Saturday was a day of organization, getting the things I brought back with me into place. I brought some things for school and some for my family. David hung the spice racks that I brought to help organize our pantry. I emptied and sorted items from our containers. I was very tired and am still often dealing with pain in my mouth, but I was thankful for a day to just work round the house. In the afternoon we walked up to the part of GSF where we hope our house will be built. David has employed some local teenagers to help clear the area where we will build. This provides money for their school fees and extra help with some labor intensive work. (For my fellow tree huggers, we left many trees, but just cleared out the underbrush.) David and the kids also showed me the treehouse they built in this huge old mango tree. 
While we were up at the property, the power came back on!!!!! praise the Lord! Please pray that the power lines will not be cut again. After walking around the property and talking about David's work there, we walked to the Gwartneys' house for dinner. Amy had prepared enough lasagna and baked ziti for our whole team! She can really cook, too! She makes a very good cream sauce to substitute for cheese. It was so good to be all together and enjoy a time of fellowship and good food! I am very thankful for this team that God has brought together.
On Sunday morning I slept in until about 7:30am. That is late for me here. But I am still struggling with quite a bit of jet lag. I just feel very tired most of the day, but then have trouble going to sleep in the evenings. My body clock has not yet adjusted to the 8 hour difference. That is part of the reason I am writing this post at 3am local time.
This Sunday was the first Sunday back for Sunday school classes at GSF. They follow the Ugandan school schedule which begins tomorrow. All the children who live here and the missionary kids are divided up by age into 5 or 6 different classes. Elijah and Esther are in a class together, but Ezra is the only mzungu in his class. Zeke will be with Bobby so he is fine. Ezra was a little nervous about going to Sunday school, but sweet little Danny took his hand and walked with him to class. Then Danny sat down beside him to be a good friend. For those of you who don't know Danny, he is the first child I held when we visited GSF almost two years ago and has become a friend and playmate to my children. He has been here at GSF since he was a baby and is now 4 or 5 years old. He is a very sweet boy! I should have gotten a photo of that precious moment, but I didn't catch one today.
After Sunday school we walked to church. I was able to briefly share an update about my tongue as this congregation has been praying for me and my family. We also heard several other testimonies of God's provision for people in this congregation. It was a joy to worship together again with my brothers and sisters here!
We spent most of the afternoon visiting with our pastor and giving him some books that were sent along with me. Most village pastors here have very few resources to help them study the Bible. Concordances, study Bibles, cross references, books about historical settings, are just not readily available here. So some of my dear friends in Georgia sent many of those resource materials for us to share with pastors here. I am so excited to be a small part of equipping pastors to preach the truth of the Word of God!
After greeting some visitors at the gate, we came back to our house which had become Esther and Ezra's restaurant for the evening. Each of the oldest 3 children helped David make a pizza of their choice and Esther wrote the options on a menu. She took orders and helped to serve the meal. It was a lot of fun. It is so good to be together as a family!
It is now sometime in the middle of the night, and I have been up with 3 of my 4 children. I need to go back to sleep, but my mind is swirling. Today will be my first day back to teaching. Honestly I am a bit anxious. I am way behind in the grading and my tongue still hurts to talk. It feels a bit overwhelming to me to think of the work in the day ahead. Teaching six different grade levels requires a lot of mental juggling going back and forth between many lessons. It also requires a great deal of energy and talking. It is good for me to remember that "in my weakness, He is strong." I am also thankful that I am loved by my Lord, even if I am not at my peak performance as a teacher tomorrow. It will be ok if I can't teach all of my classes and need to rest a bit. Please pray for me, that I will have the strength for the day ahead, that I will know if I need to rest a bit, and that my students would continue to learn even if I am not at my best. I am going to try to get some sleep to increase the chances of having energy for the day.
God is good...all the time.
And all the time.....God is good.
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