August in Liberia

Dear friends,

We can hardly believe that we have spent 20 weeks in Switzerland and that we are already back on African soil. We would like to thank you for your faithful support during our time in Switzerland. The time passed quickly but we have the feeling that we were able to fill up: full of medical visits (62 appointments cumulated for the whole family! ), plenty of train rides (London, Basel, Zürich), plenty of good teaching (Dad and Mom : leadership courses and other courses à la carte, Théotime and Siméon : French school in Jongny), lots of fun activities in Switzerland (take a cable car, go to an adventure park, ride a horse, learn jujitzu, pick grapes, play with friends or cousins ...), lots of moments with friends, lots of beautiful moments with our families ... THANK YOU. In spite of all these "fulls", we always leave with little voids: the people we were not able to visit, the appointments cancelled due to illness, unfinished projects due to lack of time, the feeling that the time spent with our loved ones will never be enough.

The Beginning of a New Chapter

As mentioned earlier, this is a time of great transition. We are taking over the leadership of SIM Liberia in a few days. To give you a better idea of what this means, here is a link to a short video, in French, we made (some of you have already seen it):

For those in a hurry, in a few words SIM Liberia is... A 200-bed hospital, a dental clinic, a Christian radio station, a school and a gymnasium for Liberians, a theological seminary, two guesthouses, Bible translation, a school for the missionary children. Total number of people? 18 missionary units (families/couples/singles) and around 500 Liberian employees.

Our priorities

Our professional priorities for the coming months will be to clarify the various relationships between ministries as well as with partner organizations, continue to get the finances in order and work on improving communication, make sure the campus has a back-up power supply, gather our (missionary) team and create opportunities to deepen our relationships and anchor them in Christ through times of sharing around the Bible. And of course the dental clinic part time!

On the family side, our priority is for our boys to find their feet and feel comfortable in their new school (on campus!). That we find a routine that also offers us quality moments as a family and as a couple and that we can have bikes that work (it seems easy but believe me it's quite a program!) to move easily and quickly on the campus (55 hectares! It's not so small...!).

We are always touched by your responses and encouragement and look forward to hearing from you.

With our love,

Melvina, Nicolas, Théotime, Siméon, Gabriel and Caleb