An exciting, crazy weekend

This weekend has been very exciting and a bit crazy in many different ways. Friday began with not having water at our house. David spent much of the early morning tying to figure out why our pump wasn't working.  Finally we realized that there was a phase failure (like a brown-out) in the electricity on campus where the pump is connected. The houses had lights on, so it was a bit confusing. I was fetching water to use for cleaning up from breakfast and flushing toilets, etc. Eventually, when the generator came on, we were able to refill the water tank that our family shares with our friends in the village. We are so grateful for the running water that God has graciously provided for us on most days! During our morning devotions with the missionaries and the MKs who are on campus, we talked about the importance of looking for beauty in order to live lives of thanksgiving, glorifying God. I mentioned how I can easily get overwhelmed with all the brokenness and fail to look for beauty and give thanks. We shared an encouraging time of thanking God together. Zeke, as usual, gave thanks for Bobby. These boys are like brothers. They often show up at school dressed alike.

I have been working with these two on Kindergarten and really enjoying it. Last week as we were talking about things that start with the letter P, we did a pointillism art project suggested by our curriculum. We painted a purple pansy using our erasers to create the dots. The pansy was already on the page, but they really enjoyed the project and the pictures turned out beautifully!

  On Friday afternoon our kids finally got what they have been asking about for over a year, a new puppy! And it was at the end of the week of studying the letter P!

It took a while to agree on a name, and as you can imagine there were all kinds of suggestions. Finally we agreed on the name Penny. She is one-half Rhodesian Ridgeback and one half local mix. Rhodesian Ridgebacks are also know as "lion hunters" which makes my boys very excited. We will not take her hunting, don't worry. We are training her to be a pet, and so far she has been very sweet! 

Friday night did not provide a lot of sleep, but we have been through plenty of those before. Four kids equips you to handle a few sleepless nights...

On Saturday morning Esther usually cooks pancakes for us, and this Satuday was no exception. After breakfast and clean up our kids really wanted to go to the Arrango house to show their friends the new puppy. Of course, Claudia's kids are now all asking for a puppy too. (Sorry, Claudia. You can always send them up to play.) 

The next event on the schedule was Esther's fashion show with the toddler girls. She has sewn 11 skirts and 11 headbands for the girls who live at the toddler house. She also made a skirt for herself to match them all! The girls were all very excited!

They then went on a walk around campus to show their new clothes! It is hilarious to watch these girls posing as they model their skirts and headbands! 

The toddler boys of course are wanting something, so shorts might be her next project...

Did I mention that the water for the rest of GSF was not working on Saturday? We were thankful that we had been able to fill the tank for our house and our neighbors on Friday. Saturday was mostly a fun day on campus introducing many of the GSF kids to Penny. Two of the teenage girls were sick with malaria, but they are now on treatment and seem to be recovering slowly. Please pray for them to return to full health quickly. 

I spent some time Saturday preparing for various teaching opportunities. For the past two weekends, I have read the Bible with some of my neighbors in Luganda. I am certainly not yet fluent, so it takes me quite a bit of preparation time, learning to read the passages and praying for God to work in spite of my language limitations. Our late afternoon Bible study went very well, and a few more women said that they would like to have their own Bible to read with us and at home. I was even able to make a bit of a joke in Luganda, which made me very happy. They were laughing at the way I was acting out the story we were reading rather than laughing at my lamguage mistakes. Please pray for God to reveal Himself to these women as they read His Word. At the end of our time I prayed for them and their families, at least I tried to. I always get a bit nervous that I will accidentally say something heretical because of my limited language. Please pray for me also as I am learning, "slowly by slowly" as they say. 

As I was leaving the women showed me that the white ant swarms had arrived. They look like clouds, coming out in huge swarms. Apparently the eggs are laid in the ground and after the first big rain, which happened that morning, they begin to come out of the ground. As they crawl out of the ground, their wings begin to develop and eventually they fly away. They are considered a local delicacy, so all of the neighborhood children were out trying to catch them to take home for dinner, or to eat right then and there. The toads also came out in large numbers trying to catch a dinner for themselves. 

When I returned home a bit later than I had anticipated, Esther and David had made our pizza for dinner. Zeke and Ezra were outside with Bobby collecting a huge bucket of toads.

Elijah was at church, practicing with the "Amazing Grace Band" to lead worship on Sunday. When Elijah returned, we found that our everything pizza with our precious pepperoni from America, also had some white ants. We removed them because our family has not yet become accustomed to that local food. 

Then next morning we found the evidence of the swarming insects lying on our front porch. 

Sunday was also full teaching the Middle and High School Sunday School class from I Timothy, then going to church and teaching children's church. I had this "great" idea that I would do a fun project to reinforce the lesson I was teaching. I taught about God's promise to Abraham to make his descendants more than the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Then we talked about how God always keeps His promises. We talked about how those who trust in Jesus are now called "children of Abraham." So I decided that we would have the kids draw stars with a white crayon, then paint water colors over top to show the stars. Below we painted on some glue, then sprinkled on sand, and then drew a cross. I am learning that these creative projects are a bit more chaotic when you have about 50 children who speak 3 different languages, who don't have any of these supplies in their homes, and who are all ages from birth through 9 years old. Oh, and no running water at the church. It can be a bit crazy! Many of the children are very helpful and stayed to help me clean up. The nice thing is that you don't have to worry about a little spilled sand when you have dirt floors in your classroom. Here is a photo of the project after it got a little crumpled. I wanted to take photos while the kids were creating, but there was no spare moment. 

As you might imagine, I came home from church and crashed! I took a little bit of time Sunday afternoon to visit with neighbors and the GSF kids, but I also took some time to rest and to write. I am thankful for the many opportunities God has given us to share His Word with others. Please pray that He would be at work in the hearts of all of us, the MKs we teach on weekdays, the GSF kids we interact with daily, our neighbors in Buundo village, and those we know through our local church. Please pray that we would have the energy to serve in the ways He has called us to serve, and also that we would be able to rest.