An Amazing Woman!

Me and Yvette

When God placed me and my family in Togo, I knew He would bring some amazing people into my life, and I could not wait to meet them. One of these very special people is a lady named Yvette. If you ever hear me talk about my life in Togo, her name will come up several times in the conversation.

She has a very sad and happy story at the same time. She is a mom of four children and has been raising them for over 13 years all on her own since her husband had abandoned her. Before my family and I arrived in Togo she lived in one small room with three, and sometimes four, of her children. Here in this culture, that’s not too terribly bad; many people do this, but this room was so tiny. She was selling food on the streets to keep her children in school and feed them. She was poor—very, very poor. I was told all of this by another missionary before I met her. The missionary friend told me she thought Yvette would be really good for our family to help out in the house, so I agreed to meet her and talk with her.

When I met her I asked her a few questions but I really felt pressed to ask her how she was doing. Now, I know her past and what she had gone through and what she was currently going through. But despite all of the hardships, after I asked her this question, she put her hands up in the air and said, “I am blessed!  God has blessed me in so many ways.” I knew at that moment that she would be a part of our family. She started helping us in our house immediately, and our friendship started growing.

She has been one of the most caring, giving, loving, and godly women I know here in Africa. Yes, she is human and I know she can do wrong just like me, but I am so thankful that God has placed Yvette in our lives. She has become like another mom to my children; she loves them, cares about them, and prays for them all the time. She is 100% behind us in everything and loves to hear about what God is doing in the villages. Her love and passion for Christ is amazing and I am so encouraged and blessed by her.

I am so thankful Yvette is part of our family and we are apart of hers. As a matter of fact, David, Joshua's best friend here in Togo, is her son. So you could really say we are family.

Many people have asked what she does around the house for me. She mainly does a lot of the time-consuming jobs that I am not able to do because I’m busy  homeschooling and cooking every meal from scratch. We tag team and work a lot together cooking, baking, and cleaning. It gives us ample time to gab and share praises and encourage one another.

I am so thankful for this beautiful lady that God has brought into our lives.

Using five-senses to experience Togo

If I were to describe Togo to you all, it would take quite a while. I wish I could sit down with each of you who is reading this with a cup of coffee and explain everything I see and smell and taste here in Togo. But since I can't, I decided I would try to write for you a five-senses experience of Togo.

Togo is a place where your senses will go wild. I love some of the sounds here in Togo; the sound of someone sweeping around their house, a person pouring corn from one metal basin to another, the sound of the wind blowing through palm trees, children playing soccer outside our gate, children speaking in another language and playing or singing. These are some of my favorite sounds. 

Now smells are another story. I will let you in on a little secret, I am called a "hound dog" by my oldest son, because I have a nose that can smell everything. So where do I start? There are not many smells I like here. Walking through the market is not great for smells, and during parts of the year people burn their fields so there is a lot of yucky smelling smoke coming through the windows. Oh, and my favorite--one day I smelled this horrible smell; I could not figure out where it was coming from until I went outside our gate and I found out what it was. Some guys down the street had killed an animal, and were burning the fur off of it. Oh, the smell was horrible! I later discovered it was a poor cat! But one smell that I do love is a flower that blooms on a tree in our yard which smells like honeysuckle.

There are a few things I love to touch here, my favorite being little children's heads. Baby heads are always so fluffy and soft. I also like to feel material. I love soft things so I am always trying to find some soft material. I also love to hold babies, they always smell nice and are so sweet.

Now for my favorite sense--sight. There are so many wonderful things to see in Togo if you are looking. Togo is not a gorgeous place to live, but it has some nice hills and some great trees. But, the best thing I get to see are the faces, each one unique, each one made by God. Another thing I see beauty in is the cloth all around me. I love all the bright, colorful designs that people often wear.

I would like to paint for you an imaginary picture of what you would see as you walk or drive down the street. Motorcycles are what you see majority of the time, but you will also see women walking while carrying a heavy basin of tomatoes on her head, along with a baby strapped to her back, sleeping soundly amidst all of the noise. Often you will see a woman carrying on her head a large basin of water. I cannot begin to tell you how heavy these are. You will see many people walking; often you will see large amounts of children all dressed the alike coming home from school. People, always people, walking or riding a bike or a motorcycle. Also, the market is a great place to see some amazing things--so many colors and textures.

Taste. Hmmm, let me see, Togo is not really known for its amazing food, although my oldest son would disagree with me on this point. He loves African food. We do have amazing pineapples, mangos, papaya, avocados, and bananas.

There are several different drinks here that I really enjoy, one being Sport Actif (active sport). It is a wonderful citrus drink with no sugar, perfect after a long, hot day. Another drink is called Pamplemousse (grapefruit), which is a sweetened, grapefruit soda. You can always count on seeing pulp at the bottom of the bottle, yumm. Here the Togolese street vendors make a lot of snacks that are fried-bread-like things. One of them we love is a slightly sweetened bread ball called "botoquin."
Another thing I love is plantain chips, crunchy and delicious.

Okay, this will make you laugh. We have ice cream, yes, ice cream, but it's in a small, rectangular, plastic bag. You squeeze it out in your mouth when you eat it. :) There are people who ride around on bikes with coolers attached to them, ringing a bell, and you can buy an ice cream in a bag when ever you want!

Okay, now for the healthy stuff. I can get all kinds of fruits and vegetables here, although it is probably easier to tell you what I can't get here. Somethings I can't get here are broccoli, good cauliflower, and celery. Okay, we can get celery, but they are so tiny, like when you get to the middle of the head of your celery and find those tiny stalks...those are what we have. We get all of your leftovers! :-) It's not great, but you can use it if you need it for soups or stews. I just have a hard time getting peanut butter and raisins to stay on it. :-) We have everything we need here and we are blessed, and so thankful we can eat veggies and wonderful fruits here year-round.

Well, that about sums up experiencing Togo through your senses. I hope you have enjoyed seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and tasting Togo.

I am back!

We are back in Togo, and I have been inspired by my grandmother to continue writing on my blog. So, I will do my best to show you Africa, and the way I live my life through my eyes.
This picture is of me and a good friend from the market, her name is Agara. She is a muslim lady who I have become friends with, she lost her husband a few years ago to diabetes, but she always has a smile on her face and loves to talk about her children. Every time we see each other she hugs me and she shakes my hand. I am blessed to have her as a friend, and I pray that she will see Jesus in me.

I am a hopeless writer.

For a lack of better words, I stink at writing. When I think about writing a blog post my heart races and I get sick to my stomach. Can you tell I don't like writing? So I have decided to change my blog just a little: less writing, more pictures, and some snippets of my life in Africa, the way I see Africa. Sometimes I am in my home for days without getting out; that's just the way it rolls. But I love my life that God has given me and I am thankful for it. I hope you enjoy peeking into our life in Africa. Eventually this blog will end up as part of our website at www.shankstribe.com, but for now I'll be posting updates here.

Behold the Lamb!

Every time I hear this song I get a picture in my mind of kings and presidents and all royalty standing by waiting for a large curtain to be pulled back to announce the Lamb of God, our King, sitting on His throne. Nothing can compare to His greatness. 

Behold the Lamb
by sovereign grace.

Who has held the oceans in His hands
Who has numbered every grain of sand
Kings and nations tremble at His voice
All creation rises to rejoice

CHORUSBehold our God seated on His throne
Come let us adore Him
Behold our King nothing can compare
Come let us adore Him!

Who has given counsel to the Lord
Who can question any of His Words
Who can teach the One who knows all things
Who can fathom all His wondrous deeds

Who has felt the nails upon His hands
Bearing all the guilt of sinful man
God eternal humbled to the grave
Jesus, Savior risen now to reign!

Bible Hour Kids

Bible Hour Kids

For the last two months, every time I opened the door I was asked, "Momma Joshua, when are you starting church for us?" I would tell them when, but they would ask the same question the next time they would see me.

So when it really started the kids were so excited they came running down the road. It has been so great to see how the kids have grown and how they have matured.

I am using a Bible discovery method with them and they are discovering some great things. The last few weeks they have discovered how amazing God is and that He has created everything.

Just this last Sunday they found out how Adam was created, we acted it out and the kids thought it was amazing. One boy, whom I call Bubble Gum, after I asked him about what God did in the story, said that God gathered the dust up and blew on it like this, and he showed me. He was amazed that God could do that. It was wonderful to see them so amazed at His work.

This past Sunday we made musical instruments from tomato paste cans, rocks, and duct tape. I told them we were going to praise God today for creation. So we all played our instruments, shouted, and sang, "Thank you God for the corn, thank you God for the guavas, thank you God for the trees. We danced around the yard praising Him for His creation. I told them all to go home and tell someone about what God did. I can't wait to hear who they told.

I had two new boys come that were older, and they got so excited about the story. They said they would be coming back and that they enjoyed it. Please pray with me as the Lord softens the hearts of these children and gets them ready to hear the gospel each week. I will take some pictures of the kids next week and put them on the blog.

Home!

Home!

I have been away from home for 14 months. The time I was able to spend in the States with family and friends and making new friends has been amazing. God knew who I needed in my life and I am so grateful for them all. The lessons I learned while away are numerous and I am thankful for every one.

I arrived home on the 1st of June. The last 30 minutes of the trip was so exciting, I could not wait to step foot in the house. The reunions have been great with children around the neighborhood and friends; I was excited to see them all and was met with many hugs and kisses. I love to hear that sound "Mama Joshua," this is what the children in the neighborhood calls me. Reuniting with friends at the market was incredible, it was so great to see them all and I pray that the relationships will grow. I have missed the sounds, smells, and feeling of Africa and I am so glad to be back.

I hit the ground running. I had my friend Yvette clean our house while we were gone so it was clean for the most part. But come on, we live in Africa, dust is everywhere! So I went from room to room cleaning and de-cluttering them, and if you know me you know I love this. It felt so good to get it cleaned out. Jesse (my husband) put some new shelves up in the kitchen and it looks great; I love it. De-cluttering my counter space was great, I needed the space. I will be starting school with Joshua very soon so please pray as this will be a great adjustment for me and Joshua since we have Owen now. 

I hope to write a blog post often. My time is very precious but I will try. Thank you all for your prayers. 

Here are a few pictures of when we got home and started to unpack.