travel
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team retreat.
Hello blog readers! We made it safely home to Columbia Wednesday night, and then sort of hit a slump of jet lag and sickness. We’re recovering now and I’m happy to finish up the posts from our trip. Vicky had dinner ready for us when we returned to their flat from the train station Thursday night, and she even did all our laundry while we went to bed early, exhausted with jet lag. On Friday morning, our last day in the city, David and Phillip were up early talking and brain-storming about ministry. Vicky came and visited with me in the guest room while I drank hot tea and…
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train adventure.
We finished the youth conference Thursday around lunch, and it was time to say our good-byes to wonderful new friends and make our way with Phillip and his assistant, Maryam, back to the capital city. Before leaving, one of Phillip’s friends picked us up at the hotel and drove us downtown for lunch. This man and another man we ate lunch with are medical doctors and board members of the mission agency. One of our reasons for traveling here this summer is that they’ve asked David to be the sole non-North African member of their agencies’ board. This is a great honor, and one of the reasons the trip has…
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stories, part one.
Names have been changed. John and Iman are newly engaged, and their affection for one another makes everyone around them smile. In North Africa, when you become engaged, you exchange wedding band-style rings, and wear them on the ring finger of your right hand. At the wedding ceremony, the rings are moved to the left hand. John is an engineer and Iman is a veterinarian, and they volunteer with the branch of this missions agency in the city where the youth conference is being held. Iman owns her own vet clinic outside of the city, and treats both small and large animals. She has sparkling eyes, bubbling-up energy, and her…
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youth conference.
Our church back home partners with a national missions training and sending agency, whose vision is to raise up, train, and send missionaries from their country all over North Africa. And they are doing it! The movement of the Holy Spirit in this group of people is palpable. The conference we attended was the first youth missions conference the missions agency put on. It’s in a university town, and about 100 people gathered in the hotel for three days. A student summed up the message of the conference so well when he said, “When I thought of the word ‘missionary,’ I always thought of foreign people moving to our country…
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impressions.
David and I were picked up at the airport Tuesday afternoon by a driver who recognized us through a phone picture. He loaded up our bags in his little sedan and drove us 30 minutes across the city to our friends’ apartment. What is it like here, besides dusty? It’s brown. High rise brown stone apartments stretch as far as the eye can see, lines of laundry stretched across balconies dancing in the hot wind. But the brown is punctuated here and there by green trees, ablaze with blossoms so bright they almost hurt your eyes: frangipani, poinciana, bougainvillea and palm trees. Tropical plants are my favorite because of my…
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arrival.
After three flights and nearly 24 hours of travel, our final plane made its descent on Tuesday toward the North African city where our friends live. My bleary eyes were glued to the window as I took in the wave of desert which washed right up to the sprawling capital city. Desert is everywhere here. It’s not like Arizona or Utah, scrubby and rocky, studded with cacti. The African desert is miles upon miles of rippling, empty, blinding sand. Plumes of dust spiral as you walk, curl around your toes. I started sneezing the moment we stepped off the plane into the airport and remembered, Ah yes, I know this…
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week one recap.
We survived Demolition Week! David was able to talk off work some on Tuesday to help out, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to both sets of grandparents and our friends’ pool, we were able to stay out of the house as much as possible. Here’s the progress: Here are a couple pics to remind you of what our kitchen and dining room looked like before: And here we are now! Doesn’t it feel so big? They weren’t able to save any of the original hardwoods like they hoped. That’s okay, it will look much nicer to have…
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road trip reflections.
Hello friends! It was fun to sit and read back through our Road Trip blog posts in preparation for writing to you today. It’s been six months since the trip, which we took in September, 2018. I gathered some of my favorite pictures from our experience, and have a few reflections as I think back. But first: if you’re new to the blog and would like to follow our actual trip, start here. To summarize: In 19 days we drove 6,000 miles total to the Grand Canyon and back (actually the farthest point west we reached was Las Vegas), through 19 states (hey, 19 states in 19 days!), three time…
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girls club weekend, raleigh, nc.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to a conference that the Clarkson family put on. You’ve probably heard of Sally Clarkson from reading my blog. I enjoy her books and especially her podcast, At Home with Sally. Her daughter, Sarah, wrote Book Girl, which was one of my favorites from last year. All of the Clarksons except one were in Raleigh for this conference, which was about the book Sally just published with her daughters, Sarah and Joy, called Girls Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World. Several friends from Columbia also went to the conference, but I drove up alone and roomed with my friend,…
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jones gap, sc.
On the day after Thanksgiving we slept in, drank a leisurely cup of coffee, then set out for the Southern Appalachian mountains in search of late-fall colors and adventure. On the van ride, a bit subdued from the huge meal and holiday celebration the night before, we ushered in the Christmas season by listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. As always, David lured our family into a hiking adventure with promises of delicious food, so after a couple of hours, we stopped for brunch at Tandem Creperie, one of our very favorite places to eat. My recommendation? The sausage, kale, and potato crepe, with a steaming cafe au lait.…
