November 14th
This morning started out very poorly, I was very down and missing
people and feeling like I wanted to come home. I had ascribed it to
the fact that the work team was leaving today, they were only
here about a week but I loved having them here and I knew I was
going to miss them (and they were going home to the US where I
know that I would like to be). However it was the worst I had been
feeling in over a week and I just really didn’t want to do anything. I
really didn’t feel like going to church since I knew it would be at
least a two and a half hour service, I don’t understand much of
what goes on, etc… I did end up going and I’m so glad I went. The
first thing they do in the service is sing a worship song, at first I
was very much frustrated with being there because I couldn’t
understand, but it wasn’t long into the song that I just had this
feeling, it was like someone was there, and then there was this
thought that entered my mind. It’s hard to explain, but it was
something akin to “Ryan, the ache you feel for the love ones you
miss is nothing compared to the ache you felt for 20 years when
you felt unwanted and unloved.” It wasn’t really that clear but it
was the impression I was left with. I was moved to tears and it was
like this weight was lifted from me. It was an awesome experience
but I am at a loss to explain it. Since then I’ve been in a great mood
all day, minus the crying when the guests left. I spent most of the
afternoon helping the group get ready to go, they left at about 3 in
the afternoon. Then I was with Foday and Saidu from 3 until about
6. We went to Daniels house to try and take him some batteries
from his calculator but he wasn’t there, and then Saidu said he
could find me better sandals, since the ones I bought like a week
and a half ago were falling apart already… We went into the
market and we found a really nice pair, the guy wanted 35000 for
them and Saidu managed to haggle him down to 20000, which was
really nice. Saidu is quite the haggler, if I have to get anything else
I’m gonna make sure I have him with me. He then took me over to
this guy who works on shoes to have him stitch them around the
edge to help make them stronger. He promised me that they
should hold together for pretty much the rest of the time I’m here.
Then we ran into Saidu’s martial arts teacher Alie, I said that I
wanted to participate, but I have to figure out how to have time
since the class has to be at 5 or 6 pm. 5 pm is during class some
days of the week and 6 is dinner time. So we’ll have to see how
that goes. We seem to be having a power shortage this evening,
the generator came on at 7 like it was supposed to, went out at
7:40, came back on 7:50 and went out a few minutes later. Now
it’s 8:30 and there’s no power.

Hoping all is well,
Ryan Brooks

One last note, Karen is still in pain
but she is managing and is feeling a lot better emotionally I think.
She would benefit from continued prayers. Thanks.