it's a ...

BOY!! That's right ladies & gents, we are having ourselves a little boy! His name will be Luke Cleveland Phillips. To give a little background on the name, we decided early on that we wanted our children to know where their names came from. So we agreed that we would give each child one Biblical name and one family name. Isabelle's name comes from my great-grandmother and Ruth, of course, comes from the Bible. For Luke, his first name obviously is the Biblical name and his middle name is from my great-grandfather. Mark likes to think that we named him Luke so he can say, "Luuuuke, I am your faaaaaather." Others may think that we are now "completing the Gospels," so to speak, in Mark's family with his brother & nephew being named Jon & Matthew. Nope, as cute as both of those are, those didn't factor in with the name at all.

People have also been asking us are we excited? scared? Yes & yes! Yes we are excited to have another child but we are also scared because this is another responsibility on our hands. Let me clarify that a little further ... another God given responsibility on our hands to make sure this little fella grows in the wisdom & stature of the Lord. That's a heavy responsibility & one we don't take lightly. So, naturally, it sometimes scares us to think of having not one, but two, children to raise!

In terms of the boy factor, we are both excited & scared, too. When we found out that we were pregnant with Isabelle, Mark was terrified! He didn't know a thing about girls or girly stuff - playing with dolls, dressing up, putting bows in hair, etc, etc. It was all new territory for him. But as soon as he held her in his arms, he was in love and he now knows the wonderful gift of a Daddy/daughter relationship. So it is with me & this boy thing. I am excited, of course, but scared too. The whole cars, trucks, mud & guns thing is all new territory for me. I don't think "blue," I think "pink." But it doesn't mean that I'm not excited, as I think some people have misunderstood me. It's just new territory for me & a new adventure, but one I'm very excited to embark upon.

My sister thinks I'm weird for thinking like this but, let me just tell you, boys & girls are VERY different! VERY. Isabelle has never shot pee across the room or my face, for one. After being in student ministry for 6 years, I know, know, know there are vast differences. Us ladies liked to go have coffee or sit inside the house & chat til 4 am. We liked to get dressed up & paint our nails and our idea of being adventurous was toilet papering someone's house, all the while giggling uncontrollably about it because we were so scared of getting caught. Mark & the fellas, on the other hand, would be outside making up games with soccer balls, throwing small balls of flame or shooting pellets at each other, having pizza eating contests at Cici's or daring each other to down an entire bowl of pico de gallo at Puerto Vallarta. Fancy coffee, inside, nails, chit chatting - that's me. Flame ball, eating contests, not much on talking - this is the new adventure I'm in for!

that's my girl

I'm sure these might find their way onto Izzy's blog but they were too cute for a proud dad to pass up.

Enjoy

There have been many moments in my life I've thought "oh man, if I'd just had a video camera to capture that moment for all time!" Thankfully, I don't have to say that about this moment...




Thanks Richard and Shawn for a great week of ministry! We had a blast and the people of Ayorou will remember you forever!

Richard and Shawn

Living Hope has been such a unique partner with our ministry in Ayorou. They first came in 2007 and helped as we laid a foundation of prayer. A team then came in 2008 and was part of our mass seed-sowing effort. Now, in 2009 they've sent two teams to disciple our believers. Richard was part of the 2008 team and couldn't believe how much a village could change in one year!

The guys did an awesome job and our believers were faithful to attend the sessions. Living day to day means they literally left everything to come and hear these lessons about their new faith.

As the pictures will show, these guys got to experience Ayorou in all of its glory!

Richard and Shawn got to see and even work a little on Ibrahim's millet farm.


The guys taught 2 lessons each day. Our believers came anxious to learn. They then went out each afternoon alongside Richard and Shawn to distribute cassettes in their areas of town.


We had 7 people pray to receive Christ during the week. These were all fruit from our believers sharing with their families and friends.


On their last night, Hamsatou cooked a delicious meal for all of our believers.


"hmmm, there's probably no amoebas in there...right?"


What trip to Ayorou isn't complete without meeting Nadia, the queen of Ayorou.


The Songhai men hold hands as a sign of friendship, 3 years later and it still creeps me out but Shawn said this was his favorite part of the culture.


Richard and Shawn showing Ibrahim how they roll in the BG!


Richard and Shawn with Hamsatou


At the river with some of our male believers after a baptism.


Richard said something about how American donkeys were so much cooler than Ayorou donkeys. One thing led to another....


The trip ended with a giraffe visit.

farming

This year I've been able to go to the farm with Ibrahim multiple times each week. Our friendship has grown so much during this time as we spend 4-5 hours working and talking. Thanks to cassettes and an amazing tool called the Proclaimer, we have listened to many books of the New Testament while we worked.
Farming here looks like it did centuries ago. It is hard and slow work during the hottest months of the year. Here's some pics from the farm.


This is the before picture. One day of work would usually clear an area 3-4 times the size of this little patch.


This is the after picture. Using a 6-8 inch spade-like blade on the end of a long stick, the entire farm is plowed 2-3 times.


These are our on-the-site job inspectors. Parker brought her friend Houray (Ibrahim's wife) and their daughter Nafisa for a surprise inspection!


Ibrahim and I received a B+ for our work. This was enough for us to strike a pose!

August Newsletter

isabelle's big announcement

That's right ladies & gents ... Isabelle is going to be a big sister on or around February 25, 2010. The Phillips family is going from 3 to 4. Izzy's little bro or sis is already a very active little thing. We went to have an ultrasound done yesterday and he/she was moving around so much that the doctor couldn't get a good reading to hear the heart beat. We, however, were okay with this because we saw for ourselves that we've got a healthy baby on the way ... following in his/her sister's footsteps!

living hope ... back again!

We love, love, love having our home church come to visit. They have seen the entire process of what has happened in Ayorou & been a vital part of all of it. They helped us lay the groundwork of prayerwalking all the Songhai areas of Ayorou. They came back to help us evangelize those areas. And after many have come to faith since their last visit, they returned in June to help us in discipling these new believers. They were a blessing to us & our believers.

The week started off to a rocky start with Isabelle being hospitalized due to anemia. Izzy & I had to stay back in Niamey for most of their stay which meant all the cooking responsibilities were heaped on Mark plus his other duties. Luckily, I had done some prep work in cooking ahead of time and all the team had to worry about were the sides or fixin's. They were so flexible & understanding of our situation & went above & beyond to help out. The week really couldn't have gone any better.

It is always "scary" to do disciple trips with a volunteer team. With evangelism, you are hitting different houses each day & you visit whomever may be home. With discipleship, you are asking the same group of people to meet more than once a day for multiple days. In a "schedule free" culture, this has proven difficult more times than not. However, our believers were so committed to coming & studying the Word together. Again, the week could not have gone better. Thank you so much Living Hope!


Joneo, Dwan, Mary Beth & Amanda


Yeah for Living Hope!


Joneo & his African Christian brothers


The ladies helped prepare a traditional African meal for our believers during their last evening in Ayorou. They did everything from cutting the meat to chopping the veggies to cleaning the rice to pounding the spices. And if you know any of the team members, you would understand just how much out of their comfort zone this is ... especially handling the meat! Mary Beth adds the pumpkin to the sauce before ...


...Joneo gives it a taste test...


...the ladies dishing it out...


...the finished product...


...and it is gooooooood!


Of course, after eating one must dance!

baptisms

We baptized 5 believers this past week. Many of you prayed for Hamstitou to come to faith in Christ and rejoiced with us when, this past February, she joined our family! However, she has a real fear of the river and was waiting for the rains to fill up this giant trash hole behind her house. Parker, however, has a real fear of that giant trash hole. So, we dug a hole in our yard, put some plastic down, and a couple of trips to the river later and viola!


It was a sweet time as Parker baptized her friend Hamstitou who then baptized her friend Houray (Ibrahim's wife) who then baptized her oldest daughter Maryama.


Houray baptizing her daughter Maryama.



Hama then baptized his friend also named Hama.

too cute

I think Parker will post this pic with a similar one on Izzy's blog but i'm here posting blogs tonight and this was too cute for daddy to pass up.