Le Campement

We found a new place of respite here in Mali called "Le Campement." We still hold our old place, Teriyabugu, close to our hearts, but this place is pretty amazing.

The pool was cut into the rocks and was two levels, the bottom level being an infinity pool with a waterfall. A-mazing.

There is also climbing available up on a hiking trail so that really adds to the place. I used to think to be a MacLean meant you played tennis. This family of MacLeans have to be rock climbers. :)

There is also a playground, trampoline, high ropes course, ping pong and various other games. The place is really great! We are so thankful for a place to go and recharge. 

We love rain

We have truly enjoyed our new home and city of Segou. It is really much more of a city and not a town/village like Koutiala. There are many paved roads and even stop lights. Amazing! BUT- we are closer to the Sahara here so that means less rain. ): I asked everyone when we first arrived why it wasn't raining only to find out that once a week rain during rainy season was normal. So, so sad. I l.o.v.e.d Koutiala in August as there were rains everyday. The world shuts down during a rain. It's just so wonderful. We pull out the hot chocolate and enjoy it. 

So here we had to take the few we got and soak them all in. Why not just lay on the roof and enjoy the rain?

This particular rain (maybe the last we had?) was a big storm. Note the trees in the background. It almost seemed like hurricane force winds. I'm sure it wasn't close but it was no joke. The boys-all 4 of them :) - built a fort out of chairs to hide from the rain.

Haven picked the smarter route of staying indoors and watching from the door.

Hot chocolate time during the power outage caused by the storm.

A favorite of our family- slip-n-slide. Yes we let them slide around on wet tile floors -BUT- they have to do it on their knees. No running and sliding per the pediatrician's request. :)

Visitors

Some of our friends came up from Koutiala to visit us one weekend. It was a lot of fun to have them with us. They are all nurses at the hospital. Jo and Eclé work in pediatrics and Jo's wife, Kanufing, works on the women's side. 

Haven and her friend Sheri Anne (named for me and Brett's mom)

Of course there was some rappelling that had to happen.

We went down to the river, which is only a couple blocks from our house, and enjoyed a morning there. Silas enjoyed beating his donkey daddy.

 The wonderful Kamate family

We asked a guy to take us around on a little boat ride as Kanifing had never been in a boat. They were nervous but everyone survived!

We actually do exist

Somehow it is already 2015 and I have failed to record any moments from our last five (almost six) months in Mali. Time sure does pass quickly!

We do in fact still exist. Ebola has not taken us over. Even though we have a monkey. :)

Meet Bella. 

We were very thrilled with her. She became very attached to our house worker who had her before we arrived. She thinks he is her husband, as he always says, which means she is a bit protective...and aggressive towards women. After she got me, our teacher, and a couple other ladies, we stay away which is sad. Brett and Kenan still hang out with her but the rest of us keep our distance. I sometimes think maybe we shouldn't keep her but then I think that it's pretty cool to say you have a monkey...even if you don't touch her.

                               We were reunited with our dogs and cat. Oh happy day.

The house we have is quite large. We live upstairs. It's nice but it came with no kitchen. And the upstairs opened up to the porch so it had to be closed in. Our first week was kind of hectic as this is what was happening in the room I was sleeping in. Why you ask? Because stuff was everywhere and the beds weren't made and there just wasn't a place in the other rooms to sleep.

Brett quickly got out his climbing gear and started rappelling off the house with the boys.

The boys started school (D-4th, K-2nd and S-kindergarten) with their teacher Miss Jessi.

Sweet little girl turned six months...how can it be? 

And Brett won a moto from Orange, the phone company. We buy a lot of phone cards for our phones but also the internet so I guess we had a good chance. It was a fun welcome gift to the city of Segou!

And we're off

With just a bit more stress than normal in packing up the family to go across the ocean, we got ourselves together to head to Mali. I must say that I don't know how I'd do it without my mom. Her packing is amazing and helps so much. I say often if I had to do it all by myself I'd just stand and stare at all the mess, not accomplishing anything. But thanks to her we got on the airplane with just 20 pieces of luggage plus a car seat. (In case you are wondering, that was $1,800 in extra fees). 

The boys were all smiles. They had talked every. single. day. about Mali and asked when we were returning so when the day arrived they could hardly contain themselves. The adults were a bit more subdued. :) 

While Haven had already flown with Brett and I a few times, this was her first BIG adventure. She did really well. Actually, everyone did. Aside from a child throwing up hamburger and french fries in the sink of the French airport (which then I had to scoop out with my hands...sorry, is that too much information?) the trip went very smoothly.

We can pretend she stayed in the bassinet for more than two seconds. Would have been nice. While I was too afraid when Dawson was little that someone would steal him while we slept (thus I had him attached by a baby leash as he slept in front of me), I would have gladly let her sleep there. But there was none of that. And truthfully, I don't mind it too much. I mean, two or three hours in of a baby on my lap is a bit hard but it is in some ways very sweet and special.

We made it with all our luggage! Everyone was pretty happy.

We headed off to the zoo a couple days later. They have really improved it. Animals are in nice cages. While you can't get the gorilla to do tricks now by handing him an orange soda, it is probably better for the health of the animals. :) For some random reason they had this blow up slide there. Totally crazy but a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed Monkey Joe's while in the states so this was a fun treat to play on here.

The year in song

Songs were balm for my soul this year. There were many that encouraged me and a few that were so timely, so poignant that my whole body, from the hairs on my head to the tips of my toes, resonated in song. 

The first few months, in the times of pain and confusion, the song, "You have me" by Gungor truly spoke to my heart.

Out on the farthest edge

There in the silence

You were there

My faith was torn to shreds

My heart in the balance

But you were there

Always faithful

Always good

You still have me

You still have my heart

I thought I had seen the end

Everything broken

But you were there still

Always faithful

Always good

You still have me

You still have my heart

From April until August I listened to "Oceans" by Hillsong United like a broken record. It was Haven's lullaby, song many times in the wee hours of the night. It gave me strength to continue and courage to do whatever He calls me to, even when it doesn't make sense and the path is treacherous.

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

I will call upon Your name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine

And right before we left, after we received some discouraging news, my dear friend sent me “I shall not want” by Audrey Assad. The first time I heard the words, tears streamed down my face. It was as if my heart had just poured forth the words in song. I knew the words were true. I knew I needed to move forward with going back to Mali. As we were descending into Bamako, I sat quietly in the dark, Haven nestled in my chest asleep, and I listened to this song repeatedly, soft tears flowing this time, as it was the prayer of my heart for the road we were about to embark on. I can say that now, a few months into this journey that He has not left me wanting. There have been some difficult days, days in which I really longed for an ex-pat friend, but the overriding feeling has been gratefulness. I truly have lacked for nothing. He has provided abundantly.

From the love of my own comfort

From the fear of having nothing

From a life of worldly passions

Deliver me O God

From the need to be understood

From the need to accepted

From the fear of being lonely

Deliver me O God

And I shall not want, I shall not want

When I taste Your goodness I shall not want

When I taste Your goodness I shall not want

From the fear of serving others

From the fear of death or trial

From the fear of humility

Deliver me O God

And I shall not want, no I shall not want

When I taste your goodness I shall not want

No, I shall not want, I shall not want

When I taste your goodness I shall not want.

Reflection

If I had to describe the year in two words they would be “painful” and “good”. 

There were so many moments of deep pain. Loss of friendships. Untruths spoken about us. Misunderstandings. People actively trying to keep us from Mali. Feelings of being betrayed, abandoned, cast aside. Being rejected again and again. Loss of trust. Loss of our home, our work, our town, our known life. Loss of more and more friendships. There were days we felt so beat down I didn’t know if we would and could go forward. Living in the unknown, honestly having no idea what we were going to do. The year was painful. I would venture to say one of the most, if not the most painful year of our lives.

But it was oh so good. I can’t look back on the year without being tremendously grateful. The Lord met us in our brokenness. The Lord is in fact close to the brokenhearted. He proved Himself once again to be our safe and ONLY haven. When man fails you, you see the faithfulness of God oh so much more. His grace is abounding. I am thankful for the pruning of this year, for the lessons learned and for a heart that is permanently changed.

Grace was a beautiful theme for me. I saw it in a whole new light. I’ve always known that we could do nothing for our salvation, that He loved us in our sinfulness, and that He came to heal the sick, not the healthy, but I often found myself trying to prove my worth. Cleaning myself up to present myself worthy of His grace. But that’s not it at all. His grace is free. His grace is for the sinner. His grace is for those who mess up, who are rejected, and who are unworthy. His grace is for me. No one can take that from me. I should not take it from others. We should extend grace to others with the same extravagance with which our Savior gives it to us. If we think, even subconsciously, that we had some part in our being accepted, then we are much more likely to judge the behaviors of others (at least I know this to be true in my own life). We feel like we can be critical of what one says or does and that we have some role to play in determining whether another’s actions are good or not. But we have no such position. Ours is only to accept the free gift He gives and to share it with others. We must also share it with ourselves each and every moment, remembering that we no longer stand condemned but free through the blood of Jesus. A friend of mine shared the book, “The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness” by Tim Keller with me and I love it. I am still trying to apply the truths of it to my heart. It is based on 1 Corinthians 4 "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself." (vs 3) This is a profound statement. One I have never even come close to living out, especially the part of judging myself. As Keller explains, we take ourselves to the courtroom each and every day trying to prove our worth and righteousness, weighing our value and acceptance on how we are perceived by others or what we think of ourselves. But through the blood of Jesus we have no need to stand in the courtroom. The verdict is in. We are holy, worthy and justified by the blood of Jesus. This knowledge should spur us toward love and good deeds rather than doing good words in order to be accepted. Before this year whenever I heard the phrase that the Father says to Jesus, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," I always longed to live faithfully enough so I could hear those same words. It sounds holy enough. I wanted to be faithful so that the Lord would be pleased by me. I wanted to do what I needed to earn the right to hear, "Well done." I now realize that I had that all wrong. I already stand in this position. Because Jesus died for me and gave me His righteousness, the Father looks at me and says to me NOW, "Well done." There are no actions, good or bad, that can change this standing that I already possess in Jesus. I stand before the Lord clean and fully accepted. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, He sees me and says, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Something I always thought I needed to earn is already laid in front of me by Jesus. Amazing. His grace is good. His grace is free. His grace leads me to action.

I planted flowers this spring as a memorial to remind me of what the Lord had done and to say goodbye to the past. After I dug up the soil I threw torn pieces of paper into it.

On the paper were hurts that I had forgiven and various people and things that I had to leave from my time in Koutiala.

That time of my life, the joys, pains and the blessings, was a season that was over. The Lord was calling us to new things and I needed to move forward.

I wanted the flowers to be a living testament to two things. One, that though the past was in fact the past, there were new things, new beauty to come. And two, that all the hurts we had experienced were laid at the cross and forgiven. They needed to stay there. I could not dig them back up again.

I truly am thankful for the past year. As hard as it was, it was also very sweet. It is a time that I Will look back upon as a defining time in my life, where the presence of the Lord was so very clear and near to me. It is a line in the sand kind of year; many changes occurred and things will never be the same. I am one of those things. I am forever changed with lessons and moments cemented into my soul. I am so very thankful.