A good sign

I spotted these crocuses this afternoon and just had to post them. It's amazing how warm 50 degrees can feel when it's been 30 or less. Happy Spring!

Took the plane... to see the Carrs!

Hey everybody!
I just got back from a great weekend in Las Cruces, New Mexico, visiting Matt and Brenda Carr. Matt and Brenda lived and worked in West Africa for about 10 years... maybe 2 and 1/2 in Liberia (most of it in Voinjama, near the northern border), and then the rest of the time in Odienne, Cote d'Ivoire. Now, after 11 years in the USA, they are praying towards a return to West Africa, joining our Liberia team. Matt and Brenda have been teaching, coaching basketball, and investing themselves at a wonderful church in Las Cruces called Bethel Bible Fellowship. The church was kind enough to ask me to come (and cover my expenses), so that I could present SIM's ministry in Liberia to them.

I really enjoyed getting to know the Carrs, who are going to come and work in Liberia with our team and our partners in ministry there--Matt will focus his time on working with the ECUL churches, while Brenda will be doing educational work and may also help our SIM team work a little smoother. Here we are, eating peanut soup (a popular Liberian dish--called "groundpea soup" there--it had a pretty good kick!). For the medically observant among you, you may see signs of Matt's double knee replacement in December. He's recovered quite well, praise God!

Sorely neglected blog

Well, I confess this is about the most neglected blog in the universe lately. Blame my job at the American school. And Facebook.

We had a very quiet Christmas. It wasn't bad, we spent most of our celebration focusing on the reason for the season - the Incarnation, Emmanuel, God with Us -- the birth of Jesus Christ. Most of my Christmas energy went into helping plan a Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church - our first one since we've been attending there, and most of the Liberians said it was their first ever. It was very nice and I think it might become a tradition. I think that since it is so dark this time of year in North America, the symbol of light at Christmas is much more powerful for our culture.

We didn't do anything much for presents - since the kids are already making their plans for their first shopping trip when we get to the USA. I suspect our real first shopping trip will be to purchase coats and hats! Looking at the temperatures in Massachusetts and even Charlotte makes us shiver!

So we have just 19 days till departure... we have plenty to do, but it is beginning to seem like we'll get much of it done. My New Year's resolution is to get back to posting more frequently - So don't give up on us yet.

hints of Christmas

Many of you, living in North America or Europe, are starting to get hints of Christmas.... Frost on the window or on the leaves in the yard; Holiday music on the radio; shorter days and darker mornings; Decorations appearing in stores and on your neighbors' houses.



Well, in Liberia our cues are a little different... The rains have ended (at least the daytime rains are over, but we still have some sprinkles at night). Deb has started playing Christmas music whenever she has the chance. But mostly, the arrival of the "Christmas birds"--egrets, which migrate from Europe--is giving us the hint that Christmas time is almost here! Yesterday morning, as I was coming home, I spotted my first "flock" of egrets on the beach... First I took their picture:

As I moved in for a closer look, they took off!

So.... we're getting in the spirit of things around here. The coming of Jesus ... into the world, into our lives... is the center, the highlight of it all. And so the hints of the season of his coming are precious! Love, Rick
PS... With regard to mystery photo #5, Everybody got the identity of that fine little shiny caterpillar right on--so I hardly felt the need to post it. But his cocoon-house is interesting, isn't it? Kind of like a junk collector... picks up every little piece of random stuff that catches his eye, and sticks it on his house!

Mystery Photo Number 5!

Well folks, this is it... the long awaited Mystery Photo Number 5. As always, please post your guesses as "comments". A hint... this mystery photo subject greeted us just outside the door of our house this morning on the way to church, and taking the photo made us just a minute later than we already were! --Rick for all of us

My Creative Kids

I really am not too fond of Halloween. I never got into the costume thing as a kid once my mom stopped making bunny suits and between living overseas and the un-Halloweeny crowd I tend to hang out with, I just never got into it with the kids. So when they said we were going to have a Halloween party at school, my reaction was, yawn, whatever, as long as I don't have to do anything, much.


But I guess the boys like it more than I knew. And thankfully, they are creative enough to come up with ideas at the last minute. When someone said they would just be a ghost, Caleb had the brilliant idea that he could be a Ghostbuster (we have seen the movie a couple times - classic for their age- they love it). So here he is. Notice the badges with the logo....

We've been reading Phantom Tollbooth in school, and Jared is always a whiz in Math, so he decided to be the Mathemagician - you'll have to read it to find out if you don't know the book. The picture doesn't really show how his cape is covered with mathematical formulas and equations. But here he is:
Quick, easy, original, cheap. Once again, they amaze and amuse me.

Yeah! Tomorrow is a holiday and I get to sleep late and relax. Did I mention that this job has kind of taken over my life?

Happy 16th Birthday Max!

I thank God for the opportunity to go and spend a few days in Senegal, visiting Max while he's in school at Dakar Academy (DA). We got to hang out a lot, played a little basketball, played some video games, met his friends. It was a nice few days. During the day (while Max was in school) I spent time with the other SIM missionaries in Dakar, especially Dan Porch, my boss.


We wrapped up the week with a fun day out with some of Max's friends: Adam, his roommate; Andrew, Nathan, Philip, and then me and Geoff (Nathan and Philip's Dad). We went gokarting (if you ever want to find out who is competitive, just go karting. I'm definitely more competitive than you'd guess! That is a lot of fun... you can basically push the karts to the limit and never wipe out. We did have a couple minor bumps, but basically good driving. Followed by the best ice cream I've had in West Africa! Here are a few pics of the birthday boy and friends (taken by Geoff).