Hurry Up and Wait!

I hear that this is the lifestyle that many missionaries experience: Hurry Up and Wait.

They hurry to get in line at a bank in Africa only to find out it takes waiting most of the day and they will have to come back the next day to start all over. They hurry up to get trained before heading to the field for their first term and then wait for funds to come in. They wait for medical issues to clear up and then hurry to get visas and then wait at airports for their visas and passports to arrive by fed-ex before rushing to their flight only to sit for 9 hours and then wait for a connection for another 8 hour flight. I've been told this by other missionaries and have only experienced some firsthand.

Right now, we are rushing to get visas and paperwork for international health insurance set up in order to get on those long kind of flights in a few weeks. It's sort of surreal that this is finally happening. I am still prepared for some delay to come, but hopeful that we are in the home stretch of just getting to the field. I've been called since I was 14. If there is another delay, I can wait, but today I am hopeful that my life's calling will actually become tangible. I have been working to get to the field (mind you, I lived in France for a year and that was a mission!) and each step has been a part of this calling. I've come to grips with the fact that each step is a journey. It all comes down to how He called me, "I want you to BE a missionary." He didn't say, "I want you to DO missions." This hurry up and wait is a grand part of being a missionary in which I learn another fruit of the spirit: Patience.

Lots of work to do in the next few weeks. Not sure if I will get to blog again before we get to the field, so the next time I write, I might be writing from African soil !!
Something we've been looking forward to for a LONG time. 

Looking forward (photo credits?? sorry)

PS - New donation address as of  Sept. 2012
Brollier
c/o Judy Trollinger
1384 Meadow Springs Dr.
Lilburn, GA 30047 USA 
(Judy's email address coming soon.) Our email will stay the same, but we will end up with limited web access.

Thanks for all your prayers and gifts! This is only possible through God's and your help.
Donations can be given Online as well: see the yellow donate button on the left.

West Africa Wheels!!

We have some news (that a lot of you who get our newsletters already know!)...

We have a VEHICLE in West Africa, waiting there for us right now! YAY!!

This sounds cool, but let me tell you how cool.

We were given a goal:
Raise $50,000 to buy and ship a 4x4 rugged vehicle to Africa. Wow, that was pill to swallow. It seemed like an impossible goal.

We are close to heading to Africa now, and we have not raised the full amount. In fact, we're $20,000 short!

But God...
(You've all heard that "But God..." thing, right?)

Anyway, but God had other plans! Yes! *pumping fist in the air with "wahoo" excitement*

God planned for us to help out our colleagues in Africa. This young couple has just the type of vehicle we need, but it's too huge for just the two of them. They'd like to get something more appropriate.
So for $20,000, they sold us their vehicle! (They will use the money towards a smaller one for them) and we don't have to spend valuable time raising thousands of more dollars.

So it's a 2005 Land Cruiser, with just about 40K miles on it, and it's not seen much off-roading (super sweet deal). It's in good condish - as per our West Africa Branch mechanic.

Can we say... THANK YOU, LORD!!!

Type of vehicle we're getting - not an actual pic of it.

 PS- Sorry for the delayed news, we've been tossing strep throat back and forth around our house. Pray that we stay well and the enemy does not gain ground.

Today's Missionaries - Do they connect or not?

Most missionaries no longer board a ship to leave their families forever and pack all their belongings in a wooden box (coffin) and head off to a mission field, one from which they will never return (that was old-school. Do people still say "old-school"?). 

Missionaries used to write their families a snail-mail letter and wait for a few weeks to months for their letter to arrive in their family's mailbox. Then they would wait to get a letter back a few weeks to months after that to receive a reply. Wow! Nothing was instant. 

Times have changed.

Now we can e-mail if we get near a larger city that has internet available - yes there are still places in the world that lack internet coverage and electricity and running water (where we will be stationed in West Africa for one).

Sure, we can take a plane and arrive in a matter of 24 hours sometimes, instead of 3 months at sea (like our container cargo which still takes to arrive even today). I much prefer jet-lag and a day of motion sickness to 3 months of sea-sickness!

Even so, there are lots of non-instant things to consider about living on the mission field. All food must be made from scratch (I'll save that explanation for another post).

Never-the-less, we are blessed. There is the possibility to connect with my mom, with you, with churches and partners. It's amazing how much technology has advanced to make this possible!

 Today, missionaries have access to many advances in technology that aid in making "leaving their comfort zone," well - slightly less abrasive.   Still, are they really connected??

Missionaries, in spite of all the other tasks they have to keep up with,

 now have to struggle to remain current. 

I'm currently researching online (while Stateside so it doesn't take forever to load). I search for how to make my blog be more compatible with mobile users because most people are moving in that direction. I don't want to lose contact.

We care about all our partners and we pray for them too. You are our lifeline - connection.

 It's hard for missionaries to stay in touch, and in spite of technological advances some connections are getting lost. 

Why?

• Some don't have e-mail - yes, there is still a generation (ones who don't read this blog either).
• Some no longer read e-mails because they get too much junk mail.
• Some only check Facebook - or twitter (still have to look into that, is it worth it?).
• Some people used to support our ministry until they lost their jobs, and then they feel bad and lose contact too. It's OK.
• Some just pass away. There is an older generation of church people that are very into missions that support us until they die. We're so thankful, but what do you do when they go home? 

How do we reach new friends and keep contact when we are miles away with spotty internet connections that we have to travel 4 hours to reach? The best way is through advocates. People, like you maybe, who share our need and our story and keep connected for us.

 Just wondering if there are any new advocates out there? Please write me. I appreciate your comments.

Share the Cure - an ounce of prevention a pound of cure!

Thought I would share a LINK to spread proactive prevention.
I know it says it's for breast cancer prevention, but knowing what my dad did to keep his type cancer at bay for a year and a half (when given 6 months or so to live), I'd recommend a lot of these preventions to anyone fighting cancer or to those who want to live healthy and "Think Green." If you're not interested in the preventions specific to breast cancer, you'll want to open the link and scroll to where they begin numbering items you can do to live green (about page 10 in an Adobe Acrobat reader).

Here's the link- please share: PDF for a healthy lifestyle

In memory of my dad, Rod, a great man, full of wisdom.

(PDF made available through the blog The Silver Pen)

Teaching the ABC's to little ones

photo credit Microsoft Office

I have two children; one reads really well & the other doesn't - yet!
One has a keen interest in reading and  began to read before age 4. Now Ethan's almost 7! Of course, he had some help with a wonderful Christian pre-k daycare that was run by former Bible translator missionaries. They used some great tactics and introduced the alphabet to him by focusing on one letter a week. Each story, project, craft, and snack would then correspond with the letter of the week. Brilliant!

My other child, Claire, is now 4 and is home educated. She loves books, but hates to perform. It used to be that if you asked her a letter, she'd get shy and then mad that you asked her. We had to find some ways to teach the alphabet without making it seem like work. (We also had to deal with some letter confusion simply because she was learning French by immersion at the same time she was learning the American alphabet - same letters basically but a different sound!). She's doing great now, and it's likely due to consistency (mostly on my husband's part - God love him, he's so great!)

We found some great tools in Sonlight's curriculum. We use the Alphabet Bingo, and Go A to Z game (which is basically two sets of Alphabet flashcards that you play "Go Fish" with), and also a box of 25 simple readers called Fun Tales. They are very helpful. We sound out the letters as we read and point to them & she has fun when she can guess the whole word as she hears us complete the sounds (very Sesame Street-esque, I know!). 

from Sonlight (see link above)

 We also use workbooks from Walgreens or even Wal-mart. Oh, and she loves Curious George, so we bought a Curious George alphabet book too. We even use Starfall.com. We point out letters wherever we go. We sometimes trace letters in a pan of sand (or even rice).  Sometimes, I make soft baked pretzels and we shape them into letter shapes (or you can pour pancakes in letter shapes - put the batter into a plastic baggie, close it, and snip the corner to make it into a type of frosting/decorating dispenser, if you know what I mean.). 

bought elsewhere

 Our latest addition to our alphabet resources includes a book,
 The Sleepy Little Alphabet by: Judy Sierra.
Claire really loves this one since she is into anything that has to do with mommies and babies. There are capital letters in the book that are the parents to lowercase letters. She loves that we say that the mommy "T" tucks the baby "t" in bed. So this gave me an idea!

Here's what I did:
You know those paint strips they have at your Home Improvement store or even Wal-mart - the ones with different shades of the same color? Most people use them to create a color palate for their walls, well...

I took two sets of several colors (think I picked reds, blues, oranges, greens, and purples - so 5 sets, 2 of each color).

On one set I wrote a capital letter on each space and on the matching set I wrote the matching lowercase letters. I alternated sets as I went through the alphabet so that A, B, C, D, E were not all on one card (helps memory to learn out of order too). (I wrote a diagonal line between some like the lowercase "g" since I'd like our children to be able to recognize the "g" of one font and the "g" of another as the same sound and letter (see photo below).

Then I set aside the capital letter sets and cut apart only the lowercase ones so that what your left with is cards to match the lowercase letters with the capitals.

My custom-made Mommy & Baby Letter Match Game used with J. Sierra's book.

How to play our Mommy and Baby Letter Match Game:
You say the name of the letter and tell your child to put the baby letter with the mommy letter (if that's what works with your kid!). Then if they can't find it you give a hint, "It's on the red card," for example (that narrows down their guess to just 4 or 5 letters to choose from). You do this until all are matched and keep track of the ones they needed help with so that you know what to focus on later. We keep the cards in a plastic zipper bag. Claire loved this game and wanted us to find the letters in The Sleepy Little Alphabet book as we went along! Hope this helps your kiddos as much as it's helping Claire. Enjoy!