August Nattier News

After years of preparation, prayer, and planning, we have finally placed feet down in our new country. We arrived in Togo July 30th.  We spent our first full day in Lomé, the capital, to learn what we could find here.  It's amazing how much this city has changed, even since our last trip here 3 years ago.  We were able to buy a few of the groceries that are hard to find in our area, like cereal, cheese, boxed milk, and fruit.  The next day we started the approximate 8 hour drive from there to Mango.  We were greeted by a warm welcome from our team, and we were able to see our new house for the first time.  We are so thankful for the teams and individuals who poured many hours of hard work into building it.  We have been working hard for the past few weeks to unpack our boxes and finish up little things around the house, transforming it into our home.

  

It is currently rainy season.  Here in Mango everything is green and pretty during this season.  We have actually had a lot of rain since we arrived.  We have been hearing that this is the most rain that they have had during a rainy season since before the year 2000.  Here is the view from the front of our house during one of the storms.

We are thankful for the many ways are teammates have helped us while settling in.  This is Natasha's cousin Susanna who works here as a nurse.  She has taken both Natasha and Elli on trips around town for various tasks.  On this trip, Natasha was able to pick up some meat and see what was available in a monastery just outside of town.  

We are currently taking everything in and trying to learn all we can.  Our teammates and the Togolese we have met have been extremely helpful in this task of learning yet another culture.  We are currently in Lomé buying appliances for our house, which also provides us some time with decent internet to update you all.  We are thankful for a teammate who helped us buy most of our appliances and countertops over the last few days.  Next we will be visiting some friends working in Lomé and then some others who work at the hospital in southern Togo for a few days.  Our freezer and stove arrived in Mango today via a taxi service, so we will have a home with a little more functionality when we return.  We are excited for the rest of our appliances to arrive in the next few weeks, as trying to prepare meals without appliances in our home has been a bit challenging.  

Prayer requests

Family

Bryce will be starting to work in the hospital in a little over a week.  Please pray that we can work out the remaining details for our home and delivery of our appliances during this next week.  We are currently working through issues with our polaris 4x4 that was pulled out of our container in the port.  Please pray it will be released from the port where it's been setting for over 6 weeks.  Then we can ship our countertops and remaining appliances on the same truck to Mango.  It's a challenge working out the details for the long trip from Lomé to Mango, with the rough roads, so things arrive in 1 piece.   

Team

Please pray for a work team that will be working on several construction projects the next week, including several around our house.  Also, please pray for us to have wisdom as we work through the challenges of great medical needs with limitations in staff around the hospital, and how we can work at a sustainable pace.