Blessings and snakes
February was a blessed month, and in some ways a hard month.
On February 11th, Tyler’s sweet grandma, Wilma Miller, passed away. It was extremely hard to be 6,000 miles away from family when someone so special to you is gone. We have all grieved this loss. Granny was a spunky, hilarious woman who made everyone she met feel like family. She was always welcoming and warm. She loved to play records and watch Cardinals baseball. She loved her husband Oke every moment of their 50 years of marriage, and she adored all her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. More than anything, she LOVED Jesus. Part of why we are here in Africa is because of her. When we told her about how God had put it on our hearts to come to Sierra Leone way back in 2011, she smiled and said “When I was a little girl, some missionaries came to our church from Africa. I knew from that moment that I was supposed to go. I never did, but maybe now I will get the chance”. We believe God had started calling someone from that line of the Miller family then, and how wonderful to be the ones who got to come. We know God continues to orchestrate things for His glory.
Even in her passing, Granny is blessing us. Memorials were requested to be given to our family in her memory and we were blessed with several donations for Gods work here in Africa. We were surprised by this generous move, and so thankful. She was an amazing woman. We have felt grieved to be away from Tys family and ask you to pray for them all.
In other news, we have had an answer to prayer! We have been in need of more funding for our family to make ends meet here. This country is so very poor and yet everything is so expensive. Gas is over $3 a gallon, and cheese is $10+ a pound. Most any food thats not rice is at least double what it would cost in America, and more often four times as much. We try to live modestly but needing money for guards, rent and groceries is unavoidable. When we shared our need for more support, we prayed and asked God to do another miracle. We were blessed with 3 new supporters for our family, and one supporter for the work we are praying to accomplish! With these donations, we will be able to meet our monthly needs, as well as start a meal and bible study time with village women, and begin bible based art projects with the school children! This is an amazing blessing! Thank you for your support. We couldn’t do this without you. We have been praying for these things. So many answered prayers!
Ty is currently in the midst helping plan out toilet pits for the orphanage and church, and building a table and chairs for the orphanage. The wood here is not treated nominal lumber pieces and he’s found that trying to make these chunks of trees work has not been an easy feat. The things you take for granted. Please pray over these projects with us.
We also had a few run-ins with the police here. We could be put into jail for slander here, so I have to be careful on what I say, but we did not really do anything wrong and we are learning a lot of lessons. So much struggle when getting adapted to a different culture. Driving here is like playing a game of frogger. There aren’t stop signs or traffic lights. There are speed limit signs sporadically but policemen and women don’t have cars or radar guns to enforce that. You basically drive with your hand on the horn and a lot of prayer.
We have been doing some bible studies with the older orphanage girls on the traits of biblical women. Paula has been the leader and I have loved sitting in and hearing the input. We recently took some chalk up to the kids. They absolutely went crazy for it! We loved seeing their creativity come out. Creative thinking isn’t really practiced here so seeing them think out some ideas was cool. They drew things they knew. Fish, box, motorcar, table. I can’t wait to continue to help these kids unlock their imaginations. I also took up a pack of Uno cards and taught everyone to play. It was a blast! 🙂
Recently Ishmael from the orphanage was pretty sick with malaria but thanks to Nurse Letty and God’s healing, he’s better. Ty came down with malaria a couple dys ago and was the sickest he’s ever been. He’s doing much better today though. We realize malaria is as bad as everyone says.
we have also had our guards find a couple snakes around our yard. One is an African beauty snake. It’s harmless but mimics the pattern of a type of cobra. The other was a green mamba which is deathly poisonous. We’ve made sure to educate our boys about these snakes and to be so careful. I also included a picture of the squid we found washed up on the shore during our monthly beach trip. Lots of crazy up in here.
Theres a team from our hometown area coming for a mission trip next week. We are excited to see them and share what God is doing here in Sierra Leone. Please pray for their safety and for Gods blessings.
Thank you all for your prayers and support for our family and the work God is doing here. Please continue to pray for our kids in the orphanage, for the radio programs outreach, for the ministries we are hoping to begin in the ways of fellowship and teaching, and for our continued health. We praise God for you all!
Millers In Africa 