Odds and Ends (by Thom)

Since we shared the news about our upcoming big move, we've been pretty busy. The C&MA's fiscal year runs from July 1st to June 30th, so I've been plenty busy closing the books for, not one, but two fields. Now that I've taken on the Senegal field's bookkeeping I'm learning all sorts of new things - including how shortsighted my organizational systems were! I've had to rethink how I store things in my office and on my computer. I think I'm getting the hand of it, though.
Speaking of my computer, that's been a major source of grief lately. The laptop I use for mission work died on me in mid-June. I thought I had been doing daily backups but when I went to retrieve all my data with another computer I found it had all been corrupted. My first instinct was to throw the computer against the wall (I resisted) and my second was to cry (I didn't resist). I was able to work something out where I got a little device from the US to come with a work team which allowed my to remove the hard drive from the laptop and pull all the data I needed. Praise the Lord this all worked out. I was able to finish the year's bookkeeping with my personal computer, which I'll have to do for the foreseeable future until I can get the mission computer fixed.
We haven't talked much about this here but this past year has been a challenging one for Amanda and I. Our first two years in Mali we were just one of six or seven C&MA families in Bamako but this past year it has only been us and a single Dutch missionary. We've been quite lonely but that's changing now. We welcomed back a couple from their furlough just last week and next week we have another new family arriving here. We're very excited about these changes and it will be nice to have team meetings again! Later on this fall we're expecting one more family to be moving to Bamako (from Senegal, oddly enough). I'm personally rejoicing about that arrival as the missionary will be taking over quite a few of the things I do that aren't really in my job description.
I just checked the calendar and we have only 195 days left in Mali. After our 3 months in the US we'll be moving to Dakar on May 1st, 2009. Tonight we're planning on sharing the news with some of our very good Malian friends. We know this news will be hard on them, so we're praying that we know how to share it gently and express how much we're going to miss them.
I'd like to share some of the back story about us moving to Dakar, Senegal, but I think that's a whole post to itself. Check back soon for that!

Edit:
How could I have forgotten these two things?!?
1. Miri and Hannah (Mo-mo and Na-na) celebrate their 2nd birthday next week on Thursday, July 10th!
2. The rainy season started a week or two ago here in Mali. This was about a month earlier than last year and was/is very welcome. The rain has really broken the heat and we've actually needed a sheet at night for the first time since January. Praise the Lord for giving the long, soaking rains that the farmers here in Mali need. We'll continue to pray that is is sustained and the crops will be more than sufficient for the year.