What to post...

There has been so much that has gone on since I left almost two weeks ago, and although I have journaled about much of it, it is hard to determine just what to post on a blog. That being said, I'll give an overview in this first post of what all I have been doing, give some prayer requests, and maybe give some shorter stories in more detail as I have time later to post.
I arrived in N'Djamena on June 11th and stayed there a day with Mark and Diane, my hosts, while we got my visa registration figured out and did some last minute shopping before packing up for Tchaguine. They do their grocery shopping for 6 months twice a year, since the local market in Tchaguine doesn't have a lot of the essentials. We packed up on Thursday and made the 7 hour trip to Tchaguine, stopping by the koo kina mati (funeral) of a pastor in a neighboring village on the way. There was another koo kina mati going on next door to us when we arrived at Mark and Diane's home in Tchaguine - funerals here are much different than ones in America. Chadians entering the compound of the deceased person's family will start wailing loudly, laying on the grave, weeping, spitting, singing songs about the person. It is definitely an eye-opening experience for a North American. Then, the family of the deceased person serves the visitors tea - I actually saw a few ladies get very angry and start shouting at the family because they never got their tea....
Once I got settled in, we took walks around the village, met some people, and went to the church service on Sunday. I got sick Sunday night and spent Monday and Tuesday sick, but was able to start language learning on Wednesday. One of the Chadian men, Luke, comes over every day at 8am and helps me learn the language for 2 hours. I have picked it up pretty well so far, so I hope to be able to make some conversation by the end of my time here.
There is plenty more to share, but for now I will close with some prayer requests:
 - That the Chadian church would continue to grow and flourish
 - That Mark and Diane would continue to lean on Christ and draw strength from him as they do ministry here.
 - That I would stay in good health and that I would continue to adjust well to the high temperature and humidity.
 - That I would make some friendships here in the village and be able to learn more about the culture here in Tchaguine through the Chadian people.
 - That I would continue to discern whether missions is a good fit for me in the future.