Thus, African Life

I’ve been slow to enter the technological world. I started a Facebook page after almost everyone I know had one for a few years already. After hearing repeated questions through the years from friends and supporters of our ministry—“Do you have a blog?”—I’ve decided to take the leap into Bloggity-blog-blog land. The following are some of my goals for Ita Vita African:

1.    Update overseas friends, family, and supporters with news of our family and ministry.
Ita vita is a Latin phrase meaning, “Such is life.” I added the word African, which adjectivally specifies “life”—our life, here in Africa. “Thus, African life.” I want to give our family and friends a better picture (literally) of our mission and us. I want you to feel like you’re here even while far away. I want you to be able to laugh and cry with us, be encouraged by our growth in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to know the answer to the very vague question we are often asked—“How’s Africa?”

2.    Learn to write.
I have always loved to write and wished that I could do it better. A comment from an editor in an issue of WORLD magazine has stuck in my mind for some years now, that no one who desires to write well has an excuse not to improve his writing skills in this modern age of blogging. Blogging gives an opportunity to practice writing.

3.    Keep myself accountable in our homeschooling journey.
I plan to post weekly reports of our homeschooling journey. I hope this will help me to be diligent when I feel lazy, to put forth the effort to “make it fun” when I might tend toward punching the time clock and just surviving the most important subjects, and also to log our accomplishments so I can remember these precious moments with my children.

4.    Keep an online journal of our memories and thoughts.
I can keep all our favorite pictures, stories, memories, and personal thoughts in one place—with categories and tags. Neat!

If you visit us here in Africa via my blog, you are most welcome! I am doing this for close family and myself, but I hope to encourage you as well.