Here are the pictures I was trying to post last week! Hope you enjoy them :)

It's laundry day!! [We do our laundry on the roof of our building]

The finished product! It takes us about 1.5 hours to wash all our laundry.

We decorated! The Canadian flag is so that we don't forget where we came from ;) The collage of pictures are of our friends and family - so we have a constant reminder of the people back home who are supporting us and praying for us! And the map of the world - to work on our geography! Haha - not really - I just love studying the map of the world. Plus it comes in handy when we have people over and can show them where we live!

This was after our adventure in the rainstorm! We were SOAKED!!! But it was SO worth it!

This is a picture of our street from the roof of our building.

This is another picture of our street, heading the other way!


Here we are.....ready for ministry!

Doing ministry with our church during the Evangelism Weekend they organized.

The ministry continues! On Sunday night it took place at the church!

Bring on the Rain!

The rainy season has begun – and apparently it lasts until July! Although so far the only change we have noticed is it is overcast during the day and will rain and thunder sometimes at night. It is still has hot and humid as ever though – but without the sun beating down on us, it does feel a tad cooler.

Practice, Practice, Practice!
This past Sunday we had another practice with the team. We started teaching them a new drama [Thief] which was exciting! I’m getting really good at counting to four in French ;) We discovered it really helps them learn better if we count out the entire drama – so that’s what we do! On Sunday we also handed out leadership applications to those we are considering for the leadership team. It was an exciting moment for Jamie, Carleigh and I! Please be praying for us as we are in the process of figuring out who God wants on this leadership team. Our goal is to have the team formed by April 4

An Encouraging Meeting
On Wednesday we met with the President of the Baptist Churches in Benin and had the opportunity to share with him about the DRIME Ministry. The president and his colleagues became very excited about what we are doing here and have offered to help us out as much as they can. They have already invited us to come share what we are doing at a gathering of Pastors from some of the villages! This meeting will be happening on Saturday! We were also invited to go to Porto-Novo [the capital – about 45min away] to share with some more Pastors and churches! It was such an encouraging meeting because they became very excited about the DRIME Ministry and thanked us for choosing to come to Benin. It truly is an honour to be able to serve the Lord here and work alongside the local churches and mission organizations to shed the light of the Gospel in the dark country of Benin.

Another Ministry Opportunity
On Saturday we will be travelling to a village called Abomey to do some ministry with Dr. Rogashen from our church! He has asked us to minister with him in the afternoon; this allows us to share with some village Pastors about the DRIME ministry, [as the President of the Baptist Churches arranged for us] in the morning at the same village! I am very excited about this opportunity to minister in a village. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do there! I’d love it if you could pray for us on Saturday – pray that God would break that hold voodoo has over the people in this village.

Answered Prayer!!!!
I want to share with you how God has answered a huge prayer request in my life! As you know, I am in the process of coming on full-time staff with DRIME and my goal was to have $1550 coming in each month through monthly support by the time I left for Benin. In December I only had $600 coming in each month through monthly partners. To say the least, I was a little worried – I had no idea where the rest of the money was going to come from. In January God blessed me with a handful of new monthly supporters, but I was still a couple hundred short when I left in February. I checked my account balance with Power to Change just last week and found out two more people joined my monthly support team. Get this, with their support there is EXACTLY $1550 coming in each month, through monthly supporters! WOW! Praise God, hey?!?! Isn’t it incredible! I’m just blown away because I know that only God could do something like that!! It is such a good reminder that God IS faithful and He WILL provide all I ever need!

“Let God be your strength when you feel weak,
Your fortress when enemies come against you,
And your refuge when you need to retreat from life’s pressures.”

The Internet....and my battle with it!

Hey Everyone!
My plan was to just upload a bunch of pictures for ya'll today - so you can see what life here is like. I am currently attempting for the third time to upload some pictures. The internet seems to be extra slow and it randomly cuts out - which loses the uploading of the pictures, so I have to start all over again. So...I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to get some pics up on here today or not.

I also made a nice newsletter to email to all my friends and supporters - but it is too big to attach to an email! I'm trying to send it with yousendit.com - but apparently it is going to take 3 hours to upload! Yup - it's taken about 20 minutes so far and it is only at 10%! Argh! Nothing is working out today!!! Well I guess this gives you a taste of what using the internet is like here in Benin!

Things have been going well - we have been really busy this past week meeting with people who we see leadership potential in and spending time getting to know them better. We also participated in an Evangelism Event which our Church put on. [See Carleigh's and Jamie's Blogs for more info on this!]

If you don't get the newsletter this week, hopefully it will be next week - if I figure out how to make it smaller without taking content out. The updates from this past week, will just come a week late! Also, maybe I'll be able to upload some pictures next week as well. Thanks for your patience!

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers - I am so blessed to have such a wonderful support team :)

Oh Africa...

Much has happened since I have last written – if I were to write about it all I think this blog entry would be never ending! Why don’t I tell you about one of the highlights from this past week?

We met with the leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ Benin last Friday and shared with them about the DRIME Ministry! There were 11 people plus a baby packed into this small room; both French and English were flowing as people asked and answered questions! It was a pretty intense meeting [in a good way]! They had many questions for us and have agreed to give us the opportunity to share with their student group about DRIME! Parfait, the director, put us to work right away when he found out we were ready and willing to minister! He invited us to minister at a showing of the Jesus Film for the students on Monday night, which we willingly agreed to. This event was so totally and completely African I can’t help but smile when I think of it. Let me tell you about it:

Patrice said he would pick us up at 6pm, so we could pick up the others at the church and then head to the event location for 7pm. We were ready to go for 6pm, but waited until 6:45pm until our ride arrived! By the time we picked up the others and left the church we had 4 minutes to get to Calavi where the event was being held! [Calavi is just outside Cotonou.] I’m not sure how long it is actually supposed to take to get to Calavi [with good roads and no traffic, probably 30 minutes] but we did not arrive until 8:45pm! I thought rush hour traffic on Highway 1 was bad – but not anymore! Oh my goodness, the traffic was crazy – we basically crawled to Calavi. It doesn’t end there my friends…the night keeps getting better!

We finally arrive at the head office for Campus Crusade for Christ where someone was going to meet us to take us the rest of the way, [because Patrice did not know the exact location]. Here’s the catch – that person was not there! There was someone at the office who told us how to get there...except he wasn’t too clear with the directions. We spent another 20 minutes driving up and down these narrow side roads trying to find it!

By the time we arrived, the Jesus film was 20 minutes from being finished! I should mention here that Parfait, the director who asked us to come had not given us clear direction on what he expected us to do. We did not know when we were performing or who exactly our audience was. We didn’t know where we were going to play our music, or who would stop and start it for us! Everything we should have known for a smooth, professional performance, we didn’t! Normally I would majorly stress out in this kind of situation, but by this time I knew that things were out of my control. Instead of stressing I told myself to just relax and let things happen as they do – I mean it’s Africa!

So, we came in quietly, sat down and finished watching the film with them. We were in a small courtyard outside a housing complex. There were maybe 20 people in plastic chairs watching the movie which was projected up on a screen. As soon as the movie finished Parfait called us up to present! We fumbled out of our chairs and came to the front. It took us a few minutes to get the CD working on the sound system they were using. In the process of this, random songs on the CD would blare as Parfait was trying to get to the right song! [So not professional, but not much you can do about it when it is pitch black and you don’t know the system they are using – nor can you communicate very well with them!] Oh, that reminds me – it was dark out [obviously as by this time it was probably around 9:30]. The courtyard area was completely dark except for the light from the projector and a small fluorescent light on the side of the building. Now, you many not think this is a big deal, but it is – our dramas are only effective if you can SEE them! So there we were - 5 people wearing all black performing dramas for this group in what basically can be described as pitch-black! Mind you, the three of us Canadians probably glowed with our white skin! [haha!] Part way through the first drama the power went out, so we lost the light on the side of the house, making it even harder to see! Thankfully the sound system was running on a generator so we didn’t lose our music!

We ministered to the group through two dramas and the sharing of a short message between the dramas to challenge them. Patrice translated for me as I shared! When we finished they had a time for people to ask questions about what they saw that evening. We had a few questions directed towards us as well! [Someone wanted to know where the church of DRIME was – haha!] [Oh, interesting side note, when people say DRIME here in Benin it sounds like they are saying “dream” because the letter ‘I’ makes the sound ‘ee’ in French!] At the end of the event we had a few people approach us and say they were interested in learning more about DRIME and possibly joining [Whoo! Praise God!]. The drive back to Cotonou didn’t take quite as long, but the traffic was still pretty bad – we moved pretty slow for 10:30pm! [Another side note – Patrice told us it is pretty common for people who work in Cotonou to leave around 5pm and not get home to Calavi until 2am or 3am – because of traffic. Isn’t that just insane! I can’t even imagine!]

Anyways – all in all, it was a fantastic African evening! The dramas were performed with excellence and the message of Christ was shared! It also gave us the opportunity to show the Campus for Christ Ministry what we do, as well as experience a good dose of the African-lifestyle!

Sunday Practice…
This past Sunday we ran our first practice with the current team and it went really well! We split the group into two – the oldies - people who know many of the dramas and the rookies - people who know very few of the dramas. Jamie and Carleigh trained the rookies in a new drama while I worked with the oldies reviewing the dramas they know! Now, I was counting on having Olivier at the practice so he could translate for me. However, he could not be there, so I was basically on my own! Yikes! Beforehand I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but it actually went really well! Between a lot of demonstrating and acting-out, speaking as much as I could in French and having Rachelle [a team member] translate what she could of my English, we managed! [I called Jamie over a few times when I was really desperate!] By the time practice was over it felt like I had accomplished a lot! We only were able to review one drama [mind you it was an 8 minute drama] – but everything takes a lot longer when you can’t communicate directly with people! It felt freeing to know that I can do something on my own, even when language is a barrier!

Speaking of French…
On Tuesday I told someone about myself all in French! I told them about my family, my schooling, my hobbies and where I work! This may not sound too exciting to you, but it is a huge accomplishment for me!!

Meeting Potentials…
This week we have been meeting with people from the team who we are considering for the DRIME leadership team. It has been a great opportunity to find out more about them! I am really excited about this process of getting to know people better! [It was in one of these meetings when I told someone about myself in French! I am getting pretty good at asking questions in French, but answering questions or understanding the answers, not so much].

Merci!
Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers! I hope you are enjoying the updates!

This is the view from our apartment!

Typical stand at the side of the road, where we buy most of our food from!

I gave Jamie a haircut - and it turned out GOOD! I was a little nervous, as I had only cut one persons hair before - but it was easier than I thought!

This is the current DRIME team at the practice we had on Sunday! They have doubled in size since last May!

Independence Day!

Last Thursday, Jamie, Carleigh and I ventured out into the city all by ourselves for the very first time! This may not sound exciting to you but it is very exciting for me! You see, ever since we arrived on February the 11^th either Patrice or Olivier have been with us whenever we left our apartment. [Not totally true – we walked around the area where our apartment is once by ourselves – but other than that we have had a chaperone!] So, the ability to be able to do something on our own was refreshing! I guess it shows that we are adjusting to life here and getting to know our way around!

Let me tell you about our little independent streak: We walked the 25mins to the Cyber Café in the blistering hot early morning sun. We did our thing there, communicating with the outside world….and checking the Olympic updates! After this we headed back towards our apartment, stopping to buy pineapple from one of the street vendors which line the side of the road. Next on the list were tomatoes, pasta and water. After successfully purchasing all these items we headed home. [I’m pretty sure we got ripped off on the tomatoes – we paid 500cfa for the same amount we bought last week from a different vendor for 200cfa. Too bad I only realized that when we got home.]

Now, there is one other part of this adventure I forgot to mention to you – which was an accomplishment in itself. This accomplishment, which we had to do 4 times by the way, was crossing the street! Okay, stop laughing for a minute and let me explain why this is such a big deal.

Imagine a 2-way street which is constantly flowing with traffic; cars, motorbikes, trucks, vans – you name it and it probably drove by! [We even saw a 4-wheeler on the road once!] So, what you do is watch the traffic nearest you and look for a break and then venture out into the road a few steps. You wait until the next round of motorbikes pass by you so you can take a few more steps and finally reach the middle of the road. Now there is traffic flowing by you on both sides, and no, there is no median or anything like that – you’re just standing there in the middle of the road. Only difference is that in Canada motorists would be honking at you like crazy but here, it’s totally normal seeing people in the middle of the road. Once you see a break in the line of traffic nearest you, you can take a few steps then wait for more motorbikes or cars to pass and slowly make your way to the other side of the road. Also, there are no lanes marked on the road, so vehicles just drive wherever they please! As you can see – this dodging of motorbikes and cars was quite the accomplishment for us Canadians!

I never thought of myself as a person who likes her independence, but I am discovering that I actually do! The last few weeks I have struggled with the feeling of being very dependent on other people – it has made me feel trapped. At first, we could not do anything on our own besides sleep and eat. We did not know where to buy food or water from, how to get to church, where a cyber café was, how to use our stove, how to get around the city and the list goes on! In 3 weeks we have learned a lot and can do all the basic things ourselves now. It is a good feeling! However we do remain very dependent on people as there is much more to learn about life here in Cotonou.

The area that I am most dependent on others is when it comes to communicating with people, as I cannot speak French or Fon. I can communicate some of the basic things with people but I sure can’t get very far on my own. This is hard for me because it keeps me very dependent on others. However, lately I have been learning to view this dependence in a more positive light because I think God is trying to teach me something….something along the lines of being dependent on Him. Perhaps I have become too independent and do not rely on God as much as I should. I’m not sure what He is going to teach me yet, but am more at ease with being dependent on other people, because God is at work in me. God is holding me in the palm of His hand, where I can rest and not worry because I am safe there.

Learning to Live the Beninese Way!

Random Fact: There are 51 bug bites on my legs, all between my knees and my toes! Well, I had 51 bug bites as I’ve basically scratched most of them off in my sleep because they are so itchy!!! I’m not exaggerating either, I counted…Jamie and Carleigh can verify.

The days go by very fast here because things take longer to do, so your day can fill up pretty fast! We are slowly learning our way around our area of the city as we walk to buy food or use the cyber café. Things are becoming more familiar each day and I think our bodies are adjusting little by little to the heat. We are also learning what to cook and how much to cook to feed the three of us; although Jamie finishes off anything Carleigh and I don’t eat! Our diet basically consists of pasta, baguettes and fruit. We don’t have easy access to much else, or rather, we don’t know how to cook most of the things we have access to…..so we eat what we can for now! It’s a fun learning experience! [Although I must admit, I have been craving Oreos…..what I would do for an Oreo right now!] Anyways, things are going well!

On Saturday we did laundry for the first time since arriving! And by laundry I mean a bucket with water and soap and your own hands scrubbing away at your clothes! Christi-Anne, the lady who owns the building we live in, came up while we were washing our clothes. [We were on the roof of our building, as it is finished like a deck!] She offered to do our laundry for us because apparently it is too hard of a task for white people! We kindly declined and told her that we were tough Canadians learning to live the Beninese way! Although I must admit, when we finally finished an hour and a half later my hands were feeling kind of raw and sore! However, I really didn’t mind – it brought back good memories from when I lived in Kenya!

On Sunday we attended church again, but this time I did not have someone to translate the service for me! You see, there are two people at the front of the church for the whole service; one person speaks in French, the other translates what was said into Fong [local dialect]. Adding a third person to the mix to translate into English would get a bit messy! Jamie translated what he could of the service so I had the gist of what was going on. My favourite part of the service is the offering time. There are three wooden stands with boxes on them at the front of the church; one is labelled ‘tithe’, one ‘offering’ and the other ‘for church construction.’ Instead of baskets being passed down each row, everyone walks up to the front and drops their money into the appropriate box. Row by row, the entire church comes to the front to make their offering, including all the children who sit at the back of the church during the service. While this is happening, the traditional choir is leading the congregation in a song which involves people dancing and singing up a storm! Everyone is moving with smiles on their faces and joy radiating from their bodies! The offering processional, if you will, only takes about 5 minutes. For at least another 10 minutes the church is filled with a kind of passion, joy and praise that I can’t describe! Energy is bursting out the seams as people freely worship the God they love!

Sunday afternoon we attended our first practice with the existing team. It was a wonderful time! Hearing the familiar music from ‘In the Light’ or ‘Liquid’ and watching the people who I trained last year practicing their parts brought joy to my heart! It is so exciting and incredible that there is already a group of people here in Cotonou who know about DRIME and want to be a part of it! When we left last June there were 9 people who we had trained in the dramas. At this practice there were around 25 people there!! We had the chance to speak with them individually and hear why they joined the team; a chance to get to know them a little better. The individuals I talked with told me why they enjoyed the DRIME ministry and why they think it is effective. If I didn’t already believe in this ministry I definitely would after talking with them! I’m looking forward to this coming Sunday when we will be with them again! I left practice that afternoon very excited for what God is going to do through DRIME Benin!

Random Fact: I didn’t think I was scared of cockroaches – besides being gross, I never thought they were too bad. However, things change when a cockroach suddenly appears where it should not be [like the kitchen cupboard] and when it charges at you, heading right for where your hand is currently placed! I am happy to report the cockroach will not be a problem again as I had Jamie and Carleigh take care of it! Yuck!