Simplice's Big News

Soleil has a new leki (younger sibling)!  Simplice, one of our Koyamba Team members was unable to play a real part in hosting this last team.  She had a good excuse, though, because she was busy having a baby!  Samuel Kongba was born on May 21st and is Simplice and her husband's first child.     

Simplice with her son in their living room



Samuel was born over a month ahead of schedule but at a healthy 6.4 lbs

With Simplica 4 days after Samuel's birth

May 2012 Newsletter is hot off the presses! 

The May Team just arrived this Monday night and will be with us until the beginning of June.  They spent the morning visiting Global Fingerprints orphans in the area and this afternoon will visit a couple more and then go on a tour of Gemena.

We are praising God for an absolutely wonderful conference at Brackenhurst outside of Nairobi, Kenya.  It wrapped up this past Sunday morning.  We are now in Bangui again, planning on crossing the border tomorrow back into Congo.  Our return has been somewhat (and unfortunately) eventful as Soleil got sick the day we left Brackenhurst and is finishing up a malaria cure.  None of our three pieces of baggage made it on the plane with us so we ended up spending 2 1/2 days in Bangui without a change of clothes.  But Soleil is back to normal and  all of our luggage made it here today so we are all clear to return to Gemena.  We have a lot to be thankful for.

Ndako na Biso--Our House

Here's a brief slideshow of photos taken in our home at ELIKYA.  The blue and black trunks that appear throughout betray the temporary nature of the accommodations but they have been more than sufficient and much better than first expected, honestly.  With only two months in our assignment remaining it will soon be time to bid our home adieu and move on.  Following our departure, one side of the duplex will probably be occupied by an SIL missionary and the other side possibly converted to an office for ELIKYA staff.

Soleil and Junior

Soleil and Junior

"What is this thing?"

Back in January while the teams were still with us, we bought a young pangolin.  My family had one as a pet when I was growing up and I remembered it being pretty fun.  We kept it inside two baskets that were bungeed together.  During the day we'd let it climb around in a nearby guava tree to look for ants or in the rambutan tree right behind our house.  After about a day it got pretty friendly, to the point where it would follow us and climb up our legs if we allowed it.  One afternoon we supervised a game of tag in which the pangolin (we called him Junior) was chasing Soleil around back behind the guesthouse and Soleil would run a short ways, turn around to see if he was still coming then run some more.  Unfortunately, Junior loosed his bonds one afternoon when he was tied up on our back porch while we were busy with the team and when we returned he was nowhere to be found.  He made for a good time, though, for the few days we had him.