a few pictures

Well, the great trip is about to begin so I wanted to write a quick note before I leave. As Rebekah said, "Calendars sure go by fast." Yes, they surely do. Pray much for all the upcoming travel (America to Manilla to Davao and back, 5 flights to go and 5 flights to come) and for the family still here in Africa. It is nice to have skype to be able to talk frequently.
The latest news is that Seth is now going out to the village on Sunday mornings to preach in French. Then he stays out there to do visitation and comes back later in the afternoon. Pray for God to open their hearts and for Seth to have power as he preaches and witnesses.
Dan is showing films both on Thurs. night and on Friday night --evangelistic films. Pray for open hearts. What a wonderful time to think about heaven - Resurrection Day. I like that better than "Happy Easter." May God bless you as we remember the power of the resurrection!!
We are studying Revelation. It is a sobering book, yet one to motivate us to get out there and witness --and then witness some more; compel them to come in. Do not grow tired. If they die without Christ they will suffer forever. They will cry tears of suffering and regret for all eternity. Keep someone in your prayers and look for opportunities to share Jesus with them. Time seems so short.
Love in Christ,
Dan and Joan
Here are a few pictures by Susanna----us, our kids in order of age, and the some of the zoo - we left off the dogs.

Hannah's news

Dear Friends,
Hello again...
So much happens here I don't know how to keep you all updated on everything that is going on. I'm going to try to touch on the biggest things :).
The biggest thing right now is graduation. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but this school is kind of like doing college homeschool. It is quite flexible and adapts to each student's learning style and abilities. So if we are stressed or have too much to do, or if people get sick, we can ask for an extension. Well... many of our classmates were sick for much of last year. Thankfully, this year has been a lot better. I thank the Lord for all your prayers; Ruth and I were not sick when all the rest of our classmates were. However, because of all the extensions we had last year, we are quite a bit behind schedule. Normally we need to have everything finished and turned in by May 1st so that we can apply for the NARM (the big midwifery exam that makes us licensed). We have been working away and trying to get things done, as we only have about 4 weeks left. However, there is also a big midwifery conference (the MANA conference) where the NARM exam is offered. Usually it is in November, but this year it is in September. Our class has opted to take the NARM at the MANA conference in September, giving ourselves an extra month to get all our work done and turned in. So we will be staying here for an extra month, which is a blessing because we wanted to stay longer anyway but were having a hard time figuring out if we wanted to stay till November and be out of school for awhile before taking our big exam. So this works perfectly--we get to stay a little longer, but don't have to stay for THAT much longer.

The other big thing that is about to happen is my mom is coming for a visit! We are so excited to get to spend the month of May with her, and for her to get to meet our friends and see a bit of where we've been living these past 2 years. She was planning to come for graduation, but now that we aren't leaving till September, graduation got moved to August... so we're sad that my mom is going to miss graduation, but we are glad that my mom is coming. Also my mom's aunt is coming too, so that will be fun.

Prayer Requests:
That my mom will have a safe trip
Pray that God will watch over the rest of our family in Ivory Coast and continue to keep them healthy
We are going to have to find housing for the month of August because the new students will be coming and we will be moving out of the dorms.
The MANA conference where we will be going to take the NARM is in California, so we will need to find housing there also.
We are so thankful for the health and strength God has given us
Pray for our studies. It's hard to stay motivated as the end draws near and we just want to hang out and have fun... We have 3 assignments left... It was hard for me to keep my motivation when the date first got switched... But I'm still trying to get as much done as I can before my mom gets here in May.

Another thing that we did since I last wrote... in February we went on a 3 day hike up Mount Apo--the tallest mountain in the Philippines. There were 5 of us students and one of our supervisors and her husband and a group from her aunt's work.