Part of this world ...

The following is a song some seriously creative Journeygirls wrote as we finished 40/40 - I can explain more if needed on parts but for now, think Little Mermaid "Part of your world"

Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?

Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl – the girl who has everything?
Look at this camp, treasures untold. How many wonders could one tent hold?
Lookin’ around here you’d think…sure, she’s got everything!

I’ve got lanterns and bug spray aplenty. I’ve got buckets and blankets galore.
You want toilet paper? I’ve got 20. But who cares? No big deal – I want more!

I wanna be where the Africans are. I wanna see, wanna see ‘em dancin’.
Shakin’ around in those, whadda ya call ‘em…oh, chatingis!
Sittin’ in debriefing you don’t get too far. DFAs are required for learning, growing.
Getting our buses by, what’s the word…negotiation!

Out in the sun, out in their huts, sitting on sharp rocks that stick in our butts.
Wandering free, wish I could be part of that world.

What would I give, if I could live out of my happy place.
What would I give to spend a day drinking cold cokes.
Betcha out there they don’t care if you pick your nose in public.
If you see naked women, they are witches, we prayed ‘em down!

We’re ready to know what the Africans know. Ask ‘em my questions and get some answers.
What’s nshima and why does it, what’s the word, BURN my fingers off!

When’s it my turn? Wouldn’t I love – love to use that squatty potty!
Pooping God’s way, oh I wish I could stay
PART OF THIS WORLD!

Thanks Cara, Lauryn, and Heather!! Ya'll rock!!

Made it to Congo!

I am a slacker in the blog world. I know. I apologize.

We have made it to DRC. It was pretty uneventful getting here. We are getting settled in. It is nice to know we will be here for six weeks so we can form some sort of routine and get things settled to live easier. DRC is different from Zambia, that is for sure. We are learning lots about the people and how things work. The last few days have been fairly uneventful. We went to church on Sunday (3 hours long) – it was in a building of sorts. It was bamboo poles with plastic/woven bags for walls. There was also a Hannah Montana sheet hanging for part of the wall. (We took a picture of it and thought of our niece.) The church members served us lunch – it was good Congolese food. Monday we went grocery shopping. Have to do a lot of cooking from scratch here. For instance: Wanted to make chicken casserole that night. Problem: they don’t sell cream of chicken soup OR sour cream OR plain chicken breasts. Solution: make the cream of chicken soup and substitute plain yogurt for sour cream and learn how to cut up a whole chicken. Well it was looking good – the cutting up wasn’t terrible (thanks to Jennifer Eiland), the cream of chicken soup looked better than the canned kind and the yogurt seemed a little thin but not too bad. WRONG!!!! We think it would have been just fine without the yogurt, it made it tooooo sweet. I ate 2 bites and couldn’t do it. Jack ate about 2 spoonfuls and quit. The dog, Mazut, really enjoyed it. He is a pretty cool dog, wouldn’t hurt a thing except if a passing chicken gets too close to the gate. Then it’s a goner! He ate the chicken bones from the chicken I cut up too. I got to sit in on a Bible Study that Jennifer leads. It was really fun even if I didn’t always understand what was going on. Jennifer was talking in Lingala and then translating for me – I think we were both tired when it was over. I am really looking forward to meeting with them again! On Tuesday we started learning Lingala. We met with Webber for 2 hours and learned a lot of words. Hopefully Thursday we will start to make sense of some of them and practice using them. There is a good bit of French mixed in which Jack is doing great with. Unfortunately for me I took Spanish. Today we went to a bible study with Tyler out in Mutiende (not sure of spelling). They are setting up a water filtration factory out there so they have started some of these groups for the people around it. Tyler translated for us. It was fun to see some of the people they are working with.
 (also, the internet is kinda slow so uploading pictures will have to wait till we get home!)

Super fast update of the last month ...

It’s been a month since we left Auburn … it feels like years. Haha We have done all sorts of things and experienced all sorts of things. We were in Lusaka for a few weeks and we had “DFA’s” Daily field assignments. We had partners from the group and then a national helper and we would go out researching different things about “African culture”. We talked about everything from medicine, to how they handle deaths and funerals, to daily life, and one day we went sharing the gospel (using Creation to Christ). It was great – the hard part was we had class every afternoon and it was hard to pay attention and stay awake but we managed. Ya’ll know I’ve been to Africa several times but I know way more about the people and the culture than ever before. The tools we are learning are amazing! Our national helpers are strong believers and were truly wonderful. I cried when I said goodbye to Dumas. Then we transitioned from urban work to rural work, so from Lusaka to Petauke. We were at “bush camp”. I was actually quite fun. No running water, showers from buckets, washing clothes by hand, no power, sleeping in tents, squatty potties. It was wonderful! Hahah it really was! We also had a national helper here but Jack and I got to go out together which was really fun. The first few days we went into the town of petauke. We met gov’t officials, met the chief and his wife learned about traditional medicine(witch doctors) and then we went to the village. We learned about life cycles and community development there. We also learned how to share our testimony in African culture. The we packed up at camp and went and lived with an African family for 3 days. It was definitely interesting. Jack is a much better story teller about our time with them. He helped build a maize (corn) bin and I helped load one. We also shelled corn and some ground nuts (peanuts). They were a sweet family husband and wife and six children. We slept in a mud hut with a thatch roof … we had critters but don’t worry we had a “happy place”. Inside our mosquito net nothing could get us. It was kinda sad to leave them but we really learned a lot from them. That brings us to where we are now. We are at Ibis Gardens ( I am sure you can google it). It is quite nice. Hot water, internet, pool, cokes … it’s the little things in life. Here we are in class all morning but have the afternoons free. Our class in the morning is PILAT Language Prep. It teaches you how to learn a language. The teacher is sweet but does make for long mornings. We are excited to say that we have “survived our safari in Africa”.  We will leave here on Friday, catch a flight to Ethiopia spend the night in the airport there and then head to Congo first thing Saturday! WOOHOO!
(I'll post pics when I remember my computer and camera!)

Last Encounter

Tonight was the last Encounter (wednesday night youth meeting) that Jack and I will be at until July. It was bittersweet to see two of my youth girls leading worship that won't be when we return. Yes, they join the ranks as high school graduates. What I didn't know was that there was CAKE tonight :) At the end Greg (the youth pastor) presented Jack and I with a cake and several students wrote us cards telling us they were praying for us! It was a sweet blessing! I'll miss "my kiddos" this summer! I'm praying big things for them while we are gone!!

William and Jackson

So, two very sweet little boys in our life have been right on target this week. I heard both of these stories today after I had already posted so please excuse me and my double posting today.

My sweet nephew William (26 months) came into his Mommy and Daddy's room this morning and said "Mommy - pray jack t" at first they thought maybe he wanted to go and play with uncle jack and aunt tl (we had a lot of play time this weekend) but then he folded his hands (as though praying) and said " pray jack t". Sarah proceeded to lead him in a short prayer for us this week and for our trip. William repeated everything she said ... to the best of his ability.  He was a little confused when Sarah said "and be with William as he's sad and they're away". After they finished as he walked out of the room he stopped in the doorway and said "Good job Mommy".

Jackson (almost 3) is my friend Katie's little brother and we are big fans of "jack jack". The other day Katie called her Mom on her cell phone so Jackson picked up the house phone and pretended to talk to me. He repeated everything Ms Wendy said to Katie on the phone to "me".  They asked Jackson where Jack and TL were going and he said "AFRICA" and they said why are they going there he responded with "to see animals" (my thinking is they just went to Disney and saw African animals ...) after they laughed they said Jackson why are they going to Africa? His response "to tell people about Jesus."

Between William praying and Jackson naming exactly why we are going ... I (Terri Leigh) was hysterical crying in my office.

They always say "out of the mouth of babes ..."

Family Time

Mom and Dad came into town to see Jack and I before we leave. Well, they came to see the little Wilson boys too. haha It was a fun few days! We ate breakfast as a family at the BBQ House before they left town.

My Sweet Baby Gat (Gatlin)

Mommy and Daddy enjoying their breakfast

Uncle Jack and Gat, Aunt T and W

TL with Mom and Dad before they leave

Billy and Sarah (mom and dad to sweet boys!)

Let the craziness begin ...

This past Monday we started taking our Anti-Malaria medicine. Last time I took it (2005) I had some C R A Z Y dreams! So far neither of us have noticed anything strange. We will keep you posted.