Hey Mamas...

 I love going to pray for the mothers and their new babies! And by that I mean holding the babies and gushing to the moms until I remember that I came to pray.

Happy mother's day to all the mamas around the world!

can you spot two wee ones in this photo? sometimes it's like where's waldo.
oh my goodness, small human by my feet.

such pretty mamas!

and such young mamas!

proud grandma.

may i just say that getting photos without women's
breastfeeding goods out was quite the miracle....cuz they are hanging EVERYWHERE in this hospital.

this one is minutes old!! helped push her out with my gloved hands!
c-sections always blow my mind...like oh cool, the doc is doing some cuts...then all of a sudden...OH MY LANTA, WHAT THE WHAT?! there's a child in there?!?! i repeat, there is a baby in there!!!
 all happens so fast. gets me every time.

God Hands Out Benadryl

What I  am about to tell you will shock you right out of your pants and into a Nigerien skirt…

IT.RAINED.HERE. DOWNPOUR.

What the what?!?! After seven months of this dusty, cracking, thirsty land, I didn’t think this place ever saw any drops of rain. I stand corrected, my friends.

As you can imagine, it was a screaming, dancing, running, wet, muddy free for all (no, I was not the only one participating, your assumptions offend me…and no, Chel, I did not streak [self-control never ceases to surprise me]).

I’m so glad I mentioned my 3 am-on-the-ground-naked-and-rashy-too much information-all-nighter yesterday so that we could all better understand how much that rain felt like grace.

That being said, pray, that Niger’s rainy season actually brings rain and that the soil actually drinks it up and produces a crop, for our world‘s poorest and starving people. Lord, You see them.

Until then, hello to you, 24 hours of cooler air and a breeze.  Slept like a drugged out cat last night…God handed me Benadryl.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:16. ...rain down on Niger!

Sorry, can't talk, scratching my scalp

I look like shizah.

Seriously, the heat has declared war on my skin.

My face and neck and back are freaking out. Rash on my stomach. My legs are expressing their disgust for being covered in sweat and yet smothered by my skirt 24/7 with  in an itchy, bumpy layer. I would say I have lice but I think the incessant itch on my scalp is from my head also being suffocated by long, missionary hair and head wraps in never ending 110 degree temps (Should I shave it?! Go big or go home?!).

Not exactly walking around singing “Sexy Can I” (oh the days of Ray J).

But the good news is I don’t feel like shiznits. I mean other than being more tired, moving in slow motion, and looking like a sweaty heap, my spirit is doing prettay good and God is for sure doing a daily work on the whole purify my heart thang (so it's definitely looking way more attractive than my neck…).

1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord looks on the heart...not on the heat rash.


Why am I telling you about my skin shenanigans at 3 am after already blogging?? Too hot and rashy to sleep. Safe to say hot season has hit, peoples.

too many potatoes

You buy some potatoes from the trader….they want you to buy two more bags of potatoes…oh, wait, now all of a sudden the bag costs three times as much…and they have lots of children at home…and it’s hot and they need to sell this for food…and I’m lost in figuring out the numbers and the truth and all of a sudden I have four bags of potatoes and no money…what the heck am I gonna do with all these potatoes?!?!

And then I say “thank you” in Haussa and “for robbing me” in English and walk away.

I don’t really know what is too much sometimes. Lord knows the beloved woman who sells fruit every Monday really is dying quickly (unlike the other traders)…so yes, I often gladly spend more on less.

But God’s been teaching me that giving more than I have is not the boundary problem (APPARENTLY, God likes to stretch us)…it‘s the gladly that becomes the problem. Not usually with money (good thing I raised support so it‘s your money…eh, eh??) but He’s been whispering that saying “yes” to giving time or service doesn’t work if my heart is screaming “no, I don’t want to!”

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

Never thought that verse could refer to giving time or service, did I?! So Lord let my “no” honor You and refresh me when my heart is too reluctant to speak a faithful yes. And let my “yes” be full of the honest and cheerful generosity that You dig!

(Luckily, it wasn’t just potatoes today…mango season, babay…that’s a cheerful “aw yea-uh!”).

Pillow Talkin

I had a “bad hot day” yesterday.  Vented the heck out about it to God last night in my bed (may have also been because I was sentenced to drink the potion of death, also known as Oral Rehydration Salts, to make a final break from the intimate relationship me and my toilet been having…).

Woke up this morning with laughing women cutting a monster pile of onions and garlic outside my door, rams being slaughtered in my neighbor’s yard, and festivities on the court across from my house. Got to eat ram intestines and participate in an African women booty shakin’ congo line (how DO they shake it without looking skanky??...this young grasshopper has much to learn here).

The Big Dad certainly knows how to cheer me up. No, seriously, congo lines and intestines, my kinda pick up…I now appreciate our pillow talk even more knowing that Someone's got the next day down, over, and out.

The left-right-left action...think that's how they do it??

Victory Dance

The kindergartener I was working with READS!!…whoop, whoop!!!..whoop, whoop!!!

Sometimes I pretend to pass out  from excitement after he reads sight words, one day I hope to actually pass out. Who knew my heart would rejoice over a child remembering things like "th" and "sh" and “ing”.  I didn’t believe it was true, but somehow teaching kids the alphabet sounds in the beginning of the year  gradually leads to reading at the end of the year?!?!…that‘s ACTUALLY how it works?!?!

So proud of that lil man.

Galmi Warriors

A newcomer mentioned how coming here you realize how overly comfortable it is at home.

There are the smaller annoyance (the first world problems)…where if it's not one thing it‘s another… If the mosquitoes aren’t waking you up, your sweat or dehydration is.  If your water starts to work, your water nozzle might start electrocuting you (this weekend’s problem). If you’re not sick with somethin' this month…don't worry, it’ll get cha next month.

But the worst ‘what if’s’ happen to those who serve here as well.  A family member is extremely sick and across the ocean. There are severe car accident injuries because of donkey carts. Daily, patients' lives are fought for and they still die. Too many dead babies and oppressed women are seen.

God isn't messing around when He calls someone to Galmi, that's fo sure. What missionaries persevere through here constantly amazes me.

“There is a place set aside in the Spirit where we make the enemy confused.


We weary him by our rest.
We discourage him by our faith.
We demoralize him with our joy.
We depress him by our endurance.
He is dispirited by our favor,
Defeated by our grace.


Warriors know that JESUS reigns.”
(Graham Cooke)

I live among some real warriors. There’s no t.v. show or shopping item or binge eating or getting away with friends to make you feel better, you stay sustained by looking to Him. People whisper Jesus’ name for comfort. They pray in His name for power.  Troubled hearts are constantly being lifted to the Son of God.

I had a picture of Galmi on earth…where there was difficulty and grieving hearts and sleepless nights. And then I had a picture of the same Galmi with spiritual eyes…where lights were flashing and swords were slashing as the hearts of these servant warriors conquered the enemy, simply by refreshing themselves in Jesus.