Benin Bulletin #4

Benin Bulletin #4

"Home Sweet Home"

July 4, 2016

Hey Friends!

Greetings from Sherbrooke, Quebec! This should be another pretty quick update. We just want to let you all know where we are at in our busy summer schedule.

Prayer Requests:

1    1)    Impact and Plants course - We will be traveling to Toronto for 4 weeks of mission orientation training. Pray for safe travels to Toronto and that we would be sponges to all the information presented to us.

2    2)    Relationship building - That we would be able to build good relationships with those at the school and at the local church we are attending.

3    3)    Language training - Pray that we would take time to practice our French during the summer. Pray that we would enjoy our classes and progress at a good speed once they begin in September.

Kathleen finished her tropical medicine course on June 24. There was a lot of information but she knows that she will certainly use it when we get to Benin. We have moved in to our apartment in Sherbrooke at Parole de Vie Bethel! Those that were around the day we arrived were very helpful in lugging all of our stuff into the apartment. Then we had a few hours of unpacking everything and decided where would we like things! We had to get a few small things for the apartment but we are very content with the place the Lord has provided. See a few pictures of our place below.

The Dining Room

The Hallway

The Kitchen

The Bathroom

The Spare Room

The Master Bedroom

The Living Room

In two weeks we travel to Toronto for a month. At first we will have a two week course about cultures. Graham has already done this course before and enjoyed it so much! Therefore, we are both excited about the information they have to present and the experiences this course holds. Then the last two weeks will be a course about learning how to learn a language. We hope that by taking this course before starting classes that it will help us have good learning habits.

We went to a church a week ago that was a bit of a new experience for us. It is held in a theater so there are regulations about the appearance of the church service. You walk into the auditorium and the lights are down and there is a smoke machine going… cool, I must say. The church is a French church so Graham didn’t get much from it. Kathleen was able to understand most of what was said and really enjoyed the message. They both enjoyed hearing worship songs in French! There are some camp leaders from Parole de Vie that attend that church as well. Graham has talked to one of the guys about being able to serve on the worship team. There is another family attending the language school that will be on campus during the summer as well. We are looking forward to being able to spend time with them. The language school is a smaller school so we are excited about being able to build good relationships with those that we will be going to school with. Like I said earlier, those that were here when we arrived were very willing to help and as we meet people they are all very welcoming and friendly.

Just a few SIM related updates now that our accounts have been merged. SIM is asking that all donations be sent to Graham’s SIM account number 024460.  This is now the account number for the both of us. If people do end up using Kathleen’s number for a little while yet, SIM will still process the donations into our account so no need to panic on this. Also Kathleen’s email address has changed to her married name. It is now Kathleen.crawford@sim.org

We thank you all for our support and prayers!! We trust that this letter finds you well and will brighten your day as you read what the Lord is doing.

Graham and Kathleen <><

SIM Contact Info:

SIM Canada

10 Huntingdale Blvd.

Scarborough, Ontario

M1W 2S5

Canada

Tel:  1-800-294-6918

E-mail:  info@sim.ca

Online donations can be made at:  www.sim.ca 

(Our missionary number is 024460)

The opinions expressed in this letter are our own opinions.  They are not necessarily the opinions or views of Serving In Mission (SIM).