Actually in Africa!!

Yep, I’m in Benin! Crazy!!!! Me – the girl who thought she would never go overseas!!! Never say never!! Haha! We got here safe and sound at 10:30pm on Feb. 11. What a journey, but I’ll start at the beginning...

We all met at the airport at 5am on Wednesday. It was definitely hard saying goodbye (and I miss my family and friends already!) but there was also a level of excitement knowing that this day was already here!
All our plane rides went well! Both our flights going to Paris and Benin were delayed ( 1 hour delay to Paris, 2.5 hour delay to Benin) but we were safe and healthy the whole way and all our luggage arrived with us in Benin!!! Yay!! Huge answer to prayer! So I got to go on the biggest plane I’ve ever been on and have my first airplane meal! (And airplane food really isn’t that bad!) One thing that was very ironic was that it was below 0 and snowing in Paris and then when we got off the plane in Benin, we walked into a wall of heat!!

Yes, it is very very hot here!!! But all our bedrooms have air conditioning (which we try not to use too much because it costs money) and we have a huge (but very loud) fan in our sitting room. Oh yeah, speaking of our apartment, it is actually a lot nicer than I was expecting! I was trying not to expect anything because we weren’t sure what it was actually going to be like. But it is a nice apartment with a sitting and eating area, a kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 2 washrooms. And it was fully furnished when we got here – we were expecting to have to buy some furniture. We seemed to have a pet cockroach in Jamie’s room. We had a 3 day long battle with him, which consisted of him hiding and us trying to find him, then on Saturday night Jamie and I found him!! But we had to call in Janna as our reinforcement because apparently Jamie and I are both kinda afraid of getting too close to a cockroach! Ha! But then when I went to my room, I found a cockroach in my computer bag!! So we had another battle but again, WE WON!!! But God really has given us such a nice place!!

On Friday, we ran a bunch of errands and went grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is kinda overwhelming when it is not in your first language and there are really different products to choose from. But it also gave us a lot of laughs (for example, we thought our apples were going to cost $90 Canadian because we totally misinterpreted their pricing system!).

We went to church on Sunday morning. It was held in French and in Fong (a tribal language) so we couldn’t understand all of it but it was fun just to be there and watch! The people of that church definitely have a passion for God and it was inspiring to worship with them!
After church, we met with the team that has been doing DRIME since May (when DRIME came here on a missions trip). Everyone introduced themselves and Jamie and I did our best to speak French and translate for Janna. And we were able to share our vision for what this DRIME team will look like by the time we leave. It will be interesting to see how this team adjusts to become more like DRIME and who steps forward as leaders. Our first practice with them is next Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for all your prayers!! We have definitely felt them all!! If you could continue to pray for continued health and safety and for me to be more confident with my French, that would be greatly appreciated!!

We won’t be able to get to an Internet cafe too often, but I do want to update you as much as I can!! So I’ll talk to you later!