It has been a LONG.......time

I can't believe that it has been 4 months since I have written on my blog. I must confess that in the past, I have often copied and pasted other missionary letters I have written for the mission here since the news was practically the same. It seems that even that has been too much work!

Here is the last 4 months in a nutshell:

Africa to USA: we packed up our rental house and flew to the states the last week of April. It was a relatively uneventful flight and Miesha was a good little traveler.

Pregnancy update: we now have one month left till baby boy Hartley arrives. We have mostly agreed on a name, but we are taking our top three choices to the hospital and we'll see what he looks like when he arrives. He will come via c-section and it will be at Providence Portland near my parent's home in Portland, OR. I am still TIRED a lot, but most days I can usually sneak in an afternoon nap. Thanks mom!

Furlough travel: We have visited our WONDERFUL sponsoring churches and have put 14,000 miles on the car that was so graciously loaned to us. I deliberately have not counted how many beds we've slept in, but most of them have been really comfortable. We are mostly traveling back and forth between Seattle and Portland now, although we have a trip to the coast, a trip to ID, and a trip to Canada on the schedule before we fly back to Africa. Miesha now gets fussy when she sees me pulling out the duffle bags. I totally understand how she feels!

Building project: Part of the reason we chose to come back to the USA in summer was so that Dan could help his brother do a house remodel. They are working crazy hours and almost have the 3rd story framed.

Things we love about USA: times with our families, family pictures, chatting IN PERSON with so many friends, connecting with friends at our churches here, helping with camps/VBS, summertime heat (except for this week; sheesh... 105F!!!), ice cream, Mexican food, root beer, and more.

Things we miss about Africa: our church, our community group, my mom's group, our friends and missionary teammates, our pets, having our own space and privacy, cheap movies and meals out (date nights!), getting to do short term teams, our ministry partners, and more!

Hard to believe that our time here is already half over!

If you are lucky, I may add pictures in the next couple months. lol!

April update

We are still recovering from the 7 days that we invested into our church’s youth conference and family camp. On Monday, it took about 6 hours of driving to get there since all of us in our convoy were pulling ridiculously heavy trailers with sound equipment, freezers, camp stoves, portable showers and more. The place is actually a farm that God told a family in our denomination to purchase and convert into a conference center. Last year for the youth camp, it was in the middle of construction and kids slept on cement floors in the converted stable. (not ideal!) This year, it was much improved, but they weren’t quite ready to handle the 600 people that descended on them for Easter weekend. We had to bring in loads and loads of supplies to make the venue workable.

On Tuesday, they put Dan in charge and by the end of the day, the open field on the farm did resemble a proper campsite complete with the portable showers and makeshift toilets, electrical outlets, lights on poles, and generators to service the 230 campers. (We stayed at a nearby B&B since we vividly remembered how challenging it was the year before and frankly, at 5 months pregnant, anything that isn’t my own bed feels like roughing it!)

Dan worked approximately 14 hr days all week to get the campsites ready, the sound system up and running (in two different places), playing drums on the worship team, and then trouble shooting all the problems that cropped up all week. J He was highly commended for his contribution and our pastor told me that there was no way they could’ve pulled off this high level of an event without Dan’s help. Our assistant pastor said that all the men are happy Dan is going home to the states for six months so that their wives will stop placing such unrealistic expectations on them based on what they saw Dan doing!

At the youth camp, there were approximately 150 students ranging in age from 13-30 and they met with the Lord in a powerful way! Many committed their lives to Christian service and all were challenged to live out their faith in a way that would practically impact their communities for Christ. This is an applicable message for people all over the world, but especially here in Africa.

At the family camp 450 more people joined the students till we had 597 people walking around the property! We didn’t fit into the gorgeous conference hall where the students had met, so the church hired a tent that could seat 500 people underneath and we all enjoyed the Lord’s presence outside! There were two sessions a day and most lasted somewhere between 3-4 hours. The worship would last for 1.5-2 hrs and then the teaching was after that! We are used to this length of service now, having been here over 3 years, but I am telling you – the time seemed to fly by! It is incredibly liberating not to have to worry about time and just enjoy God’s presence together. We were challenged and encouraged and loved the extra time with church friends as we are transitioning out for a season.

I am SO sorry that I don’t have pictures to show you in this letter, but Dan is out of town and took the camera with my camp pics with him. I’ll post some on facebook when I get a chance.

Dan is in the Eastern Cape this weekend with his friend Rob on a hunting trip. Rob’s relative is a professional hunter and was happy to let Dan come for a couple days to go exploring and hunting with them for free. It was Dan’s birthday on the 18th and he is having a fabulous time. He text messaged me around 9am on his birthday and he had already shot a springbok. (see pic)

Talk about incredible birthday memories! (it isn’t too late to send him birthday wishes – danielhartley@oci.org ) Although as he was leaving he was stressing about all the things we still need to finish here around the house, this trip away will be restful and rejuvenating and just what he needs!

We get on a plane soon and we have been very blessed by all the friends surrounding us to help us pack and move things out of the house we have been renting. We can’t wait to rest with our families and to see all our friends!

Please pray for Miesha – our poor girl has been pretty sick since we’ve been home from camp. She was running a slight fever for two days, but I thought it was because she is in process of cutting 4 more teeth. On Thursday, about halfway through the day she broke out into a horrible rash on her torso and face. I took her to the Dr and they confirmed it was an unknown viral infection and that I should just try to make her comfortable until the virus runs its course. She was up lots of times during the night and this morning she vomited after her breakfast. I am hoping the Dr knows what she is talking about and it isn’t anything more serious. Please pray with us that Miesha will be restored to complete health again right away. It is challenging to pack with a sick little gal who needs to be held all the time.

Please pray that we’ll be able to find a family who will be willing to take care of our cats while we are gone.

We are in Swaziland Monday and Tuesday this week with Jasmine and with the Chomba family. Please pray we have an incredible time encouraging them.

Lastly and of most importance – please pray for South Africa this WEDNESDAY during the presidential elections. There is a ton of tension and there is always the potential for violence. Please pray for PEACE throughout the whole process.

Thank you! We can’t wait to see you all again soon.

Smiles,
Janell for us 3.5

PS. We had another ultrasound this last week and our baby is still a boy!

cat update

Okay, I haven't killed the cat yet...I gave him "grace" which was basically a one night extension before we held his execution trial. Last night after new flea powder and the familiar (more expensive) food, he actually was quiet all night long. No scratching on the door endlessly. No yowling.

Today I actually remembered why I used to like him so much. It is amazing what a good night's sleep will do for your perspective on life.

A good night's sleep...what a great idea. Even though it is only 8:46pm I think I am going to go to bed. It has already felt like a long day and I can always clean the house tomorrow. (except I say that every day...) lol.

I am famous...sorta

The other day I realized that a picture of me is on the home page of our mission agency's webpage.

http://www.onechallenge.org/

Check it out! I am labeled "long term missions".

I couldn't possibly be wearing a more "missionary" outfit in that photo! We didn't want to offend the local chief that we were visiting for the first time, so I went ultra conservative.

I realize that I may be a bit behind the times fashion wise living over here for 3 years now, but I promise that isn't a true representation of my current closet. hee hee!

I hate my cat

I must preface this posting by saying I really do enjoy felines. With the exception of the years I was in college, I have always had a cat/cats in my life and I really do like them. I like their soft fur, playing games with them, having them sleep on me while I am watching movies or having a quiet time. They bring lots of joy into my life...until recently.

We own two cats here in Africa and their names are Pepsi and Cheeto. We named them after food we miss from the states, but lucky for us Pepsi (the soft drink) is now really easy to find. We still miss cheetos, esp the crunchy ones. They have the puffy cheetos here, but I swear to you when you open a bag, the smell is way too similar to a litter box smell. I promise, it is true. It isn't just my pregnancy nose. Dan totally agrees. GROSS.

All day today I have been comforting myself with all the different ways I could creatively kill my cat, Pepsi. Until this week, he has been my favorite cat I have ever owned in my life, but not anymore. He picked the wrong week to pick on me.

As most of you know, this pregnancy has been rough on me. I have been sick off and on and REALLY REALLY tired. Dan mentioned that he doesn't understand how someone can sleep so much and still be tired. Even though I am solidly in my 2nd trimester now, it still hasn't eased up much and I have to have at least one (if not two!) naps or serious caffine in order to make it through the day. I also sleep anywhere between 10-11 hrs a night. Making this little grapefruit sized person is wearing me out. I think part of it is my interrupted sleep: Miesha still gets up once a night for a bottle. (we are working on that going away soon!) Because of that, I still have "mommy ears" and wake up pretty easily with little noises, especially if it is her.

This week, the cats officially have fleas. It is bad, but we Frontlined them and they aren't scratching as much. We know they are uncomfortable, but we seriously have done all we can to help them there and they just have to tough it out now. Also, they have made it abundantly clear that they don't like the current (cheaper) food we have been buying for them by barely eating it and by taking every opportunity to regurgitate hairballs on my bath mats.

The icing on the cake is that Pepsi has started yowling and scratching on our bathroom door off and on throughout the night all week. Last night that blasted cat's scratching woke me up 7x. When my alarm went off this morning, I felt already that I was overdue for a nap.

If he is lucky, I won't kill him, but I might lock him outside for a few weeks or I might drop him off 6 weeks early to the family's house who is watching him while we are in the states. I might give him a swimming lesson in the deep end of our bath tub. I might drug him. hee!

Any other ideas?? (we don't have any guns here...)

Here is a photo of the two flea transporters sleeping (where they shouldn't be) on Miesha's changing table.


And here is a pic of the little cutie who I don't mind waking up at night for.