It's been a while!

I just realized that it has been a MONTH since my last post...sorry. We have not had good internet access. But we just got a new modem thing that is provided through a cellular service and today it works great! PTL!! So, here are a few articles I had written but not posted yet:

Katako
On Tuesday we went to a place called Katako. The term Katako means wood so there is a lumber yard there. But there is also SO MUCH MORE!!!
It took us a while to get to as it is not the easiest place to find. Once we got there we parked and walked through the lumber yard to the clothes area. We had to watch every step we took as there were holes and puddles and we had to keep our heads up to be sure we didn’t get hit by someone carrying wood as they have the right of way. When we got to the clothes area it was a maze of walkways surrounded by little shops selling used clothing. I went with Ann and Susan, who both were looking for clothes for their families. I don’t need any yet so I just browsed a little. We spent over an hour going down these narrow pathways and looking in shops. I did buy an umbrella, some really nice fabric for a skirt, and a pair of sandals for Caden.
After looking at clothes we journeyed to the plastics/kitchen wares area. This was why I had gone. There were aisles FULL of plastic ware, buckets, plates, and kitchen items. I was on the hunt for plastic cups, plastic plates and spoons (so we have some for when we go on outings), as well as some plastic containers. I came away with 3 bags and a bin full of stuff! It was definitely a successful shopping trip.
As we left we stopped by the lumber yard for Ann and Susan to buy bags of sawdust for their cats. Susan also picked up a bunch of DVD’s with about 20 cartoons on them. By the time we go to the car we have been there about 3 hours and were exhausted!!! Ann had said that when you go to Katako you don’t do much else that day…she was right!!! It is a crazy place with TONS of stuff….I told a Nigerian we had gone there and she says she only goes once or twice a year…I don’t think I will go very often but I am glad to know about it.


One of our supporting churches , The Woodlands United Methodist Church, asked us to write a devotional for a guide that they use leading up to their missions festival. For the devotional I decided to use a section from the book The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. As I was looking for the passage I stumbled across another one that was just as eye-opening. Now, I know that Young is NOT God and that his book is NOT the Bible. But I believe that God uses others to speak to us and I felt Him speaking to me. So here I type what heard, using my name and changing the text a bit to reflect God speaking to me. (from pg 142)
Alycia, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?
This is very true…in fact, as I wrote for the devotional: it was out of fear for our future that I did not want to come to Nigeria until ALL of our support was raised. To be honest, I have many fears and sometimes I find it hard to sleep from worrying if Caden is ok, is he breathing? is he sleeping or is he up rocking? Will we be safe driving? What happens if….?
Young goes on to write that fear is our desperate attempt to get some control over something you can’t. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn’t real, nor will it ever be real. You try and play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try and make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear…You don’t believe. You don’t know that [God] loves you. The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe [God] is good nor know deep in your heart that [God]loves you. You sing about it, you talk about it, but you don’t know it.”
Lord, please help me to know that you love me!!!