Back to the Grind

BHello again, sorry we’ve been “offline” for a while. Our whirlwind trip home is over and we’re starting into the grind. Our visit home involved a series of doctors of appointments for everyone in the family but most important were new glasses for Ben from Dr. Merritt and new orthotics for Cole’s feet from Dr. Mike. (OHIP covered 75% of the orthotics which is an answer to prayer since we were no longer covered by another Ontario program—the cost about $2500 a pair!) Jennifer and I also participated in the Free Methodist General Conference and took a one week seminary course from McMaster Divinity in Hamilton. We also spent some time with the people at Brantford Free Methodist church (Freedom Christian Community), who are going to help us run a leadership retreat for a local church here in Niamey in August. A round of family get together’s on both sides of the family rounded things out. Oh yes, and there was an impromptu visit to Grace Methodist church in Mississauga. On a lighter note we also made a trip to Marineland in Niagara Falls and a local water park with the boys for some fun.

The flight home was largely without incident. We flew with Royal Air Maroc out of Montreal and into Casablanca where the airline put us up for free in a local hotel for our 14 hr stop over. This otherwise pleasant rest was disturbed by the fact that the airplane and its pilot were an hour off of local time, so when we adjusted our watches we set them back an hour more than we should have. That evening the boys were still sleeping when the front desk called up to the room saying we had to leave immediately. I couldn’t figure out why since my watch said we had another 45 minutes before we needed to catch the shuttle back to the airport…. Nevertheless we made it to the airport in good time to catch our flight, ran into a friend on the plane and made new ones in the process.

Now we are here, it’s still hot and humidity has been added to the mix. (Last night I sat on the roof for a few hours watching a thunder storm pass in the distance—a wonderful light show but not a rumble could here—what a tease.) Please pray for us as we get back into the routine and try to pick up where we left off. Today we had our first Zarma lesson since our return—a few cobwebs need to be shaken out. On top of that we have to complete the assignments that came out of our course at home—they’re due the first week of July. The boys seem a little out of sorts as they readjust to the time zone—and a little homesick too. Pray that we will be able to accommodate them into our schedule during the summer break—right now they are sitting through our daily Zarma lesson and similar exciting summer pastimes.