My Birthday

I wrote this from Friday to Saturday night:
It is 2.30 in the morning and I can’t sleep, probably because it is very hot in the room. When we came back this evening it still had 31 Degrees outside.
After rolling from one side to the other, I decided to get out of bed, and here I sit now to write this entire ‘letter’ to share my special day with you, my birthday.

It starts a bit earlier then yesterday though:
The other day I was a bit cross with God, complaining to him that since 3 years now I have to celebrate my birthday with people who are still not familiar to me. In 2009 we had just started with our training in Birmingham, last year we were in France and this year I am finding myself in Africa.

But going back to yesterday: I had made banana bread which I shared with Florence, whom we live with, our French teacher (Michael) and also our day guardian, Sado, his wife and his 4 kids.

I had brought all the way from England a few little birthday candles for a cake and a light weight banner with the words: Joyeux Anniversaire, but they were still in a suitcase somewhere and we decided not to go through all of them to look. So I celebrated without candle, which was fine.

In the afternoon, after our meal and French lesson, Andy and I sat down to have a piece of cake and a coffee, which was very nice.

During this time I opened all my birthday cards. After I began reading the second one, I felt touched and tears started to fill my eyes so I asked Andy to read them aloud.

In the evening we went out for dinner. Probably the fuel costs are more than the meal, but anyhow, it made the day perfect.

So here I am now, early morning thinking about you all and that God is good indeed.
One lady must have known how it feels, because she send an article of a missionary who writes about her experience spending many Christmases in Africa being away from family and friends. Also she shared from her one experience as missionary and how she felt. It was good to read that it is normal to have feelings like that and I am not the only one having them.
Thank you to everybody. I received so many cards (and probably still some to arrive per mail), e-cards and even phone calls. It all made my day and I felt loved and cared for, even I am fare away from you all. But this shows that people can be away from each other, but are connected in heart and spirit. Miss you all !