A week in pictures

This week our family was able to take a trip up to Mount Nimba. Before the civil war this was a large iron ore mine. It was fascinating to see the old equipment and lake, which is several HUNDRED meters deep!

The drive up is absolutely beautiful with the rainforest canopy stretching overhead the entire time. The mine has been converted into a nature preserve with an eco lodge soon to follow.

One of the things that plagues Mount Nimba is wildfires. The iron ore rocks can easily spark when struck together, causing frequent fires that can’t be controlled. This guava was burned on the outside, along with the rest of the tree, but the inside was ripe and delicious!

The abandoned rock crusher that goes down 8 stories into the ground is now the home of thousands of large fruit bats! We enjoyed watching and listening to them while staying far away from the edge!

Izzy and I, along with my brother-in-law, Tim, and a pastor from his church, Lance, were also able to visit a local school, the Randy Godfrey Elementary and Junior High School, last week. It was fun to pop into the classes and encourage the kids to keep working hard in school! I especially liked the Jimi Hendrix quote written on the outside wall, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

The kids continue to work hard in school, usually finishing around lunchtime or just after. This leaves them plenty of time for other things until dinner. In fact, I often don’t see them for hours at a time!

The river is one of their favorite places to be. I can’t take good pictures of them as many are only in their underwear or less! 

They can often be found piled on the couch, listening to Selah read to them. She is always patient and willing to read the same books over and over. 

Selah has also become the favorite of our cat, Coco. She was kind enough to leave Selah a gift this week on the rug by her bed: a rat’s head! Although Selah wasn’t thrilled with the gift, we are thankful for the proof that she is already hunting, despite not being much bigger than a rat! Since then we have had two mice climb/jump out of holes in our ceiling. We couldn’t be more thankful for our sweet little hunter! (And we are working on those holes!)

One of our new favorite pastimes has been bread making. Cinnamon bread is our current favorite! Izzy made the one on the left, a blend of the braided Challah bread with a cinnamon and sugar filling and baked in a loaf pan. Delicious!

Soccer continues to be an exciting part of our Saturdays. Although the play is less graceful due to very rough fields, the fans are my kind of people: LOUD! I enjoy the energy of the crowd and the banter back and forth throughout the game. Definitely lively!

This week we were blessed with a break in the heat! Not only did it rain for over an hour, it rained HARD! I had to close the windows and cover some of them where rain insisted on blowing in. It was amazing! It dropped the temperature from the upper 90’s to the lower 90’s, making life a lot more bearable for me.

Another fun thing we got to watch this week was the palm nut cutting. Our campus has hundreds of palm trees which grow palm nuts for palm oil. This week they were cutting in our yard and across from our house, so we took a few videos to share the process. Very simple! Come visit, and we will set you up with your own machete to try it!

Thanks for following along on our adventures this week! 

Praises:
- Everyone is healthy and rashes are going away.
- The temperature has cooled off considerably since the big rain storm
- We enjoyed having visitors for almost two weeks! What a blessing.
- Life has settled into a gentle rhythm with downtime for me.
- Rikot turned 20 this week! 

Prayer requests:
- A HUGE request this week is for our car. Kenneth was traveling back from Monrovia after taking people to the airport when a belt flew off under his hood. Somehow this hit other things (I don’t know what happened exactly) and caused the engine to seize. As I type, the engine has been completely pulled out of the vehicle, and they are attempting to fix it. However, it is a very serious issue that may not be fixable. Pray for a miracle for our new car!
- Jireh is struggling with being very whiny and attached to me. It is exhausting and overwhelming to have him climbing on me all day or screaming if I won’t hold him. He has also struggled with an itchy rash and stomach issues. Please pray for healing for him and for him to chill out!
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We love you all! Thank you for your faithfulness to stay in touch and to pray! We are so thankful for our community that lifts us up when we are weak. Blessings!