Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

And what a great day to give thanks indeed. Let's review shall we?

• I am thankful to God for inviting me on this exciting adventure, in a place where I learn new things everyday.
• I am thankful for the challenges that navigating this new world/life/culture has brought me. Even though the challenging moments abound compared to what life was like pre-Benin, I am thankful that God has offered me an opportunity to be undeniably (and unavoidably) vulnerable, and to grow in many, many ways.
• I am thankful for a host family that makes me feel embraced and valued, and who are endlessly patient to match my seemingly endless learning curve. They encouraged me when I wrapped my first pagne (that wrap skirt I keep talking about), they join when I spring into the kitchen dancing, they ask me "have you meditated on the Word today?" In short, they remind me that I am not in this alone. And for crying out loud, my host mom understands my craving for a cold salad once in a while.
• I am thankful for my co-workers, who are willing to patiently work to understand where I'm coming from, even if I've "misplaced" my patience. They value the person that I am, and they are interesting in getting to know that person. They have shared their yams and porridge, helped me run errands (I don't know how I would have navigated the immigration office by myself), valued my input, and they don't give me special or preferential treatment (which gets old really fast if you're a white person in Africa, believe it or not). They even ate the mystery "cake" that I put in front of them without questioning (read on, and you shall see...)
• I am thankful for the work I get to do here, which combines the skills God has given me with an equal number of skills that I didn't know existed or that I actually had, but I guess that's a nice surprise! I also have to laugh because this is not my first job that has brought me inadvertently close to a lot of strangers' weddings (although that's not all that my job entails, it may or may not be my favorite part).
• I am thankful that God has provided a place to live which will also keep me in close contact with my host family--my apartment is above their house! I am looking forward to being more independent in my new living situation.
• I am thankful for you, because you have taken the time to read my blog, and many of my readers have also prayed and taken the time to send encouraging messages, which absolutely makes my day!
• I am also thankful for the cool breeze that is coming in the window right now, which makes me forget how hot it is and that the power is out. And for ceiling fans. And air conditioning. Let's be honest.

Can I just tell you about my week?? :D

Guys, it happened. I made pumpkin pie from scratch. My host family was baffled when I tried to pronounce the French word for "pumpkin" (in my defense, they still didn't know it when I wrote it out on paper). But when I googled a picture to show them, my host mom said "Ah, I know a market that sells that!" So on Sunday after church, she took me in her car, and I bought three little pumpkins.

My host family doesn't have an oven, but my co-worker Carole had invited me to come to her house on Monday night to use hers. So after work, I gathered my ingredients and we got to work.

I had never made a pumpkin pie before but the process was pretty straight-forward. I didn't expect to break such a sweat while peeling the pumpkins, but I'll blame that on the heat. It helped to have Carole, Vivienne, Carole's aunt Lily, and Carole's two children to lend a hand. To be quite honest I had no idea whether the pie was going to turn out or crash and burn, but it just felt really good to be making the effort. Without American measuring cups and only a sliver of baking experience that would be relevant for the task ahead, we prettymuch estimated all of the measurements, and I tried to say "That looks about right" with as much false confidence as I could.

Well a few hours after we started, we pulled out a couple of "about right"-looking pies from the oven, and I don't know about Carole, but I was dying with anticipation to taste it and see if it had worked, but we had to wait until the next day, when we would share it with the rest of the Wycliffe office.

Across from me is Carole's aunt Lily

DONE!!

Carole and I and the finished product :)

"Kate has brought a special cake to share with everyone," was the announcement made before the coffee break the next day. If I'm perfectly honest, I was so anxious to see if it had turned out right, I didn't even wait to see if anyone else had taken a bite before I tasted my piece. In hindsight, perhaps that was "gauche", but since I really didn't know if the recipe had worked, I'd say the "taking the first bite to check for poison" excuse was pretty valid in this situation, wouldn't you?

Anyway, they really liked it! Ugh, GUYS, I could have cried, I was so pleased! I smuggled a portion home for my host family to enjoy, too :)

They like it!! (Olivier, me, Paulin, and Yvon) 

The other exciting piece of news is that my new apartment is finished! I have been ready to move into a bigger and more independent space for a while. But I had a strong feeling that before I even slept there, I should first invite friends over to pray for the apartment, to commission it as a sanctuary for the time I am here and for its future tenants (because it will probably be used for future Wycliffe interns and visitors). So on Thursday of this week, a number of my co-workers took a field trip out to my finished apartment, where we prayed and prayed for God's blessings to rest on that place and for his Spirit to fill it up.

I felt very lucky to have such amazing co-workers, who went out of their way in the middle of the day to do something so special for me. :) Here is a photo of almost everyone that made it (Paulin and Oliver were taking the pictures)

Daniel, Papa Tebe, Carole, me (can you tell I tried to dress for Thanksgiving?), Mathieu, Gerard, and Lucas 

Carole and me

Paulin said, "Let's get a picture of the Wycliffe Benin Multimedia Department!"

That's all for November, friends. Thank you again for your prayers and support. Here are a few more prayer requests:

Please continue to pray for this organization, that God would continue to inspire every work we undertake, and that he would continue to guard us against any conflict and misunderstanding.

You can pray for me, because that God would continue to push me further, and keep me motivated and patient, especially with myself.

Please continue to pray for translation projects in progress around Benin.

Pray for safe travels for my host mother Martine, as she was visiting family in northern Benin and will be heading home this weekend, perhaps today.

Blessings to each of you this holiday season!