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| Christy leading the children as they praise God |
Can you guess where we are? If you thought we were in Jos, Nigeria you would be close. We usually live in Jos, Nigeria. But last week we flew across a border to the country where I (Zach) first went through Africa Orientation in 2006 and where Christy first called home in Africa (from 2007 to 2012). Do you know which country this is? I'll tell you why we are here and reveal it at the end of the post.
Every year the SIL branch in this country has a two week conference where they talk about big issues and also rest, worship and seek the Lord together. During this time, they needed someone to help organize a program for the children, so they too could be drawing near to Jesus. Somebody thought of inviting Christy back to help lead a team of volunteers as they do this! It has been energizing for her to be back here again working and learning with third-culture children.
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| Surprising how much I (Zach) love analyzing data! |
So what have I been doing? Well, besides three visits to the Nigerian embassy to get paperwork in order (thank God that went smoothly!), I have been taking this time to work quietly and mostly uninterupted on some unfinished projects from Nigeria. The most exciting one is a survey of how the Bible (or often just the New Testament so far) translated into 80 of Nigeria's languages are actually being used.
(To be precise, we actually only took a sample of 24 languages, to make the work easier.) I just finished the first round of analysis and am excited about a couple of discoveries. Once I get the report written up, I'll share with you some more details.
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| Mariama loves swings! |
What has Mariama been doing? Well she has been spending time with other children in the mornings in the retreat childcare. She has also enjoyed going around with mommy and daddy to greet many of mommy's friends. She has learned to say "Bonjour" and "Au revoir", one of the official langauges of this "bilingual" country. She hasn't yet noticed that most people here don't understand Hausa, as she still tries to say "a zauna" (sit down!) or "ci" (eat) or any other number of important things she wants to say. Maybe that is partly because we have met a couple of Hausa people here, too!
Please pray with us for
peace and
joy in all the people we are able to visit and the things we can do in our brief time here.
So what country are we in? Perhaps you have guessed it... Cameroon!
