People were packed in like sardines to come and celebrate our risen Lord. It was glorious. The girls sang with their Sunday school class a song up front. Heidi sang a beautiful rendition of Hallelujah with easter lyrics by Kelly Mooney, and as the Van dingenen's sang the Hallelujah's all I could do was listen, even as the whole church eventually joined in, raising one voice "praising the Lord". It was very moving. There is something so powerful about remembering the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf, together as a body of believers, lifting up our voices and the words we can not say to express our deepest thanks for His love.

Following worship I went and taught Sunday school and got to teach and celebrate further with my classroom of little children.

Truly, it has been the greatest joy to be able to worship and celebrate our Lord alongside this body of Christ here in Burkina.

Following church was the 3rd annual IBF Easter Potluck. Two years ago one of the elders at IBF approached Isaak and asked if we'd be interested in opening our home for a potluck for the whole church after the Easter service. Five months prior to that, in October 2012 just two months after moving here, we had already hosted a baptism at our home for the youth group Wired. It was a very large event, many from the church attended to support the kids, in addition to kids, parents, friends and family who don't attend IBF. That event at our home was the starting point for what God would utilize our home for over the next 2+ years living here.

And so every Easter, and for many events in between, we have opened our home and yard to be used by our greater community. And it has been such a joy.

God placed us in a home, that is not only spacious on the inside, but with a huge terrace, yard and a pool that is able to accommodate large numbers of people as well. Most "yards" in this country are non-existent. So to be placed in a home that has an expansive yard (with grass! Seriously, can not tell you what a gift this really is!) has been a huge blessing for not only our family, but for our church family as well.

We have loved the opportunity we've been given to open our property up and allow it to be used to serve our church. It has been a joy. For us and the church. Each year we have between 75-100 people come. It is always a bit crazy for me and Isaak as we prepare to host such a large crowd. But we have been blessed with such wonderful friends here that we are never preparing alone. People are always over here before hand helping with food, hiding hundreds of easter eggs around the yard for the easter egg hunt, just making themselves available to serve. And people always stay afterwards to help clean up and stack chairs.

  The kids stepping out of the pool only long enough to hunt for eggs then go back in!

(*Photo credit-Fina Lin)
So many people have come through our gates these last three Easters.....

Easters will never quite be the same without getting to fellowship alongside these people. They have truly enriched our time here so much and helped to create such lasting memories.

(*photo credits Fina Lin)

As soon as the last guest left our home three and a half hours later, we headed out to an Embassy easter party at the home of Isaak's boss (it was a BUSY day!) The Embassy is also a community we have been so richly blessed to do life with here, and celebrate all kinds of holidays and joyful occasions with. There was a glow in the dark easter egg hunt, great food and conversation. We came home exhausted, but feeling full and grateful.

To a very happy three Easters in Burkina Faso! Easter will never be quite the same without getting spend it will all the people we have come to know and love here. God is SO good for His provisions!