Light of Togo

Making Progress
As I have mentioned in previous letters, I am currently devoting the majority of my time to studying Kabiye.  Just about two weeks ago, I finally felt like all this studying is starting to pay off as I began forming simple sentences.  What’s unfortunate is that the Kabiye people assume this means that I will understand anything they say.  That is definitely not the case!

Health Concerns
Over a week ago, we noticed a gland under Joshua’s right ear starting to swell and become painful for him.  After seven days, two doctor visits, a blood test, a throat culture, and speaking with an American doctor on the phone, we were still baffled and the swelling was getting worse.  Finally we talked to another doctor on the phone who gave us a good indication of what it might be and how to treat it.  That was two days ago, and since then he has been doing much better.

We are pretty sure that it was a bacterial infection of some sort.  It is definitely a test of faith at times living in a place where you can’t drive 15 minutes to the nearest fully-equipped hospital.  We are very thankful that God directed us to speak with the right people at the right time.  It’s good to have the energetic old Joshua back!

Today is Joshua’s 7th birthday!  On Monday, we had a party for him and all his friends.  They made tie-dye shirts, did an obstacle course, and of course ate plenty of cake and ice cream!  It’s hard to believe that “our little baby” is already seven years old!

Incidentally, February 3rd also marks the day we left America to come here.  We are amazed that it’s already been one full year since we moved to Togo.  The time seems to have flown by!

As I’ve mentioned a couple times before, Joshua has fit right in with the Togolese people and culture.  He seems to handle change and new experiences very well.  One of those new experiences is fufu.  He tried it for the first time just a couple months after our arrival here, and he loved it.  This shocked me, since I can’t stand the stuff!  It’s a nearly-tasteless, chalky, pasty, gooey substance that  you dip in some sort of sauce.

Well, Joshua likes it so much that he asked our house helper, Yvette, to make it for him.  She was very glad to do so, and Joshua was very glad to eat it!  Here’s a short video of her preparing it, Joshua trying to help, and Joshua eating it.  You’ll notice that they mash it up in a wooden bowl using a large wooden stick.  They slowly add more and more water until it becomes very pasty.  The best way to describe the texture is wet Playdoh!

Joshua’s fufu from Jesse Shanks on Vimeo.

Click here to download a printable copy of this update on our letterhead.

Today marks one week since we first arrived in Togo. It’s been quite an amazing experience so far, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the future here. We started out by crossing over the border from Ghana into Togo’s capital city of Lome. Our missionary coworkers had quite a bit of shopping to do there, so we stayed for a couple nights before heading up-country to the city of Kara, which is where we will be living. Until we get set up in a house of our own, which could take up to two months, we are living with Randy and Jeannette Alderman, who are the veteran missionaries that we’re working with. We are living in a small detached apartment on their property.

There are two other missionaries here also whom we’re working with: Jim White and Lisa Lewis. We’ve been having a great time with all the missionaries here, but I think that the greatest thing has been getting to know the Togolese people and speaking with them every day. While talking to them, we really begin to understand how much of their culture we need to learn. I also am convinced that at some point I need to learn the main tribal language here, which is Kabiye. It’s definitely not something that is absolutely necessary, as most of the missionaries in Togo only know French, but I believe it’s something that will make our ministry here much more effective in the long run. So, I figure that in about a year from now I will start with lessons in Kabiye.

Joshua is having a really great time here, but is having a little difficulty getting used to the heat, as we all are. He’s been having fun playing in the backyard as he’s trying to catch the very fast lizards that roam the area.

I also have some very exciting news to tell you about starting our ministry here in Togo. Once we get settled a bit more in the coming weeks, I’ll be starting to work with one of the churches here in Kara. It is a smaller church that has had some struggles, so the plan is to work along side the pastor, Pastor Nicodime, to help encourage him and build the church through discipleship and evangelism. Please be in prayer about this that God will give me wisdom in this comfort zone stretching opportunity.

Also, there is a man in that church named Élé who is very anxious to get started in the Bible Institute, but Randy is going to be leaving for the States soon, so he has asked me if I’d be willing to start teaching him a course in New Testament Survey. I think that this will be a great opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to getting started about a month from now.

We still just can’t believe that we’re actually here, it’s so exciting! Thank you all so much for praying for us.

It thrills me to be writing this, and any parent will understand why.  You see, Joshua decided a couple weeks ago without any suggestion or coercion from us to spend his own money and buy Christmas presents for everyone in our family and extended family.  That’s 11 people in all.  We made sure that he understood that he would be spending his money and that once it’s spent it can’t be used for something else.  He acted like he already knew this, but it wasn’t a big deal.  What’s even more surprising is that he hasn’t been asking incessantly about gifts that he will be receiving.

So, last night Joshua and I took a trip to the dollar store, where every kid’s Christmas dreams can come true!  With just a little help from me he picked out each gift very thoughtfully.  It was adorable to see him walking up and down each isle with his finger on his chin as if pondering a difficult math equation.  This morning Tiffany snapped a shot of him under my parent’s dining room table, wrapping all the presents.

We’re so thankful for a kid who thinks of other people before himself.  It reminds me that I could definitely use more of that kind of attitude!

Have a very merry Christmas!

A couple months ago, Tiffany started Kindergarten with Joshua and they have both been working very hard.  One part of the morning routine is to say the Pledge of Allegiance with the small paper crayon-colored American flag hanging on the schoolroom wall.  It was already extremely cute to hear him mispronounce some of the big words which he is incapable of defining, but when he recently lost his first tooth upper tooth (fifth overall) it became even cuter.  Here’s a short video of his Pwedge of Allegianthe.

The Pwedge of Allegianthe from Jesse Shanks on Vimeo.

We returned last Wednesday from our 5 days in Boston with my cousin and his wife. We had a really wonderful time, and we hated having to say goodbye to Ryan and Janelle. But, it is good to be back home and have things almost back to normal.

Here’s some highlights of the trip.

Riding on the Swan Boats was a very special experience for Tiffany. She has a memory of riding the very same boats with her grandparents when she was just a little girl. Joshua loved it, especially getting to see turtles, a couple swans, and all the ducks swimming along side of the boat.

The Holocaust Memorial is truly a sobering experience. It is located just off of a busy street along a pedestrian walkway. When you approach it, all you see are six very large, very tall glass towers. Once you get closer however, you realize that on each glass panel of each tower are literally thousands of seven digit numbers, each one representing a person killed by the Nazis in the WWII concentration camps. Then, the reality of the Holocaust starts to sink in and you can see visually the enormous number of people who were murdered. To me, the Holocaust is an example of just how evil man can be, and the fact is that all humans are capable of doing such horrible things and worse. We somehow think that we are better people than the Nazis because we haven’t done what they did, but the Bible tells us that we are all corrupt, evil, and “desperately wicked.” Praise be to God for His restraining grace, and most of all for His saving grace!

As you can tell from the photos, Joshua had a blast at the children’s museum. It almost made me wish I was 5 years old too so I could do all the fun stuff with him!

The Plimouth Plantation was a pretty neat place as well. They have attempted to replicate as accurately as possible the normal everyday life in the original settlement of Plymouth. The people who “live” there actually act out their part as if they are really from the 1700s. Asking them questions about email, TV, iPods, or cameras will only cause strange looks and confusion. Most of the actors have even mastered the accent of the European settlers of that time.

Although we did lots of fun things, the best part was definitely just spending time with Ryan and Janelle. Ryan, along with his brother, Adam, have been my closest friends for as long as I can remember. It was a great time of encouragement and edification, and we thank God for giving us the chance to get away for a little while.

It seems that ever since the summer started, we have been going non-stop. In all the busyness though, we’ve managed to take advantage of the sometimes nice weather and do some really fun things together. I fully intended to write blog entries about each one of them as they happened, but blogging often has to take a back seat to other things.

So, here is a whole summer of fun wrapped up in one long blog post. I have included two different kinds of photo slideshows that I’m experimenting with so please let me know if you have any difficulty viewing them.
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ow, I can’t believe it’s been a week since Joshua’s and my camping trip. I really wanted to have the video done and this entry written right after we returned last Saturday, but between lots of work to catch up on, taking longer on the video than expected, and incredibly annoying frustrations with uploading it to Google Video, I have just now got around to it. I know that since last weekend you’ve all been sitting at your computers in anxious expectation of this moment, so I do apologize for keeping you from your TV and other important things.  I hope you do know that I’m just kidding about TV being an important thing.  Of course, everyone knows that video games are much more important.

The camping was really a blast.  Although the mosquitoes were almost unbearable - we couldn’t even sit down long enough to eat - we really enjoyed ourselves and had a great time.  I asked Joshua what the funnest thing is that he’s ever done in his extremely long life, and he said it was this camping trip.  That right there made all the mosquito bites worth it!

OK, enough babbling.  You probably just want to watch the video.  It is really quite a lot longer (13 minutes!) than I wanted it to be, but when putting it together I just couldn’t cut out so many of the cute things that Joshua did or said, so 13 minutes it is!  Because of the aforementioned problem with Google, I am trying a different video hosting service called Vimeo.  Hopefully I’ll have better luck with it than I have with Google.

You can watch it in full screen by clicking the squarish-looking arrows just to the right of the volume.

Jesse and Joshua’s Camping Trip from Jesse Shanks on Vimeo.

And here’s some photos:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Ever since we moved to Quebec, I have told Joshua that we would go camping together.  Unfortunately, by the time our schedule settled down last Fall and we were ready to go, all of the camping locations were already closed for the season.  So, ever since Quebec thawed out (and us), I have been telling him that we would go on a weekend when the weather is nice.  Well, finally that weekend has arrived.  Tomorrow is supposed to be very nice, and Saturday as well.  So we’re heading out tomorrow to Parc Jacques-Cartier for some great father & son time.  Tiffany, meanwhile, is having her good friend, Nathalie, come over for a scrapbooking night.  Joshua, as you might imagine, is extremely excited.  He asked a few thousand questions while me tonight as we sorted through and packed up all the camping gear.

We’ll let you know how it goes when we get back, and hopefully we’ll have some photos and/or video to show you.

Since Malerie has left I have started teaching Joshua Pre-K.  I  am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to teach him; he is progressing very quickly, and is eager to learn. During class the other day, Joshua was trying to write the letter N.  He was having a hard time because he was beginning the letter at the top, so therefore the letter N was turning into the letter W.  He was becoming very frustrated, so I told him to try starting the letter at the bottom.  He then placed his head on the desk and started crying.  When I asked him what was wrong he said “I don’t like to be wrong, I want to do everything perfect.  I want to color perfect inside the lines, I want to do school perfect, I don’t want to make mistakes.”  Don’t we all!

After he explained why he was sad, I asked him to sit in my lap, and I began to tell him that no one is perfect, that no one can do everything perfect because no one is perfect. I began naming people that we are close to, telling him that none of those people are perfect.  He then looked up at my face and said, “But mom, God is perfect, He does everything right.”  WOW! What a statement and what a great reminder, that He can’t do anything wrong; that everything He is and does is perfect. I kissed his little cheek and told him, “You are absolutely correct, He is perfect.”

After our little chat I began to tell him that all he needs to do is just do his best, that he might not be able to do it perfectly but it will be the best he can do and that is important.  I am reminding him often that everything he does well is because God gave him gifts and abilities that allow him to do his best.  Joshua did finish the letter N and he started at the bottom and did a wonderful job, and afterward he said, “I did my best mom,” and leaned over and kissed me on my cheek.  What a reward!  I love being able to teach him and spend time with him, it is so rewarding.

Later on that night Joshua was helping Jesse with something and Jesse said, “Okay we are finished, it’s perfect,” and Joshua spoke up and said, “It might not be perfect, Dad, but it is the best we can do!”

I thank the Lord for such a wonderful, loving son.

Click here to download a printable PDF copy of this letter: May ‘08

The month of May marked one year since our arrival in Quebec. It seriously seems like it has only been a few months. We praise God for the progress that He has allowed us to make in our French and we trust that these last five months will be even more productive as we attempt to learn more of the advanced aspects of the language.

Since Malerie left, Tiffany has been doing school with Joshua and he is doing extremely well. He looks forward to school each day and sometimes asks if he can keep working after they are finished. He is at the point now where he is putting letters together and starting to read words and simple sentences. Like every parent, we are so thankful for him and we’re amazed at how quickly he is growing up.

Not a day goes by that we don’t think about how close we are to arriving in Togo. We ask that you would continually pray for the Lord’s direction and wisdom as we make all of the necessary preparations.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support!

Just a little background first:  Joshua is five years old now, has a mind of his own, and is constantly saying things that seem to come out of nowhere.  He has been saving every bit of his own money - from his birthday, from grandparents on holidays, and from his occasional “jobs” around the house - for more than six months because he has been wanting to get his very own little camera.  He talks often about it, but this time it completely caught us off guard.

Sitting at the dinner table last night, I asked Joshua if he would like to pray to thank God for the food before we ate.  He quickly agreed and began praying, but not for the food.  He said, “God, can you please help me not to spend any money…long pause…and help me to get more jobs…long pause…and help me to do my schoolwork slowly…amen.”  We managed to hold back our chuckles, and Joshua just began eating like nothing out of the ordinary happened.  It’s amazing how cute kids can be and be entirely clueless to it.

By the way, the reference to the schoolwork was because Tiffany has been working with him lately and she’s often telling him to slow down and do the work correctly rather than quickly.

You just never know what will come out of the mind of a kid!

Here’s a drawing that Joshua did a few weeks ago of our future house in Togo.  Well, at least how he envisions it to be!  I certainly hope that we have a little more protection from the rainy season than a hay roof!  Notice that he didn’t leave out any really important details like the slide and swing.

Since arriving in Quebec, Joshua has had somewhat of a difficult time being away from all his friends and family. Add to that the fact that none of the children here speak English and you can imagine that this would get a little frustrating for a young boy. What has been really neat to see, however, is how Joshua has become very good friends with two sisters, Kelly and Lydia, who speak no English at all. Joshua has picked up some French words here and there, but he’s not really able to communicate at all in French. It’s amazing to see them play together though; somehow they manage to communicate through body language and the very little English/French that they know. They can play for hours like this.

This picture was taken on Easter Sunday, so I also included the one we took of our family and Malerie. By the way, Malerie will be leaving in four weeks, and will definitely be missed. She has been such a help and a blessing to our family, and we’re sad to see her go, but happy for her as well as she begins the next stage of her life. Please pray for us when she leaves as we will need to make many adjustments to our schedules and daily routines once she’s gone. Pray that Joshua can quickly adjust to this.