Posts Tagged ‘host family’
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
The house is getting a whole lot louder
A house with three boys in it is usually a loud one. But, believe me, a house with three boys and two African drums is MUCH louder! Micah and Malachi have been wanting drums for a very long time. For my sanity level, I was trying to hold them off as long as possible. Then came the news that their friends both had drums and were taking lessons in town. I knew the battle was lost at that point. There is just no way I could see the disappointment on their faces as they watched Corbin and Elijah get out their drums and pound away. So, we went to the wood carver and saw the drum that had already made. We asked him to make an identical one for Malachi and to get them both all “tuned” up so that they would play correctly. We told the boys that they would have to pay for the drums on their own with their allowance money. With no hesitation at all, they handed over a years worth of savings. (Side note: allowance money seems kind of silly most of the time since there isn’t anything to really spend it on) Today the boys did a little practicing for Gramma and Grampa via skype. Pretty amazing that they can see and hear them all the way in Michigan – technology is pretty awesome, huh? Ephraim is still waiting for his drum – I told him that he needs to wait until he’s six. So, I’ve got a little over a year before my wonderful boys are all pounding away.
Tags: boys, friends, host family
Posted in Family, News Article | No Comments »
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Happy Birthday Cutie!
A year ago we were still trying to get our bearings in this new country. We were working hard to get to know our host family who were also our neighbors. We were eager for their new little baby to born – little did we know at the time, how involved with that we would be! One night we were awakened by our host telling us that we needed to get his wife to the hospital RIGHT NOW. The problem: the hospital is an hour drive away. They didn’t quite make it before little Ronnie (named after a missionary here) made his appearance. Steve said it was completely terrifying to be driving while a woman sits in the seat next to you giving birth!
We’ve loved being a part of this baby’s life this year. From the beginning he has been cuddly, smiley and so good natured. I have loved having him with us for hours every day and sharing in all his “firsts”.
Fast forward a year and here we are celebrating his first birthday. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Family, Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Friday, May 1st, 2009
How do you say thank you to your entire neighborhood for allowing you to be a part of them? The answer is enormous amounts of rice and fish sauce – stand back and see how fast it gets eaten! (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Friday, February 27th, 2009
There are a lot of times when we’re unsure how much is “too much” for our kids. There are some experiences that we have to pass on simply because with three little ones we need to choose carefully what adventures are do-able. This trip out to the baptism we knew would be a long, hot and tiring day, but we didn’t miss out on being there to encourage these new believers. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Over the past eight months my host wife, Maimuna, has become a good friend. She shares with me the ins and outs of African culture and we talk about life here in our town. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Keeping up with Ephraim and learning to live in this new language and culture takes up most of my time. But, I’ve been trying to do the little things to show our neighbors that I care about each one of them. One thing that has become a new favorite tradition is that I make a cake for everyone on their birthday and we have a few presents. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Family, Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Living in Africa is hard. It’s just that simple. We could try and make it sound like things are always exciting and rewarding, but you would quickly be able to read between the lines. There are the days where we feel like we just survived and we pray for the patience to be able to handle all the people that will come to our door the next day. There are the days when we feel like anything would be better than living here and facing the same struggles day after day. But there are times, usually when I am driving in the car and seeing the landscape around me, that I think how awesome it is that I get to experience such a different life than most everyone I know. There are the brief glimpses of hope that we are making a difference here. That the relationships we work so hard to make and keep are really something special. That the people we sacrifice our time, money, emotions for are actually seeing something different in us. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Family, Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
There is feasting, visiting family, and a special tradition of kids going around asking for candy from everyone as the season of fasting for Ramadan ends. Even though we don’t share the same beliefs, it is important that we show a genuine interest in what is going on around us. Friendship is the only way to be able to share our faith and so we need to extend that same courtesy and learn as much as we can about their religion. (more…)
Tags: host family, religion
Posted in Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Monday, September 15th, 2008
It’s hard to try and think of everything that has happened in this past month and I keep saying that I need to do a better job of keeping up on the website, but life is a little crazy these days. So, I’ll just have sum up some of our feelings over the past month. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Ministry, News Article | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
This past week was our spring week — which started off with more snow and absolutely frigid temperatures!
Mom wasn\’t exactly prepared for the bitter cold her first couple of days here. Thankfully, it warmed up over the weekend for us to take a nice trip up to Quebec City to see the sites. (more…)
Tags: host family
Posted in Family, News Article | No Comments »
Steve and Casey Cretsinger Experiencing Tribal Missions in Guinea, W. Africa 
