"Rejoice in the Lord, Again I Say Rejoice!"

Hi Everyone,

"And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my Spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour."

Luke 1:46-47

I'm having trouble with the blog for some reason today - sorry - I can't seem to get the writing above the pictures. Oh well. Today is my wonderful husband's 64th birthday and the pictures above are part of his celebration. There is much to rejoice over as God shows up and things are accomplished that only He can do. We are so thankful to be His heirs!!!

Our daughter, Corrie, and family invited us over last night for delicious French Onion soup as we celebrated Crist's birthday. The grandkids each made their own birthday card to give to him (they were delightful and showed off each one of their personalities so well) and then we put the wrapping paper on Crist's head (doesn't everyone do that? - grin) and took our picture with him holding the very much coveted gift of dark chocolate chocolate chips. For those who know me well - notice the Mickey Mouse plastic glass in the picture. Crist's parents visited Disney World 35 years ago and brought that back as a gift for me and I still have it and brought it to Nigeria with me. It's MY drinking glass and I love it!!

The next picture is of a catfish. Our Nigerian neighbor, Bayo, (and landlord) from next door brought this live catfish (in a bucket with about four or five inches of water in it) as a birthday gift for Crist and he left it outside our apartment. When we arrived home about an hour or so later (from meeting our new team that just arrived) we saw the fish lying outside the bucket about 10 feet away. Poor thing! We gave the fish to our guards and they will skin, fillet and cook the catfish the proper Nigerian way and Crist hopes to sample some cooked catfish later on this evening. Giving a catfish for a birthday or for a special occasion is very customary here!!

These last two pictures show how much progress has been made on the two apartments being built on the ministry center property. The one shown will be the apartment of the B2B Director and his wife and daughter. It will have two bedrooms. The inside room will be their living area and kitchen area (it will be kind of open). John is hoping it will be completed by the end of the month. I know Jason and Emilee and Will and Theresa are eager to get settled into their new homes as soon as possible - a reason to rejoice!

And a BIG rejoicing moment happened last Saturday as Crist and I sat with Alphonsus (our B2B driver and friend) and his wife Esther in a noisy restaurant and shared the Gospel message with Esther. Alphonsus is a believer but his wife was not and we have been sharing some Christian discipleship materials with the two of them and they have been reading them together. The Holy Spirit then began to really "woo" Esther and she was soooo ready to commit her life to the Lord. I was able to lead her in the sinner's prayer and she would repeat after me what I said. It was a moving experience for us all and Alphonsus's smile is as big as the sun these days. He is so excited at what the Lord is doing. Now in the evenings, the two of them are reading their Bibles together. Pretty cool, huh?

We hope and pray each of you will see something in your life that you can praise the Lord for and rejoice!!

In-joy,

Eileen and Crist