happy new year - trusting God's faithfulness

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
You with your arm redeemed your people...


Psalm 77:11-15

Remembering God's goodness -- most of all the fact that He has redeemed us from our sins -- is really an amazing way for me to build my faith in Him when it is waning. I find that I tend to have a pessimistic mindset. Sometimes, even when life is going so well, I find myself wondering, "When are things going to turn bad?"

Of course, it is certain that difficult times will come. But it is also certain that God has been very good to us, and will continue to be. So whether the coming months bring new hard challenges or not, I can be certain that God will be with us through them all, and that He will be lovingly and powerfully working out His perfect plan in our lives. And I know He will continue to give us reasons to rejoice in Him.

I know this, but it helps to be reminded from time to time. That being said, I am amazed by how good God has been to us in 2011 and I am excited about 2012. We have lived in Africa almost one year now, and in a lot of ways I really do feel like I have stepped into a new world. I am starting to get the sense that even when we go back "home" to the States, something about us is going to be so changed from our time here that we will never completely fit in back there again.

Anyways, a stomach bug of some sort seems to have bitten us and our neighbors...but in spite of that, we have celebrated our way into the new year. Esther, Neil and Kathleen came over last night (new year's eve) and we enjoyed hearing about what different cultures do to celebrate the new year--Austrians (like Esther) light lots of firecrackers, Scots (like Kathleen) have a big dancing party called a Celeidh, and Canadians (or at least some of them like Neil and his family) buy fireworks in the US to set off back home where they cannot buy fireworks.

We discovered that New Year's Eve here is somewhat like Halloween in the US, in that children go around in groups, playing homemade drums (I know that part is not like in the US) and singing a little tune asking for money. So many kids came to our door! Thankfully, I had bought a big bag of candy in order to fill a piñata that I hadn't yet made, so I had lots of candy to hand out.

At one point, Adam also handed out the last coin he had, a 500-franc piece worth about $1.00. The group of boys to whom he handed this big piece of money (10 francs is normal) jumped up in the air, cartwheeled and sang out in happiness.

In other news, I've been getting ready to plant a big vegetable garden. A great local gardener has been doing   a ton of work to help get the space ready -- uprooting a few small trees, tilling the ground, and shaping the raised rows. So we have been talking a lot about planting and about what we will put in our garden.

Yesterday morning, while I was washing clothes in basins on the back porch, John hopped off the porch and began to gather small avocados that had fallen too soon off the avocado tree behind the Zubots' house. He put them all in a dip in the ground behind the porch and announced, "Look, Mama, I planted an avocado garden!"