Weekend escape...

This weekend we decided to escape to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. It's few hours down the road, and even though we'd never been we had a friend who had and was willing to show us around. As we headed to the border, the countryside became increasingly greener--Ouagadougou is south of Niamey and gets more rain as we discovered Friday night. The rains poured down that evening, and then on and off throughout Saturday. Last night we went to a "German" style restaurant, and unfortunately it's cuisine had a lasting effect--all through the night and on through today. About the only one who's been unaffected is Ben, who took a few bites and decided he wasn't hungry--I made the mistake of finishing it for him! This morning we hardly moved but finally sat down together to listen to a sermon podcast--we'd intended to visit a local church but couldn't get out the door. This afternoon Cole and I lost our cookies again. We're hoping our stomachs will soon settle so we can begin our journey home tomorrow.

We have received sad news. One of our friends and supporters, Phyllis Knoll, passed away this weekend. Her husband Rev John Knoll was an encouragement to me when we pastored the Caistor Centre Church. She will be dearly missed. I'm sure the family would appreciate your prayers.

Back at home the electricity situation is improving, though some have suggested there may be a few problems yet. We really only had one evening without power this past week but unfortunately our street must be the end of a line. When the power initially came back on, it ran at less than half strength
--80 volts rather than 220 volts. I quickly ran around the house and unplugged everything and turned out the lights lest they burn out the motors, etc. It remained like that for a few hours but around midnight I checked again and things we're back to full strength.

God is good we give thanks for his faithfulness in all cirumstances.