A bit over 4 months in and I think that might be a pretty fitting title for much of our time here so far. That and I figured I can come up with some cheesy analogies. Frogger, Cat and Mouse, also could have been appropriate titles, but I had to pick one, so here we go.

Backing up.

This is my first blog post. Moriah has done an excellent job at keeping everyone up to date, but we felt like it was time for me to do a bit of writing 🙂

I have been doing a lot of driving so the inspiration for the title stems from the feeling that one might get just about every time they get out on the road. Eventually you realize that there is some amount of organized chaos (Moriah’s still not quite sure) and it’s not so bad. That being said, the journey always seems to include some type of adventure along the way even when the road looks so smooth ahead. And that is where the title blends with our everyday and includes more than just driving.

Feel free to interchange ‘person’ with every instance of ‘car’ in the somewhat appropriate yet terrible metaphors below.

• Try to avoid the oncoming car with the flashing lights. It’s in your lane and wants your attention, but do your best to steer around it, you want no part of it.
• The car in front of you may be driving slow, but be patient it’s a new driver and the journey will just take some extra time.
• The car flying up behind you is a taxi carrying a lot of people. It might stop as soon as it gets in front of you to drop off or get more people, but don’t get too annoyed, it actually is getting a lot done.
• The other car flying by has a driver that has someplace to go. You can help it along it’s journey or you can slow it down, take your pick.

Okay, I am done with car/person metaphors. I can’t think of anymore and they are a bit cheesy, but you get the idea (and if you don’t get it, comment below and I can explain in more direct terms). Working your way through the traffic, the relationships, etc. can feel a bit chaotic at times, but as long as we rely on the Lord’s strength rather than our own, than we know we can get through it.

Now onto a bit of what I have been up to.

As mentioned in our newsletter, which you can see here if you missed it, we have been focused on relationship building and not so much on the implementation of new projects. That does not mean we are ignoring the projects that are already in motion.

I have put a good bit of my time working with Smile Africa Ministries (SAM) with the primary goal of working towards more food sustainability. Currently almost 100% of their food is donated. Having a feeding program of ~350 outside kids on top of the ~70  full time resident kids, it is a tall task to be sure. I have been working with some of the older kids on their small gardens inside the SAM compound geared towards educating and relationship building. The kids are seeing a difference and it is great.

SAM has 3 acres about 15 minutes away in a local village. I have spent more time there in the past few weeks. We’ve built a compost pile, demonstration gardens, and are working with some of the local villagers with more training to occur at the end of this short growing season.

The guys at Bamba Forge keep getting better and better. With the recent visit from Tim Troyer and Jesse Hemphill the guys are quickly becoming masters in the art of knife making. I’ve got a barrel full of rice ash to take to the guys that will assist in the annealing process next week. The kids at Smile helped in collecting enough rice stalks to burn down into ash.

That concludes my update. Any questions, feel free to post them in the comments.

Thank you for your continued prayers!