Souvenirs and Houseguests

On Wednesday, we went to a souvenir place with a couple of our friends. There were dozens of little shops where you could get all sorts of wooden carvings, jewellery, paintings and many, many other things!! We all got some really nice souvenirs!! It was a little crazy because some of the shop owners can be a bit aggressive and they would keep pushing items at us. One lady come up to me and kept asking me to come see her shop and she said she had great prices for me. I tried to walk away but she kept following me!! I have such a hard time with bartering and pushy sales people because I can have a really hard time saying no or just leaving while they are still trying to talk to me. But you have to do that!! So it is definitely stretching for me!! :) But it was lots of fun to look through things and find some more awesome souvenirs!!

Wednesday was also exciting because Michele and Abby arrived here in the evening!! Michele is on staff with DRIME and works a lot with missions trips and base plants, and after Michele and I leave in a week, Abby will stay here in Benin for the remaining 2 months. (As you probably know, the DRIME Benin base plant is 5 months long but I could only stay for 3 months so Abby is finishing the last 2.) It was sooo fun to see familiar faces from Canada and be able to actually show them where and how we have been living for the past 3 months! And they brought a whole bunch of stuff from home – stuff that we have been missing and stuff that our families and friends sent for us! It was literally like Christmas!!! I couldn’t believe how much stuff they pulled out of their bags for us!! Thanks to everyone who sent goodies or letters to us!! We appreciate them sooooo much!!

Even though I was soooo excited to see Michele and Abby, it was a tad sad to start this stage of my Benin journey because it means that I will be leaving in a week!! And like I said in my blog last week, my heart is definitely in 2 different places now so even though I’m going back to one of these places, it means that I am leaving the other one behind. But I definitely wouldn’t trade this experience for anything!! I have loved it sooo much and feel sooo blessed to have had this opportunity!! I’m excited to share stories and pictures when I get back!! I hope all my family and friends in Langley are prepared to hear A LOT about Benin over the next month or so!! :)

Prayer Requests and Praise Items
o We are still healthy and safe!! Thank you Jesus!!
o Pray that everyone who has expressed interest in DRIME at our recruiting times will stay interested and join the team in June
o Pray for all of us as we transition this week – pray that Abby would quickly adjust to life in Benin; pray that I would adjust quickly and smoothly to life back home and feel a peace about leaving; pray for Jamie and Janna as they adjust to new team dynamics
o Please pray that my last week in Benin will be an amazing end to this experience and I will be able to fit in everything that I want to do before I go