time to go...

We are two weeks from leaving, I am sitting on Pam and Barry's porch as the sky grows darker and the pinks and yellows fade.  There are no malaria carrying mosquitos consuming us, just a calico cat curled up on the chair nearby.  This place is beautiful and we love it.  

We have seen many of our friends and family and visited only a few churches, and we still need to do so much before we go.  Two weeks from tonight we are back on the airplane headed for Freetown and the friends we have made there.

Tomorrow Katey and I will head south to Indianapolis for dinner with Andy and KJ and little Lucy before we meet Dorothy at the airport.  Randy, Jesse and Mongo will be heading north to pack the combine into the container in Marlette MI.  After that we head back to Xenia, and we hope to find That Guy in Springfield on Friday if he will write!

waiting for a container and news

We spent the month of November waiting for our first container... and now we are trying to hurry up and make another shipment to Sierra Leone of our farm equipment (thanks to the sale proceeds from Prince of Peace) and medical supplies for Mattru hospital.

How many ways do you know how to spell "crazy"!?!

Do go ahead and pray! We can see a busy two weeks ahead of us, then back to Sierra Leone and a busy three or four months... or more!

MIchigan is fast becoming a favorite!

OK, Indiana will always have my heart, and Ohio is a place I lived for 10 years and the kids went to school and we made lots of friends, but Michigan is just so cool!  And by that I mean temperature!  There are lots of supporting churches in MI, but every time we drive up here the weather is just so great!

Yes, I know it sounds so very shallow to always talk about weather, but the cool nights mean I can sleep, and the cool days are just plain refreshing.  I am enjoying it, and enjoying so much of all that we have done the past 5 days.  We landed late on June 9th, so I barely count that day, all the "action" started the 10th, and since then we have seen a couple of our Dr.s and LOTS of our friends.  Linda has let her house be overrun with Fennigs and their ilk, all three of the residents of their household have graciously handled us spreading stuff out all over (Grandma knows what that is like) and using all their hot water.  And the food we go through in three days would feed their household for a month!

Now we are looking at some old used combines in MI, the time with the POP folks having energized us on the progress on the project in Waima.  By Wednesday we need to be in IN for our Dr. appointments on Thursday.  We will get back onto the internet as soon as possible, but we wanted to update and tell you all that all is well, ... "all will be well, and all manner of things will be well".  With overflowing joy and gratitude

Back in Ohio

Hello any who come out here and look to see what is happening!  We are back in Ohio for a short visit and we will be able to connect up to the internet more frequently now, even my e-mail will work for the time we are here!

So if you want to contact us, it is possible now!  Have a fabulous June! Ours will be really busy, but it is nice to be here.

Living with electricity again!

Greetings from hot and sunny Sierra Leone, where the tilting of the earth from winter to summer in the Northern Hemisphere means we have very direct sunlight overhead most days, and so our solar power collectors are happy and productive! We have two of our three triads up and running (the third is not up yet due to time constraints for Randy, no system problems, just only so much he can do in a week!)

January had us without any external power... that was a throw back to the days of living in Beira! But then we got one triad up, and TECT has had lots of expensive work done on the ancient generator, so we are back to living with electricity off our battery bank... it is so nice! You just don't know how much three hours of power means until you do not have even that! By early February he got the second triad up and collecting all that good sunlight, and so we are actually able to connect up to the internet and use a fan to cool off our computer!

I will try to send this, updating from here in Jui has not been possible before, but we will be trying to use this website more now that the power situation is better. We trust you are having fun watching the world head into spring up North... we are eager for the rains but know that means reduced power collection, so everything has a down side to it!

Blessings on you as you live to be a blessing to others! Toni for three Fennigs in SL, for now!

leaving South Africa

Thank you each and every one who has been praying for this past 10 days!

The Doctor visits were very profitable, Katey has been diagnosed with a vitamin B deficiency, and I needed the immune system booster (not her!)  Also,  I got my teeth fixed for a whole lot less than the costs of the same procedures in America.  Katey delivered her paper on "code switching", ask her if you need to know more!

And we had three miracles back to back in the Cape Town airport early this morning, then an extra one thrown in just in case I was not paying attention!  I will elaborate if you need it, but it will probably be the subject of our next prayer letter!

At this moment I am sitting near a plug place, charging my computer after a "real" lunch (airPORT restaurant food, not airPLANE food!)  I need to stay awake until I board the plane to Ghana, only three more hours to go and then I have only 24 hours after that until  I am back home in Jui!

I know North America is very cold right now, so if you want to warm up come visit us in Jui! It is always hot there and now that we have the container we have things for caring for visitors! Randy has had some kind of vehicle break-down, so prayers for him and the Toyota would be in order!  All of your prayers are so appreciated and vital to our work here!  Thank you, and have the most blessed Christmas of your life!

all sorts of good news

The container arrived twelve weeks after we did, and I left the same day they began to unload!  I spent most of yesterday on airplanes and in airports going from Freetown to Accra, Ghana, then on to Johannesburg and finally to Cape Town, South Africa.  Katey is here for the week, she has a paper to present at a linguistics conference next week.  I have Doctor's appointments for next week, and we have the time together. It is worth 42 hours of travel to see my Katey girl!

Meantime, Randy is working on the tractor, there is a slight problem, but he will work it out (farm boys do!)  I still have trouble sending the e-mails from my rfennig.com account out, I can get them in, but they do not send.

But for the next week I am connected to the outside world in a new and wonderful way! Thank you for your prayers.