Well, it's been 9 months since I posted anything on my blog. Can't saythere was much there to begin with....got all caught up in the craze...then realized it would be near impossible at the time because we not only didn'thave a working phone line in our house, but we then would have to travel 3 hours justto use a phone. That's what it's like living in Benin, West Africa.
We'veb een here 6 years and although we do have a cell phone (2 actually), we haven't had a phone line in our home since we arrived. Well there was acouple of years where the country was experimenting with satellite based phones (no telephone line....the "line" bounced off of some tower)...well,that worked OK (never good email), until the imported system went bad and torepair it meant having to import new parts from Canada. So the phonecompany just told everyone, "just be patient, a phone line will come." (That was 2001).
So needless to say, I stopped blogging. My first few blogs were actually written during the time in the summer of 2004 when Kelly (wife) took our,then, 2 kids to the States for a visit. So I was alone in a hotel room inCotonou (capital city) and had all the time in the world to write (and therewas a good internet connection there). The wife and children returned, andI had to leave the hotel. No more blogs.
"For nothing is impossible with God" (that's from Luke 1.37 where thecontext is an angelic promise about pregnancy, but I'm thinking the angelswould shout it in other contexts as well).
It is now May 2005 and we have a new phone line in our home! It took someslick "negotiation" with the phone company to get it installed, but it cameand we are all hooked up! It's been a little like your favorite toy on Christmas morning...anytime there's a lull, you run back to it and entertainyourself. All of a sudden, those of us living our missionary life deep inthe bush of Africa are connected to the outside world. Instant messaging.Email. Daily Spam (at least it's better than getting 200 spam messages atonce because we could only check email before about every 2-3weeks....really.) Online Banking. Drudge. Amy Grant Fan Club (that's forKelly). Fox News. Actually logged on and listened to WBAP (820am,Dallas-FortWorth) LIVE just because we could. This ain't no DSL line...but for us to get a 32.0 kbps speed, we're thrilled!!!
We thank every person who ever has heard us pine on about not having good communication. Your prayers have been answered. We're ready to catchup...hear from you...read some more blogs, send/receive more emails.
After all these months, still
Rockin' Randall
