Kabiye Team News
March 23, 2000

Dear family and friends,

Hope you all are having a good week! We are planning to send out an update about our family and work once every two weeks to keep you all updated on our daily lives. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please write us back and let us know. Also, we want to know how all of you are doing, too! If you get a chance please drop us a note! We pray for all of you by name and want to know what happens in your daily life, too:-)

These past two weeks have been blessed by God in many ways. The biggest praise we have is for Hannah's "contentedness" with the nursery at the school. I had been taking her out during lunch to feed her and decided a week ago to see if she would do better with us leaving her in all day as the other children are. As a result, she has adjusted remarkably better and is taking better naps, eating more and is bright-eyed and happy at the end of the school day when we come to pick her up. It was very hard on me the first few days, but she is becoming more and more independent each day, and we are happy that she seems to be growing out of her separation anxiety. She is happier and more joyful than ever as she discovers new abilities and loves those around her. We praise God for her beautiful spirit!

Language learning is going well and our entire team is beginning to feel some slight pangs of culture anxiety. We are all beginning to get more and more anxious to get to Togo and settle in to our ministry that awaits us. We are making preparations to leave here already and are planning our first days in Togo. We have tentative plans to leave between August 16th and the 23rd. The Southern Team that works among the Eve have already been so helpful and have offered to help get us up to Kara when we arrive. We are so blessed to have others who have gone before us in this country to pave the way for us in so many different ways!

Bryan and Tracey's new son, Graham, is healthy and doing well. We continue to ask that you pray for him as he is so young. He is healing from his circumcision that was performed on Sunday by a Jewish rabbi! (The French doctors don't do circumcisions, so Bryan and Tracey went to a lot of trouble to find a Jewish rabbi who would perform the operation here.)

I had my first, and probably only, skiing experience last week. The school planned an excursion for the day to a ski resort just outside Albertville and I tried my "foot" at cross-country skiing. (It wish I could have gotten it on tape to send to all of you. I'm sure it would have kept you in stitches for hours!) I was on the ground much more than I was upright. Dave did some down-hill skiing and we both put on some snow shoes and took a walk up in the mountains where we were able to see Mount Blanc. It was enjoyable overall and I did get to practice language the whole day (which was one of the main goals of the trip) so I guess I would say it was worthwhile! I also had a taste of what some of our everything-from-scratch cooking will be like in Africa this past week. Dave and I, and a couple of our teammates, were craving bean burritos from Taco Bell, so I went about the long process of making tortillas and refried beans from scratch. (Thank goodness France is full of already made cheeses! I would have had to plan ahead for days to make the cheese first!!) It's amazing how good something can taste when you've spent hours preparing it, and although it wasn't Taco Bell, it still hit the spot. Hannah really enjoyed the beans, too!

I told my sister, Sarah, the other night that I am feeling pretty fluent in Franglais (a mixture of French and English words:-)) I can carry on a good conversation with other Americans at the school, because when I don't know a word in French I just interject an English one and keep going. We always ask the other person if they know the word we want to say in French and if neither of us knows it, we just say it in English and keep going. This is why it's most beneficial for Dave and me to talk with those who are in the upper level classes because they help us learn new verbs and vocabulary just by talking with them. Also, the teachers are very good about being patient with us and helping us converse, too.

I guess the only other big thing we are leaving out is Hannah's first birthday which we celebrated with teammates and other children at the language school. Hannah officially turned 1 on March 15th and enjoyed her two birthday parties immensely! The nursery had one for her and two of the other children who had birthdays in March and we had one at our apartment for her teammate friends. She had a wonderful time opening her cards and presents from grandparents and aunts and uncles as they arrived in the mail and was very enamored with the decorations from her party that we left up all over the house for the next week. She is our pride and joy and we miss all of you seeing her every day as we get to. May you each have a blessed day in God's love. We miss you and love you!

In His Love, David, Becky, and Hannah

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6