Teammates

The joys and the sorrows

The ups and the downs

The fighting to love as God would

The begging for wisdom and the other’s good instead of my own selfish gain in late night prayers

The laughter and just being together

The fulness of life

The sharpening and changing of bad attitudes

The giving of the benefit of the doubt

The trusting another with the real you… good and bad

Is it worth it to me?  After 10 years I can still say “Yes”.  These intense brother/sister relationships on the mission field are so much harder and more rewarding than I could ever have imagined they would be!  Now David and I are a part of two mission teams…the Kabiye team  here in Togo, West Africa where we are continuing to live and work for the next 2 to 3 years and the Musanze, Rwanda team with whom we will live and work in the Musanze region of Rwanda sometime in 2011.    It’s a challenge to give where we need to give on each team, but this past week the two blended together as we were all here in Kara together (with the exception of a family from Texas - the Robinsons- that plan to join the work in Rwanda before our family arrives) Our time together was fun and relaxed and a blessing.  God is so good!  The men all spent 4 days on safari in Benin and the women hung out here in Kara with the children (who were graciously taught by the Koonces and Crowsons’ teachers) The children had the time of their lives all together at school and at play.  We went to the pool, ate breakfast, ran errands, and had prayer time together.  If you don’t know the families this might all sound confusing.  Here are some photos:

  This is the Kabiye Team….. the people we live in community and work with in Kara, Togo.  The families from the bottom left clockwise to the bottom right are:  The Kennells, The Rieses, The Reeveses (us), The Millers, and the Emersons.  To make this more complicated, the Ries family is moving back to the states in May (we will miss them greatly-more on this in another post) and two other families, the Hangens and Heads, will join our team soon.  The Hangens will arrive in December and the Heads will arrive sometime next year. 

 

This is the Musanze, Rwanda team.  It is made up (so far) of 5 families.  One of the families (The Robinsons) is not pictured because they still live in Texas.  The other four families from left to right (pictured) are the Crowsons, The Reeveses (us), The Millers, and the Koonces.  You may notice that the Millers are also on the Kabiye team with us and have been our teammates for 10 years.  We’re so glad we get to continue to live our lives together with them.  The Crowsons and Koonces are what is left of the Tabligbo, Togo team (a 5 hour drive to the south of us) and have been our friends and colleagues for the last 7 1/2 years we’ve lived in Togo.  The Koonces and Crowsons are moving to Rwanda January of 2009.  We’ll be following about 2 years later when the work here in Kabiyeland has had enough continuity with our new teammates coming in for our two families (Reeves and Miller) to phase out. 

So, there’s the scoop.  Please be praying for all of our relationships to be loving and healthy and honoring.  It’s a lot of work to live near, and work with, and be family to a tight group of people with all of our human flaws.  But it is also a privilege and sweet work of the Lord that I would not trade for anything.  The work is worth it and the fruit of our labor in God’s kingdom and in our own souls is worth it.  Praise be to God who is all sufficient in our hearts even when we are so very insufficient to give glory back to Him in and of ourselves.  He is able and He will do it!