Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Malabo...

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...it's already Thursday. The days are flying by and I haven't had time, energy, and often haven't had power or internet to post. Each of my days have been pretty much the same: I get up at 5:30 am, along with Odis and Myles when we walk over to the house and start breakfast for the team. Odis makes several pots of coffee and Myles fries a kilo of bacon. I start water boiling for oatmeal and crack a couple dozen eggs. Soon Marsha and Joyce come in and start cutting up and buttering bread for toast. It's a joint effort and by 7:00 am we have it all done complete with cut up fruit and juice.

After we eat we have devotions. Monday-Benny. Tuesday-Odis. Wednesday-Mike. Thursday-Myles. Friday-it's my turn. The subjects vary and whoever leads has freedom to share what's been on his or her mind during the week. They might be encouraging or emotional but they are always good. We sing a song or two and pray for the Lord to bless our day, give us strength for the work and keep us all safe from harm or danger. Our devotion time helps strengthen our team bond and it's a sweet time of worship.

Byron gives instructions for the work each day and afterward it's time for the workers to head out for the job site where they do all that is humanly possible to do to complete the tasks for the day. Our team is not a group of slackers. They really work diligently to get as much done as possible.

Marsha, Joyce and I have been staying at the house to do what needs to be done for team support like clean up, laundry and meal preparation. After breakfast we clean up the kitchen and not too long after that we start lunch. We've been making 20 or so sandwiches, packing up chips and cookies with them and taking them out to the site so not too much time is spent coming and going for lunch.

Somewhere in the middle of all the kitchen hub bub I take out what we're going to fix for supper that night. We've had some really good meals. Spaghetti, BBQ pork chops, pinto beans, rice, homemade biscuits, beef tenderloin steaks with roasted potatoes and onions, chicken and rice, mixed veggies, broccoli cauliflower, eggplant casserole, fresh salad with homemade french dressing. It's not often we have such a variety on a mission trip and it's been a blast cooking all this great food for the team.

Last night all the girls went to Central Church for the ladies service and Christy preached for us. She did an excellent job with her sermon about journeys--our journeys as women. We are all on the journey that the Lord has given us. Our unique journey and how it's not good for us to compare ourselves to one another and not productive for us to compare our journey to another's journey. We must trust the Lord to lead us however He sees fit for us, personally. It was an uplifting and encouraging message and the African women enjoyed it as much as we did. At the end of the service the ladies presented our ladies with two cases of Coca-Cola because they knew that some of us had been working out in the hot sun and they wanted us to have a Coke on them:) I love it that no matter where I go I see how women all over the world are not so much different than I am. We may look different. We may have different things. We may speak differently. Christy said that although there are differences, there are also similarities. We are women. We are sisters. We are wives. We are mothers. We are a lot alike despite our differences. The dear African sisters in the Lord blessed Christian women from Florida with a very practical gift. How like most any woman in the world. Women are nothing if not practical. What a great thing and what a nice gift!

We came home after the service and ate dinner with the guys who had gotten home just a little bit before we did. After clean up we called it a night and settled down for the evening. Many of us are very tired and need as much rest as is available. Bedtime is pretty early for most because it's not too long until it's time to get up again. AND that crazy rooster has his timer set to go off pretty much all night long! Crazy chicken! Speaking of chickens we have another mama hen with biddies. She has 7 babies of many different colors following her around the yard. They are teeny tiny and cute as little buttons but won't let anyone near them. Also, Pretty, the mother dog had five pups the other day and they are adorable. Cute black and white pups with the exception of one which is sort of brown-black.

It's Thursday morning about 10:30 am here. Breakfast is over and it will be time to fix lunch soon. Tonight a group of African women are going to bring us a traditional African meal for our supper. What a special night this will be! I'll fill you all in on the menu and how it tastes.

As a team, we are looking forward to completing the goals we set out to do. The work team dug 40 holes yesterday and formed them up for concrete today. These are the foundations for the posts for the tabernacles that will one day be a Bible and Training School for African pastors. This is an amazing project because when Pastor Carroll and Gayle came to Malabo 22 years ago there wasn't even one Assembly of God church here. Now there are 150 churches here and a Bible school on the way. What a legacy!

Each of us does what we are able to do on these trips. Some have lots of construction experience. Some have lots of muscle and grit to work hard. And some of us have care giving experience and we take care of those who are out there on the site working. It's all about our unique journey and what the Lord leads us to do.

Father, thank you for this trip and these experiences. Thank you for the unique journey you give to each one of us and for guiding us on it. It's a good day. I love you, Lord.

Suz