Benin Bulletin #2
“Mr & Mrs Crawford”
May 17, 2016
Prayer Requests
1) Wedding/Honeymoon – We are down to our last few
days before our wedding. Please pray
that all the details will come together and we will have an awesome wedding
day. Pray that Kathleen would be
energized as she is still struggling from the effects of Mono. Please also pray for our honeymoon that we
will travel safely and that we will have a great time in Greece.
2) Tropical
Medicine Course – Please pray for Kathleen as she will be taking a tropical medicine
course in Montreal in June. Pray that
she would absorb the content of this course well as it will be beneficial to
her nursing work in Benin next year.
3) Orientation
classes – Please pray for us as we will be doing our orientation classes in
July (Missionprep). Pray that it would
help us to know what to expect when we arrive in Benin and how to develop
effective techniques to learn a foreign language.
4) French
School – Please pray for us as we will be settling into our new apartment on
the Word of Life Bethel Campus next month.
Pray that both of us would enjoy our classes and be able to pick up the
French language quickly.
5) Benin – We are
both excited to leave for Benin but we both know that there is some preparation
that we need to go through before we leave.
Pray for patience and that the Lord would mold and shape us as his
servants as we prepare to depart for Africa in July 2017.
Introduction
Greetings from beautiful Geary, New Brunswick! Well, well, well, where did the time go? It seemed like just yesterday Kathleen and I
were looking at getting married in a few months. It is now just a few days! Tomorrow my family arrives here in New
Brunswick so I thought I should quickly send out an update to you all so you
know what is happening. I probably won’t
get to writing another one until we get settled at the school in Quebec. And good grief, I just thought of this. This will be my last update to you all as a
single man! Wow, it’s getting real
folks. :-)
Wedding/Honeymoon
As most of you know already Kathleen and I will be
getting married on May 21st in Geary, New Brunswick. It feels like the time has just flown by but
we feel relatively confident that everything is organized. As many of you know there is a lot to do so
we would appreciate your prayers for this week.
Kathleen was diagnosed with Mono a short while ago so please pray for
strength for her. Once the wedding day
is over we both will be heading to Greece for our honeymoon for 2.5 weeks. It is such a blessing to be able to have the
finances to afford a beautiful wedding and honeymoon. We really appreciate our family and friends that
have helped us out with the costs of this endeavor.
 |
| Kathleen and I all dressed up for a friends wedding in Moncton |
French School
Kathleen and I will be returning to New Brunswick on
June 8th. We will only be staying for 10
days or so and then we will be on our way to Quebec! Our first stop will be in Montreal as Kathleen
will be taking a tropical medicine course for a week at McGill University. Once the course is over we will be moving
into our new apartment in Sherbrooke where we will be taking our language
training course. The apartment is on the
campus of the school (Word of Life Bethel) and classes will begin in
September. This gives us time to get
settled in before school starts. It
should be a very special time for us as it will be our first place
together! Pray that we are able to agree
where to hang the towels and such. :-)
Orientation
Classes
Once Kathleen and I get settled in our new apartment
we will be travelling yet again to Toronto.
We will going through 2 programs provide by an organization called
MissionPrep. They are basically
orientation classes designed to help you prepare for your mission trip. It will be covering a wide variety of topics
and we are really looking forward to it.
The last time I did MissionPrep was in 2004 when I was preparing to
leave for Botswana. I had a great time
the last time through so I’m expecting it to be even better having Kathleen
with me. We will also be going through a
language learning course. This will
teach techniques on how to quickly pick up a new language. This will be helpful for us when learning
French but should also be helpful to prepare us for any local language we may
need to pick up while in Benin. It should
take about 4 weeks for us to take the 2 programs before we head back to Sherbrooke
for school.
Benin?
Some of you have been asking when exactly we will be
leaving for Africa. Well, we don’t know
an exact date yet but the target month is July 2017. The plan at the moment is for Kathleen and I
to both be in school until June 2017.
Once we are done school we will likely head back to New Brunswick and
leave for Benin from there. At the
moment it looks like our finances are ok but we should have a better idea by
next year what is happening. At this
point it is just one foot in front of the other and trust that God will provide
and lead us. We thank you all so much
for your prayers and your giving to enable us to to this. We are excited to be heading in the direction
of Benin but we know there are a number of stops along the way before we get
there. Pray for patience for us as both
of us would love to just pack and leave for Benin today. Pray that the Lord would shape and mold us
during this time together in Quebec and that he would teach us the things we
will need to be effective servants for him in Benin.
Conclusion
Well, I think that is all I needed to say to you all
at the moment. Once again, thank you to
all of you for your prayers and your support.
We appreciate it so much. For those
out west who are wondering when you’ll see us next we are hoping to be in
Alberta for Christmas break. I don’t
know exactly how much time we’ll have to visit everyone but as usual we will just
try our best. For those wondering about
seeing the wedding ceremony there are plans to post it online. We don’t have plans to post it live as it
happens, it will just be a video posted online that you can watch whenever you
have time. I’ll send out info on that as
I have it. Ok, this time I’m serious. This is all I needed to say for now. :-)
God bless you all!
Peace and prayers,
Graham Crawford <><
SIM Contact Info:
SIM Canada
10 Huntingdale Blvd.
Scarborough, Ontario
M1W 2S5
Canada
Tel: 1-800-294-6918
E-mail: info@sim.ca
(My missionary number is 24460)
The opinions expressed in this letter are my own opinions. They are not necessarily the opinions or
views of Serving In Mission (SIM).
