Hello from Africa!

At the half way point of Lauren's trip they took the teams to a town called Zinder to swim in a pool, eat in a restaurant and sleep in a bed (woo hoo!) this was Lauren's message after that weekend of R and R 

ZInder was great. We got there Friday afternoon and went straight to
the pool. We were the only ones there. It looked a lot like a high
school pool. There was also a tennis and basketball court. We wore
bathing suits and shorts and ran around and drank soda all afternoon.
It was marvelous! We then walked across the street and all 25 of us
(we had some extras with us) sat outside the restaurant since we
couldn't all fit inside. I ate chicken in "some kind of sauce" and
french fries. And we had "ice cream" which was really more like frozen
cool whip for dessert. It was good but everyone ate too much and paid for it later.
Saturday we went to the tourist souvenir shops which were the nicest
buildings in Zinder.  We ate lunch and then headed back to Matamey. We had
our weekly movie night saturday evening and then church on Sunday. We
have Hausa church on Greg and Laura's front porch on Sunday mornings.
Last week was high attendance. There were like 5 Hausa grown ups.
Unfortunately half of them were there because they thought they would
get medicine. And then on Sunday evenings we have English church.
We had a 2 hour and 45 minute sermon on marriage. 
This week was our first long week in the village. It still went by
pretty fast. It was a good week and one of the women that we have
befriended told Britney (one of the journeymen that had come to visit
our village) that she understood that Jesus was someone important and
that He was the reason that we were in the village playing the tapes.
Believe it or not that is a huge break through. Her name is Marriama
and of all the women she understands the tapes and retains the most
information. This week we were able to walk to a few of the
surrounding villages and share tapes with some new people. It was
exciting to see some new faces.
Lunch is ready. We are eating white rice with pumpkin sauce ( a spicy
red sauce that is a combination of tomato paste, onions and pumpkin
with some kind of brown meat in it) It is really good! 
(I had asked Lauren if she could "feel" all the people praying for her and this was her response)
oh and yes I can definitely feel peoples prayers mom! I will tell you
more about that when we can talk. I am trying to take a lot of pictures, but I have to be careful because the Africans get a little crazy when we pull out our
cameras. They all want their picture taken and they start getting
aggressive the more pictures you take. But dont worry, I am taking
lots of pictures when I can.

(We are on vacation at the beach and on Sunday, July 3rd, Charlie, Morgan, Brian and I were sitting on the balcony having a short devotion when Charlie's phone rang and it was LAUREN!! Calling from the missionaries phone in Africa (not sure how much that call cost but it was worth every dollar). Hearing her voice after 6 weeks of being gone with little communication was such a wonderful blessing. We all passed the phone around and tried to ask different "intelligent" questions but I was so excited to just hear her voice that I couldn't think clearly. Needless to say I thought of all kinds of things to ask once we had hung up. At one point in the conversation there was a lot of commotion in the background and Lauren said they were letting the African children back in the yard. The children love hanging out in the missionaries yard and would be there 24/7 if allowed. So every day for a few hours in the afternoon the guard runs them all out so the family can have some private time. They play just beyond the gate and wait to get back in as soon as possible. Morgan wanted to see if she had a "Hausa accent" :) after being there this long but she sounded the same. Morgan also asked her about animals she had seen and she said that on her way from Niamey the bus had to stop for a "giraffe crossing". Pretty much like our "deer crossings" but a giraffe would do a lot more damage to your vehicle and they are easier to see coming. They were getting ready for a Fourth of July celebration before they headed back to their villages. The following email was received on Fri. July 8th.

Hello all! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July celebration. We enjoyed our American fiesta. We had a pinata and a water balloon fight. We ate delicious fajitas, quesadillas, hummus, and funfetti cupcakes. It was fun, but not quite the same as our traditional barbecue. We had a good week in the village this week. Each week seems to go by faster. Today, we came in early to help with the medical clinic Laura has at her house every Friday. It is always pretty crazy. They open the doors at 9, but people from villages all around Matamey walk here before sunrise to get in "line". There are probably over 300 people that come through the doors every Friday. It sounds like an emotional scene, but so many of the Africans are extremely pushy and greedy so it makes it hard to accomplish your mission.  Many of them just tell you that everything hurts so they can get a bunch of medicine to take back to their village and sell. It is not unusual for Laura to have to break up fights. She is an amazing woman to put all of this on. It is difficult to organize anything around here, but she keeps everyone in line. The people that want medicine have to get here early to get in line. They give their name to Alfa the guard who lets ten people in at a time. They hear a bible story in Hausa and then someone prays for them and they get to go to the porch where they sit and tell Laura everything that is wrong. Usually they just get vitamins, maybe some tylenol and they're sent on their way. It is amazing how if one person says something hurts and they get medicine for it, all of them magically have the same problem. There are some cases of people who really need medical attention and are honestly seeking help for them or their baby. I dont mean to sound cynical in all of this, but just letting you see that missions, especially medical clinics aren't always so glamorous or feel good. 
I can not believe there are only 2 weeks left. It feels like I have been here forever, but the time goes by so fast. I have been looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone and enjoying the American way of  life. 

c,./.nbgvccc;zaX          xzX  zx
That was a message from Maggi the two year old. I am in charge of  babysitting on Fridays.

I have loved every moment of being here in Africa. It is a really hard place to live and I greatly respect Laura and Greg for their persistence. I can not wait to come home and share stories and pictures and hear all about y'alls summers.

Please continue to pray that the gospel will be clear through us and that nothing will hinder the spread of God's love as we serve the Hausa people. Also please pray that in these final days we will be able to take advantage of every opportunity we have left to share the gospel.